THE 2021 FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
RUNNING 1-30 NOVEMBER 2021
RUNNING 1-30 NOVEMBER 2021
Attendees will be invited to watch a short film about Manchester 'plant stories' (a link will be sent to all registered attendees ca. one week before the event). After contributions from panel members, we will open this up to questions and wider discussion. Some of the questions we will be thinking about are: What words do plants offer us to speak about life and relations? What pasts and futures of the city are they part of? What ways of being and living might emerge when we put plants at the centre of our stories?
Plants make life possible: they are crucial to existence and to wellbeing, especially also in urban environments. Yet they are often disregarded, or considered ornamental extras. Our words reveal this: ‘vegetating’ means being passive, barely alive. At a time of environmental crisis, the spaces we share with plants, and our relations with them, need to be reimagined. This event explores different ways of being through and with plants, with panellists whose approaches include poetry, community and climate action, botany, and indigenous perspectives.
Dr Anke Bernau, School of English Literature, University of Manchester
Adults and young people
People who are interested in the environment and belonging, community, ethics of care and urban ecologies.
