As we come to the end of the first year of the project, the third training session hosted by KU Leuven provided the researchers with time to reflect on progress made, gain insight into how to move forward and acquire valuable skills. This training included 3 core modules: Sustainable Place-Shaping, Communication and Dissemination, and Valorisation … Read more
By Angela Moriggi, Sara Grenni, Siri Pisters The Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences (DENVI) at the University of Helsinki hosted its 2nd Annual Meeting on February 6-7, 2017. Sara, Angela and Siri – the group of ESRs based in Helsinki at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) – participated as “SUSPLACE ambassadors”, with … Read more
What is the nature of societal transformative change? When are people willing to go along a transformative change process and when and why do they resist? These questions have been guiding me in my research journey thus far, aiming to better understand the ‘roots’ of transformative societal change towards a more sustainable world. Looking back … Read more
From 10-14 October 2016, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance Nam Dinh visited the University of Leuven to learn about Community Supported Agriculture. I was able to accompany them on some of their excursions, with the most fascinating being a lunch at a restaurant called Noordoever. Noordoever provided the catering for the group for the entire week, … Read more
by Marie Quinney and Anastasia Papangelou Is there such a thing as a silent conversation? How can we support (and be supported by) our peers in the cumbersome writing process? How can one, as a facilitator, deal with demotivated participants or conflicts during a workshop? Is there a good energiser that doesn’t exclude less mobile … Read more
By Siri Pisters ‘Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without’. William Sloane Coffin Jr. The last couple of months I have wandered around Finland exploring its ecovillages with an additional two on the other side of the Baltic … Read more
By Sara Grenni On September 22nd – 23rd the third annual conference of the British Environmental Psychology Society took place at the University of Surrey’s Environmental Psychology Research Centre. This year’s edition focused on two key themes, both of great relevance for our SUSPLACE programme: Environment, health and well-being: including areas such as environmental stress and … Read more
By Siri Pisters Last week I attended the yearly conference of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) – Europe in Arterra Bizimodu, a young community in Navarra, Spain. Arterra Bizimodu inhabits an old monastery in a sleepy, rural village in the beautiful yet dry and quite deserted Spanish country side. This young community hosted over 200 participants … Read more
By Siri Pisters A few weeks ago I officially visited my first eco community in Finland – Ihala. If I understood correctly, it means something in the direction of bright place. I joined an open community weekend and GEN(Global Ecovillage Network)- Finland gathering at the same time. The group of people attending was small for … Read more