Human legacies are more important and influential than ever before. They have unprecedented consequences in a world shaped by ageing populations, climate change, and recurring turbulence. They play a significant role in the persistence of social inequality and environmental degradation.
We, the LEGACIES project team, pursue an original approach by focusing on the intergenerational dynamics of material and environmental legacies and their generative potential. Through extensive field research in Italy, South Korea, Sweden and the United States, our project provides insights into entangled material and environmental legacies and how they are shaped by welfare states, family structures and other contextual factors.
The LEGACIES project will yield a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of societies and environments, the young and the old, and processes that shape the most influential megatrends in the 21st century, in particular inequality and climate change. It will provide intellectual tools to continue investigating, questioning, and challenging what we leave behind—our legacies—as individuals and societies.