organising
climate action

Como—Italy
Villa Olmo

6—9 September 2023

 

2022 was yet another year of climate extremes. As greenhouse emissions continue to rise, global temperatures reached record-breaking levels. For some time now, the climate emergency has been at the centre of public debate.

The COVID-19 pandemic only contributed to shedding light on the social roots of the current environmental crisis. Human-induced deforestation and biodiversity loss, it has been shown, are a major cause of the spread of infectious diseases and pose a serious threat to public health.

Despite all this, political responses to climate change on a global scale have proved largely inadequate. The transition towards an environmentally sustainable society is undercut by the drive toward endless production and resource extraction which governs our economies.

In the past few years, activists and movements worldwide have been increasingly vocal in demanding more decisive action for environmental and social justice. But how are we to effectively organise this demand from below?

The second edition of the Lake Como Summer School in Critical Theory of Society will gather scholars of renowned reputation to discuss these issues from different perspectives.

Keynote speakers

  • Kate Soper

    Kate Soper

    Professor Emerita, London Metropolitan University

    Visiting Professor, University of Brighton

    Kate Soper is a philosopher, author, and environmental activist. She is a former chairperson of European Nuclear Disarmament and has been a regular columnist for the US journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism. Her recent work has focused on ecologically sustainable alternatives to mass consumerism.

  • Camila Vergara

    Camila Vergara

    University of Cambridge

    Camila Vergara is a global intellectual and a critical legal theorist. She is also an advisor to grassroots organizations on procedures and institutions for direct deliberative democracy. Among other things, she has recently written on how popular power can avert ecological collapse.

  • Carl Cassegård

    Carl Cassegård

    University of Gothenburg

    Carl Cassegård is a sociologist of social movements. He has long been researching the environmental movement and environmental activism. He has co-edited Climate Action in a Globalizing World (Routledge 2017) and authored Toward a Critical Theory of Nature (Bloomsbury 2021).

  • Troy Vettese

    Troy Vettese

    European University Institute

    Troy Vettese studies the history of environmental economics, energy-systems, and animal life under capitalism. He is the co-author (together with environmental engineer Drew Pendergrass) of Half-Earth Socialism (Verso 2022), a plan to save the future from extinction, climate change and pandemics.

Villa Olmo

Via Simone Cantoni, 1
Como 22100
Italy

 
 

The Summer School will take place at Villa Olmo, an eighteenth-century neoclassical villa located alongside the lake in the city of Como, Northern Italy.

Programme

 

  • Morning session (10:30 a.m.—1 p.m.)

    Registration and induction

    Afternoon session (2 p.m.—4 p.m.)

    Troy Vettese, Half-earth socialism (lecture)

    Afternoon session (4:30 p.m.—6.30 p.m.)

    Kate Soper, Towards a new ‘political imaginary’: cultural revolution, post-consumerism and the politics of transition (I)

  • Morning session (10:30 a.m.—1 p.m.)

    Troy Vettese, Becoming animal or making kin? (seminar)

    Afternoon session (2 p.m.—4 p.m.)

    Kate Soper, Towards a new ‘political imaginary’: cultural revolution, post-consumerism and the politics of transition (II)



    Afternoon session (4:30 p.m.—6:30 p.m.)

    Carl Cassegård, Permanent catastrophe and the critical theory of nature

  • Morning session (10:30 a.m.—1 p.m.)

    Carl Cassegård, Climate change and the anti-capitalist sublime

    Afternoon session (2 p.m.—4 p.m.)

    Camila Vergara, Critical eco-legality

    Workshop (4.15 p.m.—5.45 p.m.)

    Creative writing for climate action
    (Nathalie Bergame, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)

  • Morning session (10:30 a.m.—1 p.m.)

    Camila Vergara, Council democracy against extractivism

Admission

Admission is open to all scholars, students, and activists who have a strong interest in the topic of the summer school. Priority will be given to graduates and organisers who work in the field.

The summer school can host up to 18 participants.

Due to the limited number of available places, prospective participants are requested to submit a formal application and will only be admitted after they have successfully passed a selection process.

 

Application deadline

The deadline for submissions is Monday, 15 May 2023 at 11:59 p.m. CET (UTC + 01:00).

NEW DEADLINE: Wednesday, 31 May 2023 at 11:59 p.m. CET (UTC + 01:00).

We expect to be able to notify successful applicants by mid-June.

 

Enrolment fee

The cost of admission to the summer school is € 500.00 per student.

The fee includes access to all summer school activities, lunch boxes, and coffee or tea for the entire duration of the summer school.

Accommodation and all other meals are not included.

 

Accommodation

Accommodation is not provided and must be arranged and paid for by participants.

However, we may recommend options with discount rates.

How to apply

Please send your CV (2-3 pages max) and a statement of purpose (300-400 words), describing your motivation to participate in the summer school, using this form. We cannot accept submissions after the application deadline.

Past editions

Contact us

If you have any queries regarding the summer school, please feel free to contact us using the form below.