Isadora Cardoso holds a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Brasilia and a master’s in globalisation and development studies from Maastricht University. In their PhD, Isadora works at the tensioned borders of activism and research, focusing on discourses and practices on and for climate justice through decolonial, queer, intersectional methods, ethics and concepts. Before the PhD, they were a fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability – RIFS Potsdam, investigating just energy transitions in Brazil and Germany. Isadora has been working with and studying intersectional and decolonial perspectives and solutions to the climate crisis since 2016 with NGOs, UN agencies, social movements and foundations focusing on gender and climate justice in Brazil, Germany, and transnationally at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
One struggle One fight: Intersectional and decolonial action research perspectives on movements and communities demanding climate justice
This research project explores the potentials of combining decolonial, intersectional and queer methods, ideas and ethics to enhance climate justice action research. The project was carried out with activist collectives and communities organised around positionalities/differences, such as youth and Quilombola groups in Brasil, and South Africa, besides participatory observation in international climate conferences and Berlin activist spaces I belong to. In these spaces, Isadora asks questions about how privilege and oppression articulate with demands and visions that research participants have for climate justice. Moved by questions that are grounded on emancipatory critical thought, like how can differently positioned agents work together to end co-dependent oppressive systems and foster justice, and inspired by Patricia Hill Collins (2019) most recent elaboration of intersectionality as critical social theory, they present arguments based on the will to drive change in social research and political organising. By thoroughly reflecting on key moments of the fieldwork, as an accountable process of doing action research in collaboration with marginal(ised) contingents and committed to social transformation, Isadora explores and expands debates and practices on intersectionality, decolonial methods and ethics and and for climate justice.
[Picture: Ana Rodriguez]