Joost Vervoort

Background

About Joost Vervoort

I'm a researcher, lecturer and game designer, passionate about helping people, organizations and societies imagine and realize transformative, sustainable futures. I'm an Associate Professor of Transformative Imagination in the Environmental Governance Group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development; an Honorary Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford; and a Visiting Fellow at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, Japan. An ecologist by training, I hold a PhD from Wageningen University in stakeholder engagement through scenarios and other approaches to sense-making in and navigating through complex systems. I focus on two connected research interests: 1. Using games and creative practices to help create more imaginative societies for better futures. Joost is PI of the NWO Vidi project Anticiplay, where my teams and I research and help establish a 'new design paradigm' for the global game sector, focused on more diverse and inspiring futures. I'm also work package leader in the H2020 project CreaTures, which focuses on understanding how creative practices can enable sustainability transformations. Another project that reflects this focus is the 'Bright Spots: Seeds of Good Anthropocene' project. See this blog about Anticiplay's mission statement: https://anticiplay.medium.com/games-and-sustainability-transformations-a-new-paradigm-1183965cab52 And CreaTures: https://creatures-eu.org/ 2. The politics of foresight: for the last ten years I have led a team of researchers in a major scenarios project for the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security program of the CGIAR, operating in 7 global regions. I now co-lead this project with Dr. Laura Pereira (UU, SRC, Wilts). In terms of anticipatory governance and the politics of the future, I co-lead a research project, Re-Imagine, with Prof. Aarti Gupta (WUR). He also leads a global community on anticipatory governance with over 600 members. CCAFS Scenarios: https://ccafs.cgiar.org/resources/publications/future-scenarios Re-Imagine: https://re-imagine.sites.uu.nl/ At Utrecht University, I teach about futures, transformation, systems thinking and game design. I'm also a painter: I paint album art for bands as well as pieces for private commissions; see @Joost.vervoort_artwork on Instagram. Joost sings in several bands. I'm also a meditation teacher - and have established the meditation community the Dharmagarage - see @DharmagarageU on twitter.