In February (11-15th) the third meeting of the Erasmus+ project on “Applied Ecopreneurship Methodologies” will take place in Uppsala. The project brings together CEMUS and four other partners from the Nordic countries and the UK – Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule, a vocational agricultural school located on the fjords on the west coast of Norway, Centre for Ecological Economics and Ethics at Nord University in the north of Norway, Schumacher College in South-west England, and Friends of the Earth Denmark.
The overarching aim of the project is to explore what competences and skills are needed in order to create new social and ecological enterprises (or, in other words, make a living out of working for a more just and sustainable world), and how we could support this development through our courses and as educational institutions. Over 2 years (2018-2019), the partners will visit each other’s institutions and share practices, perspectives, methods and approaches, while aiming to publish at least one peer-reviewed article by the end of the project. Through this new collaboration, we aim to deepen and develop our own courses and practices.
During the week in Uppsala we will explore learner-led approaches to working with social and ecological challenges as well as the relationship between the university and societal change. On Wednesday the 13th and Thursday the 14th a number of events are organized and that are open to those interested (registration required):
- Workshop on Pluralist Economics in Practice , Wednesday February 13, 16-18 @ CEMUS, Villavägen 16, Uppsala.
- Emergency/Re-emergence Walk: learning, knowing and acting in changing world. Thursday February 14, 9-12 @ CEMUS and Stadsskogen, Uppsala.
- Public Seminar on Spaces for (un)learning in an age of ecological unravelling. Thursday February 14, 13-17 @ Kollaboratoriet Uppsala.
A full program for the week can be found here. Contact isak.stoddard@cemus.uu.se if you have any questions about the week.
The project so far
The first meeting of the project took place in January 2018 and involved immersing ourselves into the residential learning community at Schumacher College (including cleaning, cooking and gardening!), getting to know each other, exploring what ‘ecological entrepreneurship’ could mean, and starting to share each other’s approaches. There were a lot of unanswered questions which we looked forward during the 2 years of the project. Sachiko Ishihara and Isak Stoddard attedned the meeting on behalf of CEMUS.
Listen in to Isak and Sachiko’s dialogue on the train trip back, reflecting on the week at Schumacher, with an improvised microphone between us, suspended in mid air by floss (the kind that you use to clean your teeth…;)
The second meeting took place in Denmark in the second week of September 2018, where we were hosted at the Chora Connection, a platform for local to international collaboration on sustainability in the heart of Copenhagen. The week included visits to both rural and urban examples of unique ecoprenurial and educational initiatives drawing on the long tradition of cooperative endevours and “folkbildning” in Denmark. Andre Dutra, Oliver Matikainen and Isak Stoddard, attended the meeting as representives of CEMUS. Read Oliver’s reflection on the week here.
As mentioned, the third meeting will take place in February 2019 when partners will be visiting us at CEMUS. The final meeting of the project will take place in Norway and include a several day long hike from the mountains to the fjord, down the magical Aurland valley.
For more information and to get involved, please contact: isak.stoddard@cemus.uu.se
