Care in sustainability transformation
Sustainability transitions are increasingly challenged by social fragmentation, political polarisation, and persistent inequalities that undermine meaningful participation and collective action. WeCare explores how relations of care among people and between humans and the more-than-human world shape participation in sustainability transitions.
A New Perspective on Sustainability Change
The project brings together care and participation perspectives to advance sustainability and just transitions research. It starts from the premise that agency and responsibility emerge through relationships with other people, communities, and the environment. A care-based perspective helps explain why people engage in, resist, or withdraw from transition processes, and how participation can be strengthened in more just and inclusive ways.
Food Systems and Forestry in Transition
WeCare focuses on participation in two key areas of sustainability transformation in Finland: food systems and forestry. The research investigates how care relations enable or constrain participation in policymaking, grassroots initiatives, and everyday practices that shape transitions.
Towards More Inclusive Environmental Governance
Using qualitative case studies, interviews, observations, and document analysis, the project examines participation across different stages of transition processes. Together with stakeholders, WeCare will co-create a Care Manifesto to support more inclusive, context-sensitive, and just approaches to environmental governance.