Ecovillages as Destinations : Potential of Educational Tourism for Coping with Climate-Anxiety

Sammanfattning: Climate-anxiety is a growing mental health issue among the public and particularly among students in sustainability-related studies in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). As education on climate change in HEI overly relies on cognitive learning, students are not able to address their emotions and potential worries about climate change adequately. The research field of climate-anxiety has emerged after 2007 and relates to other mental health responses to environmental destruction such as eco-anxiety. This study examines whether climate-anxiety affects students within HEI and what coping strategies are used by them. The aim is to suggest approaches for HEI and educational tourism providers to better address climate-anxiety. Specifically, it investigates whether non-formal actors like ecovillages can help students to cope with climate-anxiety. Ecovillages are increasingly recognising their role in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and helping students with climate-anxiety could balance the shortcomings of HEI. Five case studies of ecovillages were included to determine the potential of educational tourism in reducing climate-anxiety. Even though the study found that short-term study visits were not helpful for students climate-anxiety, it can be assumed that students could gain hands-on coping techniques from more extended stays at ecovillages. Particularly the ecovillages learning environment and pedagogy are beneficial for coping with climate-anxiety. It is suggested that HEI should initiate cooperations with local ecovillages to improve climate-anxiety among students, as it was found that lecturers and Student Mental Health Services (SMHS) in HEI in Sweden do not sufficiently address climate-anxiety.