Dr Chris Turner OBE presents ‘Relationships and relationality’ as part of the Norland research webinar series

Dr Chris Turner OBE, Honorary Lecturer at the University of Exeter, shares a presentation titled ‘Relationships and relationality: Aesthoecological aspects of space, place and time’ with Norland staff and students. 

On 6 June, staff and students will welcome Dr Turner, Honorary Lecturer in Education and an Associate of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education at University College London, for a presentation as part of Norland’s research webinar series.  

Dr Turner’s research and writing has focussed on aesthoecology, eco-philosophy and transdisciplinarity centered around the crises arising from climate change and environmental degradation and with particular emphasis on intergenerational and continuing education.  

Prior to his research, Dr Turner spent thirty years in secondary schools and community education, twenty of these as principal of a large community college in South Devon. Dr Turner has published widely on aesthoecology and associated matters including co-editing his most recent book Creative Ruptions for Emergent Educational Futures (2024). He is currently in the process of writing another book entitled Aesthoecological wisdom: Educational entanglements in the eco-crisis to be published in 2026.  

In this session, Dr Turner will discuss a recent paper published in a special edition of the journal Societies, examining the problems of climate change and stressing the importance of intra-generational, intra-specific and intra-spatial aspects of learning. The paper examines global challenges through new understandings of relationship and relationality leading to a renewed hope for the future. Through the lens of an aesthoecological perspective — a concept initially developed to establish important criteria and characteristics within education — ecological issues are stressed as being vital to education at all stages of the education cycle, not least in the early years. 

Find out more about Dr Turner’s research in his latest papers:

Chappell, K., Turner, C., & Wren, H. (Eds.). (2024). Creative ruptions for emergent educational futures. Pelgrave. Creative Ruptions for Emergent Educational Futures | SpringerLink

Turner, C. (2025). Relationships and relationality in times of profound eco-political change. Societies, 15(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15040102