Living Landscapes: Regenerating Cities, Land and Self

Description

Living Landscapes is a place-based experiential program that takes place and the territory as its curriculum, exploring ways to overcome the socio-ecological challenges of our time from a grounded, personal, real-world and transdisciplinary approach. You will set up a living community on an Urban Farm at the edge of the city of Amsterdam, connecting landscape and urban life. 

Leaning from the very human and natural dynamics that vitalise or deteriorate a place, it is an immersive learning journey, embedded in local communities. Together with local stakeholders, you will give a voice to the landscape and contribute to maintaining, restoring, and regenerating the community, local economy, and natural environment.

Learn regenerative approaches to the development of place, society and self by working with and from the (bio)region west of Amsterdam and take part in community life at an urban farm estate. You will work with pioneers in this emerging field, locales, practitioners and academics, get to know the deeper underpinnings of regenerative practice, and are invited to hands on participation in the territory. 

The program provides hands-on practice and insights into the principles and frameworks of regenerative  development. You will explore different approaches and learn the underlying theories. In addition, you will quickly build a community and create your own unique learning journey by experiencing how a territory works. At the end of the summer school, you will share your learnings, achievements, or experiences in a final public exhibition.

• Throughout the program, you will conduct your own research. Whether you pursue a philosophical or artistic project, the program offers a rich environment full of opportunities.
• You will define your own questions and seek the answers together. The program leader will help you find the right sources and inspiration. Your findings will contribute to a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder regeneration process involving governments, local farmers, businesses, artists, and civil society.

Beyond Sustainability

Regeneration is quickly becoming a trend in farming, finance, ecology, urban development, spiritual ecology and social change, as an approach that takes us beyond sustainability as reducing harm, and instead as a practice to increase the ability to thrive. For places and living (eco)systems to thrive they need the capacity to regenerate, adapt to change, and be alive in the broadest sense of the word. But how do we ‘do’ regeneration at the scale of landscapes, place, ourselves, communities and systems? 

The Amsterdam area in the Rhine-Meuse delta is one of the most engineered water systems in the world, but also one of the most diverse in terms of landuse, biodiversity, cultures, and economies. The summerschool works from the ecological corridor that connects Amsterdam to the North Sea, which is home to some of the lowest polders in the Netherlands. Many of the great challenges of society come together in this territory. The food transition, land enclosure, climate adaptation, water resilience, struggling disadvantaged communities, to name but a few. Meanwhile the city densifies, data- and distributions centres sprawl through the land, and families and farmers are trying to find ways to make ends meet.

Building local capacity for renewal and vitality go hand in hand with the need to navigate the increasing pressures of the global market, climate change, or social inequality. What practices do we have at our disposal to navigate these pressures and develop life affirming interventions? How do we make sense of place in its different dynamics so it can be a home for all? What is our own role and place in such complex and large challenges?

We will be weaving connections between stakeholders, deepening our understanding of place, and strengthening our community & personal leadership.

This programme is offered by the Utrecht University Honours College, EWUU Alliance between Utrecht University, Wageningen University, Technical University Eindhoven, and the Academy of Place.

The format

Co-development and community learning

• The diversity of the group ensures a rich variety of experiences we can build on. You are invited to take a role in leading certain activities in the course, and bring in your own quests. As a community of practice we share the space of learning, and this participatory form of learning creates immediate experience in the work of regenerative practice. Working in community allows the programme to embody principles and practices that are essential in Regenerative Development.

Experience-Based and Transdisciplinary Learning

• Our approach is rooted in hands-on, place and action-based learning and research, using the territory as teacher and curriculum.  We will work on places, questions and initiatives brought in by local stakeholders and you, the participants, allowing for an integration of theory and practice that resonates with your reality. This approach also creates a rich learning environment where insights from diverse projects illuminate universal principles of regenerative development.

Why Should You Attend?

• This unique summer school offers an opportunity to contribute to the creation of more resilient, sustainable, and vibrant community, build life time friendships, and gain lived understanding of regenerative practice . This course not only offers the chance to network and collaborate with like-minded students and professionals but also provides valuable resources and tools to aid in your professional journey.

Lecturers

Dr. Thieu Besselink

Thieu Besselink is a lecturer and practitioner of regenerative development. 

Thieu Besselink is an urbanist, educator, and practical philosopher with a thoroughly interdisciplinary background. He has always worked on the crossroads between academia and practice in regenerative development. After his PhD with prof. Richard Sennett at the London School of Economics, and European University Institute he founded the Townmaking Institute (R&D for urban commons) and Academy of Place to develop approaches to bioregional regeneration and transformative learning. He works intensively with governments, farmers, financial institutions, cities, companies, scientist and artists to find common stewardship and build regenerative capacity for larger landscapes and cities.  

Isabella Dal Omo

Isabella Dal Omo holds a Master's degree in International Land and Water Management from Wageningen University & Research. She has applied her knowledge to various projects focused on sustainable agriculture, soil health, and water resource management, and worked on capacity building for regenerative development both in Europe and in Africa. She is a dancer, body worker, and gifted facilitator. 

 

Selected faculty will consist of experts and pioneering practitioners in the field of landscape regeneration, urban development, commoning, ecology, governance and economy, film and story-telling, urban farming, food transition, and more.

 

Target audience

The course will be valuable for students and practitioners, and we invite various levels of study as we use mainly experiential learning and frameworks that allow for both introductory and advanced work. We do this work in education and research, but also with cities, national and regional governments, farmers, communities, business, finance, and cultural institutions. There will be opportunities for all levels of experience. We value the diversity of the group as it not only contributes to the collective learning experience, but also mirrors the real world context that practitioners need to work with. It is a pre to have affinity with place-based development practices, agroecology, or sustainability in landscapes, communities, and cities, but the course transcends disciplines and invites other backgrounds as well, whether from the arts, technical, or social domains.

• Advanced bachelors
• Master students
• PhD
• Postdoc
• Practitioners

Aim of the course

Objectives

• Know how a place or region can flourish and where to start regenerating it;
• Have a foundational understanding of frameworks and approaches to regenerative development;
• Have developed practices for personal and community leadership in regenerative work
• Learn to navigate the tensions caused by the large societal challenges and transitions
• Have worked with experienced (bio)regional regeneration practitioners;
• Cultivated a greater relationship between our inner landscape and the landscapes in which we live.
• Have learned from the experience of living in a cooperative science, art, and urban farming community and encounters with its regional stakeholders;

Study load

Fulltime including some of the evenings. 3.5 ec

Preparatory reading, two online sessions, and assignment  approx. 0.5 ec

 

Tags

• Sustainability
• Urban Farming
• Community
• Place Based Development
• Bioregion Regeneration
• leadership
• Participatory Development
• social innovation