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With the event "Planetary Hopes", the new Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University Frankfurt presented its research focus Earth-Nature-Society to the public on Thursday. Scientists from Frankfurt and their guests focused in particular on the question of whether and how computer and data-supported methods can contribute to solving planetary polycrises. Prof. Dr. Franziska Matthäus, spokesperson for LOEWE-CMMS and founding director of teaching at C3S, also gave an outlook on the Center's future activities in her closing remarks. 

Global warming is causing sea levels to rise, making coastal cities uninhabitable. The loss of biodiversity and the immigration of species due to new climatic conditions are also changing agriculture. Massive economic burdens and migration movements are the result - but how is it all connected? And vice versa: how are we humans, our economic practices and our social structure partly responsible for these changes to our planet? What can be done to overcome planetary polycrises? Computer models can help us to understand the complex relationships at the interfaces between geophysics, ecosystems and society and to critically examine possible solutions.

And this is precisely where the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University comes in: Scientists joined forces to form C3S in April 2023 and are researching the interactions between digitality and democracy and the dynamics of change. "Social change is happening ever faster, and our actions as humans are having ever more drastic consequences for the stability of the planet. As president of this university, I therefore set out with the idea of founding an institute for the future that takes on the challenges of our time of change in a special, interdisciplinary way, which are becoming increasingly urgent," explains Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University, who opened the "Planetary Hopes" event. "Digitality is not only a driver of social and economic transformation, it is also a tool that can help us to better understand the world and shape our future, with responsibility for people, society and nature. We need the knowledge and joint approaches of different disciplines and we need highly developed models, calculation methods and techniques in order to understand and better influence the so-called polycrisis. ...]"At a press conference before the start of the event, Hesse's Minister of Science Timon Gremmels placed the C3S in the context of related Hessian institutions and emphasized: "I am pleased and proud that a Hessian university is producing such an innovative institution."

The Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University Frankfurt not "only" researches the interactions between digitality and democracy and the dynamics of change, the C3S also has a teaching, learning and educational program: The aim is to teach critical computational literacy, i.e. the necessary skills and attitudes to use and further develop computer and data-supported technologies in a knowledgeable and responsible manner.