| |
|
|
Applied
Research
Research
Links
A number of organisational partnerships are in more
or less early stages of exploration in order to drive
forward a systematic approach to documenting the outstanding
and pioneering work that the Findhorn Foundation
ecovillage has undertaken to reduce
its ecological footprint and as a socio-ecological
experiment in applied sustainability. Reporting
the technical, quantitative, qualitative and social
aspects of the ecovillage’s attempt to transition
towards increased sustainability and resilience through
the media in general, but also through academic journals
and peer-reviewed research is clearly the next step
towards increasing our national and global outreach.
Communicating what we do and how we do it to a lay,
professional, and academic audience is in clear congruence
with the Findhorn Foundation's founding impulse to
act as a ‘centre for personal and planetary
transformation.’ Education, at a vocational
level, academically accredited, and professional skills
training, is one central part of this mission. Research
and education are clearly mutually supportive and
will help the Findhorn College and the Findhorn Foundation
to gain a much broader audience and a much wider recognition
of their long-term contribution to the creation of
a culture of sustainability, equity, and peace.
Since early 2008, the Findhorn College has been actively
reaching out to academic partners and research institutions
who could help in documenting the vast amount of data
that lies dormant within the ecovillage, its infrastructure,
its processes, and its culture. Among the partnerships
that are being explored are:
• Together with the School for the Built Environment
at the Heriot Watt University the Findhorn College
is preparing a grant application to the Environmental
and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) in order to perform an in-depth post-occupancy evaluation
of a wide cross-section of the ‘ecological houses’
and the Findhorn ecovillage. This application should
be completed and submitted this summer and Prof. David
Strong (former head of environment at the BRE) and
Prof. Jan Bebbington (Vice Chair of the Sustainable
Development Commission, Scotland) have offered to
write letters in support of this application.
• In two separate meetings Daniel Wahl has discussed
the possibility of working with researchers of the
socio-economic research group of the Macauley Institute
on issues related to “Values, Choices and Behavours”
with Tony Craig, and issues related to “rural
and regional economics” with Guillaume Pajot.
There is clearly mutual interest in taking this dialogue
further, yet since such research collaborations are
without direct financial benefit to the Findhorn College
and due to the lack of funded research staff in the
Findhorn College, such collaborations cannot be considered
a current priority.
• Similarly, there have been a number of conversations
with staff at the Scottish Agricultural College regarding
possible collaboration on research projects, yet even
if the research was conducted by outside researchers
from these partner institutions without extra funding
for a dedicated Findhorn College research coordinator
such collaborations only create an undue extra burden
on the already overstretched staff of the Findhorn
College. In March 2008, the Findhorn College hosted
a small group of students on the SAC’s undergraduate
programme in ‘rural
resource management’ for a day and organized
a tour around the ecovillage.
• In May 2008, Prof. Dongsoo Lee, dean of the
graduate school of NGO studies, at Kyung
Hee University in Korea, visited the Findhorn
College and the Findhorn ecovillage. His research
project on “Looking for Alternative Ways of
Life in the 21st Century” created an interest
in the ecovillage model. Daniel Wahl gave him a guided
tour and he interviewed both Dr. Wahl and Jonathan
Dawson as part of his research.
• The same month, Prof. Kim Yong-Bock, chancellor
of the Advanced Institute for Integral Study of Life
& Asia Pacific Graduate School for Integral Study
of Life, visited the Findhorn College and the Findhorn
ecovillage. He was mainly interested in the campus
set-up and the infrastructure of the ecovillage and
explored how the Findhorn College may be able to provide
consultancy input into the creation of a new graduate
school in Korea.
• In July 2008, Dr. Joshua Lockyer, a lecturer
in environmental and ecological anthropology at the
University of Georgia, USA, and a visiting fellow
to the University of Surrey’s ‘Research
Group on Lifestyles, Values and the Environment’
(RESOLVE) visited Findhorn ecovillage as part of his
on-going research. Dr. Lockyer’s PhD research
focussed on ecovillages form an anthropological perspective.
He interviewed both Dr. Wahl and Jonathan Dawson and
a number of possible future collaborations were explored.
A first contact was made to Prof. Tim Jackson, who
heads the RESOLVE
team at Surrey.
• Between June and August 2008, the Findhorn
College hosted Jeffrey Leopando, an undergraduate
student at the Department of Anthropology at Harvard
University, USA. Jeffrey conducted a whole series
of interviews with a number of people at the Findhorn
ecovillage. His research will be written up as part
of his final year thesis at Harvard.
• After an initial meeting at Schumacher College
in 2001, Daniel Wahl recently renewed contact with
Dr. Stephen Sterling, at the ‘Centre for Excellence
in Teaching and Learning’ at the University
of Plymouth. Dr. Sterling is one of the leading experts
in education for sustainable development in the UK
and expressed a keen interest to take the dialogue
on collaborating with the Findhorn College further
after his summer holidays in September/October 2008.
An obvious starting point for collaboration would
be to link the Findhorn College with the ‘Centre
for Sustainable Futures’.
• Due to Daniel Wahl’s link to the Centre
for the Study of Natural Design (CSND) at the University
of Dundee as an ‘associate researcher’,
there has been a close collaboration between the CSND
and the Findhorn College since the beginning of the
academic outreach project. Dr. Wahl is acting as the
second PhD supervisor to Gonzalo Salazar, a Chilean
student on a prestigious international stipend provided
by the Chilean government. Mr. Salazar took part in
an Ecovillage Design Education programme at the Findhorn
Foundation in October 2007 and his research focuses
on the way that ecological design and ecovillage design
can inform the creation of more sustainable communities.
• The Findhorn College has provided teaching
staff to the MA in Sustainable Development Advocacy,
of Worcester University and the Bulmer Foundation.
Both Jonathan Dawson and Daniel Wahl have taught ‘master
class’ intensives on this new masters programme.
In June 2008, Dr. Wahl took part in a day-long meeting
of educators from various organisations in the UK
(including the Sustainable Development Commission,
The Scientific and Medical Network, The Oasis Centre
for Human Relations, The Wreckin Trust, and the Bulmer
Foundation) on the creation of a new research
project focussed on developing an effective ‘pedagogy
for change.’
• The attempt to establish more active research
links with the Forres-based ‘Sustainable
Development Research Centre’ (SDRC) has
been sustained and a number of short meetings and
telephone conversations between Prof. Stephen Tinsley
and Dr. Wahl have taken place. Unfortunately, these
explorations have not yet yielded concrete collaborative
projects.
• There have been a series of meetings with
staff at Moray College/UHI and a wide range of possibilities
for collaboration, both, in teaching and research
have been identified. Daniel Wahl met with Dr. Gary
Campbell, the new Dean of Science and Technology of
UHI and with the principal of Moray College, Mike
Devenny on a number of occasions. The Findhorn College
will provide at least one and possibly more modules
for the new MSc in Sustainability Studies, and a variety
of smaller research topics which Moray College and
Findhorn College could collaborate on have been identified
and are currently going through a UHI internal funding
application process.
• In February 2008, Dr. Wahl was invited to
present on “Sustainability by Design”
to the Sustainable Development Society of the University
of St. Andrews, as well as, to attend a meeting on
the future of the St. Andrews Sustainability Institute.
One direct result of the former was that one of the
4th year sustainable development undergraduate students
wrote her thesis on education for sustainable development
and the role of design as a framework for teaching
sustainability in secondary schools. In July 2008,
Dr. Wahl helped her to take this research further
and she is now applying for an MPhil at the Centre
for the Study of Natural Design which would see her
implementing these ideas in a series of workshops
to be delivered to Scottish secondary school children
at Scottish
Outdoor Education Centres |
|
|
|
|
| |
Findhorn
Foundation College, St Leonard's Rd, Forres, Morayshire,
Scotland, IV36 2RD, Scotland |
|
|
|
