Lecture by Zdenka Sokolíčková, 19. 11.

The Other Way Round: Walking Away from Carbon-Intense Lives

The dominant social narrative is built on the assumption that maintaining the quality of life in times of worsening polycrises, including environmental and climate, depends on innovative and technological solutions. At the political level, we often hear the argument that people are not willing to give up material comfort and activities associated with socio-economically privileged residents of the countries in the global north. The talk introduces a currently running research project that looks at the issue of sustainability from the opposite perspective. It explores the life stories of people who have decided to walk away from an ecologically unsustainable lifestyle and have come to the decision to reduce the carbon footprint of their lives. With a time span from 2026 until 2029, the project generates knowledge on already existing lived experiences, rather invisible in social and political discourse, potentially inspiring the path to decarbonization. 

Zdenka Sokolíčková is a social anthropologist fascinated by the circumpolar trouble. She obtained her PhD in 2010 with a thesis about environmental ethics. In 2019–2021, she conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Svalbard, hosted by the University of Oslo, mentored by Thomas H. Eriksen. Zdenka focuses on environmental and climate change, globalization, tourism, migration, sustainability and science, and has worked both in the Arctic and Antarctica. She is a senior researcher at the Department of Studies in Culture and Religion, University of Hradec Králové in Czechia, as well as a postdoctoral researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

19. 11. 2026, 14:00

Seminar room, Institute of Ethnology, CAS,

Na Florenci 3, Praha 1, 5th floor