Worldmaking and Ecological Justice: Challenges Around the Globe and a Dialogue with China

 

Joint Workshop between the Heidelberg project “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China” and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, July 11/12, 2025

 

Marking four years of close cooperation, scholars and fellows associated with the Worldmaking project and the Rachel Carson Center (RCC) came together at the Internationales Begegnungszentrum in Munich to discuss the relationship between different visions of worldmaking and issues of ecological justice. As such, environmental and ecological topics, both in the past and the present, served as a thematic nexus to bring together scholars to reflect on the various visions and version of the world that undergird our understanding of the environment and how these can exacerbate or mitigate social inequity and other forms of injustice both within and beyond humanity.

 

A recurring theme was our current political and economic system and how it fuels an extractive approach to the environment that not only depletes resources and produces waste (even in space), but is also closely linked to narratives of progress and growth that justify inequalities and marginalize dissenting voices, especially as they are becoming amplified through media technology (such as podcasts) and the possibilities of AI. Against this background, the participants highlighted approaches and worldviews that offer alternative visions of the world or at least opportunities to mitigate some of the current ecological problems. Among these approaches are campaigns in Canada to ban the extraction of gas and oil, the promotion of alternative forms of interspecies relationships (“convivial worldmaking”), or attempts to make heard the voices of marginalized communities such as native Americans or non-white settlers on the frontier who might offer alternative views on our relationship with the environment as well as on the triumphalist story of human progress.

 

All participants agreed that alternatives to human extractivism are currently facing difficult times. Perhaps ironically, while many new forms of social exchange online have emerged in recent years, many of them are controlled by a small number of companies, thus restricting our means of communication, as keynote speaker Marco Armiero pointed out. The participants therefore called for forms of expression that might be able to open up debate, whether online or in the real world. Armiero pointed to the influence that “guerilla narratives” might unfold, citing the case of a local rap crew from Rome leading attempts to repurpose a former site of industrial pollution. The workshop also featured artistic contributions by Kate Simpson and Zhang Zimu that used poetry and film to reflect on the human environmental impact in the age of the Anthropocene. Whether such cultural products and narratives can stem the tides remains to be seen, but they certainly enriched the lively debates at the workshop and contributed to a more hopeful outlook.

 

The workshop was the third such event that the Worldmaking project and the RCC organized over the course of four years. Like those of the past, it provided a great opportunity to learn about the research pursued at both institutions and served to foster exchange and cooperation between the scholars involved on both sides. Indeed, many fellows stayed in both Munich and Heidelberg and thereby personally embodied the links between the two institutions. With the Worldmaking project soon ending, it is hoped that the connections and networks built over these past years can be sustained and perhaps contribute to similar cooperations between Heidelberg and Munich in the future.