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CAWR Newsletter
December 2017
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.'
Focus on CAWR Issue 3 is now available!
To find out more about updates on our projects, read the latest addition of Focus on CAWR.
Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity
Professor Michel Pimbert latest book has been published by Routledge: Food Sovereignty, Agroecology, and Biocultural Diversity. Constructing and Contesting Knowledge.
Contestations over knowledge – and who controls its production – are a key focus of social movements and other actors that promote food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. This book critically examines the kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing needed for food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity, based on principles of equity, diversity, social justice and ecological sustainability. It thus contributes to the democratisation of knowledge and power in the domain of food, environment and society.
Last, CAWR has provided funding for 150 free copies of this book to be sent to libraries and NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asian countries.
20% Discount Available - enter the code FLR40 at checkout.
Project discussions continue for PREREAL
Jonathan Eden attended a meeting at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (pictured) in Utrecht to discuss progress on the Horizon 2020 project PREREAL. Involving partners across nine countries, PREREAL is a four-year project aiming to improve predictability of Boreal forest fire activity using climate data and historical fire records.
Dr Stefanie Lemke was invited to give a keynote entitled "Development, land use and women in agriculture" at the Land Symposium held at University of Reading, UK. The Symposium that was organised around three intertwined thematic sessions, Land and Justice, Land and Development, and Land and Environment, brought together researchers, practitioners and professionals from different departments within the University and beyond. In her keynote Stefanie highlighted that, while development projects claim to address gender, they are often not inclusive of diverse women’s and men’s voices and specific needs, and promote a distorted focus on empowering women while failing to integrate men, reproducing inequalities. She called for participatory gender transformative approaches to challenge power dynamics, in dialogue with civil society organisations.
Agroecology Europe Forum
Dr Sara Burbi presented at the First Agroecology Europe Forum taking place in Lyon, France. She presented her work on the second day, in the Agroecology and Agroforestry Session: “Transition to agroforestry: current challenges and opportunities for the adoption of agroforestry as carbon sequestration strategy”, highlighting the importance of creating opportunities for participatory work with farmers to promote climate-friendly farming. The forum was a great success and the agroforestry session was particularly vibrant, with a panel discussion that generated a lot of interaction between presenters, students, farmers, representatives from several NGOs and other researchers attending.
Katie shares her experience of being a trainer at a workshop
CAWR PhD candidate Katie Anne Whiddon participated as trainer in a collective effort to form a pool of solidarity interpreters for multilingual civil society events in South Asia, a project initiated by cross-movement activists in 2015. The fifth workshop held in Delhi was entitled "Language Justice and Inclusion in Political Spaces".
Delhi to Dublin
In early November Marco Van De Wiel attended 9th International Conference for Geomorphology, in a rather smog-covered Delhi, India. The ICG is the world’s largest gathering of geomorphologists, held every four years and attracting about 600 delegates from around the globe. Marco presented his ongoing research on Metrics for Comparison of Landscape Evolution Models. He also presented a poster of collaborative work led by Gerrit Louw and other researchers from Stellenbosch University, Geomorphology and Soils of the Great Letaba Fluvial Terraces, Limpopo, South Africa, as well as a poster of collaborative work led by Raphael Bunel and other researchers from University of Rouen, Hydro-sedimentary Variability at Multiple Time Scales with Climate Variations and Catchment Characteristics using a Landscape Evolution Model.
Following this major international event, Marco attended the somewhat smaller but certainly no less engaging annual meeting of the Irish Geomorphology Group, in Dublin, which attracted about 50 delegates. Marco was invited to give the meeting’s keynote lecture Computational Geomorphology: Where Were We? Where Are We Going?
‘Austerity Retail in Britain’ Project Workshop
Lopa Patnaik Saxena held a workshop on her project ‘Austerity Retail in Britain’. The project is funded by a British Academy-Leverhulme Small Research Grant and the co-investigator is Chiara Tornaghi.
The research explored the emergence of Social Supermarkets (SSMs) in Britain in the context of ‘austerity retail’ – an umbrella term proposed to include non-charitable retail initiatives, aimed primarily at low-income consumers, that usually include ‘surplus’ or ‘rejected’ food in their portfolio. The project has undertaken the first systematic investigation of the different models and visions underpinning the emerging SSMs in Britain and how they address food poverty. Key research findings include the growing number of SSMs in Britain, the triple bottom line challenges they face and questions about their sustainability and possible transformations in future. The participants represented some of the SSMs in the study as well as national and local organisations: Feeding Britain, Feeding Coventry, FareShare West Midlands, Coventry Food Bank; and researchers working in the area of food poverty, food waste and food justice.
Lopa will be conducting further research in this area. If you would be interested in collaborating, please get in touch. The final Project Report will be available on the project website soon.
Margaret successfully defends PhD
"Every individual is entitled to have an improved quality of life irrespective of where they reside, but flooding impacts negatively on lives of settlers in precarious settlements especially in less developed countries (LDCs). Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) is a concept that manages flooding and brings alive the ideology that stormwater is an asset that should be harnessed, and as such can improve quality of life as well as the environment for these settlers hence my research: An investigation on the potentials of implementing simpler SuDS in informal settlements in Lagos Nigeria to attain sustainable surface water management systems (SSWMs)."
Congratulations from all of us at CAWR!
Paper accepted in Nature Ecology and Evolution journal
A large international team led by researchers from the University of Leeds, Coventry University and the University of Birmingham, set out with a plan to better understand the changes in river invertebrate diversity that happen as glacier ice is lost. Martin Wilkes has been part of the team who have gathered data from 363 river sites, containing records of more than 1 million invertebrates across nine regions of the world with melting glaciers. Their results show for the first time how climate change is driving shifts in invertebrate diversity and the ecosystem services that they are expected to deliver to human communities downstream, many of which are highly dependent on rivers draining glaciers.
Artful Knowing, Diversity and the Ethics of Collaboration
Miche Fabre Lewin and Flora Gathorne-Hardy have been as Research Associates with CAWR since 2013. Their explorations of artful and collaborative practices within transdisciplinary research now spans a relationship between Coventry University and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In 2016, Miche’s doctoral fieldwork was hosted as a Research Residency ‘Kitchen Culture meets Agriculture’ at the Sustainability Institute near Stellenbosch. Building on strong and vibrant connections they made, Miche and Flora have co-evolved a Research Residency exchange in 2018 between CAWR, Stellenbosch University and the Sustainability Institute constellated around ‘Artful Knowing, Diversity and the Ethics of Collaboration’.
Building on strong and vibrant connections they made, Miche and Flora have co-evolved a Research Residency exchange in 2018 between CAWR, Stellenbosch University and the Sustainability Institute constellated around ‘Artful Knowing, Diversity and the Ethics of Collaboration’.
RECOMS are hiring!
RECOMS - a European Commission funded (2018-2022) Marie Sklodowska Curie Innovative Training Network investigating resourceful and resilient community environmental practice are currently recruiting for a Project Manager/ Facilitator. The advertised position is for 48-months fixed term with a salary range of £31,611 - £40,002 (starting point dependent on experience). The closing date for applications is January 9th 2018.
The RECOMS network comprises a consortium of scientists, practitioners and socio- environmental champions from eleven public, private and non-profit organisations located in six European Union countries. The consortium brings together relatively diverse forms and disciplines of expertise, but also a shared passion and commitment for advancing collaborative forms of environmental practice. The project manager/ facilitator position sits at the very heart of RECOMS. It requires a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual with communicative, organisational and coordination skills, and a commitment to empowering others through the facilitation of knowledge exchange and shared learning.
Publications
Hilmi, A. (2017). Agroecology: Reweaving a New Landscape. Springer
This book argues that sustainable development, based on sustained growth, has led us to an impasse. In response, Agroecology brings back and utilises notions of eco-development and co-evolution with nature as a refreshing paradigm. It also proposes a further shift in mindset with the notion of being within, or looking at agroecology as a way to reconnect and rebuild relationships and movement within farming systems and beyond. Rather than linear technical fixes, it considers the critical nodes of tension, the inflection points, or acupoints, which can trigger a transition towards greater harmony and well-being. The book also draws from a concrete example of agroecology by examining a pilot project in Mozambique testing new approaches to investments and peasant farming that will inspire farming communities, researchers, policy makers and development organizations alike, to build greater autonomy and self-determination.
Warne MStJ, King O, Smith RA. In press. Ecotoxicity Thresholds for Ametryn, Diuron, Hexazinone and Simazine in Fresh and Marine Waters. Environmental Science and Pollution Research – Special Issue entitled Environmental quality benchmarks for aquatic ecosystem protection: Derivation and application.
Scott PD, Coleman HM, Khan S, Lim R, McDonald JA, Mondon J, Neale PA, Prochazka E, Tremblay LA, Warne MStJ, Leusch FDL. In press. Histopathology, vitellogenin and chemical body burden in mosquitofish(Gambusia holbrooki) sampled from six river sites receiving a gradient of stressors. Science of the Total Environment.
Novoa, A., Shackleton, R., Canavan, S., Cybèle, C., Davies, S., Dehnen-Schmutz, K., Fried, J., Gaertner, M., Geerts, S., Griffiths, C., Kaplan, H., Kumschick, S., Le Maitre, D., Measey, J., Nunes, A. L., Richardson, D. M., Robinson, T. B., Touza, J. & Wilson, J. ( 2017) A framework for engaging stakeholders on the management of alien species. Journal of Environmental Management. 205, p. 286-297 12 p.
Joshi, D., Donn-Arnold, N., & Kamphuis, M. (2018). Land and Water Reforms in South Africa:“Men in White Coats”. In Water Security Across the Gender Divide (pp. 83-100). Springer, Cham.
Joshi, D. (2018). Views from Below: The Economics and Politics of Water in the Darjeeling Himalayas. Inaugural Issue, Ecology, Economy and Society. 1(1).
Hubers A., and Joshi, D. (2018). Hydropower Conflicts in Sikkim: Recognizing the Power of Citizen Initiatives for Socio-environmental Justice. Water Conflicts in Northeast India (ed.) KJ Joy, Partha J. Das, Gorky Chakraborty, Chandan Mahanta, Suhas Paranjape and Shruti Vispute. Routledge, 272p.
If you are interested in finding out more about a publication, please contact the CAWR researchers via the hyperlinks.
Seminars
Expand your knowledge by attending one our fortnightly seminars with both national and international speakers.
The Centre's lunchtime seminars provide a lively discussion forum that is open to anyone to attend, including Coventry University staff and students, visiting associates and practioners.
All seminars are held at CAWR Ryton Organic Gardens (CV8 3LG) between 11.30am - 12.30pm. (unless specified otherwise).
A free shuttle bus service is available from Coventry University to Ryton Organic Gardens. Please contact CAWRoffice for more details. There is also free parking on site.
If you would like to attend, please register your interest with CAWRoffice who will provide you with further details.
To view our previous seminars, head to our Youtube channel!
The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR).
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11/01/2018 11:45-12:45
Liliane Binego
Exploring the Potentials of Wild Harvest: The case of Edible Hoppers in Niger and Uganda
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16/01/2018 11:30-12:30
David Thorpe
One Planet Living
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18/01/2018 11:45-12:45
Ben Cook
Biosphere Reserves, the 1201 Project and film as research
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25/01/2018 11:45 - 12:45
Stephen Biggs
A history of rural development debates. Reflections on changing themes since the 1960s
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