dr. M. Bourban (Michel)

Research Line

I carry out research on the conditions of possibility of a just transition towards more environmentally sustainable societies and more psychologically resilient citizens. In line with the UT Climate Impact Domain, I examine the ethical and political issues raised by climate change and the technological responses address it, especially climate engineering and energy transition technologies. In line with the UT Health Impact Domain, I investigate the mental health dimension of environmental change by developing a conceptual analysis of eco-anxiety and explaining how ecological citizenship can help to live with eco-anxiety. 

Funded Research Projects

• I am project coordinator and work package leader of the NWO/AICNL AI4ES ELSA Lab, which supports the development of responsible AI for smart energy management and sustainable innovation. 
• I am the PI of the Planetary Justice and Energy Transition Technologies project, which strengthens the normative foundations of the planetary justice framework and applies this framework to the energy transition.
• I am co-leading a work package in the Horizon Europe RE4GREEN project, which provides a framework for research and innovation to address overlapping issues in environmental ethics, climate ethics, and research ethics in the context of the European Green Deal. 
• I am co-coordinator of the Nature and Sustainability research line of the NWO ESDiT project, which develops a comprehensive philosophical understanding of technologies that are socially and conceptually disruptive.
• I am member of the Horizon Europe Co-CREATE project, which develops guidelines and criteria for the ethical assessment of Solar Radiation Management research. 
• I am member of the Anxiety Culture project, which takes an interdisciplinary lens from climate change, migration and digitalisation to population health and political upheaval to study how collective and individual anxiety reshapes modern life.

Recent Publications:

• Bourban, Michel. 2026. Eco-Anxiety and Ecological Citizenship: Navigating an Ecological Emotion. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (Open Access).
• Bourban, Michel. 2026. "Overshoot and Recover? On the Problem of Substitution between Negative Emissions and Emissions Reductions", Environmental Values: 1–23.
• Bourban, Michel, Lenzi, Dominic,  Sørensen Mads P. et al. 2026. “Convergences and Gaps between Environmental Ethics, Climate Ethics, and Research Ethics: A Scoping Review”, Science and Engineering Ethics 32 (11): 1–34 (Open Access). 
• Bourban, Michel. 2025. “Rethinking Climate Justice: Toward Ecological Limitarianism”, Ethics, Policy & Environment: 1–18 (Open Access).
• Bourban, Michel. 2025. "Taking Population Seriously in the IPAT Equation: Ethical and Political Implications of Planetary Boundaries", in Ruuska, Toni and Nyfors, Tina (eds.), Sufficiency: From Growth and Overshoot to Enoughness, Leiden/Boston: Brill: 197–225 (Open Access).  

Personal Website 

https://www.michelbourban.com/

Expertise

• Economics, Econometrics and Finance

  • Justice
  • Finance

• Social Sciences

  • Climate
  • Nationality
  • Climate Change
  • Approach
  • Adaptation
  • Theory

Organisations

Publications

Research profiles

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 4206
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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