The main @SUSPLACE achievements: a concluding post 13 September 2021 - The SUSPLACE project officially started October 1, 2015 and although it officially ended September 30, 2019, work was continued. In this concluding post an overview of the main, joint outputs: Synthesis Report: What, Why and How of Sustainable place-shaping Special Feature in Sustainability Science: Exploring the Transformative Capacity of Place-Shaping Practices. In total 25 scientific ... Read more
Nutrient flows, budgets & loops: understanding, measuring, and fostering circularity in urban food systems – PhD-thesis defense by Anastasia Papangelou 15 June 2021 - June 25 2021, Anastasia Papangelou will defend her PhD thesis ‘Nutrient flows, budgets & loops: understanding, measuring, and fostering circularity in urban food systems’. The public defense starts at 5 p.m. (CET) in the Aula of KU Leuven. The ceremony will be livestreamed. Below a summary of the PhD-thesis. A pdf of the thesis can ... Read moreUpdate Children’s book ‘Once Upon the Future: Everyday Adventures that Change the World’ @UponFuture 8 June 2021 - Can an academic research project be turned into a children’s story? Yes, it can! With great enthusiasm and dedication, a team of six SUSPLACE fellows (Anastasia, Alessandro, Angela, Kelli, Lorena and Marta) has been engaged in an experimental co-creation effort to translate their research insights into a Children’s Book. After two years of work, the ... Read more
New publication: A care-based approach to transformative change: ethically-informed practices, relational response-ability & emotional awareness by Moriggi et al. 26 November 2020 - Angela Moriggi is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Nature as pathway of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. Abstract Notions of care for humans and more-than-humans appear ... Read more
Children’s Book | Once Upon the Future: Everyday Adventures that Change the World 7 July 2020 - Can an academic research project be turned into a children’s story? Yes, it can! With great enthusiasm and dedication, a team of six SUSPLACE fellows (Anastasia, Alessandro, Angela, Kelli, Lorena and Marta) has been engaged in an experimental co-creation effort to translate their research insights into a Children’s Book. After two years of work, the ... Read more
(De)coding a technopolity: Tethering the civic blockchain to political transformation – PhD-thesis by Syed Omer Husain 7 May 2020 - May 14 2020, at 11.00 am (CET) Syed Omer Husain will defend his PhD-thesis ‘(De)coding a technopolity: Tethering the civic blockchain to political transformation‘. See the Abstract below. The full thesis can be downloaded (click title) from WUR Library after the defence ceremony. The ceremony will be live-streamed by Weblectures.wur.nl but is recorded and can ... Read more
New publication: Caring in, for, and with Nature – An Integrative Framework to Understand Green Care Practices by Moriggi et al. 27 April 2020 - Angela Moriggi is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Nature as pathway of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. Abstract Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly ... Read more
Transforming Places Together: a @SUSPLACE_ITN & @RECOMS_ITN follow up blog 12 March 2020 - Transforming Places Together has been launched. The blog has been initiated by Prof. Lummina Horlings and Dr Gwenda van der Vaart, both affiliated at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The new blog is meant to offer a platform on transformative change and is open to contributions by others. The blog is a follow ... Read more
Special @SUSPLACE_ITN Feature: Exploring the Transformative Capacity of Place-Shaping Practices 5 March 2020 - The SUSPLACE Special Feature ‘Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices‘ is published open access in Sustainability Sciences. It comprises nine articles: eight original research articles and an introduction article by Lummina Horlings, Dirk Roep, Erik Mathijs and Terry Marsden. From the introduction: The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded ... Read more
New publication: The political imaginaries of blockchain projects by Omer Husain et al. 26 February 2020 - Omer Husain is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. He was appointed at the research project Place-based Policies of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE from April 1, 2016, till December 31, 2020. ‘The political imaginaries of blockchain projects: discerning the expressions of an emerging ecosystem’ by Syed Omer Husain, Alex Franklin and ... Read moreVideo: Nature as pathway – A participatory action research project 24 February 2020 - How can research support social enterprises to enhance their capabilities and potentials? In this short video, we follow SUSPLACE fellow Angela Moriggi to two of her case studies -Tikanmäki care farm and Majvik biodynamic farm – pioneering examples in Finland of Green Care practices, nature-based activities with a social innovation purpose. Angela explains how she ... Read more
New publication: Phosphorus and energy flows through the food system of Brussels Capital Region by Papangelou et al. 21 January 2020 - Anastasia Papangelou is PhD-candidate the KU Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed at the research project Circular Economy of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. Phosphorus and energy flows through the food system of Brussels Capital Region by Anastasia Papangelou, Wouter M.J. Achten, Erik ... Read more
New publication: Exploring the narratives from eco‑villagers through a place‑based transformative learning approach by Pisters et al. 14 January 2020 - Siri Pisters is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Eco-villages and sustainable living of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. ‘Inner change and sustainability initiatives: exploring the ... Read more
New publication: Linking spatial planning and place branding strategies through cultural narratives in places by Grenni et al. 24 December 2019 - Sara Grenni is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Sense of Place of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. Linking spatial planning and place branding strategies through ... Read more
New @SUSPLACE publication: Prefigurative Post-Politics as Strategy: The Case of Government-Led Blockchain Projects by Husain et al. 17 December 2019 - Omer Husain is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, he was appointed at the research project Place-based Policies of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. ‘Prefigurative Post-Politics as Strategy: The Case of Government-Led Blockchain Projects‘ by Syed Omer Husain, Dirk Roep and Alex Franklin was ... Read more
New @SUSPLACE publication: The role of local energy initiatives in co-producing sustainable places by Soares da Silva et al. 13 December 2019 - Diogo Soares da Silva is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, he was appointed at the research project The Energetic Society of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. ‘The role of local energy initiatives in co-producing sustainable places‘ by Diogo Soares da Silva and Lummina G. ... Read more
New @SUSPLACE publication: Operationalising transformative sustainability science through place‑based research: the role of researchers by Horlings et al. 5 December 2019 - Lummina Horlings is Prof. Socio-spatial planning, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, and co-coordinator of the SUSPLACE project; contact: l.g.horlings@rug.nl ‘Operationalising transformative sustainability science through place-based research: the role of researchers’ by Lummina Horlings, Marta Nieto-Romero, Siri Pisters and Katriina Soini is the 5th open access article published as part of the Special Feature: ... Read more
Children’s Book | Once Upon the Future | Foreword by Susanne Moser 4 December 2019 - About two years ago we embarked on a mission to transform our research learnings into children’s stories. We wanted to write a book about hope and leadership that could inspire readers to bring positive change in their surroundings, reconnect with their environment and bond with their communities.
After a couple of training events, various rounds of writing and re-writing, dozens of meetings and fruitful collaborations with writing coaches, editors, an illustrator and a graphic designer, as well as lots of teamwork, mutual support, and hope, the book is almost finished.
New @SUSPLACE publication: Co‑created visual narratives and inclusive place branding by Catia Rebelo et al. 29 November 2019 - Catia Rebelo is PhD-candidate at the Sustainable Places Research Institute of Cardiff University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed at the research project Place Ambassadors of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. ‘Co‑created visual narratives and inclusive place branding: a socially responsible approach to residents’ participation and engagement‘ by Catia Rebelo, ... Read more
New publication | Transformative roles of people and places: learning, experiencing, and regenerative action through social innovation | by Abid Mehmood et al. 18 November 2019 - This paper discusses the transformative role of people and the places which they inhabit. It advocates the richness and multiplicity of actors and understandings to drive sustainable place-shaping practices. Grounded in the interdisciplinary place-based conceptualisation of social innovation, the paper aims to progress a holistic conceptual framework which integrates the active processes of learning, experiencing, and regeneration to tackle the complex challenges of sustainability.
This article is the third to appear in the Sustain Sci. Special Feature: Exploring the Transformative Capacity of Place-Shaping Practices , edited by SUSPLACE.
New publication: Place-Based Policies for Sustainability and Rural Development: The Case of a Portuguese Village “Spun” in Traditional Linen by Alessandro Vasta et al. 13 November 2019 - Alessandro Vasta is an external PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, he was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the University of Aveiro at the research project Regrounding of Practices of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE.
New publication: The inner dimension of sustainability transformation: how sense of place and values can support sustainable place-shaping, by Sara Grenni et al.. 7 November 2019 - Sara Grenni is an external PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Sense of Place of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE.
This article is the second to appear in the Sustain Sci. Special Feature: Exploring the Transformative Capacity of Place-Shaping Practices , edited by SUSPLACE.
How to become an everyday superhero 4 November 2019 - everyday superhero (noun) :
1) a person that develops superpowers in order to bring change in the places she cares about
2) [becoming an ~] : the desired outcome of reading the anthology “Once Upon the Future. Everyday Adventures that Change the World"
Once out in the world, we hope that our book will inspire its young and not-so-young readers to develop and exercise the everyday superpowers needed to change their little corners of the world for the better. If, in the meantime, you want to start changing the world by making a children’s book on sustainability, here are a couple of superpowers we found useful:
New publication: Historical commons as sites of transformation. A critical research agenda to study human and more-than-human communities by Marta Nieto Romero et al. 31 October 2019 - Marta Nieto Romero is an external PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the University of Aveiro at the research project Managing the Commons of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE.
New publication: Exploring enabling resources for place-based social entrepreneurship: a participatory study of Green Care practices in Finland by Angela Moriggi 29 October 2019 - Angela Moriggi is an external PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Nature as pathway of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. This article is the first ... Read more
#SUSPLACE2019: Scholar-Activism Zine from SUSPLACE Final Event 16 October 2019 - Hot off the digital press we present you the SUSPLACE Scholar-Activism Zine! - Created through the collective work of participants in the Scholar-Activism Zine-making workshop at the Final Event in May and then compiled by myself and Poppy Nicol.
Zine-making is both process and product. The act of coming together to reflect on our roles as scholar-activists and discuss these before turning our ideas onto paper through drawing, writing, doodling and collage was really important. We also hope that the final product, the compiled zine, will help others to reflect on their own practices well as spark up new and interesting conversations around the role of research institutions and researchers in relation to political struggle and communities. 
New publication: ‘The Legend of the Cosmos Mariners’ by Kelli Rose Pearson 14 October 2019 - We are proud to annouce the publication the beautiful story ‘The Legend of the Cosmos Mariners’ by SUSPLACE fellow Kelli Rose Pearson! The story has been published in the book ‘Our Entangled Future: Stories to Empower Quantum Social Change’, co-edited by Karen O’Brien, Ann El Khoury, Nicole Schafenacker and Jordan Rosenfeld. Nine short stories, rooted ... Read more
SUSPLACE @MSCActions Synthesis Report: What, Why and How of Sustainable place-shaping 11 October 2019 - We are pleased to present our nicely designed Synthesis report of the SUSPLACE MSCActions program. The project formally ended on September 30th, 2019. The Synthesis report, edited by prof. Ina Horlings, provides a summary of the SUSPLACE findings for a wide audience, structured by the What, Why and How of sustainable place-shaping. Furthermore it ... Read more
Mastering complexity: SUSPLACE as a joint learning journey 27 September 2019 - With the SUSPLACE project coming to an end on September 30th 2019, it’s time to look back and reflect on what we learnt. Not only in terms of scientific insights, but also in terms of our own learning journey as a consortium.
In the past 3 years, consultancy RoyalHaskoningDHV (RHDHV) supported SUSPLACE’s learning journey. Job van den Berg and Jantine Zwinkels, together with the SUSPLACE coordination team, co-created and facilitated the learning journey roadmap and facilitated workshops during joint meetings of the partners. This facilitation supported collaboration, provided direction, and created shared ownership.
Documentary: Sitting on Marão Mountains 19 September 2019 - This video-documentary is the result of the project Marão Minha Serra, an action-research project aiming at promoting more sustainable human-nature relations (see facebook page). The project aimed at re-connecting people to each other and to their forested common land to re-build communities (human and more-than-human). For that, the project recorded residents telling stories about their common land and asked them to choose a meaningful place for their life telling the story behind it. Thus, this video is an affective map of the baldio of Ansiães, a map that tells the past and current resident’s affects towards their common land.
Video: Rebuilding the Commons 19 August 2019 - What are commonlands? And how can commoning help to revitalise rural communities? In this video, we follow SUSPLACE researcher Marta Nieto Romero to one of her case studies - a small community in Galicia, Spain that's seeking new ways to take care of their communal forest lands and, through that, rebuild community life.
Video: Place Ambassadors in Sustainable Tourism 19 July 2019 - How can we involve people in more inclusive and participatory place branding initiatives? This is the key question that guided SUSPLACE researcher Cátia Rebelo in her research on sustainable tourism. Learn more about her work in this short video.
This video is the third in a series of short videos that illustrate inspiring examples of place-shaping practices in Europe. In the past three years, SUSPLACE fellows have been looking at a diversity of cases, trying to understand how citizens, (social) entrepreneurs and community initiatives develop sustainable practices and build the capacities to transform their places according to their ideas, needs and demands. The videos aim to bring these practices, and the research findings, to life.
Publication: Creating Sustainable Places Together. A quick start guide for policy-makers and practitioners to place-based working and co-production 12 July 2019 - This guide sets out why place-based participation can help to deliver more sustainable futures and how policy-makers and practitioners across a range of different policy areas can support this through well-designed participative work with communities.
Taking the practical examples from the work of SUSPLACE and the knowledge of its partners , this interactive PDF allows you to read the guide as a normal paper or to navigate ‘web-style’ through the ideas and examples. It introduces the benefits and do’s and don’ts of place-based working and of co-producing outcomes with communities. It guides you through the process of planning place-based working and it offers a menu of different participative methods to suit different aims and needs. All the methods are illustrated with case study examples to bring them to life and all have links to the fuller cases to allow you check their relevance to your own context.
New publication! Place-based transformative learning: a framework to explore consciousness in sustainability initiatives by Siri Pisters et al. 6 July 2019 - Siri Pisters is an external PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. From April 1, 2016, until March 31, 2019, she was appointed as Early Stage Researcher at the National Resource Institute of Finland (LUKE) at the research project Eco-villages and sustainable living of the MSCA ITN programme SUSPLACE. Abstract Based on a ... Read more
#SUSPLACE2019: Rooting to a Place by Reinterpreting Art 26 June 2019 - During the SUSPLACE Final Event, I hosted a practice session called 'Rooting to Place by Reinterpreting Art'. In this blog, I reflect upon the method I used and present the visual outcomes of the workshop. The method, called Mätäsmetäs, was based on a project that took place in 2014 in three recreational forest areas. The main idea of the project was to reinterpret forest themed art in literature in the forest areas. For #SUSPLACE2019, a new adaptation was created: this time the sources were pieces of art and culture related to the history of Tampere.
Documentary: Place Ambassadors – shaping better places to live and visit 17 June 2019 - If we asked you to describe the place where you live and how you feel about it, what would you tell others? What is special about your place? We asked the people of the communities of Llangorse and Bwlch in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, what they would tell visitors about their area? Are you curious to know what they have shared with us? Watch the video to find out!
This documentary is the result of an academic intervention that aimed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of introducing and or strengthening civic participation in tourism and branding planning, and part of Place Ambassadors project.
Video: Sustainability Transformations through Permaculture 13 June 2019 - How understand and advance sustainability transformations? This is the key question that guided SUSPLACE researcher Elgars Felcis in his exploration and co-creation of the permaculture movement in Latvia. Learn more about his journey in this short video.
This video is the second in a series of short videos that illustrate inspiring examples of place-shaping practices in Europe.
#SUSPLACE 2019: Engaging people: vulnerability and self-reflection 12 June 2019 - This is the third blog in a series, reflecting on the SUSPLACE Final Event that was held from May 8 -10, 2019 held in Tampere, Finland By Timothy Visser – MSc student in Leisure, Tourism and Environment at Wageningen University, The Netherlands I first came into contact with the notion of ‘engaging people’ through my background ... Read more
#SUSPLACE2019: Time, Space, Essence 31 May 2019 - The scene is set. We are running out of time. The quadruple squeeze – population growth, ecosystem degradation, climate change and the added element of surprise – demands urgent and transformational change. Yet, with an increasingly polarised societal debate, how do we manage change in a way that brings societies together and for people and communities to be more empowered to determine their own futures?
#SUSPLACE2019: ON THE ART OF NOT FOCUSING ON ANSWERS 24 May 2019 - From May 8 -10, 2019 the SUSPLACE Final Event was held in Tampere, Finland. The event addressed the theme of 'Exploring Places and Practices through Transformative Methods'. To harvest knowledge and outcomes, we asked some participants to write a short blog post capturing their experiences. Find below the first blog, written by Rubén Vezzoni, Early Stage Research Fellow in MSCA ITN RECOMS.
New open access paper! Decentralising geographies of political action: civic tech and place-based municipalism by Omer Husain 11 April 2019 - Omer Husain is a research fellow at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. He was appointed at the MSCAction INT SUSPLACE research project Place-based policies and pathways from April 1, 2016, till March 31, 2019. Abstract This article introduces the concept of ‘place-based civic tech’ — citizen engagement technology codesigned by local government, civil society ... Read more
Once Upon the Future: Everyday Adventures that Change the World 29 March 2019 - Can you produce a children's book as part of an academic research project? Yes, you can! With great enthusiasm and dedication, a team of six SUSPLACE fellows (Anastasia, Alessandro, Angela, Kelli, Lorena and Marta) has been engaged in the writing of children's stories inspired by their research projects. After more than a year of work, they are happy to announce that they are almost done! Preliminary title of the book: Once Upon the Future: Everyday Adventures that Change the World.
New open access paper! Regenerative city-regions: a new conceptual framework 26 March 2019 - The city-regional scale is increasingly being considered the most suitable level for planning and development, yet city-regions have often been established for purely economic reasons in the UK. This paper argues that city-regions are not mere socioeconomic units through which competitiveness can be achieved, but also rich, socioecological spaces. Although the progressive regionalist literature has taken significant steps in this direction, concerns remain that critical contemporary issues such as environmental sustainability, cultural viability, social exclusion or political (dis)empowerment have not been addressed in a holistic way. We attempt to advance the debate and overcome some of the shortcomings by connecting progressive regionalism with two other literature strands: collaborative governance and regenerative development. Based on the synergies found, we design a conceptual framework that can be used to study, understand and improve policy processes and practice, paving pathways towards regenerative city-regions.
Publication: Experiential approaches to sustainability education-towards learning landscapes 26 February 2019 - In the recent publication Malin Backman et al. critically reflect the current specialist discourse on experiential approaches to higher education for sustainable development (HESD). Limitations to the current discourse are identified, and as a result, an alternative, learning landscape approach to the study of experiential education (EE) within HESD is suggested. Malin Backman was appointed as a fellow at the SUSPLACE research project Connected Learning Spaces from April 2016 till June 2018.
Co-designing Sustainability Learning with University Students and Community Gardens 13 February 2019 - On an unseasonably warm February afternoon – warm enough to sit outside with no coat on and with a chorus of birds overhead - seven university students and ten community gardeners gathered in a tranquil community garden on the outskirts of Cardiff, Wales. They met for the 2nd Tyfu i Ddsygu (or Growing to Learn) workshop, with the aim to collectively developing a series of hands-on learning projects.
RE.TREAT Cornwall: How to live when sea levels rise? 25 January 2019 - A summer camp where families pretend to be climate refugees? An arts-based experiential learning experiment? A delightful and intellectually stimulating weekend in the highlands of Cornwall, full of laughter and joy?
In July 2018, seven families took part in an experimental 4-day ‘retreat’ in Cornwall, UK. The aim of this creative residency was to imagine and design how to live when sea levels rise. SUSPLACE fellow Kelli Rose Pearson and SUSPLACE project coordinator Anke de Vrieze attended RE.TREAT Cornwall as participant observers. The story starts with a full lunar eclipse, a neolithic cairn, and an unexpected storm. It ends with the Boatbarrow - an amphibious mobile art gallery. 
Video: Engaging Youth in City-Region Development 22 January 2019 - What happens if you involve young people in decision-making about the areas where they live? This is the key question that guided SUSPLACE fellow Lorena Axinte during her research in the Cardiff Capital Region. Follow her footsteps and find out more in this short movie! This video is the first in a series of short ... Read more
Policy Event: Revitalising Agenskalns Market, Riga 9 January 2019 - How to re-develop a neighborhood market in a sustainable and creative way? In September 2018, Kalnciema Quarter invited the SUSPLACE consortium to think along and develop a set of practical ideas and policy proposal for the re-development of Agenskalns market, Riga. Together with local stakeholders and experts, the SUSPLACE team addressed 3 challenges: 1) How can stakeholders work together effectively? How to develop new forms of private-public partnerships and foster co-operation at the local and national level? 2)How to build an identity for Agenskalns market, promoting the reputation of a cultural and historic place? 3)What models of sustainable financing are available? Watch the embedded video for an impression and summary of the event.
Investigating togetherness in a more-than-human society: taking some SUSPLACE lessons to the University of Lapland 12 December 2018 - By Sara Grenni & Angela Moriggi This past November, for the first time since our arrival to Finland, we brought some SUSPLACE vibes to Lapland! It took a pleasant 12 hours night train ride to get to Rovaniemi, where the annual colloquium of the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Sciences (YHYS) took place from November ... Read more
Publication: “Citizen Initiatives in the Post-Welfare State” 3 December 2018 - In the recently published article Citizen Initiatives in the Post-Welfare State , SUSPLACE researcher Diogo Soares da Silva reflects on the role of citizen initiatives in shaping sustainable places. The article is based on the outcomes of the research project The Energetic Society and was co-authored by prof. Lummina Horlings and prof. Elisabete Figueiredo. The article belongs to the Special Issue Civic Enterprises, the Co-Production of Public Governance and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal in Europe of Social Sciences.
Overcoming the fear of the page: the SUSPLACE Children Book’s learning journey continues. 24 October 2018 - Written by Angela Moriggi Editing and inspiration: Kelli Rose Pearson, Lorena Axinte, Alessandro Vasta, Anastasia Papangelou, Marta Nieto Romero. How can we convey the value of interdependence without falling into cheesiness? How do we advocate for re-appreciation of traditional textiles without being overly didactic? How can we talk about urban regeneration with a hint of ... Read more
Kalnciema Quarter gathers sustainability scientists to discuss the development of Āgenskalna Market 16 October 2018 - By Baiba Bela (University of Latvia) and Darja Trizna (Kalnciema Quarter). Translated by Andris Šuvajevs. In the last week of September, SUSPLACE participants convened in Kalnciema Quarter, Riga to come up with a set of practical ideas and policy proposals for the sustainable development and creative re-vitalisation of Āgenskalna market. The rejuvenation of the market ... Read more
Call for papers: Exploring places & practices through transformative methods, Tampere 8-10 May, 2019 4 October 2018 - Call for papers, panels and practice sessions: Exploring places & practices through transformative methods Tampere, Finland from May 7th to 10th, 2019 Which innovative, unconventional methods are being experimented with to disrupt the established norms in place-based research? How to effectively engage people in place-based research, including marginalised voices? How can researchers’ and practitioners’ reflexivity ... Read more
Finding inspiration at Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2018 5 September 2018 - This year marked the return of the annual Royal Geographical Society (RGS) to Wales for the first time in 25 years, hosted by our Geography and Planning department at Cardiff University. It is possibly the largest Geography conference in the UK, attracting more than 1700 researchers and practitioners and at times running more than 30 ... Read moreSUSPLACE welcomes Alice Taherzadeh as researcher to the project 21 August 2018 - On August 1, 2018 Alice Taherzadeh started as a newly recruited ESR on the research project ‘Connected Learning Spaces‘. Alice will be joining us for the final 10 month of the project and we are pleased to welcome her in our network. Please find Alice’s introduction to her research plans below: As a new ESR ... Read more
Defeating the Tragedy with students 14 August 2018 - With the aim of outreaching my research as well as practicing my teaching skills, I decided to volunteer to give lectures in my department (Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro). The two professors that accepted to have me as a guest in their course both proposed the same day- the 21st ... Read more
May 7-10 2019 #SUSPLACE2019 Final Event on Transformative Methods – Join us! 18 July 2018 - May 7-10 2019 the #SUSPLACE2019 Final Event “Exploring places & practices through transformative methods” will take place in Tampere, Finland. Which innovative, unconventional methods are being experimented with to disrupt the established norms in place-based research? How to effectively engage people in place-based research, including marginalised voices? How can researchers’ and practitioners’ reflexivity guide fruitful ... Read more
Being a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Ambassador 18 July 2018 - By Catia Rebelo, Alessandro Vasta and Siri Pisters How do citizens’ initiatives shape sustainable places? This question guided a seminar lead by Elisabete Figueiredo and Sandra Valente at University of Aveiro last May. Some ESRs, namely Alessandro Vasta, Cátia Rebelo, Marta Romero and Siri Pisters had the opportunity to share their work with a ... Read more
Governance for Wellbeing and Sustainability in Wales 13 July 2018 - The Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFGA) is innovative piece of legislation, developed by the Welsh Government (WG) with the aim of supporting Wales in the transition towards a more sustainable society. With the WG being an important project partner in SUSPLACE, prof. Ina Horlings invited Matthew Quinn for a visit to the Netherlands in ... Read more
The WasteLab: semi-finalist of the European Social Innovation Competition! 3 July 2018 - The ideas, people and projects we get to know through SUSPLACE encourage us to embark on other bold adventures! You can think of The WasteLab as such an offshoot – one that has been ignited by the European Social Innovation Competition. This year’s call is entitled ‘Re:think local’ and seeks to find the most innovative projects that empower young people to participate ... Read more
Participatory Video Festival #1: Reflections 15 June 2018 - 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
Cheap land available in Portugal: commoning or exclusion? 7 June 2018 - 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
What if research is a love affair? 1 June 2018 - 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
Permaculture Design Course experience in Southern Portugal 29 May 2018 - 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
Bringing consultancy and academia together for sustainability 25 May 2018 - 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 moreVacancy for Early Stage Researcher ‘Connected Learning Spaces’ 22 May 2018 - 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
Three months among Strategic Management Consultants 17 May 2018 - 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
Learning the Language of Story 8 May 2018 - 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
Three months among the guardians of future generations 17 April 2018 - 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
Where is finance in sustainability science? 12 April 2018 - 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
Help us harness the power of storytelling! 10 April 2018 - 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
Never stop experimenting! Introducing the SUSPLACE Toolkit on Arts-Based Methods for Transformative Engagement 21 February 2018 - 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 moreIntroducing SUSPLACE: watch our videos! 19 January 2018 - With the inputs of all ESRs, we have created two short videos to introduce you to SUSPLACE. Please find them online now! The first video explains sustainable place-shaping in theory and practice, the second introduced the research and training network.
IPBA 2017 – The 2nd conference of International Place Branding Association 15 January 2018 - Established in 2015, the International Place Branding Association brings together scholars and practitioners involved and interested in place branding aiming to bring further advancement for the field both theoretically and professionally. I have been following the association work since last year in 2016 when they co-organized the inaugural conference of Place Branding that took place ... Read more
SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017 21 December 2017 - From October 2 -6, 2017 the SUSPLACE Autumn School took place in Aveiro, Portugal. Hosted by the University of Aveiro, the week brought together 15 SUSPLACE researchers and 6 PhDs from other programmes and places. With guest contributions from prof. Adrian Smith (University of Sussex), dr. Maria Tengö (Stockholm Resilience Centre), prof. Artura da Rosa ... Read more
Snapchatters, here I come! Talking sustainability with teens (Part I) 15 December 2017 - by Angela Moriggi *The Italian version of this blog post was published on November 30, 2017 on the website of Respect Equality When my colleague Lorena joked about her troubled efforts catching up with nowadays youngsters’ social media, at first I didn´t give it too much of a thought. Her research specifically tries to give ... Read more
The urgency of not knowing (liberation from certainty) 11 December 2017 - By Kelli Pearson * Blog originally written August, 2017 Reflections on my Secondment in Wales What becomes possible when we admit to not-knowing? In my research on “imaginitive leadership,” a golden thread throughout my conversations with artists, creative practitioners, culture shifters, and innovators here in Wales has been their certainty about the urgent need to ... Read more
Building our stories, co-creating sustainable futures 6 December 2017 - by Catia Rebelo Sustainable tourism TEFI – Tourism Education Futures Initiative – represents an innovative and inclusive tourism network of tourism scholars and practitioners. Indeed, TEFI is based on five pillars: stewardship, mutuality, ethics, professionalism and knowledge. They see tourism as social phenomena and want to move beyond business as usual, exploitative and extractive industrial ... Read more
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! And the Earth is transformed! 23 November 2017 - By Angela Moriggi When I was a kid I watched lots of Japanese cartoons. Not healthy to do, I know. But I do vividly remember what was so attractive about many of the cartoons’ characters: they could transform into something different, something better. There was one who would pull out a compact mirror from a ... Read more
What would a world look like in which humans and animals no longer fear each other? 8 November 2017 - Welcome to Tamera – an experiential community and peace research project At some point in history, with the evolving modern, instrumental worldview, humans placed themselves outside of nature on the basis that humans carry some sort of consciousness that non-humans do not[1]. This, according to many, has led to many of the environmental and ecological ... Read more
Sensed Place – a documentary 1 November 2017 - From September 28-30, the SUSPLACE Consortium met in Aveiro, Portugal for the Midterm Review Meeting. On Saturday September 30, SUSPLACE partner Binaural-Nodar hosted a fieldtrip to the area of Vouzela. In Carvahal de Milhas, we were warmly welcomed by the village choir. Together with the villagers, we were invited to watch the documentary ‘Lugar Sentido’, or ... Read more
Forests or tree plantations? Portuguese politics of fires 19 October 2017 - Last Sunday, Portugal was breathing smoke again. Travelling back from a weekend in Guimarães we saw the sun changing its colour. First we thought: beautiful! Then, we started crossing all these fires on our way back to Aveiro. With the ash, the smoke and a landscape full of flames, we could only think: how can this ... Read more
Place-based narratives from Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Vouzela 5 October 2017 - By Catia Rebelo As part of my research Project – Place Ambassadors – I developed a satellite case study in Portugal in a very small rural area called Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Vouzela. For this satellite case study, I focused on only one of my research questions: How would Place Ambassadors like to co-create a place brand and which ... Read more
SUSPLACE Consortium Meeting & PhD Autumn School in Aveiro, Portugal 27 September 2017 - In October 2015, SUSPLACE formally started. The past two years have brought a wealth of experiences, insights, fieldwork data, new knowledge and new questions. Being halfway the project, it’s time to harvest what we’ve collected so far and look ahead and plan for the future. In the coming days, the SUSPLACE consortium will meet in Aveiro, ... Read more
Against human self-centeredness 21 September 2017 - By Malin Bäckman March 2017 I enter a dark room, two screens on both sides display images of large telescopes and green forests, in the front a black screen with white text. A story is being told. I’ve seen this before, in various art museums and galleries I first think to myself. But there is something ... Read moreDiscussing about Diverse Economies with prof. Katherine Gibson 20 September 2017 - On June 27th 2017, the Rural Sociology Group in collaboration with SUSPLACE and in conjuction with the CSPS Conference ‘The Value of Life’ organised a masterclass on Performative Practices for Diverse Economies with prof. Katherine Gibson (Western Sydney University) – visiting scientist in SUSPLACE. The masterclass was well attended, with more than 25 PhDs, researchers and ... Read more
Towards an Agenda for Sustainable Food Governance 19 September 2017 - On Thursday September 21, 2017 SUSPLACE partners KU Leuven en Cardiff University are organising an event on Good Food Governance in the post-exit UK and EU. The aim of this event is to identify new complexities in global food governance regimes in the wake of new objectives, targets and indicators set forth by global actions ... Read more
SUSPLACE contributions to Transformations2017 (#TCONFDD17)- speedtalks and action hub 30 August 2017 - SUSPLACE is contributing to the Transformations 2017 conference in Dundee from August 30 -September 1 (@TCONFDD17) with speedtalks and an action hub. Kelli Pearson, Sara Grenni and Ina Horlings each provide a speedtalk in various sessions. Together with Angela Moriggi, Siri Pisters, Malin Backman, Marta Nieto, Anke de Vrieze, and with the support of Katriina Soini ... Read more
OuiShare Fest Paris 2017 – A festival of ideas and an ode to collaboration 28 August 2017 - OuiShare Fest, ‘not your typical conference’. Never has a conference’s tagline so aptly described the experience an attendee is in for. There were no stuffy boardrooms, no saran wrapped sandwiches, no dry monologues from experts — none of that. It was really a festival. A festival of ideas and an ode to collaboration. As OuiShare ... Read more
Researching sustainable food citizenship in Cardiff 17 August 2017 - By Marie Quinney I am undertaking research on sustainable food citizenship, what this concept means and what the barriers and opportunities are to achieving it. I completed my secondment at the Sustainable Places Research Institute of the University of Cardiff, UK, between April – July 2017 under the guidance of prof. Terry Marsden and dr. ... Read more
Youth profile of the Cardiff Capital Region 7 August 2017 - By Lorena Axinte For my research project Sustainable city-regions I’ve wrapped my head around the statistics available in Wales, trying to get a general picture before starting my fieldwork. I learned that more than 50% of all young people (aged 16-24) in Wales live in the south eastern part of the country, in Cardiff Capital Region. ... Read more
Newly recruited ESR Andris Šuvajevs has started June 1 26 June 2017 - As of June 1 2017 Andris Šuvajevs has been appointed for 24 months as Early Stage Researcher by Latvia University at the project Social economy, social entrepreneurship. In the time to come he has to catch up the other ESR and the SUSPLACE project, although he cannot redo all we did so far. So he has to find his ... Read more
Masterclass prof. Katherine Gibson – Performative Practices for Diverse Economies 14 June 2017 - Join us now! For a unique masterclass with prof. Katherine Gibson (Western Sydney University), internationally known for her research on rethinking economies and involved in SUSPLACE as a visiting scientist. When: Tuesday June 27, 2017 from 9.30 – 12.30 (CET) Where: Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands. Exact location to be announced The masterclass is organised ... Read moreWales: Leading the way in co-production 9 June 2017 - By Anke de Vrieze and Diogo Soares da Silva In the past two months the city of Cardiff has been able to enjoy to the presence of no less than six SUSPLACE researchers. Besides the three researchers (Lorena Axinte, Malin Bäckman and Cátia Rebelo) that have their home base at Cardiff University’s Sustainable Places ... Read more
Inaugural lecture prof. Horlings – Transformative Planning: enabling resourceful communities 8 June 2017 - June 13, at 16.00 Ina Horlings will be inaugurated as prof. Socio-Spatial Planning at the University of Groningen. Ina Horlings is co-coordinator of the MSCA ITN project SUSPLACE. On behalf on of all the partners and Early Stage Researchers we congratulate her with this challenging position and good luck with her inaugural lecture titled: Transformative Planning: enabling resourceful ... Read more
Connecting with rural producers and their traditions in Várzea de Calde, Portugal 24 May 2017 - By Alessandro Vasta I want you to remember a time when you were on holidays in a rural area and came across a local shop selling traditional hand-made products. Have you ever asked how it was made? Who made it and why it was made in this way? And what its impact on the community was? ... Read more
Final opportunity to participate in the SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017 11 May 2017 - We offer a final opportunity to participate in the SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017 ‘Shaping Places, Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries’, hosted by the University of Aveiro, Portugal and taking place from October 2-6, 2017. We welcome applications from PhD candidates and Early Stage Researchers, and encourage participants to bring in their own research projects and proceedings.The Autumn School focuses ... Read more
People make places 19 April 2017 - “People make places”. With this sentence the journalist of Click, a Portuguese radio program from the national radio Antena 1, introduced and tried to summarize SUSPLACE and what we are doing regarding sustainable place-shaping practices, initiatives, values and local resources. During less than five minutes, Elisabete Figueiredo explained what SUSPLACE is about and highlighted the role of ... Read more
Back to basics and it feels good! 13 April 2017 - Do you ever have the feeling that in order to live more sustainably you have to make lots of sacrifices? That you have to give up on those things that actually bring joy, comfort and pleasure to your life? Living lightly and feeling good You might want to think twice. Research shows that people who ... Read more
Managing forests collectively in Galicia 6 April 2017 - Do you know what happened to historical commonlands in Europe? Before the 18th century many of our rural areas where managed directly by communities. Today, many of these historical commonlands have been taken by the state, are privatised or abandoned. To show what’s happening in a community in Galicia, Spain, I made a short video (above). ... Read more
SUSPLACE’s third training in Leuven 3 April 2017 - 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
An exercise in participatory mapping 28 March 2017 - In the Sustainable Places Research Institute – the place where I am based, some Friday afternoons are dedicated to one-hour seminars where academics can give short presentations of their work. These sessions are open for anyone to attend and the audience is generally made of approximately 20-25 persons. The presenter is free to decide on the format she/he wants and people ... Read more
Early Stage Researcher position ‘Social Economy, Social Entrepreneurship’ vacant again 7 March 2017 - The SUSPLACE Early Stage Researchers (ESR) position ‘Social economy, social entrepreneurship’ is vacant again. The current ESR accepted another position. We are looking for an Early Stage Researcher to be appointed for the remaining 24 months. The ESR position is hosted by the Latvia University – Faculty of Social Sciences. The position is open for ... Read moreFilm, sound and editing: learning skills in participatory visual research methods 6 March 2017 - By Catia Rebelo As part of the Innovative Training Networks each Early Stage Researcher should be hosted by a non-academic partner. This collaboration, entitled secondment, aims to enhance researchers’ relationship with the labour market and to boost researchers’ professional skills. My first secondment is hosted by a social cultural association called Binaural-Nodar, based in Vouzela, ... Read more
SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017: Open for application 1 March 2017 - The SUSPLACE Autumn School ‘Shaping Places, Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries’ is hosted by the University of Aveiro, Portugal and takes place From October 2-6, 2017. The Autumn School focuses on interdisciplinary approaches towards sustainable place-shaping. SUSPLACE is a MSCA ITN project on sustainable place-shaping funded by the EU-commission with 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR) working on ... Read more
Interactions between human and environment: an account of the DENVI 2nd annual meeting 13 February 2017 - 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 moreTransformative change: from personal experience to societal value 7 February 2017 - 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
SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017 – ‘Shaping Places, Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries’ 14 December 2016 - SUSPLACE Autumn School 2017 ‘Shaping Places, Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries’ October 1- 6, 2017 University of Aveiro, Portugal From October 1- 6, 2017 SUSPLACE organises an intensive one-week Autumn School at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. The SUSPLACE Autumn School will focus on interdisciplinary approaches towards sustainable place-shaping. SUSPLACE is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training ... Read more
A trip across Galician territory: building the rural and the commons 29 November 2016 - By Marta Nieto Romero On the 26th of November I attended a collective hike in Galicia (North West Spain). Organized by the Commons Study Program they invited members of Ergosfera, an association of architects, who guided us in an amazing trip throughout the rural space of Galicia under the lenses of: Commons, Feminism and Rurality. ... Read more
New, big and beautiful – reflections on rebuilding Utopia 25 November 2016 - By Malin Bäckman On the 16th of November I attended the event Cities: Ensuring Prosperity, Equality and Well–one of the Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning’s 50th anniversary celebration events. The presentations covered topics such as city economies, resilience and homelessness. One of the presentations Neo-Cities: rebuilding Utopia seemed to confuse and provoke many ... Read more
Renee Lertzman on Environmental Melancholia: facing the unbearable. 21 November 2016 - How do live with the knowledge of global climate change? On November 6th, during the InScience Festival in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, the American psychologist Renee Lertzman gave a presentation on how to cope with ‘climate depression’. Climate depression refers to the feelings of anxiety which people experience in dealing with wicked issues such as climate change.
Food for thought: reducing waste and encouraging pro-environmental behaviour 9 November 2016 - 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
First steps in participant observation: Brecon Beacons National Park 8 November 2016 - By Catia Rebelo Brecon Beacons is one of the fourteen of the National Parks in Britain and was established in 1957. Located in South Wales the National Park comprises an area of 1,344 km2 and its landscape is a ‘protected area’ according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Part of the ... Read more
SUSPLACE’s second training in Wageningen 3 November 2016 - 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
Reflections on diversity and the risk of creating boundaries 2 November 2016 - 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
ESRS Autumn School 2016 – Researching Globalization in a Rural Context 12 October 2016 - By Alanna K. Higgins From the 3rd to 7th of October I – along with my fellow ESRs Lorena Axinte, Catia Rebelo, and Alessandro Vasta – attended the biennial ESRS Autumn School. This year’s school was facilitated by Prof. Michael Woods and the Global-Rural Research group from Aberystwyth University. The School focused on examining globalization ... Read more
Eco-cultural traditions and contemporary societal challenges: an account from the Green Care Days 2016, Finland 4 October 2016 - By Angela Moriggi It’s a chilly September morning in Helsinki. My destination is more than 300 km away, but I am lucky enough to get a lift from a friendly acquaintance, a Finnish rural development consultant, who, as myself and other roughly 140 people, will be participating to the Green Care Days 2016. The place ... Read more
BrEPS annual conference: Healthy and Sustainable Places 28 September 2016 - 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
RegPol² – Research on the development of peripheral regions 27 September 2016 - RegPol² By Lummina Horlings The European Marie Curie ITN project RegPol² on Socio-economic and Political Responses to Regional Polarisation in Central and Eastern Europe centres on new patterns of regional disparities between metropolised regions and the remaining parts of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The program is coordinated by The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography and ... Read more
The UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference 2016: Planning for Future Generations 23 September 2016 - By Lorena Axinte and Cátia Rebelo The UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference is an annual event which this year was hosted by Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning. The event celebrated the school’s 50 years of existence, bringing together academics and practitioners interested in sharing knowledge on spatial, regional, neighbourhood and community planning. The theme ... Read more
Grassroots initiatives and citizen power 19 September 2016 - A key concept in SUSPLACE is transformative capacity, which refers to the ability of people to shape places according to their own ideas, needs and desires. Even though people and places are affected by global and structural processes, there are also numerous examples of how people take initiatives and actively transform their living environments. Recently ... Read more
Presenting on social economy concepts in Latvia 16 September 2016 - By Alanna K. Higgins Earlier this week, I gave a talk entitled “Social Economy: A Primer” at a local training course co-hosted by Zala Briviba and the Latvian branch of the EU project “Sustainable and Solidarity Economy” (SUSY). The course “When money is not essential? Local and global solutions of social and solidarity economy” was ... Read more
Learning to hope 29 August 2016 - By Malin Bäckman Every now and then I find myself wondering: what’s the point? What’s the point of researching about sustainability, searching for ways to shape more sustainable places? What difference will my contribution make, or will it make any difference at all? While grappling with these questions I continuously try to tell myself, that ... Read more
XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology: Debating peasantries, envisioning real utopias, and the all-important interdisciplinary perspective 25 August 2016 - By Alanna Higgins From the 10th to 14th of August, over 700 delegates met at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada for the XIV World Congress of Rural Sociology. The theme of the conference was “Sustainable and Just Rural Transitions: Connections and Complexities”; with 78 regular sessions and panels, excursions, and other events happening throughout the ... Read more
“Common-tryside”: revitalising the Portuguese countryside through commoning forests 28 July 2016 - By Marta Nieto Romero “Para lá de Marão, mandam os que lá estão”- “At the other side of Marão, govern those who are there” (traditional Portuguese saying) Last week, Elisabete, Sandra and me crossed the recently inaugurated tunnel of Marão to meet with BALADI, the national federation of common lands of Portugal which is located ... Read more
“All models are wrong, some are useful” [1] : summer school on quantitative storytelling with MuSIASEM 27 July 2016 - by Anastasia Papangelou Imagine a sizzling day in the heart of Spanish summer. A long room with bright-green chairs, welcomingly cool despite the lack of air-condition. A patchwork of more than 30 people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, origins and ages. And a bearded man talking in an imposing voice, mixing in his lecture ... Read more
Questions of community-making at the GEN-Europe Conference 14 July 2016 - 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
Exploring the potential of place-based practices in Sao Pedro do Sul, Portugal 6 July 2016 - By Alessandro Vasta About a month ago I went to visit the rural area around Sao Pedro do Sul Municipality, about a couple of hours to the interior from Aveiro, Portugal. I went with the research team that is working on the Resilient Places Work Package within SUSPLACE. Within this package my research topic is ... Read more
The Art of Place: Sensing Terschelling at the Oerol Festival 30 June 2016 - By Kelli Rose Pearson and Anke de Vrieze We are standing in awe in the middle of a tidal sea, perched on a structure resembling a wooden spaceship-flower. Vast skies decorated with streaks of white and cotton candy clouds are mirrored in the water all around us. A light breeze tickles our faces with a fresh salty, ... Read more
Exploring eco-villages in Finland 27 June 2016 - 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
Integrated Sustainability Strategies for Cardiff 14 June 2016 - What strategies can we develop to improve the sustainability of the Cardiff Capital Region? This was the challenge we addressed during the 3-day training in Integrated Sustainability offered by SUSPLACE partner Except in May 2016. Applying the Symbiosis in Development (SiD) framework developed by Except, we worked in teams to define strategies for four different ... Read more
Stripping sustainable forms of transportation in Cardiff 13 June 2016 - text and pictures by Lorena Axinte For a city where cycling’s modal share is still modest[1], a group of almost 150 cyclists going around the main streets on a sunny Sunday afternoon might come as a surprise. The fact that most of them are completely naked is the added bonus. Nonetheless, the world naked bike ... Read moreESRS 2016 Postgraduate Autumn School, October 3-7, Wales: ‘Researching Globalization in a Rural Context’ 13 June 2016 - This year’s ESRS Autumn School will explore the theory and practice of researching globalization in rural context with a programme led by Michael Woods and the research team from the European Research Council GLOBAL-RURAL project at Aberystwyth University. The theme will examine key aspects of globalization as experienced in rural localities in both the global north ... Read more
Sustainable Place Making in Public Policy 9 June 2016 - In this video prof. Terry Marsden, director of the Sustainable Places Research Institute in Cardiff and project partner of SUSPLACE, discusses about sustainable place-making in the context of public policy together with prof. Susan Baker, co-director of the same institute, and mr. Matthew Quinn, director of Environment and Sustainable Development at the Welsh Government and also ... Read more
Successful first training session in Wageningen 30 May 2016 - To train ESRs in innovative approaches to study sustainable place-shaping practices, SUSPLACE offers an extensive training program in both scientific and professional skills. From April 18 till May 11, 2016 all 15 ESRs participating in SUSPLACE came to Wageningen, The Netherlands for their first intensive training session. The training started with an Introduction Course, introducing the ESRs ... Read more
SUSPLACE welcomes 15 Early Stage Researchers 5 April 2016 - The SUSPLACE consortium recruited 15 talented Early Stage Researchers (ESR) for a three year period starting April 1, 2016. The 15 ESR are contracted by the six academic partners and take secondments at the seven non-academic partners in the second and third year of their contract period. Below an overview of the 15 projects and the ESR appointed with a link to ... Read more
SUSPLACE – Exploring the potential of place-shaping practices for sustainable development 24 March 2016 - The SUSPLACE consortium bids you a hearty welcome to our newly launched website www.sustainableplaceshaping.net. SUSPLACE is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Commission that explores the full potential of place-shaping practices for sustainable development. SUSPLACE officially kicked-off on October 1, 2015 in Wageningen, The Netherlands and will last till September 30, 2019. The overall aim of the project ... Read more