Such a worldview-shift involves our views on the fundamental precarity of life, personal and shared values, sources of inspiration, experiences of connectedness and engagement, but also of loss and grief. We need a fundamental shift in ways of inhabiting the Earth, to safeguard the health and survival of living species. Against this backdrop, the research objectives of our project are:
- Developing Planetary Health beyond an anthropocentric focus on human health, as this is part of a problematic worldview of human dominance that obstructs the transformation needed.
- Developing a Humanities’ view on planetary health with a focus on change at an existential level with regard to our value and belief systems.
- Developing ways of fostering spiritual transformation that do justice to the existential dimension of planetary health.
Principles of the project
- interconnectedness of the health and well-being of all life on earth;
- ecosystem regeneration instead of an anthropocentric focus on human health;
- holistic view on health, including a spiritual dimension.
Research question
How can the existential dimension of planetary health be understood, and in what ways can spiritual transformation in how we inhabit the Earth be promoted?\
Subprojects
- How can research into existing ecocentric worldviews in religious and wisdom traditions contribute to the development of the scientific field of Planetary Health?
PhD research: Renée Robbers - How can philosophical research into the cultural imagining and valuing of relationships between humans and more-than-human existences, contribute to understanding the existential dimension of planetary health?
Postdoctoral research: Lisa Doeland - How can the academic profession of spiritual care contribute to spiritual health and transformation, in the full awareness of collective loss and ecological grief?
PhD research: Evanne Nowak
Additional research funded by the Apostolic Center for Religious Humanism: How can love be understood from a religious-humanist perspective and what does this imply for the apostolic notion of love-based commitment to a humane and worthy world?
PhD research: Stephan Huijboom
Supervision of these subprojects: Hans Alma and Pim Martens
More about this project
Start/end Date
1 November 2024 - 31 October 2029
Team
Leader: Hans Alma
Team: Pim Martens, Lisa Doeland, Evanne Nowak, Renée Robbers, Stephan Huijboom
Fund
NWO – Open Competition