A hopeful education
for the end of the world as we know it
Climate change, biodiversity collapse, pandemics, wars, resource shortages, inflation, socio-economic inequality… after decades of progress and prosperity, the world is hitting the limits to growth predicted by the Meadows report of 1972.
How do we talk to and teach young people about collapse without triggering defence mechanisms of denial and depression?
The simple answer is that we mostly don’t.
A hopeful education
for the end of the world as we know it
Climate change, biodiversity collapse, pandemics, wars, resource shortages, inflation, socio-economic inequality… after decades of progress and prosperity, the world is hitting the limits to growth predicted by the Meadows report of 1972.
How do we talk to and teach young people about collapse without triggering defence mechanisms of denial and depression?
This urgent, and radically honest, accessible book looks collapse in the face, acknowledges the temptation for denial and despair, but chooses hope. Pedagogies of Collapse makes a dire, fact-packed case for the urgency of action, but resists the urge to fall into the usual categories of environmental discourses.
It rejects both the unwarranted optimism of progress narratives and the unhelpful despair of extinction narratives. Instead, Ginie Servant-Miklos makes the case for facing hard truths about the present and future with imperfect, trauma-informed learning practices and space for experimental pedagogies.
What our readers say:
This book takes the reader on an existential trip, confronting us with collapse and how to prepare for it. It combines a deeply personal journey with a clear message to the reader: This book calls to abandon the world and education as we know it and embrace the inevitable end of it all: it is a brutally honest and hopeful call to arms for teachers across the globe.
This book takes the reader on an existential trip, confronting us with collapse and how to prepare for it. It combines a deeply personal journey with a clear message to the reader: This book calls to abandon the world and education as we know it and embrace the inevitable end of it all: it is a brutally honest and hopeful call to arms for teachers across the globe.
1/6
Prof. Derk Loorbach
Erasmus UNIV Rotterdam
Clear, raw statements and cool directness between long, carefully crafted arguments with scientific references. Servant-Miklos can approach sarcasm at certain times, but never without empathy. The personal story and strong voice make the message vibrant: Evil can be transformed into good, if we put all our heart, energy, and intelligence - including that of praxis - into the project.
Clear, raw statements and cool directness between long, carefully crafted arguments with scientific references. Servant-Miklos can approach sarcasm at certain times, but never without empathy. The personal story and strong voice make the message vibrant: Evil can be transformed into good, if we put all our heart, energy, and intelligence - including that of praxis - into the project.
2/6
Hanne Leth Andersen
Rector Roskilde UNIV
Our civilization stands on the brink of truly catastrophic unraveling, and education is one of the keys to mitigating this metacrisis. This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century.
Our civilization stands on the brink of truly catastrophic unraveling, and education is one of the keys to mitigating this metacrisis. This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century.
3/6
Zachary Stein
Author
Our civilization stands on the brink of truly catastrophic unraveling, and education is one of the keys to mitigating this metacrisis. This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century.
In this tour de force, Ginie guides the reader through the state of the world and its likely trajectory and puts forward a compelling argument for the energetic basis of global educational systems and practices. Some may be disappointed not to find many pragmatic ways of changing your education. I fully support this choice, every educational context and place is unique. There is enough richness in the arguments to transpose those into your education. Do yourself a favor, read it. Read it if you are teaching sustainability. Read it if you are not. Read it with a reading group. Invite your programme to read it together.
4/6
Bas van den Berg
Member of The Hague Climate Council
Our civilization stands on the brink of truly catastrophic unraveling, and education is one of the keys to mitigating this metacrisis. This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century.
I did not have such a shiver from reading a book since reading Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future. Ginie's call to action hits my teacher's nerves extra hard because it is not fiction; I have felt in my bones the strange feeling of talking an inconvenient truth to students who are in confused denial, in a surrounding full of instant gratification and cheap-optimism tranquilizers.
I also appreciate the practical lessons on imperfect solidarity and jigsaw classroom, among the many other insights, which I will carry in my arsenal for living a "normal" life of a teacher-activist-technologist.
5/6
Sanli Faez
Professor at Utrecht University
Our civilization stands on the brink of truly catastrophic unraveling, and education is one of the keys to mitigating this metacrisis. This book should be read by anyone who wants to work on the problems of education that are relevant in the 21st century.
It is a book that I have just finished reading, and it has left my mind, heart and body electrified. It is the most critical, systemic and paradoxical book I have been able to read so far about our global reality as I observe and comment on it when I say that "the collapse is already here, it is just not evenly distributed" and its counterbalances, "the new paradigm is already, it is just not evenly distributed.
6/6
Jesús Martín González
Transdisciplinary Researcher
The book takes the reader on a journey through the life sciences, political economy, psychology and philosophy with humour and accessible explanations. It weaves the authors' experiences as an educator, humanitarian and activist into a hopeful search for existential meaning through learning, loving and living in times of collapse.
The book includes a preface by Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at SOAS, University of London, UK.
Podcast:
with Nordic Bildung
Listen to the Podcast of Nordic Bildung with Host Lene Rachel Andersen and Genie Servant-Miklos about 'Collapsology' and how to deal with the end of civilization as we know it.
Full epsiode on nordicbildung.org
New Spotify Podcast:
Life from Plato's Cave
Listen to the Podcast of Nordic Bildung with Host Lene Rachel Andersen and Genie Servant-Miklos about 'Collapsology' and how to deal with the end of civilization as we know it.
