Dr Ankit Kumar contributes to display in COP26 exhibition

RCCGlasgow is a pop-up exhibition running in parallel with the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021.

RCC Glasgow sign

Dr Ankit Kumar has contributed to a display on Community and Climate Change in collaboration with Dr Gerald Taylor Aiken (Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research), as part of the pop-up exhibition RCCGlasgow.

With contributors from India, Nigeria, Canada, Australia, the UK, South-East Asia and South America, the gallery space is designed to work as an environmental humanities hub for the duration of the COP. 

We are regularly told that climate change is a matter for individuals—our carbon footprint, whether we choose to cycle or drive, eat meat or not, recycle or chuck out plastics. On the other hand, events like COP26 persuade us that large actors—states, corporations—need to take action, while we can lobby, agitate, cajole, vote and buy better to persuade them to act.

Exhibition welcome on wall of Glasgow gallery

Communities across the global north and south are acting together to both reduce their environmental impact (what is often called mitigation); but also clubbing together to prepare for adaptation—for the inevitable climate shocks the next century will bring and generations will live through. Dr Kumar’s display focuses on these themes.

“It's great to be part of this exceptional exhibition that brings to fore important humanities work on climate change,” Dr Kumar said. “Solving the climate crisis needs imagination and breaking some moulds and this exhibition provides a great platform for that.

Wall of text and image of building at art exhibition

“Our display builds on our previous work on Community Energy and proposes that we need to think more carefully through the idea of community rather than the deadlocked dichotomy of individuals vs state/corporations for more imaginative and innovative climate actions.”

RCCGlasgow runs from 1-12 November 2021.

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