Kimberley Vandenhole

Kim works within a socio-political approach to sustainability conundra. After a PhD on “the politics of eco-shaming”, she currently explores the Pluriverse as a way to foster alternative human-nature relations and sustainable futures.

• political ecology
• political ontology
• ethnoecology
• philosophy of science
• history of science
• environmental politics
• environmental anthropology
• environmental philosophy
• environmental humanities 

Research projects

Doctoral dissertation : “How Dare You?”: Towards a Politics of Eco-Shaming (summary see infra)

The rise of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish flygskam movement, and the school strikes for climate changed the context in which environmental affairs are apprehended. They enabled the construction of a new environmental discourse characterized by a more normative and moral view on environmental questions. A first aim of the thesis is to identify and conceptualize this new discourse as the ‘eco-shaming discourse’. A second aim is to investigate its co-evolution with societal, political, cultural, and institutional practices and developments. A third aim is to analyze the transformative potential of the eco-shaming discourse and its role in a transition of society towards sustainability. The research takes a socio-political, discursive and constructivist approach to environmental questions and draws on qualitative research methods mainly. 

Publications

My publications are available on Researchgate.

• Vandenhole, K. (2025). From environmental policy consensus to socio-environmental policy controversy: Discursive network dynamics of the Ghentian Low Emission Zone. Environmental science & policy, 164, 104013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104013
• Vandenhole, K., Leifeld, P. & Garic, K. (2025). When does discursive change happen? Detecting phase transitions in discourse networks of sustainability transitions. Energy Research & Social Science, 122, 104020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104020
• Vandenhole, K., Block, T. & Bauler, T. (2024). The Cultural Politics of Eco-shaming. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy, 21(1), 2440951. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2024.2440951
• Vandenhole, K. (2024). Transition durable en tension : « transition durable » dans le discours de l’éco-shaming. In A. Catellani & G. Lits (Eds.), Transitions en tension. Controverses et tensions autour des transitions écologiques (pp. 125-135).
• Vandenhole, K., Bauler, T., & Block, T. (2023). ‘How dare you!’: a conceptualization of the eco-shaming discourse in Belgium. Critical Policy Studies, 18(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2023.2200016
• Vandenhole, K., & Paredis, E. (2023). From the energy crisis to (re)imagining the energy transition. In H. Van Coppenolle, S. Taghon, A. Bougrea, & T. Haesebrouck (Eds.), The Global Energy Crisis (pp. 24-30). Vandenhole, K. (2020). Climate shaming & Climate shame among people showing pro-environmental behaviour: an exploratory research. [Summary of master’s dissertation]. Université Libre de Bruxelles. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.31971.58408

Mail: kimberley.vandenhole@ulb.be
Office: A.3.16 (Usquare)