Climate Backlash: Contentious reactions to policy action (BACKLASH)

Climate Backlash: Contentious reactions to policy action (BACKLASH)

Affiliated initiatives

BACKLASH collaborates in several other affiliated initiatives which are closely related to the core themes of the project, but also extend the scope of investigation into new empirical and conceptual domains. This broadens the reach and interactions of the BACKLASH project, and provides the opportunity to bring it into conversation with other experts, and responds actively to exciting new areas of synergy within the rapidly evolving scope of climate and environmental governance, and braoader sustainability transformations.

Farmers protests and democracy in Europe

Starting in mid-2024, BACKLASH is collaborating to launch a new initiative investigating backlash to sustainability transformations in the domain of agriculture and food in Europe. This responds to recent farmers protests within and across several European countries in 2024, and which have also occurred in The Netherlands for several years prior. This initiative is being collaboratively led by James Patterson and Julia Tschersich, and currently involves a team of enthusiastic master and bachelor student researchers contributing in various ways. We aim to investigate the causes and dynamics of the recent farmers protests, comparing several countries, and to scrutinise the implications for democratic sustainability transformations.

Team members:

  • James Patterson – Assistant Professor, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University (PI of BACKLASH)
  • Julia Tschersich – Assistant Professor, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
  • Eero Gaffney – Bright Minds Assistantship scholar, Master student of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
  • Daria Sosnowska – Honours student researcher, Bachelor of Global Sustainability Sciences, Utrecht University
  • Paula Boy – Student research asssistant on BACKLASH project, Bachelor of Global Sustainability Sciences, Utrecht University

Discord in sustainability transformations

From 2023, BACKLASH has collaborated in interrogating the profound challenge of how to deal with discord (i.e., conflict, resistance, pushback) in sustainability transformations. This is motivated by the observation that debates on sustainability transformations are held back by overly simplistic assumptions about how policy action can be taken. We aim to provoke uncomfortable and forward-thinking debate on this issue, innovatively drawing on insights from fields of sustainability transformations, policy studies, and peacebuilding and conflict studies.

Phase 1 (2023-2024):

The first step involved cross-cutting collaboration between three ERC-funded research projects (BACKLASH, UNMAKING, and PROBLEM-SHIFTING) to scope the issue and derive a new lens for how to think about policy action: partial political settlements. This was a collaboration between:

Phase 2 (2024-2025):

The next step is a forthcoming invited expert workshop with scholars from across Europe which we are holding in October 2024 at Utrecht University. Scholars are drawn from several fields: sustainability transformations, peacebuilding and conflict studies, and political theory. This will critically interrogate the opportunities and limits for negotiating difficult action in sustainability transformations. This initiative is funded by a seed grant from the Institutions for Open Societies Strategic Theme of Utrecht University, and is collaboratively led by:

PhD project co-supervision

BACKLASH collaborates through joint supervision of Valeria Zambianchi – PhD researcher on the ERC-funded research project POLYCARBON led by Katja Biedenkopf at KU Leuven University, Belgium (2022-2024). Valeria’s PhD project involves a formal joint degree arrangement KU Leuven and Utrecht University, involving co-supervision across institutions. Moreover, this contributed to ongoing interactions between the BACKLASH and POLYCARBON project teams, among both PIs and PhD researchers, strengthening international cooperation and exchange of ideas.