BEAVER-O-CENE – THE AGE OF BEAVERS By Ludwig Weh
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HIS method was developed as a workshop exercise in a participatory Massive Open Online Course about student-led sustainability transformation in higher education structures. Combining futures education with an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) approach, the innovative method encourages participants to envision the current climate crisis f rom the perspective of a beaver civilization emerging in the Beaverocene mirroring the evolution of humankind in the Anthropocene.
PROJECT NOTE Project: ”Students shape sustainable universities in Northrhine-Westphalia“, 2019-2021 Facilitation: netzwerk n e. V. (German NGO) Funding: Environment and Development Foundation Northrhine-Westphalia / Germany Target groups: University students, university staff, civil society Description: 8-week massive open online course including the digital
As speculative more-than-human or multi-species futures approach, the method creates an alternative perspective on human agency and current efforts to mitigate global environmental changes such as climate crisis or biodiversity loss. In a playful setting, students can reflect on individually and collectively desirable images of sustainable futures and forms of humannature interaction. Allowing for personal distancing and simultaneous identification with another social species makes anthropogenic causes to environmental changes more approachable and offers alternative pathways for solution-oriented thinking. Cutting trees and building
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HUMAN FUTURES
dams, beavers engage in environmental management activities similar enough to human practices. In line with key ESD principles such as improving collaboration, value reflection, empathy, motivational or intercultural communication capabilities, workshop participants may develop intrinsic competences relating to the concepts of ‘relational values’ and ‘environmental care’. Addressing cognitive, emotional and action-based learning levels, the methodical steps are designed to lead through a sequence of reflexive, practical and communicative phases:
