CAWR Newsletter

May 2023

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 equitable, sustainable and 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.

CAWR Marks Contribution to Commission on Crime and Gambling Related Harms

Geraldine and colleagues at the report launch

CAWR researcher Geraldine Brown was invited to the House of Lords on 27th April for the launch of the final report for The Commission on Crime and Gambling Related Harms,  chaired by Lord Peter Goldsmith QC.

The Commission has investigated patterns of crime linked to gambling related harms and the societal harms that connect the two. The Commission will be making recommendations for government, the gambling industry and within the criminal justice system. Geraldine led a small team that included academics, practitioners, and peer researchers, exploring ethnic minority communities’ experiences of crime and gambling harms.

New Policy Brief: Saying NO to displacement and resettlement forced by development

CAWR's latest policy brief busts five myths about displacement. The three authors of this brief, including CAWR researcher Jessica Milgroom, have each been working in and researching development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) for 15-20 years in different parts of the world.

They came together to express their shared conclusion: displacement causes irreparable harm, and well-intended resettlement policies and practices perpetuate and justify further displacement. The brief argues that new policies are needed that prioritise human-scale development that does not require displacement and resettlement.

This new work can be found, here, on CAWR’s policy brief web page.

'What a Fantastic Piece of Work' - Phd success for CAWR student!

Photo: L-R, Dr Frank Warwick, Prof Sue Charlesworth, Mitch McTough, Dr Kiran Tota-Maharaj

Mitchell McTough passed his PhD viva on 27th April with minor corrections – his viva began with a comment from the external examiner: “what a fantastic piece of work”.

His title was: “Understanding the Efficacy of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) for Improving Surface Water Management in Humanitarian Settlements”.

His supervisory team was Professor Sue Charlesworth as DoS, Dr Shervin Motamedi (Engineering Computing and Environment, ECE) and Dr Sarfraz Munir (Kurdistan Hewler University and  International Water Management Institute, Lahore, Pakistan).

The external examiner was Dr Kiran Tota-Maharaj, Aston University and Dr Frank Warwick, ECE was the internal examiner. His project was partly funded by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund. For further details click here.

CAWR’s nominee for the 2023 ‘PGR of the Year Competition’

Jhonny along with his supervisor Anna Bogush

Jhonny Ismael Bautista Quispe, a 3rd year PhD student under Anna Bogush's supervision, will represent CAWR in the 2023 ‘PGR of the Year Competition'.

Jhonny's research focuses on the development of a handwashing station using bio-based materials for sustainable handwashing wastewater treatment and recycling. The ‘PGR of the Year Competition' is an annual event among selected nominees from each Coventry University's Research Institute.

These nominees are outstanding in their community, produce high-quality research and are active members of their research community. This competition will be held at Coventry University’s Doctoral Capability and Development Conference on 28th June. Jhonny will present his research's main achievements and impact along with his community engagement throughout his PGR journey.

Navigating Participatory Action Research in a Time of COVID (and Beyond)

During COVID community kitchens provided a special treat during Ramadan in Cape Town. These initiatives were described in an article in the special issue discussing participatory action research during COVID.  (Photo: Caroline Peters, 2023)

For those of us undertaking Participatory Action Research (PAR), COVID-19 posed many questions about how we could continue to engage in authentic research together. It also raised alarms about the prospect of future pandemics and about the ethics of travel in a future defined by intersecting global crises.

In 2021, George McAllister, Nina Moeller, Priscilla Claeys and Stefanie Lemke were joined by Sandra Bhatasara (University of Zimbabwe), Jo Howard (IDS) and Katherine McKinnon (University of Canberra) to guest edit and invite contributions from researchers and activists also grappling with some of these questions.

The result is this special issue in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems which provides insights into PAR undertaken by teams in Europe, Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific region, Central Asia, and the Caribbean during the hight of the pandemic. 

CAWR researcher addresses event on engaged praxis in dietetics

On 6^th June CAWR researcher Lucy Aphramor will be the opening speaker in the first of a series of events exploring engaged praxis in dietetics. The series is called: 'How do we practice critical dietetics as practitioners, researchers and educations?' Dr Elaine Swan from Sussex University will also be talking about her work around food imperialism. Free to join and all welcome.

Liz and Sam emerge triumphant from the 'Dragon's Den'

Liz Trenchard making her pitch at the Coventry University Social Enterprise organised event

Liz Trenchard and Sam Green of the Growing Connections team emerged with £1500 for the project after attending a ‘Dragon’s Den’ pitching event organised by Coventry University Social Enterprises (CUSE).

CUSE is the only UK example of a social enterprise set up by a university to promote social entrepreneurship and innovation. Their application for the Social Impact Challenge Fund was one of five projects short-listed to take part in the CUSE pitching event on 23rd May 2023.

Liz and Sam pitched for funds to set up a Coventry University Community Tree Nursery and won £1500 for project preparation. Their aim is to set-up a community-run tree nursery in Coventry to provide local provenance trees and propagation of locally important trees and tree species for Coventry planting projects.

Sam Green makes a persuasive funding argument for the Coventry University Community Tree Nursery

Citizen Sourced Solutions to Local Landscape Challenges

How do the local community feel about their local lands? How do they use them? How would they manage them?

These are just some of the questions that CAWR researcher Donna Udall will be asking people in and around Merthyr Tydfil and the Brecon Beacons this summer as part of a project grant funded by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

Landscape scale management is challenging and involves more stakeholders than you might think. The project has already been promoted by the Institute of Welsh Affairs. For more details click here.

Looking for participants: Recording impacts of invasive species through citizen science

Invasive species: they may look beautiful but they can be ecologically disruptive

CAWR researchers Oluwadunsin Adekola and Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz have started a new citizen science project asking people to test a sampling approach to record impacts of invasive plants on biodiversity.

Invasive species are one of the main causes of biodiversity decline and evidence of their impacts is urgently needed to inform policies and management. If you want to participate, please register here and find out what to do.

CAWR Addresses International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals

Professor Sue Charlesworth was invited to give an online presentation to the KASB Institute for Technology's International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals (KICSDG) held in Pakistan on 24th and 25th May.

Her talk to the conference was titled: “Where is drainage and greywater management in SDG 6 for informal settlements and refugee camps?” She started with a quote from the “Summary progress update 2021 – SDG 6 – Water and sanitation for all” which acknowledged that “The world is not on track to achieve SDG 6.”

She then explained the challenges around the lack of drainage and household wastewater management in terms of flooding and disease in slums and refugee camps in South Africa and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Professor Charlesworth identified opportunities to reduce disease vector breeding sites and environmental pollution using soft infrastructure such as Sustainable Drainage Systems and Nature Based Solutions.

The 2 case studies focused on community engagement, education and end-of-pipe solutions. Preliminary results indicate substantial reductions in faecal coliforms and nutrients. Future work will include monitoring the potential to reduce Contaminants of Emerging Concern.

CAWR MSc Field Visit to Schumacher College

Some members of the CAWR team on the visit to Schumacher College

In May students and staff from CAWR’s MSc programme undertook a field trip to Schumacher College, Totnes, Devon.

The field trip consisted of a workshop on ‘Power, Positionality and the Food System’ delivered for both Schumacher and CAWR MSc students by members of CAWR’s ‘People’s Knowledge’ Working Group. It also included guided tours and events to learn more about the ongoing activity at Schumacher and the Dartington Estate within which it is located.

“The trip was meaningful to me in more ways than a quote could fit, especially the learnings and experiences from the workshop, engaging with the Schumacher students, sharing more time – and giggles! – with CAWR students and staff, and feeling that sense of community and all of this in incredibly beautiful scenery surrounded with as much wild garlic as one could dream of.” Anouk Dijkman, CAWR MSc student

People's Circle - the CAWR led workshop on Power, Positionality and the Food System

Queer Perspectives on the Body

Lucy participating during one of the 'Queer Perspectives' events

CAWR researcher Lucy Aphramor helped secure funding for 'Queer Perspectives’, a City of Culture project funded by Heart of England that brought together artists, activists & thinkers from Coventry’s LGBTQ+ community to explore body politics, gender identity and the queer experience.

It involved a series of workshops including Zine making, Photovoice & figure-based art practice led by renowned portraiture artist Clae Eastgate. The series closed with a grand unfinale hosted by London’s drag royalty, King Frankie Sinatra. Lucy was involved in securing the bid and participated in creative sessions including through facilitating discussion, and performance poetry.

Opening the Door on Domestic Colonies

CAWR researcher Iain MacKinnon attended a symposium on 'domestic colonies' held in early May at Veenhuizen, one of the 'colonies of benevolence' established in the Netherlands in the early 1800s.

The symposium highlighted a wide range of domestic colonial projects that took place mainly in Europe but also in Asia and Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Iain's presentation to the symposium argued that explicitly domestic colonial projects occurred in the Highlands of Scotland in the eighteenth century as part of the social and cultural oppression that followed the failed Jacobite Rising of 1745, and these may have influenced later projects through the work of Highland landowner, eminent liberal politician and domestic coloniser Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, the first president of the UK's Board of Agriculture.

Events

Catch up on our events and seminars by visiting our YouTube channel

Publications

Yitbarek, T.W., Wilson, J.R.U., Dehnen-Schmutz, K., 2023. A governance framework for the design and evaluation of tree planting schemes. Forest Policy and Economics 152, 102980  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2023.102980

Green, S., Dehnen-Schmutz, K., Drakulic, J., Eschen, R., Orazio, C., Douma, J.C., Lundén, K., Colombari, F. and Jactel, H. (2023) Awareness, detection and management of new and emerging tree pests and pathogens in Europe: stakeholders’ perspectives. In: Jactel, H., Orazio, C., Robinet, C., Douma, J.C., Santini, A., Battisti, A., Branco, M., Seehausen, L. and Kenis, M. (eds) Conceptual and technical innovations to better manage invasions of alien pests and pathogens in forests. NeoBiota 84: 9-40   https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.84.95761

Winter K., Paytan A., Charlesworth S. and Fried, J. (2023). Solutions to waste management in informal settlements in South Africa. Open Access Government, 37, 1, 464-465. [Output from ESRC funded project 'Waste FEW ULL' - managing waste in the food-energy-water nexus using Urban Living Labs]

Black D., Charlesworth, S., Soares Dal Poz, M. E., Francisco, E. C., Paytan, A., Roderick, I., Von Wirth, T. and Winter K. (2023) Comparing societal impact planning and evaluation approaches across four urban living labs (in food-energy-water systems). Sustainability Special Issue "Promoting and Sustaining Urban Health: Challenges and Responses", 15, 5387. [Output from ESRC funded project 'Waste FEW ULL' - managing waste in the food-energy-water nexus using Urban Living Labs]

Black, D., Roderick, I., Paytan, A., Charlesworth, S. and Carey, J. (2023) Zero food waste city 2049: Identifying barriers to transition pathways. Open Access Government, 490-491. [Output from ESRC funded project 'Waste FEW ULL' - managing waste in the food-energy-water nexus using Urban Living Labs]

Burnett, E. (2023). Essential elements of self-organization illustrated through localized agri-food systems. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.

Pimbert, M.P.( 2022). Transforming food and agriculture: Competing visions and major controversies. Mondes en développement, 199-200. pp361- 384. https://doi.org/10.3917/med.199.0365

Folorunsho, O., Bogush, A., & Kourtchev, I. (2023). A new on-line SPE LC-HRMS method for simultaneous analysis of selected emerging contaminants in surface waters. Analytical Methods, 15, pp284-296, doi.org/10.1039/D2AY01574A

Pimbert, M. (2022), Avant propos, in Barbier, M., Lamine, C., Couix, N. (dir.) Pratiques et savoirs agricoles dans la transition agroécologique. Editions des archives contemporaines, Coll. «Etudes des sciences et Histoire des techniques», France, ISBN: 9782813003560, pp. 1-2.

Wong S., Armenise S., Nyakuma B.B., Ng P., Lee C., Bogush A., Launay F., Rebrov E., Muñoz M. (2022) Catalytic pyrolysis of plastics over maghemite-impregnated mesocellular foam using induction heating. Chemical Engineering Transactions, 97, DOI: 10.3303/CET2297005

Wynberg, R., Pimbert, M., Moeller, N., McAllister, G., Bezner Kerr, R., Singh, J., Belay, M. & Ngcoya, M. (2023) Nature-Based Solutions and Agroecology: Business as Usual or an Opportunity for Transformative Change?, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 65:1, pp15-22

Hamidi M.D., Kissane S., Bogush A.A., Karim A.Q., Sagintayev J., Towers S., Greenwell C.H.C. (2022) Spatial estimation of groundwater quality, hydrogeochemical investigation, and health impacts of shallow groundwater in Kabul city, Afghanistan. Sustainable Water Resources Management, 9, 20. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40899-022-00808-9