Learning from Transformations 2015 in Stockholm To Inform Transformations 2017 in Scotland Prepared by: Glenn Page, President/CEO SustainaMetrix
December 5th 2015
Prepared for: Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm Sweden & Centre for Environmental Change and Human resilience, Dundee
Survey of T15 Participants • N=64 Respondents of 230 Participants • 27% Response Rate • 100% of Respondents Answered All Questions • Date Opened: October 7th • Date Closed: December 4th
Q1: Considering the conference as a whole, please rate your satisfaction with Transformations 2015.
Q2: How interesting and stimulating was the material presented at the conference?
Q3: Please rate the overall effectiveness of the following formats.
Q5: In terms of advancing your understanding of transformation, how valuable was this conference?
Q5: In terms of advancing your understanding of transformation, how valuable was this conference?
Q6: How valuable were the networking opportunities at the event?
Q7: How would you rate the quality of the organization of the event?
Q8: What aspect of the Transformations 2015 conference worked really well and should be part of the planning for Transformations 2017?
Q9: What aspect of the Transformations 2015 conference didn’t work well and should NOT be part of the planning for Transformations 2017?
Q10: What innovations would help to enhance engagement and learning at the T17? • Inclusion of more practitioner oriented material. • Involve stakeholders from non-academia • Opportunities to learn from 'the other': researchers, policymakers, and practitioners being 'mashed up' somehow to learn about each other's perspective • Including more policy and practitioners esp from wider range of countries • Interactive e-sessions from around the world, if this is about practice why not do an exercise in organised places i.e. Bangladesh • Criteria for what a presentation should include, in relation to format • A space for non academic organizations to expose their concerns and how to contact them • More MS/PhD students involvement, including poster session • Bring more practitioners and early career researchers in as keynote speakers
Q10: What innovations would help to enhance engagement and learning at the T17? • Mash-Up - find facilitators who try to integrate the thinking of the different speakers! • Invite practitioners for examples of real life transformations • Inviting people working in real transformation process (but that are far from academia) and try to contrast he's/she's experiences with transition/transformation theory. • Include more practitioners • Maybe do a 'joint paper market' to spur joint work • More innovative forms like games • More experiential activities (pre- or post-conference) • Practical exercises like the seeds session by SAPECS. • Involve local change agents from Dundee • Encourage presentations to focus on lessons learned that can apply to all sectors/disciplines
Q10: What innovations would help to enhance engagement and learning at the T17? • • • • • • • •
You can give a summary with the main contents of the discussions Practitioners perspectives Work towards concrete outputs and be clear about users of those outputs More focus on participatory action research involving real on the ground change agents.... the conference was a bit academic...what about the people on the front lines of the crises we are trying to transform? Interactive participant list, enabling ease of networking Games with concrete problems to solve Having specific session to discuss with practitioners on particular topics, or just opportunities to meet up with practitioners that you could start collaborating with Collaboration speed networking
Q11: What would you suggest as key themes for T17? • • • • • • • •
Resilience in practice. Including all stakeholders in the transformation Linking research, policy and practice Transformative x adaptive character of development interventions Perhaps archetypical socia-ecological systems and transformations per system Introduce citizen or community research in the scene (Sustainable/Resilient/Climate-smart) Agriculture may be one key theme Research funding, private public, philanthropic, in changing relationships between science and practice • What is actually going on - who is doing what? Are we studying the right actors? • Transformation through organizations • What transition methodology (tools, approaches) for what scale (local/regional/global)?
Q11: What would you suggest as key themes for T17? • Making the socio-ecological explicit: role of human-nature and human artifact interactions in Transformations • Resilient transitions • Integration (how do we bring all of our knowledge together? • Funding and financing for transformation • Focus on "developing" countries. • Role of civil society for transformation • Interdisciplinary needs to be deepened • Ethic in all aspect (research, farmer, enterprise, etc.) • Research and action? • How to bring our science to society - how does our way of working need to change • Changing worldview
Q11: What would you suggest as key themes for T17? • • • • • • • • • • • •
Transformational design methodologies Inter-cultural dialogue Multiple ways of learning From theory to practice and the other way around I am important - Personal transformation as sustainable transformation Transformation in practice, collaborations across academia and practice/policy Societal relevance of research Politics (incl. power, gender, race, etc.) Skills and capabilities necessary for transformative action Accelerating transformations Bridging theory and practice Transformations in the global South
Q12: What key outcomes/outputs should T17 produce? • • • • • • • • • • • •
Involve media to help "get the story out." Creating Transformation networks Building capacity of researchers to do co-design and co-production I think an e-platform showing case studies of transformation as above would be neat A digital forum where presenters and attendees can communicate Incorporating tangible example of transformation, e.g., normal agriculture to floating gardening Capacity building/training for transformation praxis Integrate new actors - from fundamental science to fundamental business Connect researchers, practitioners and policy makers Demonstrations of hackathon outcomes Film with results (society outreach) A Wiki site
Q12: What key outcomes/outputs should T17 produce? • A significant strategic mobilisation of researchers, practitioners (incl. policymakers?) and funders/support • Build on emerging networks from the conference. • Use the crowd of the conference for some actions in Dundee • Improve the education level in actors most vulnerable • Define outcomes and outputs and be very clear about a potential theory of change • Videos and multi-media • Inspirative guidelines what are positive paths for the future • Good examples around the world, e.g. "seeds" • Key insights about transformations in practice • synthesis paper on each of the conference themes based on content submitted and discussed • Policy recommendations, recommendations for researchers' role in policy
Suggested Next Steps • Set up a 1.5 conference call with clear agenda to discuss results and summarize lessons learned from T15 to T17 • Discuss implications for publishing – or simply sharing these results from T15 • Measurement of T17 – Purpose: analysis of conference effect on transformation in practice
Learning from Transformations 2015 in Stockholm To Inform Transformations 2017 in Scotland
Thank you