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Wouter de Rijk and writer present an interactive workshop in English in which participants are asked to form a citizens' assembly that looks beyond the horizon of the climate crisis. Science fiction can help us to imagine this.

“We drew inspiration for this workshop from Kim Stanley Robinson's book New York 2140, in which New York is flooded as a result of climate change. Now it's Utrecht's turn.”

We want to challenge students and staff.

"The apocalypse is always seen as an end point. But after such a catastrophic moment, things happen. What happens when we remove that hard stop? What happens if we abandon our tunnel vision, take off our blinders? What becomes possible after the flooding of Utrecht? How do we organise ourselves as a society? We want to explore these questions with our participants. Maybe some of the ideas will be so good that we can implement them right away."

Social imagination

“We use the concept of social imagination. At its core, this is based on the idea that our social reality is a collective construct, something we all imagine and shape together. You can see it as a kind of operating system for society; it is always present in the background, but you don't see it directly. For example, the concept of democracy is a form of social or collective imagination. It remains a vague concept, but it does lead to us voting at the end of this month, for example. We imagine that concept together."

“Imagination also becomes reality to some extent. We act on it and it becomes reality. Of course, we can also imagine negative things together. In the 1980s, this was called doom thinking. We would perish in a nuclear war. Nowadays, this feeling is present in the field of climate and ecology.”

Science fiction as a method

"When it comes to climate change, we mainly use computer models to think about the future. Or we work with scenarios. But that is still a fairly narrow way of looking at the future. It assumes business as usual. Science fiction appeals to the imagination of the participants. What can you imagine? What role do you play, how do you relate to other people? And that is also part of social imagination."

Together with Max Urai

"I met Max at a meeting of the Environmental Humanities Network. We stayed in touch afterwards. And I thought it would be really cool to explore the combination of science fiction and more scientific research into the future. When I found out that he was also going to give a writing workshop, I suggested giving a joint workshop, and the programme makers at One Book One Campus were very enthusiastic about it."  

Alternatives

"Max and I are looking forward to it. Birnam Wood ends badly, and you always want things to end well. I hope that alternatives for the future can be discussed in the workshop. That we can use science fiction to critically reflect on the present from an imagined future. And that this will help us see that alternative futures are possible. Hopefully, that will generate a lot of positive energy!"