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Maria Ojala

Title: Senior Lecturer School/office: School of Law, Psychology and Social Work

Email:

Phone: +46 19 303069

Room: L2620

Research Subject

Research environments

About Maria Ojala

Maria Ojala is associate professor (docent) in psychology. She has a position as senior lecturer in psychology at Örebro University. Maria’s main research interest concerns how young people think, feel, act, learn, and communicate about global environmental problem, with a specific focus on climate change. 

Current research projects

Prefiguring sustainable futures through food activism: How young people deal with border tensions between the sustainable and unsustainable in everyday life. As principal investigator. Financed by the Swedish Research Council Formas.For information about the project see: https://prefiguringsustainablefutures.wordpress.com/

Preconditions for communication about healthy and sustainable food with youth. As principal investigator. Postdoc project financed by Örebro University. Collaborators: Postdoc recruitment on its way. Professor David Machin, Media and communication studies, Örebro University. Dr. Kjerstin Andersson Bruck, Social Work, Örebro University. 

Mobility, informal learning and citizenship in mobile preschools. As participant. Principal Investigator is Associate Professor Danielle van der Burgt. Financed by The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (RJ)

Sedvänjor att undervisa om kontroversiella hållbarhetsfrågor och elevernas lärande. As participant. Principal Investigator is Professor Leif Östman, Uppsala University. Financed by The Swedish Research Council VR. 

Investigating associations between Media Exposure, Climate Anxiety and Mental Health (MECAMH). As participant. Together with researchers in Norway, Germany and England. Principal Investigator is Dr Charles A. Ogunbode, University of Bergen.

Recent finished projects:

Young people´s communication with parents, friends, and teachers about global environmental problems: Emotions, coping, and self-efficacy. As principal investigator. Financed by the Swedish Research Council Formas.

Political socialization and human agency: The Development of Civic Engagement from Adolescence to Young Adulthood at Youth and Society (YeS), Örebro University. As participant. Principal investigators are professors: Erik Amnå, Håkan Stattin, Mats Ekström. Financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

Preconditions of environmental moral learning within education for sustainable development: A multidisciplinary study of young Swedes attitudes, commitments and actions. As participant. Principal investigator is Dr. Lena Molin. Financed by The Swedish Research Council VR

Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: The role of social norms, place identity and ecocentric values in public risk perception. PI together with Professor Rolf Lidskog, Örebro Universitet. Financed by Länsstyrelsen i Gävleborg

Barns känslor och tankar om de globala miljöproblemen. As principal investigator. Grant from Energimyndigheten.

Learning about global environmental problems: Emotional aspects, emotion regulation, and a sense of purpose among children, adolescents, and young adults. As principal investigator Grant from The National Council for Environmental Research (Formas).

Att hantera det ambivalenta: Unga vuxnas attityder och beteende gällande energieffektivisering i hemmet. As principal investigator. Grant from Gothenburg Energy Research Foundation.

Research Projects

Research Teams

Research Teams

Publications

Publications

Articles in journals |  Articles, book reviews |  Books |  Chapters in books |  Conference papers |  Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries |  Reports | 

Articles in journals

Ojala, M. (2019). Eco-anxiety. The RSA Journal (4), 10-15.

Boström, M. , Andersson, E. , Berg, M. , Gustafsson, K. M. , Gustavsson, E. , Hysing, E. , Lidskog, R. , Löfmarck, E. & et al. (2018). Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach. Sustainability, 10 (12).

Information via DOIMore information on external website

Ojala, M. (2018). Hopp och oro i en tid av globala klimatförändringar. Ikaros - om människan och vetenskapen (2/3).

Ojala, M. (2018). Känslor, värden och utbildning för en hållbar framtid: Att främja en kritisk känslokompetens i klimatundervisning. Acta Didactica Norge - tidsskrift for fagdidaktisk forsknings- og utviklingsarbeid i Norge.

Ojala, M. (2017). Hope and anticipation in education for a sustainable future. Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 94, 76-84.

Information via DOIFull text in DiVA

Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2017). Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: The role of place identity, social norms, environmental concerns and ecocentric values in public risk perception. Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 22 (2), 172-184.

Information via DOI

Ojala, M. & Lakew, Y. (2017). Young People and Climate Change Communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.

Information via DOI

Ojala, M. (2015). Climate change skepticism among adolescents. Journal of Youth Studies, 18 (9), 1135-1153.

Information via DOIFull text in DiVA

Ojala, M. (2012). Regulating worry, promoting hope: How do children, adolescents, and young adults cope with climate change?. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7 (4), 537-561.

Ojala, M. (2011). Ungas känslor inför klimatet. Miljöforskning (3).

Ojala, M. (2007). Confronting macrosocial worries: worry about environmental problems and proactive coping among a group of young volunteers . Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 39 (6), 729-745.

Information via DOI

Articles, book reviews

Ojala, M. (2017). Review of: Hope and grief in the Anthropocene: Re-conceptualising human-nature relations by Lesley Head. Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 22 (8), 1035-1037.

Information via DOI

Books

Ojala, M. & Rikner, A. (2010). Att hantera det ambivalenta: unga vuxnas attityder och beteende gällande energisparande i hemmet. Örebro: Örebro universitet (Centrum för urbana och regionala studiers skriftserie 66).

Chapters in books

Ojala, M. (2018). Climate and environment. In: M.H. Bornstein, M.E. Arterberry, K.L. Fingerman, & J.E. Lansford, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development (pp. 367-368). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Ojala, M. & Lakew, Y. (2018). Young people and climate change communication. In: Matthew C. Nisbet, Shirley S. Ho, Ezra Markowitz, Saffron O’Neill, Mike S. Schäfer, and Jagadish Thaker, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication: Volume III (pp. 609-628). New York: Oxford University Press.

Ojala, M. (2016). Preparing children for the emotional challenges of climate change: a review of the research. In: Winograd K., Education in times of environmental crises: teaching children to be agents of change (pp. 210-218). New York: Routledge.

Ojala, M. (2016). Young people and global climate change: Emotions, coping, and engagement in everyday life. In: N. Ansell, N. Klocker & T. Skelton, Geographies of global issues: change and threat (pp. 329-346). . Springer Science+Business Media B.V..

Information via DOI

Ojala, M. (2008). Hoppfull oro: en medelväg mot klimatvänlig matkonsumtion.. In: KliMATfrågan på bordet (pp. 187-198). Stockholm: Formas.

Ojala, M. (2004). Emotioner som deliberativa verktyg: lokala miljökonflikter och känslornas positiva potential. In: Emotionssociologiska uppsatser: "papers" från forskarutbildningskurs i emotionernas sociologi (pp. 73-91). Karlstad: Karlstads universitet.

Conference papers

Ojala, M. (2019). Prefiguring sustainable futures: Food activism and anticipation among emerging adults. Paper presented at Anticipation and Anticipatory Systems: Humans Meet AI, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden, June 10-13, 2019.

Ojala, M. (2018). Being young in a time of climate change: Coping strategies, communication patterns, engagement, and subjective wellbeing. Paper presented at 25th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD 2018), Gold Coast, Australia, July 15-19, 2018.

Ojala, M. (2018). Teachers’ views on emotions in climate change education: Exploring meta-emotion philosophies, promoting critical emotional awareness. Paper presented at 43rd ATEE Conference, A future for all – teaching for a sustainable society, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden, August 20-22, 2018.

Ojala, M. (2017). Ethico-moral dimensions and emotions in climate change education: Exploring senior high-school teachers’ meta-emotion philosophies. Paper presented at International EthiCo Conference: What may be learnt in ethics? Present and future conceptions of ethical competence, Gothenburg, Sweden, December 11-13, 2017.

Ojala, M. (2016). Critical emotional awareness as a key competence in education for a sustainable future. In: Mulder, M., Wesselink, R., Biemans, H. & Lans, T., Competence 2016 International conference on competence theory, research and practice. Paper presented at Competence 2016, International conference on competence theory, research and practice. Part of symposium: Sustainability competences: meanings, possibilities, and constraints, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, October 19-21, 2016 (pp. 552-557).

Ojala, M. & Bergstad, C. J. (2016). Symposium: Young people and climate change engagement. Paper presented at 24th IAPS Conference, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, June 27-July 1, 2016.

Ojala, M. (2016). Teachers’ Meta-Emotion Philosophies and Climate Change Education. Paper presented at ECER 2016, NW 30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, Dublin, Ireland, August 23-26, 2016.

Ojala, M. (2016). The existential issues of children and youth when facing contemporary challenges. Paper presented at Existential questions in research and education, Sigtuna, Sweden, October 27-29, 2016.

Ojala, M. (2016). Young people’s distancing strategies concerning climate change: Relations to engagement, communication patterns, gender, and worry. Paper presented at 24th IAPS Conference, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, June 28- July 1, 2016. Part of symposium: Young people and climate change engagement (Chairs: Maria Ojala, Uppsala University & Cecilia Bergstad, University of Gothenburg).

Ojala, M. (2015). Anticipation related emotions of hope and worry concerning global climate change: Promoting emotional awareness in education for a sustainable future. Paper presented at First International Conference on Anticipation, Trento, Italy, November 5-7, 2015.

Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2015). Explaining public risk perception of mosquitoes: The role of social norms, place identity, environmental values and concerns. In: 24th SRA-Europe Conference 15-17 June 2015, Maastricht, The Netherlands Programme and Proceedings Book. Paper presented at The 24th SRA-Europe 2015 conference, Science, policy, and society: Bridging the gap between risk and science, Maastricht, The Netherlands, June 15-17, 2015 (pp. 177-177).

Ojala, M. (2015). Student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation: Associations with hope about climate change. Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2015), Education and Transition. Contributions from Educational Research, Budapest, Hungary, September 7-10, 2015.

Ojala, M. & Bengtsson, H. (2015). Young people’s coping strategies concerning climate change: Relations to communication patterns with parents and friends and pro-environmental behavior. Paper presented at The 11th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Groningen, The Netherlands, August 24-26, 2015.

Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2014). Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: The role of place identity, social norms, environmental concern and ecocentric values in public risk perception. Paper presented at The 23rd IAPS conference, Timisoara, Rumania, June 23-27, 2014.

Ojala, M. (2014). Socializing emotions in the classroom: Highschool students’ perceptions of teacher induced emotion norms in education for sustainable development. Paper presented at NERA 42nd Congress - Education for Sustainable Development, Lillehammer, Norway, March 5-7, 2014.

Ojala, M. (2013). Coping with climate change related emotions among adolescents: Associations with communication patterns and environmental engagement. In: Transformation in a Changing Climate International Conference in Oslo 19 - 21 June 2013 : Proceedings. Paper presented at Transformation in a Changing Climate Conference, Oslo, Norway, June 19-21, 2013 (pp. 322-322). Oslo, Norway: University of Oslo, Department of Sociology and Human Geography.

Ojala, M. (2012). Emotional awareness: On the importance of including emotional aspects in education for sustainable development (ESD). Paper presented at Transboundary learning beyond disciplines. Sustainable Development opening up research dialogues, Umeå, Sweden, October 9-11, 2012.

Ojala, M. (2012). The Importance of Emotions and Emotion Regulating Strategies in the Process of Learning about Global Climate Change. Paper presented at The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2012), Cádiz, Spain, September 18-21, 2012.

Ojala, M. (2011). Regulating worry, promoting hope: How children, adolescents, and young adults cope psychologically with climate change. Paper presented at 9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 26-28, 2011.

Ojala, M. (2010). A climate of hope?: Exploring how young people cope psychologically with global climate change. Paper presented at The 12th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Vilnius, Lithuania, May 12-15, 2010 (pp. 15-19). Bologna, Italy: Medimond.

Ojala, M. (2010). How do children cope with global climate change?: Coping strategies, engagement and well-being. Paper presented at The Second International Conference on Coping with Stress.

Ojala, M. (2009). Ambivalent attitudes about household energy conservation: negative and positive strategies for handling ambivalence. Paper presented at 8th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Zürich, Switzerland, September 6-9, 2009.

Ojala, M. (2008). Facing ambiguities - transcending dichotomies: Factors promoting an inclusion of global problems into young people’s moral identity. Paper presented at 34th Annual Meeting of the Association for Moral Education, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA, November 13-16, 2008.

Ojala, M. (2008). The importance of a dialectic relation between positive and negative emotions in promoting social engagement among young people. Paper presented at The XI Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Torino, Italy, May 7-10, 2008.

Ojala, M. (2006). Confronting macrosocial worries: worry about global environmental problems and sources of hope among two groups of emerging adults. Paper presented at The 3rd European Conference on Positive Psychology, Braga, Portugal, July 3-6, 2006.

Ojala, M. (2004). A positive reappraisal of adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: The relation between worry, subjective well-being, values and existential dimensions. Paper presented at The 2nd European Conference on Positive Psychology, Verbania Pallanza, Italy, July 5-8, 2004.

Ojala, M. (2004). Adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: subjective well-being, values and existential dimensions. Paper presented at The IX Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Porto, Portugal, May 4-8, 2004.

Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries

Ojala, M. (2007). Hope and worry: exploring young people's values, emotions, and behavior regarding global environmental problems. (Doctoral dissertation). (Comprehensive summary) Örebro: Örebro universitetsbibliotek.

Reports

Ojala, M. (2010). Barns känslor och tankar om klimatproblematiken. Eskilstuna: Energimyndigheten (Energimyndighetens rapportserie, ER 2010:31).

Forward, S. & Ojala, M. (2008). Polisens attityder till trafikövervakning: en jämförelse mellan år 1999 och år 2007. Linköping: VTI (VTI rapport 616).