The research approach 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 research approach foregrounds working in partnership with young people – to support them to identify imaginative ways to mitigate climate change challenges. Youth-led and/or co-creation is used to explore how local, traditional and indigenous knowledge can develop wider understandings of both the issues and tangible action and adaptions. Such an approach is used to support 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 approach and drawing upon anti-colonial and creative methods and approaches, the research has facilitated innovative forms of knowledge exchange rooted in diverse ways of knowing; through the creation of culturally-specific forms of affective and aesthetic expression.
The initial research in Vietnam involved 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. Now working in Thailand and Cambodia as well Vietnam to extend the reach of the impact, the research is working alongside the youth-led LCOYs in Thailand and Cambodia.