Aesthetic relationships with nature using the example of water in community organising processes

Donnerstag, 05.06.2025, 18 Uhr

Aesthetic relationships with nature using the example of water in community organising processes. (Prof. Thomas Guthmann, Berlin – Germany)

In the context of the worsening climate crisis, my research ‚Aesthetic Relations to Nature‘ explores the ways in which relationships to water become visible in community organising processes. Despite the wealth of data that provides us with technical knowledge about the climate crisis, there has been little research on how to change our relationship with nature as a resource and how to create new understandings of nature that enable climate-sensitive action. The starting point of the research is the basic understanding of aesthetics by Dussel, Kusch and Willis. This is linked to ‚reality/nature‘ (Dussel) and understood as a relationship of being (Kusch/Willis). Using the example of the binational network of young environmental activists for the protection of Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia (Rebijo) and the Grünheide citizens‘ initiative in Brandenburg, Germany, the relationships to nature with regard to water in the respective organising processes are examined.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Guthmann has been teaching aesthetics, communication and media and community work at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Berlin since the summer semester of 2022. In addition to his current research project, he is working on the relationship between body and space in social work and political education.

• Zoomlink: : https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/67745333914