Hi, I'm Robin

The next ten years are a crucial window for determining if and how Europe can uphold its commitment to reduce emissions to zero by 2050. In this interactive session, we discussed the most important changes that need to happen in the Netherlands. We focused on the justice and fairness challenges involved and how young people and their allies can have an impact and shape the next steps.

A recording of the event, hosted by myself and Laura Burgers can be found on the YouTube channel of ACES. Part of the global "Make Climate a Class" initiative, the event aimed to encourage schools and universities to use the recording as a teaching resource. Many more webinars with similar conversations happening around the globe can be found on the initiative's website and Youtube channel.

After many decades of inaction, we now have to face severe climate change. Yet, the most important question is not how bad it will get, but what can be done now to cut emissions quickly. This is a point often missed by the media and campaigners.

In a blog post on the "Communicating Communication" blog, featuring the research of PhD students at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, I discuss why media reporting on climate change, even when accurate, can lead the public conversation in the wrong direction.

With this research project, I investigated how different media report about the politics of climate change. I focused on how media portray known and new "political identities" (eg. Conservative, Socialist, Fridays for Future activist) and if and how they align them with a particular stance on climate change and climate policy.

And indeed, they do so by linking the issue to more and less fundamental aspects of the identity in question. But as I found out, there are strong differences between the US and German media. In addition, left- and right-leaning media tend to exaggerate differences between groups much more than media read by wider audiences. The paper about the study is currently undergoing revision and will be out later in 2021.

From 2018-2021, I had the pleasure of teaching some of the very talented students in the bachelors and masters programmes offered at the College of Communication and Graduate School of Communication at the University of Amsterdam.

Over the years, I taught classes in "Philosophy of Science and Methodology" and "Political Communication and Journalism". I also supervised student internships, bachelor thesis projects, and a number of students writing their master thesis.

For most people, it is obvious that economic growth is good, and that governments should spend a considerable amount of time and resources to create the optimal conditions for growth. In particular, economists tend to focus on how to make our economies grow, but less so on whether that is a desirable goal in the first place. 

In this 4-week interdisciplinary seminar, taught in the Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics programme at the University of Amsterdam, I challenged my students to re-think their own views about economic growth, and critically reflect on the assumptions and challenges associated with pro-growth policies.