Call for Posters: Compassion Day & Giving Tuesday 2026

Introduction

One of the main reasons for the ecological crises that characterize our present time lies in the way we humans relate to nature, animals and resources.The question of sustainability is difficult to separate from the question of the attitude with which humans treat their environment, other beings and resources: exploitation occurs on various levels and can also take subtle forms. We want to use this year's Compassion Day as an opportunity to reflecton these different kinds of relationships in which we humans are entangled.

In doing so, we want to explore how compassion can be considered a form of relationship that transcends the boundaries of the humanspecies and opens to the “more-than-human-world”. Drawing on the American philosopher and cultural ecologist David Abram's reflections on a "participatory mode of perception" and "sensory reciprocity" (Abram 2017: 27), we want to explore forms of compassion as a mode of relating to nature that invite a rethinking: What if it is no longer about a "commodification of 'nature'" (ibid.: 28), but about a deeper understanding of nature beyond the subject-object divide. Our western concept of “nature” results from this “great divide” (Descola 2013: 173) and implies the relegation of nature and animals in the sphere of “objects”, keeping us humans as souverain “subjects”. But what happens if we compare our way of conceptualizing “nature” with other ways of shaping the relationship between humans and non-humans? If our understanding of “nature” is a historical and cultural product, can it be changed? Or – if an escape from our ontological structure is not possible – can we learn from other cultures how to “correct” our approach towards the Other? Compassion – so our idea - is one good starting point for this change.

Here we see a connection, and would like to explore, the relationship between compassion and giving: “For we are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human” (Abram). The idea of conviviality is developed thoroughly in the Convivialist Manifesto. A declaration of interdependence (2014). According to it we need to re-establish a “relationship based on gift and counter-gift” in which human beings no longer view themselves as proprietors and masters of nature, but where “humans must give back to nature as much as, or more than, they take or receive from it." (ibid.: p. 33) The approach to take is to construct a care-based society that place a high value on work done for others. Care and compassion – that include the more-than-human world – ought to be prime concerns because they “offer the clearest proof that no one is self-made, and that we all depend on one another. Care and gift are the tangible, immediate translation into action of the interdependence that characterizes the whole of humankind." (ibid.: p. 29)

Submit your Poster

We invite students and researchers from the EU GREEN Alliance, as well as interested external stakeholders, to submit poster presentations on the theme of "Compassion, Gift, and Sustainability". Submissions may directly address the topics outlined in the call or cover related subjects, provided the connection to the overarching theme is clear. This call is open to participants at all academic levels. The aim is to showcase projects or ideas and facilitate an exchange of views on these topics; for instance, you might present work based on a term paper, a bachelor’s or master’s thesis, or more advanced research projects. Posters may be submitted with or without an accompanying audio recording. If you choose to include an audio recording of your presentation, it should not exceed five minutes in length. Accepted format is PDF. The submission deadline is November 19. Please send your posters to Olov Dahlin (Olov.Dahlin@hig.se) and Antonio Roselli (antonio.roselli@ovgu.de). Both are also happy to answer any questions you may have. The posters will be made available on the EU GREEN  AGORA platform starting November 28. You can find general information on poster design here.

Compassion Day: Film Screening

You can also feel free to join our film screening of "Wild Coast Warriors". Click here to learn more about the film screening.