No images? Click here CAWR Newsletter August 2020 Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on resilient food and water systems.' The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Coventry University. NewsWhen a network and its training go online: RECOMS 5th Training event about Coupled Social-Ecological Systems and ComplexityRECOMS Training Event 5 took place online via Zoom (22 – 31 July 2020) with an extension of an optional writing retreat until 5th August. The event was hosted and co-organized by the Rachel Carson Center, LMU. The aim of Training Event 5 was to equip the 15 RECOMS fellows - hosted by six different institutes Europe-wide - with skills and knowledge in complexity theory, transdisciplinarity, communication, scientific publication and teaching online in order to increase their capacity to achieve research impact and induce on-the-ground transformative thinking. Besides improving their skill sets in these ways, the training also gave an insight into working online; due to the forced impacts of the pandemic fellows could experience new digital tools and techniques that can support online collaboration and engagement.
The keynote presentations provided a peep into environmental history and the complex relationships of environment and humans, whereas the workshop on MOOC and teaching gave an overview of learning principles and ways of structuring a curriculum. The 2-day writing workshop introduced some foundational principles about how to structure arguments and put ideas on paper in a structured manner, while the follow-on optional writing retreat gave further time to put the learnt principles in to practice. In between these works, there was ample time for discussion among the fellows about how to proceed with RECOMS deliverables and further events as well as opportunities to share experiences within several self-organised sessions run by the fellows. Read more about it by clicking here. CAWR Delivers It's First Online Short Course on Environmental SustainabilityDuring July and August, Jackie Abell devised and delivered a 5-week online course on the Social Psychology of Conservation & The Environment: Facilitating Sustainability. This course explored the psychology of human behaviour and the implications this has for environmental (in)action. Supported by the fantastic postgraduate team, Mina Thompson and Liz Woodward, this marked CAWR's first venture into online short courses, attracting over 40 participants from a range of backgrounds. All achieved their Participation Certificates. Based on very positive feedback and success of this first short course, CAWR will look into expanding its provision of short courses. Welsh Mountain PoniesDonna Udall was invited to the inaugural trek run by Hooftrek! Along with Catherine Hughes of the Powys Moorland Partnership, she successfully led Welsh Mountain Pony pack ponies. Hooftrek Pack ponies are equipped with pack frames and panniers to carry camping equipment along the trails through the Radnor Hills and Cambrian Mountains. The semi-feral ponies are in decline with serious consequences for the diversity of the uplands for Wales as they create more heterogenous habitat than sheep do and therefore encourage more insects, butterflies and birds etc. Their different grazing action also results in less soil erosion. Initiatives like Hooftrek create a value for the ponies and encourage wild herds to stay on the moors and mountains. Donna is also involved in a project with Ben Cook to understand more about the role of the pony in Welsh agriculture and upland management. Find out more by clicking here. The project has enough funds now to develop a questionnaire, so if you’d like to receive a copy please get in touch with Donna directly here. POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC: Sowing the seeds for an agricultural revolutionGeorges Felix wrote an article with Pamela Bapoo-Dundoo which was recently published on the UNDP Mauritius & Seychelles website. "Following COVID-19 and its disruptive effects on livelihoods, it may be high time to consolidate the foundations of tomorrow’s agriculture." Click here to view the article. Call for papers in Special Issue "Advanced Materials in Environmental Chemistry" of Molecules journalFor more information on the call for papers in Special Issue "Advanced Materials in Environmental Chemistry" of Molecules journal (ISSN 1420-3049) please click here. Call for papers in Special Issue "Political Ecology, Agroecology, and Food Sovereignty’" of Sustainability journalThis Special Issue is concerned with linking the analysis of capitalism and its ecological contradictions to a political ecology of emancipatory praxis—in other words, how to confront and resolve these contradictions through social relational transformation that constructs noncapitalist political structures in alignment with ecological capacities. This praxis will focus on two approaches to the means of generating human sustenance that is socially egalitarian and ecologically sustainable—agroecology and food sovereignty. Thus, agroecology is an approach to farming that ecologically attempts to provide sustainable yields through the use of environmentally sound management technologies, while politically it pursues “forms of social action which redirect the course of co-evolution between nature and society in order to address the crisis of modernity”. Food sovereignty bases itself on agroecology, whilst emphasizing the political dimension which “implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social and economic classes and generations.” For more information please contact Mark Tilzey. PhD studentships availableCoventry University have launched a suite of fully-funded PhD studentships on themes related to COVID-19 and the post pandemic future. We are proud to be accepting applications for PhD projects starting in January 2021. Moving beyond food waste-based solidarity kitchens in time of crisis: the role of agroecology-based community kitchens in building community resourcefulness Application deadline: 15th October 2020 To find out more about the project, please click here or contact Chiara Tornaghi. Publications
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