Postdoctoral researcher (Postdoc) Academy of Hope (0,8 - 1,0 FTE)

Utrecht University

 strives for excellence in teaching and study performance. This also holds for the clearly defined research profiles with respect to four core themes: Dynamics of Youth, Life Sciences, Institutions for Open Societies and Pathways to Sustainability. Utrecht University has a strong commitment to community outreach and contributes to answering the social questions of today and tomorrow. The

Faculty of Geosciences

of Utrecht University offers a unique environment to study this challenge as it combines knowledge on energy efficiency, economics, energy policy, behavioural sciences, innovation systems, as well as knowledge on (sustainable) urban development.

The Urban Futures Studio is a small research group at Utrecht University. We critically study how images of the future, positive and negative, become embedded in our collective imagination. We conduct empirical research on existing practices, but also help initiate experiments. We aim to shed light on how imagination and re-imagination can contribute to finding roads to sustainable futures.

At the Urban Futures Studio, we focus on futuring, turning our engagement with the future into a (diverse) set of activities. Our goal is to understand current ‘techniques of futuring’, and, in doing so, to shed light on the politics of the future. We always think about futuring in direct relationship to deepening our democratic practice.

Our interest in sustainability animates investigations of the neighbourhoods of the future, climate change and climate modelling, biobased building and nature-based solutions, the future of energy systems, futures literacy, the social theory of the collective imagination, and climate engineering.

Convinced that new thinking starts in crossovers and ‘soft spaces’, we actively initiate experiments with carefully staged meet-ups and exhibitions . Our aim: to understand the dynamics of change and expand the reflexivity on our repertoire of action.