Nurturing new voices in interdisciplinary sustainability research.

This project, funded by the British Academy, is facilitating the publication of research outputs by a cohort of dynamic international sustainability researchers from the arts & humanities and social sciences by providing one-to-one editorial support, group sessions and networking opportunities. Through workshops and mentoring, writers are developing confidence in structuring and submitting work so that they can move into lead authorship positions and share their findings and ideas with wider communities.

You can read more about the Sustainable Futures in Writing cohort members and their exciting and original projects in the blog posts when following the link.

In Malawi, climate change, the ongoing impacts of British colonialism on economic and political geographies, and cross-border tensions in East Africa have intersected to produce a series of crises for predominantly communities. Working with Dr. Moyo (LUANAR), the NGO Abundance, and Kei Otsuki (Utrecht University) GES researchers Deborah Dixon, Phil Nicholson, and Brian Barrett developed a project on ‘Visualising Geoviolence’ that aims to map out how this complex intersection of physical and social factors emerges over time and space, how it is experienced as a form of violence upon individual bodies and community infrastructures, and how it is negotiated and responded to. The project focused on areas such as Lake Chilwa where irrigation, fertilisers, sand mining and reed-bed removal have profoundly impacted the now shallow, saline lake.

There is a growing commitment from both the public and private sectors to diversify the Nigerian economy consequent upon which attention is now being paid to the agricultural and mineral resources sectors. The government has recently taken steps to revive the agricultural and mining sectors.

Mining (large scale) was typically conducted in the Northern part of the country, and the skewness of licensed miners, in favour of the northern part, inadvertently promoted artisanal mining in the biodiversity-rich and ecologically-diverse south-western part of the country.

The government’s attention to the exploitation of natural resources has not been matched with equal attention to the development of the host communities, leading to cultural and ecological loses. This is against this background that the Nigerian team is exploring new ways of stakeholders’ engagement to address community development issues in Oyo and Osun States.

The Ugandan hub explores the different ways in which the local people of Kibanjwa Hoima and Apala-Abia in Alebtong district use the natural resources around them in their bid for development and the betterment of their livelihoods and what steps they are taking in order to avoid compromising the natural environment’s ability to serve future generation.

They employ a number of approaches that can be closely approximated to commonly known methods such as transect walk, home visits, community forums, and focus group discussions as well as interviews with the local leaders. Aspects of these methods are applied as deemed fit to the prevailing circumstances, in the quest to come up with a unique methodology for researching communities in a more effective way through community-oriented ideas: The No-Method Methodology.