Participatory Video on the lives of homeless people in Belgium, screened at the Participatory Video Festival #1. Photo by Catia Rebelo. Although there is a growing interest in participatory visual methods, these are still far from being ‘conventional’. This brings some challenges, especially to PhD students. Therefore, a group of PhD students from Ghent University, … Read more
By Marta Nieto Romero (in collaboration with Alessandro Vasta) The other day I had an interesting conversation with my colleague Alessandro Vasta touching on the issue of Northern Europeans buying land in Portugal to set up sustainable projects. It made me think a lot on why am I suspicious about it, and we made interesting … Read more
I recently read someone arguing that ‘knowing a thing requires loving it’. Be it a place, a person, a Petri dish with microbes, a strand of DNA, an enzyme, a tree, a bacteria or an animal. ‘To know persons we must love them first and look at the world from their perspective. To know any … Read more
Within the context of sustainable place-shaping, rural development and bottom-up initiatives, I went to follow a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in a rural area in Southern Portugal. Permaculture is derived from ‘permanent agriculture’ and ‘permanent culture’ and is based on holistic design in order for people to live harmoniously in nature and provide all their … Read more
In a recent post, Sara Grenni shared her experiences of being involved in a consultancy in the context of a 3 month secondment. Like Sara, I also spend three months at Royal HaskoningDHV and I agree with her that it is a pleasure to get to know the consultancy world, the people working there and the many … Read more
The SUSPLACE position of Early Stage Researcher (ESR) in ‘Connected Learning Spaces‘ has recently opened up again. We are currently looking for an ESR to be appointed for the remaining 10 months. The position is hosted at Sustainable Places Research Institute of Cardiff University, Wales and open for application till June 16, 2018. Please find the … Read more
Continuing on the series started by my colleague Lorena Axinte, I want to share my own experience of the three months I spent working with non-academic partner Royal HaskoningDHV in 2017. What is a secondment? As part of a Marie Curie Innovative Training Network, all of the ESRs are required to complete two secondments of three … Read more
The Call for Adventure Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away… Actually in this galaxy. On this planet, in fact. Right over in a picturesque Dutch city called Utrecht… A gang of six intrepid wannabe earth warriors/ sustainability researchers*, gathered to learn how to wield a secret power (well, maybe not … Read more
Being an MSCA Innovative Training Network, SUSPLACE offers us a chance to work for short periods of time with the project partners. Since the Welsh Government is one of the non-academic partners, I was based in the Future Generations Commissioner’s Office for three months in 2017. An unexpectedly friendly environment I felt welcomed in the Future Generations … Read more
By Andris Suvajevs Sustainability science is in many ways the new kid on the block. It is trendy and exciting because almost anything can be lumped under it and yet it is also frustrating as the over-burdening presence of topics tends to produce meaningful absences. In this field, there has essentially been an academic double-movement … Read more
Do you believe in the power of stories and images to communicate sustainability science? We are asking for help to realise a SUSPLACE children’s book for sustainable place-shaping! Einstein once said: “If you can’t explain something to a 6 year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” In the field of sustainability science, we often face … Read more
Written by Angela Moriggi and Kelli R. Pearson “The only way to approach such a period in which uncertainty is high and one cannot predict what the future holds, is not predict, but to experiment and act inventively and exuberantly via diverse adventures in living” ~ C.S. Holling In October 2016, six of us got together … Read more