Human Values and Place-based Development – WASS seminar by dr Marilyn Hamilton

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WASS Seminar Human Values and Place-based Development by dr Marilyn Hamilton: Tuesday August 30th, 13.30-15.30, Venue: Room C75, Leeuwenborch

How can human values be the starting point for community and regional development? How can capacities be built, leadership developed and community learning in multi-cultural places be enhanced? How can we create an integral framework for place-making and place-caring?

This seminar is a unique opportunity to hear about Dr. Hamilton’s work in cities and eco-regions and how she sees that sustainability for both are interlinked as a complex adaptive system. Marilyn Hamilton ‘meshworks’ or weaves people, purpose, priorities, profits, programs and processes to develop strategies for resilience. She facilitates sustainable development programs, develops practical tools and supports multi-stakeholder groups in transforming cities and eco-regions into a glocally resilient ‘meshwork’. She states that we need to balance subjective/ intersubjective capacities of people (‘the inner dimensions’) with objective/interobjective capacities (‘the outer dimensions’).

An example is Abbotsford, which had been headlined by the media as the ‘murder capital of Canada’. Here the youth perceived that community didn’t value them as a resource for community. Community workers wanted Abbotsford’s food-based agricultural sector to “cook up cultural harmony” by renewing opportunities for the youth linked to the food chain. The research project used an integral framework and meta-mapping (based on the theory of ‘spiral dynamics integral’) to identify differences and opportunities for the city and develop a monitor (the vital signs monitor) for strategic planning.

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton is Professor of Sustainable Community Development and Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University in Canada. She is a leader, coach, teacher, researcher and Founder of “Integral City Meshworks Inc” http://www.integralcity.com/, and Jury Member of Globe Sustainable City Awards. She wrote the book, “Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive”.

More information: Ina Horlings, Rural Sociology Group (lummina.horlings@wur.nl) or Anouk Brack, Education and Competence Studies (anouk.brack@wur.nl).

Internship possibility with Stroom Den Haag

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 In 2009 Stroom Den Haag (www.stroom.nl) kicked off the program Foodprint. Food for the city. The program takes place over the course of several years and focuses on the influence food can have on the culture, shape and functioning of the city, using The Hague as a case study. The program invites artists and designers to develop appealing proposals on the subject, while at the same time establishing a clear connection with entrepreneurs, farmers, food experts and the general public. 

Foodprint as a project ends in 2012. To mark the end of the three year project, a book will be published and a symposium organised around the same theme: How do we feed our cities of the future (2050) in a sustainable way? Stroom is looking for a student to assist them with the organisational work but also to do additional research. For instance, there is an idea to create a visual essay with a timeline starting around 2050 B.C. (Sumerian clay tablets being the oldest judicial document, communicating about barley) with on it the most important laws and inventions in the field of production and trade of food in urban areas.

If you are curious about the possibilities, please contact Els Hegger (els.hegger@wur.nl).

Afstudeermogelijkheid bij OIKOS

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De Wetenschapswinkel Wageningen heeft een opdracht van COS Gelderland & OIKOS aangenomen om een haalbaarheidsonderzoek te doen voor het project ‘Participand’. Projectleider is Margriet Goris; het onderzoek wordt begeleid door Ina Horlings van Rurale Sociologie.

Met het project ‘Participand’ wil COS/OIKOS diverse doelgroepen -migranten, (inter)nationale studenten en anderen actief op het gebied van duurzame internationale ontwikkeling- bijeenbrengen om ondersteuning te bieden, samenwerking te stimuleren en om de kwaliteit van de activiteiten door kruisbestuiving te verbeteren.

Het onderzoek bestaat uit twee delen; inzichtelijk maken van wat er op dit gebied gebeurt in Wageningen en omgeving en hoe dit functioneert. Om vervolgens aanbevelingen te genereren voor een faciliteit die de verschillende initiatiefnemers in staat stelt hun werk te verbeteren door interactie met zusterorganisaties van verschillende oorsprong en culturele afkomst.

Het project omvat literatuuronderzoek, inventarisatie van initiatieven, interviews maar ook het organiseren van groepsbijeenkomsten met de verschillende initiatieven in samenwerking met de projectleider.

We zoeken een (Nederlands sprekende) masterstudent die zijn of haar afstudeeronderzoek op dit terrein wil doen. Het onderzoek start bij voorkeur rond half september.

Meer informatie tot 12 augustus bij Ina Horlings: lummina.horlings@wur.nl of 06-51126725; of na 8 augustus bij Margriet Goris: 06-28109539 (cocreation@live.nl).

Moonlight farmers and Lump suckers; The ICRPS Summer School in Norway

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This Summer School about policies for rural development took place from June 25th to July 9th 2011 on 2 locations in Norway, in Oslo and in Sogndal. The course involved a variety of lectures, discussions and group word on issues such as natural resources, community development, rural services, renewable energy, food & agriculture, policy and climate change. The diverse group of students (some of them already working in rural development), faculty members and two OECD researchers included mainly people from Europe and the US (especially Canada) and discussed not only rural development in Norway, but compared this with interesting cases in their own countries. I only attended the second week in Sogndal, a town located between Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim, at one of the most beautiful fjords in Norway. Sogndal is located near the largest glacier in Europe.
Moonlight farmers refers to the agricultural situation in Norway: only 3% of the land is used as arable land, the average size of a farm is small and many landowners have a job which they attend in the daytime, while doing farm work during ‘moonlight’ (in fact in summer the daylight lasts very long in Norway).
Lump suckers refers to innovation in aquaculture in the Norwegian fisheries. Norway is a large exporter of fish, especially salmon. In aquaculture farms salmon is produced under controlled conditions. One of the biggest problems is lice-infection on salmon. An ex-professor which runs a research station and aquaculture farm in Sogndal is developing some important innovations: he grows a special type of fish, called lump suckers, which suck the lice of the salmon. He also experiments with improving the immune system of salmon.

More information can be found on the ICRPS website: http://www.umb.no/icrps2011. The papers and presentations are on the X-drive of the Rural Sociology Group. For a report with some impressions of the lectures or other information you can  mail to lummina.horlings@wur.nl . There is also a special Linked in group: International Comparative Rural Policy Studies Consortium.

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Summer School ICRPS 2011 in Norway: about the group project

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From: Meng, Xiangdan (xiangdan.meng@wur.nl). 

From June 25 to July 10, 2011, I attended the ICRPS (international comparative rural policy studies) Summer Institute in Norway. It is a good chance to know more things about OECD countries, especially rural policies from the comparative perspective.
The summer institute covered some general themes, such as making policies for sustainability, sustainable rural communities and research and analysis methods. We also discussed some Nordic topics about Nordic rural, regional and districts policy, farming and forestry, nature based tourism, renewable energy, and ecological approaches to sustainable development.
These lectures and discussion helped me understand the general situation and also helped me consider some similar issues in my own country, China. However, the most impressive part for me is the project work, which is an effective way to use what you learn. In this summer institute, all the students and professors were divided into 7 groups, which cover seven topics in Sogn og Fjordane in Norway. The seven topics are social structure and change, government and governance, tourism (based on nature and culture), renewable energy and local development, mitigation of climate emissions and new policy initiatives, new direction for farming and food in a challenging environment, and information and communications.
To understand these basic issues is basic thing, but how to use the comparative cases you know or examples from your own country to apply some ideas to Sogn og Fjordane in Norway is more important in my opinion. For example, there were four students (two from America and one from Norway) and four faculty (two from America and two from Canada) in my group, the “social structure and change group”. Based on some demography and policy review, we decided to focus on how to absorb the youth, high-educated women and immigrants to Sogn og Fjordane. The students played the main role of discussion and writing the chapter under the supervision of the faculty. Later, the chapters we wrote can be published as a book. It is really a good way to understand the policies and situation there and also a nice brainstorming method to consider things comparatively.
In addition, you can use the spare time to discuss you own topic with the faculty. Although not always helpful, it is nice to know and keep contact with more academic people by using this network. Many professors told me Wageningen Universiy is a very important university for ICRPS, they really hope more faculty and students from Wageningen could attend the next ICRPS. If you want to know more things about the ICRPS 2011, please see this website: http://www.umb.no/icrps2011/. The next ICRPS 2012 will be in Canada.