These are turbulent times. International political struggles are challenging established norms and ways of communicating. Also, at local and national levels, environmental policy processes and sustainability work seem to be changing in character.
How can we, as researchers working in the environmental social sciences and societal actors in its practice, make sense of these developments? In the 2026 edition of the Environmental Communication Conference, we join forces and zoom in on the politics of disagreement in environmental governance and sustainability work at local, regional and national levels, and discuss possible impacts on environmental communication scholarship and action.
Please join us for a day of engaged, critical and change-oriented presentations and discussions and contribute to building a network in collaborative environmental communication research!
Conference theme: The politics of disagreement
Contemporary societies seem to be shaped by the instrumentalisation of disagreement, as political divergences are strategically used to gain power rather than to constructively address shared problems. Societal polarisation and disinformation appear to be symptomatic of this, while in some contexts we conversely witness de-politicisation and the suppression of disagreement.
Environmental and sustainability challenges are at the core of these struggles, and environmental communication – as the field of research concerned with the joint construction of meaning on environmental and sustainability issues – offers crucial insight into the role of disagreement in the performance of the political.
Programme
08:30-09:00 Registration and coffee
09:00-09:15 Conference opening
09:15-10:00 Keynote: A Cautionary Tale of Attempting to Cure Politics without Disagreement
Leah Sprain, Associate Professor at University of Colorado Boulder
10:00-10:30 Fika and Poster walk
10:10 Poster presentation: Justice in transition governance
10:20 Poster presentation: The Great Misunderstanding
10:30-12:00: Parallel sessions
- Paper session: Scientific perspectives, categories and knowledges as part of the political
- Workshop: Aikido as a Practice for Transformative Disagreement in Environmental Communication
- Paper session: Trust and the Politics of Disagreement
- Presentation: Should I stay or should I go? Leaving Earth for a digital paradise through immersive theatre.
AND
Quiz time! What do YOU think people think, how should we measure that and how can we get quiet majorities to constructively voice disagreement with the status quo?
12:00-13:15 Lunch
13:15-14:45 Parallel sessions
- Workshop: Zine workshop: What is environmental communication?
- Paper session: Political discourse – de-politicisation or constructive engagement with disagreement?
- Workshop: Working with Conflict: Deliberative Systems Approaches for Researchers and Practitioners
- Workshop: Green Teaming AI: How can we even notice ‘the (missing) environment’ in generative AI?
14:45-15:15 Fika & Poster walk
14:55 Poster presentation: Performing Equitable Futures: An Innovation in Policy Design
15:05 Poster presentation: Inviting the Public In: Science-Based Study Circles for Collective Learning
15:15-16:45 Parallel sessions
- Presentation: Planetary Communications – co-design in a culture of disagreement?
- Workshop: Composting disagreement – working through the shit of modernity
- Game session: Energiköping – a serious game for planning and dialogue
- Paper session: Citizen engagement, post-truth and disagreement
16:45-18:00 Mingle and open microphone for conference reflections!
Note! The programme is subject to change.
For whom is this conference?
We invite researchers from any discipline working on and interested in the communication and governance of environmental and sustainability issues, as well as practitioners working in this area. We especially encourage submissions from doctoral students and early career researchers. The conference is open to anyone else interested in the questions addressed here, including policymakers, communicators and artists interested in this research field.
Practicalities
Date and time: April 23, 8.30-16.45, followed by a complimentary mingle
Venue: Campus Blåsenhus, Uppsala
Costs: The conference is free of charge, but there is a late cancellation fee of 1.000 SEK
Accessibility:
- All common areas and rooms are accessible.
- There are elevators in each stairwell.
- All lecture halls, seminar rooms, and classrooms are equipped with hearing loops.
- There are three parking spaces for drivers with mobility impairments. A valid parking permit for people with disabilities is required and must be displayed visibly in the windshield.
If you have any other requests for accessibility modifications please contact us.
Contact: conference2026@environmental-communication.org
We look forward to meeting you on April 23rd!
