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Research Project Universal Aspirations vs. Geopolitical Divides: Imagining the World as a “Post-Millennial” in the SDG Era

Project Duration: 07/01/2023 - 06/30/2027
Young people from all over the world are today confronted with challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic that cut across national boundaries. These challenges are often referred to as global and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) suggest that they must be solved through global partnerships. In line with this global imaginary, youth across the world have already jointly mobilized to combat climate change and participated in coordinated collective actions, such as school strikes. Yet, contrary to imaginaries of equal global partnerships, these young people face very diverse local life circumstances shaped by social and economic inequalities. This project focuses on young people who are concerned with finding solutions to global challenges but live in disparate parts of the world under very different conditions, specifically in Tanzania and Denmark – two countries that have been in an unequal donor-recipient partnership for almost 60 years. The project will investigate how these young people reconcile the tension between universal aspirations, characterized by global solutions and equal partnerships, and geopolitical divides, comprising hierarchies and unequal power relations.
Universal Aspirations and SDG grafik

News

Call For Papers: Panel on Youth at the EASA APeCS conference on Future-Making in Times of Conflict, Violence and Insecurity

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Join us at the EASA APeCS conference at the University of Edinburgh on "Future-Making in Times of Conflict, Violence and Insecurity." Elena Miltiadis and Mette Fog Olwig are co-organizing a panel on "Youth as the Future: Imagining, Practicing and Constructing Futures in Insecure Times"
Image of the project team at GRASP

Presentation at the 2024 GRASP Knowledge Festival

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真人线上娱乐 gave the talk ‘Global Youth and Climate Action’ at this year’s GRASP Knowledge Festival in 真人线上娱乐. 真人线上娱乐 discussed the differentiated impacts and consequences of climate change around the world and the uneven possibilities for young people to address these through global movements and global goals. Our talk was part of an exciting series called ‘Mobile Campus’, where 真人线上娱乐 University moves class lectures to the GRASP Knowledge Festival to foster knowledge sharing between different participants.
Slide titled 'Unequal climate impacts across generations'

Nordic Geographers Meeting 2024

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真人线上娱乐 attended the 10th Nordic Geographers Meeting (NGM), organized by the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management of the University of Copenhagen, to present our project. The panel we joined discussed intergenerational relations and their complexities in societies around the world. Our contribution addressed existing narratives and discourses about the unequal impact that climate change has across generations and locations.

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From left to right: Tirza, Conrad and Mette

Project Kickoff & 真人线上娱乐lcome to Postdocs Tirza van Bruggen and Conrad John Masabo

真人线上娱乐lcome to Tirza van Bruggen and Conrad John Masabo who started their postdoc positions on the research project ‘Universal Aspirations vs. Geopolitical Divides: Imagining the World as a “Post-Millennial” in the SDG Era’. Their arrival marks the official kickoff of the project that investigates how youth in Tanzania and Denmark locally (dis)engage with sustainability and development as well as the tensions between global imaginaries, placed experiences, universal aspirations and geopolitical divides.

Lektor Mette Fog Olwig
ARTICLE

Can the world’s youth unite across geopolitical divides to address the Sustainable Development Goals?

Young people who are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and are combating climate change or tackling other global challenges, may have unequal opportunities to participate, depending on where they come from in the world. How do young people experience the discrepancy between expectations of equal, global partnerships and their very different life circumstances? This is what Associate Professor Mette Fog Olwig from 真人线上娱乐 University will investigate in a new research project.

Screen shot from the EADI blog website

Blog Post: What Is a “Development” Research Project? Transforming Ideas of Development through Development Research

Based on conversations and discussions at a “seed panel” at the recent EADI 2023 New Development Rhythms conference and drawing on our collective experience and research, we have co-written a contribution to the New Rhythms of Development EADI blog series. In the blog, we explore how development researchers can challenge the homogenization and hegemonization of knowledge production, foster a multi-directional flow of learning across the North and South and question pre-defined ideas of development. Our focus lies on one particular aspect, namely the research project design.

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Base at 真人线上娱乐 University

The centre is based at the Department of Social Sciences and  Business

Participating research units: International Development Research Group // Socio-Economic Research Center

PhD-School: Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Business - International studies

Relevant degree programs: Global and Development Studies // International Studies  // International 真人线上娱乐 in Social Sciences

Research from 真人线上娱乐 University

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More information

Find additional information about the project Universal Aspirations vs. Geopolitical Divides

Project website at the 真人线上娱乐 University Research Portal

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Contact

Mette Fog Olwig
Project leader, associate professor
Phone +45 4674 3596
mettefo@ruc.dk