iHuman is part of a highly innovative three-year international project examining cultural modelling of intergenerational justice, funded by the AHRC and DFG. Titled Just Futures: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cultural Climate Models, the project investigates climate modelling beyond the scientific realm, developing an interdisciplinary understanding of how cultural forms such as literature, social media, and educational writing model climate change. Cultural modelling is of equal importance to scientific modelling. Like the technical models used by climate scientists, cultural models offer simplified representations of a complex and uncertain reality. Unlike scientific models, cultural models explicitly engage with issues of ethics and value. By using cultural modelling theory, this project will enable a better understanding of how different kinds of text move between ostensibly neutral climate facts (‘models of’) and normative social values (‘models for’).
The project starts in February 2023 and forms part of iHuman's Knowing Humans theme, led by Warren Pearce. Warren is leading project work examining cultural modelling using text and images on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, in conjunction with Dr Carolin Schwegler (University of Koblenz).
