Younity4Action is committed to transdisciplinary research because climate change and environmental degradation are complex and multifaceted requiring holistic, innovative and integrated approaches encompassing diverse perspectives from the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities. Working together across the disciplines enhances the real-world application and policy relevance of research and is more likely to engage diverse communities.
Our research is developing creative, youth-led perspectives and action on the climate challenges facing one of the most populous, economically important and ethnically diverse areas in Vietnam and beyond in South-East Asia.
The project works in partnership with young people – supporting them to identify imaginative ways to mitigate climate change challenges in the Red River basin area. Youth-led work is exploring how local, traditional and indigenous knowledge can develop understanding. And subsequently strengthen local and societal resilience through an innovative partnership approach that incorporates peer-to-peer, intergenerational and cross-/inter-cultural forms of collaborative learning.
Utilising a participatory action research design and drawing upon anti-colonial methods and approaches, the project will result in innovative forms of knowledge exchange rooted in these diverse ways of knowing; through the creation of culturally-specific forms of affective and aesthetic expression.
The project includes an international Youth Advisory Board comprising young people aged 14 to 30 years who are involved in climate action from across the world guiding the project team.