CBD 2021: Actionable Hope in a Time of Planetary Change, Nicole Ardoin, PhD
As evidenced by the increasing severity of intense weather events, wildfires, and climate-related ecosystem shifts, among other wide-ranging challenges, our world is hurtling toward changes that are altering life as we know it. Yet, despite the bleak news on many fronts—including from the most-recent IPCC report— the hopeful side of this equation is that humans, individually and societally, are indeed capable of tremendous change. With this grounding and motivation, Professor Nicole Ardoin and her Social Ecology Lab at Stanford pursue theoretical and empirical work that considers questions such as: How and under what conditions do people come to see themselves as part of the (collective) solution to pressing environmental challenges? What is the interplay between hope and fear, optimism and pessimism in motivating individual and collective environmental behavior? Working in places as wide-ranging as redwood forests, the Galapagos Islands, and the Stanford campus itself, Nicole and her researchers pursue studies, collaborate with nonprofit and agency partners, and apply findings in ways that guide educational, outreach, and policy initiatives to work toward a more sustainable, joyful future for the planet. She will share insights gained from several ongoing studies and describe how elements of her lab’s current endeavors connect with contemplative practice behaviors.
Nicole Ardoin, PhD, Emmett Faculty Scholar, is the Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. She is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment. Professor Ardoin and her Social Ecology Lab group research motivations for and barriers to environmental behavior at the individual and collective scales. They use mixed-methods approaches—including participant observation, a variety of interview types, surveys, mapping, network analysis, and ethnography, among others—to consider the influence of place-based connections, environmental learning, and social-ecological interactions on participation in a range of environmental and sustainability-related decisionmaking processes. Professor Ardoin and her interdisciplinary group pursue their scholarship with a theoretical grounding and orientation focused on applications for practice; much of her lab's work is co-designed and implemented with community collaborators through a field-based, participatory frame. Professor Ardoin is an associate editor of the journal Environmental Education Research, a trustee of the George B. Storer Foundation, chair of NatureBridge's Education Advisory Council, an advisor to the Student Conservation Association and Teton Science Schools, among other areas of service to the field.
Actionable Hope in a Time of Planetary Change is part of the free Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 25-Nov. 2, 2021.
The full Summit schedule is posted at: http://contemplation.stanford.edu/summit. All events are FREE and online.
After Sept. 1, 2021, REGISTER HERE