Pedagogies of Collapse - by Ginie Servant-Miklos (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This urgent, and radically honest, open access book looks collapse in the face, acknowledges the temptation for denial and despair, but chooses hope. It makes a dire, fact-packed case for the urgency of action, but resists the urge to fall into the usual categories of environmental discourses. Ginie Servant-Miklos makes the case for facing hard truths about the present and future with imperfect, trauma-informed learning practices and space for experimental pedagogies. This book includes a preface by Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at SOAS, University of London, UK"--

Book Synopsis

Climate change, biodiversity collapse, pandemics, wars, resource shortages, inflation, socio-economic inequality... after decades of progress and prosperity, the world has hit the limits to growth predicted by the Meadows report of 1972. How do we talk to and teach young people about collapse without triggering defence mechanisms of denial and depression? The simple answer is that we mostly don't.

This urgent, and radically honest, open access book looks collapse in the face, acknowledges the temptation for denial and despair, but chooses hope. Pedagogies of Collapse makes a dire, fact-packed case for the urgency of action, but resists the urge to fall into the usual categories of environmental discourses. It rejects both the unwarranted optimism of progress narratives and the unhelpful despair of extinction narratives. Instead, Ginie Servant-Miklos makes the case for facing hard truths about the present and future with imperfect, trauma-informed learning practices and space for experimental pedagogies. The book takes the reader on a journey through the life sciences, political economy, psychology and philosophy with humour and accessible explanations. It weaves the authors' experiences as an educator, humanitarian and public speaker through a hopeful search for existential meaning through learning in times of collapse. The book includes a preface by Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at SOAS, University of London, UK.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Review Quotes

"This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century." --Zachary Stein, author of "Education in a Time Between Worlds" (2019)

"The personal story and strong voice make the message vibrant: Evil can be transformed into good, if we put all our heart, energy, and intelligence - including that of praxis - into the project." --Hanne Leth Andersen, Rector, Roskilde University, Denmark

"This book takes the reader on an existential trip, confronting us with collapse and how to prepare for it. A brutally honest and hopeful call to arms for teachers across the globe." --Derk Loorbach, Professor of Socio-economic Transitions and Director of DRIFT, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands

About the Author

Ginie Servant-Miklos is Assistant Professor of Education in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She is the founder of FairFight, an international women's empowerment foundation.