Summer school on human-nature relationships for transformative change

The focus of this summer school was the role of human-nature relationships (HNR) and how it can facilitate systemic change for sustainability.

The participants were given lessons on theories about the diversity of values and knowledge arising from people's interactions with natural places, and on approaches to transformative change. These approaches were also put to practice in classroom workshops and a two-day camp in the woods during the week of 16-20 September.

Dr. Arjen Buijs, one of the organisers, says that there is a significant division between most literatures about transformative change and human-nature relationships. "Meanwhile, many scholars - including PhD students - focus on the interfaces between the two. For example, they engage with questions on how human relationships to non-human nature may ignite transformative change through embodied teaching or place-based social innovations."

An example was the class on ‘grief and hope’, which was followed by a ritualistic workshop. The participants were encouraged to use body movements and share experiences of fear, anger, grief and other emotions related to biodiversity, climate and other crisis in a circle around a camp fire. Says Hannah Wu: "We had to interact with the dark space in nature and to convert it into active hope for future actions." Hannah has made this summer school her first ‘stop’ in Wageningen University, before starting her PhD in Wageningen University.

There was also a bush craft class during which participants were taught how to turn a block of wood into a spoon. This was connected to a text by anthropologist Tim Ingold on form and matter, and on the ‘weaving of baskets and worlds’ by the Yekuana peoples of southern Venezuela. Lecturer dr. Koen Arts was impressed with the devotion of the PhD students to both the carving and the conceptual discussion. Koen: “While this form of outdoor relational education has proven its worth in BSc and MSc level teaching, it has also turned out to be of much value to the PhD students. Many walk away from the workshop with a sense of calmness, happiness and further developed academic insight.”

The PhD students who participated in the summer school were from universities around Europe, including: University of Helsinki, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Stockholm University, University of Antwerpen, Vrije University Brussel, the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (Brussel), VU Amsterdam, TU Delft, University of Groningen, and Wageningen University and Research.

The summer school was organized by the Wageningen School of Social Sciences and the Forest & Nature Conservation Policy Group (FNP). Besides Arjen and Koen from FNP, the organisers also included prof. dr. Maria Tengö and dr. Chris Ives of Nottingham University.