Workshop Invitation – Empowering Research Methodologies Training

28. – 31. August 2014 in Bonn, Germany

What is my role as a researcher? What is the role of science in society? And is empowerment relevant for science? We cordially invite you to a training workshop in Empowering Research Methodologies, provided to you by the Youth Future Project e.V. (YFP) and the Right Livelihood College (RLC). The YFP has made it its mission to support young people in creating and promoting practices for the transformation towards a life-sustaining society. Transformative approaches are also springing up in many scientific disciplines today, with empowering aspects taking a central role in the development towards transdisciplinarity.

This training workshop is dedicated to exploring empowering research methods based on Participatory Action Research with techniques of visualising knowledge and ideas. It seeks to enable young researchers to work cooperatively with the communities, in which they research, and to apply methodologies which support the communities in orienting their own livelihoods towards sustainable development.

The intention of this workshop is to launch a cooperation amongst young researchers for furthering empowering methodologies, and every researcher is welcome, especially if you intend to apply these methodologies and engage in promoting them. Therefore, participation in the workshop will be for free and there is the possibility to ask for support in covering travel and accommodation costs. In terms of workshop organisation we would like to foster a culture of cooperativeness and self- determination. Thus we welcome your ideas and suggestions and will support the participants in organising themselves, e.g. for car-sharing. Please register as soon as possible by filling in the attached registration form and sending it to empowering@youthfuture.de

About the Trainers

Dr. Hermann J. Tillmann is an agricultural Anthropologist with a regional specialization in mountain regions and peoples in Latin America and in SE-Asia and SW-China. He has many years of experience in rural communication, amongst others 10 years in the highlands of Peru and 6 years in Yunnan, China. He was co-founder of the Participatory Technology Development (PTD)/ Participatory Innovation Development (PID) St. Ulrich Group (1993). He is advisor of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience of Coventry University for the Andean Program on Food Sovereignty since 2007, advisor of Right Livelihood College in Bonn and Penang since 2009, and visiting professor of Chiang Mai University, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and Passau University (South East Asian Institute), Germany in charge of Participatory Action Research and Indigenous Knowledge. He is a consultant to Burmese NGOs and the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Myanmar for participatory action research methods of Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Resource Management. His main concern is the empowerment of local mountain people to be able to decide on their future livelihoods in peace.

Ana Adzersen is Facilitator for Sustainable Cooperation. She gives workshops and coaches teams for building a stable basis for long-term cooperation. By facilitating group processes with innovative methods, she initiates a lasting interrelation of the development of each individual with the vision of their team and community. The result is commitment and activism towards sustainable development.

More Informations and Registration:

Workshop Invitation – Empowering Research Methodologies Empowering Methodologies – Registration Form

Workshop Invitation – Empowering Research Methodologies Training

28. – 31. August 2014 in Bonn, Germany

What is my role as a researcher? What is the role of science in society? And is empowerment relevant for science? We cordially invite you to a training workshop in Empowering Research Methodologies, provided to you by the Youth Future Project e.V. (YFP) and the Right Livelihood College (RLC). The YFP has made it its mission to support young people in creating and promoting practices for the transformation towards a life-sustaining society. Transformative approaches are also springing up in many scientific disciplines today, with empowering aspects taking a central role in the development towards transdisciplinarity.

This training workshop is dedicated to exploring empowering research methods based on Participatory Action Research with techniques of visualising knowledge and ideas. It seeks to enable young researchers to work cooperatively with the communities, in which they research, and to apply methodologies which support the communities in orienting their own livelihoods towards sustainable development.

The intention of this workshop is to launch a cooperation amongst young researchers for furthering empowering methodologies, and every researcher is welcome, especially if you intend to apply these methodologies and engage in promoting them. Therefore, participation in the workshop will be for free and there is the possibility to ask for support in covering travel and accommodation costs. In terms of workshop organisation we would like to foster a culture of cooperativeness and self- determination. Thus we welcome your ideas and suggestions and will support the participants in organising themselves, e.g. for car-sharing. Please register as soon as possible by filling in the attached registration form and sending it to empowering@youthfuture.de

About the Trainers

Dr. Hermann J. Tillmann is an agricultural Anthropologist with a regional specialization in mountain regions and peoples in Latin America and in SE-Asia and SW-China. He has many years of experience in rural communication, amongst others 10 years in the highlands of Peru and 6 years in Yunnan, China. He was co-founder of the Participatory Technology Development (PTD)/ Participatory Innovation Development (PID) St. Ulrich Group (1993). He is advisor of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience of Coventry University for the Andean Program on Food Sovereignty since 2007, advisor of Right Livelihood College in Bonn and Penang since 2009, and visiting professor of Chiang Mai University, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and Passau University (South East Asian Institute), Germany in charge of Participatory Action Research and Indigenous Knowledge. He is a consultant to Burmese NGOs and the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Myanmar for participatory action research methods of Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Resource Management. His main concern is the empowerment of local mountain people to be able to decide on their future livelihoods in peace.

Ana Adzersen is Facilitator for Sustainable Cooperation. She gives workshops and coaches teams for building a stable basis for long-term cooperation. By facilitating group processes with innovative methods, she initiates a lasting interrelation of the development of each individual with the vision of their team and community. The result is commitment and activism towards sustainable development.

More Informations and Registration:

Workshop Invitation – Empowering Research Methodologies Empowering Methodologies – Registration Form

Welche Fragen beschäftigen euch im Bezug auf unsere Zukunft? Welche gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen beobachtet ihr, worüber macht ihr euch Sorgen? Das habe ich die Schüler_innen der FWS Sorsum gefragt und einige Antworten bekommen: Digitalisierung und Überwachung, Ressourcenknappheit, die Dynamik unseres Wirtschaftssystems…

Zum „Tag der Zukunft“ habe ich Menschen eingeladen, die sich mit der Lösung dieser Probleme beschäftigen, Workshops mit den Schüler_innen der FWS Sorsum zu machen. Es gab viel positives Feedback zur großen Bandbreite der Workshop-angebote. Die Schüler_innen konnten sich spontan und frei entscheiden ob sich sich lieber mit „Peak Oil“, „Postwachstums-Ökonomie“, „Internet und Überwachung“, „Widerstand gegen Tierfabriken“, „Rekommunalisierung“, „Cradle to Cradle“, „Konflikte um Ressourcen“, „Klimawandel und Landwirtschaft“ oder „Virtuellem Wasser“ beschäftigen wollen.

Die Meinung der Schüler_innen zur Tagung:
„Die Zeiteinteilung war sehr gut. Die Referenten, die gut vorbereitet waren und von ihrem Thema, welches sie referierten, Ahnung hatten, überzeugten.“

Aber auch:
„Ich glaube es wäre besser die Projekte und Workshops noch weiter und intensiver zu bearbeiten und noch gezielter darauf zu gucken, was wir selbst gegenwärtiges ändern können und wie hierbei sollte auch Schülerinitiativen der betreffenden Schulen referieren können.“

Da der „Tag der Zukunft“ meine erste Veranstaltung an einer Schule war, habe ich auch einiges gelernt. Während der Vormittag mit den Workshops ein voller Erfolg war, ist mein Konzept für den Nachmittag mit Info-Tischen und Übungen in der Großgruppe nicht aufgegangen. Vielleicht könnten dort ebenfalls Workshops stattfinden oder die Schüler_innen selber etwas vorstellen.

Besonders gefreut habe ich mich über die die schöne Zusammenarbeit mit den Lehrer_innen der FWS Sorsum. Vor allem Jörg Meemken hat mich sehr unterstützt, zahlreiche Fragen beantwortet und viele Dinge organisiert.

geschrieben von Philipp Baum

What concerns you about our futures? Which social developments do you see that concern you? This is what I asked the students at FWS Sorsum school, and I got some answers: digitalisation and surveillance, shortage of resources, the dynamics of our economic system…

On this “Day for the Future”, I invited people who work on solutions to these problems to do workshops with the students of FWS Sorsum. There was a lot of positive feedback to the large range of workshop options. The students could spontaneously decide whichever topic they would rather do: “Peak Oil”, “post-growth economy”, “Internet and surveillance”, “stand against slaughter houses”, “municipalisation”, “climate change and agriculture” or “virtual water”.

The students’ opinion on the sessions:
“The time management was really good. The speakers were convincing. They were well prepared and knew what they were talking about.”

But also:
“I think it would have been better if the projects and workshops had been more intensive, and if there had been more of a view as to what we can currently change and how in doing so we should be able to report student initiatives from the affected schools.”

As the “Day for the Future” was my first event in a school, I learnt a few things myself. Whilst the workshops in the morning were a great success, my idea for information desks and activities in large groups during the afternoon did not prove as successful. Maybe workshops could replace them, or the students could suggest something themselves.

I was particularly happy about the collaboration with the teachers at FWS Sorsum. Jörg Meemken, in particular, supported me by answering numerous questions and organising many other things.

By Philipp Baum

Translated by Stacey Pearce within the initative PerMondo. Sponsored by Mondo Agit offering translations from Spanish into English.

Von Alessa Rhode

Wer steckt eigentlich hinter der Right Livelihood Foundation? Wie werden die PreisträgerInnen des Right Livelihood Award ausgewählt? Und warum braucht jede_r Stockholmbesucher_in ein Kirschblütenfoto?

Ende April hatte ich die Möglichkeit bei meinem Besuch in der schwedischen Hauptstadt diesen und anderen Fragen auf den Grund zu gehen. Ich konnte für zwei Tage im Büro der Right Livelihood Foundation einen Blick hinter die Kulissen werfen, einen Streifzug durch Regale voller Büchern von und über inspirierende Persönlichkeiten machen und die herzlichen MitarbeiterInnen und Praktikantinnen kennen lernen.

Es war spannend zu sehen, wie der Prozess des Vorschlags und der Evaluation von KandidatInnen für den Right Livelihood Award verläuft. Wusstet ihr, dass ihr alle einen für euch besonderen Menschen vorschlagen könnt? Es ist beeindruckend welche vielfältigen Aufgaben dieses überschaubare Team stemmt – damit durch den Preis überall auf der Welt Menschen ermutigt und in ihrem Engagement bestärkt werden.

Neben meiner Bewunderung für die Hingabe und das Herzblut, mit welcher das Team bei der Arbeit ist, sind es die kleinen Dinge, die mir in Erinnerung geblieben sind: der prall gefüllte Obstkorb für alle, eine Gitarrenstunde am Arbeitsplatz und Anekdoten von Aserbaidschan.

Während der gemeinsam mit dem ganzen Team verbrachten Mittagspause, bekam ich zudem Eindrücke von schönen Stockholmer Cafés, Hippvierteln und dem besten Wrap der Stadt!

Was es mit dem Kirschblütenfoto auf sich hat? Fahrt im Frühjahr nach Stockholm und findet es heraus!

Hinten von l.n.r: Börje Andersson, Sharan Srinivas, Alessa Rhode, Ole von Uexküll, Steffi Geilhof // Vorne von l.n.r.: Laura Marinică, Lauren Glenmere, Kajsa Övergaard

From Alessa Rhode

Who are the people behind the Right Livelihood Foundation? How are the Laureates of the Right Livelihood award selected? And why does every visitor of Stockholm needs a cherry blossom picture?

During my Stockholm visit at the end of April I had the chance to get at the bottom of these and other questions. For two days I was able to look behind the scenes at the office of the Right Livelihood Foundation, to ramble around the shelves packed with books from and over inspiring personalities and to get to know the cordial staff members and interns.

It was fascinating to see how the process of proposal and selection of candidates for the Right Livelihood Awards runs. Did you know that all of you could propose a for you special person? It is impressing how many various tasks this small team is handling – in order to encourage people with the price all over the world and to strengthen them in their actions.

Besides my admiration for the commitment and enthusiasm, with which the team is doing their work, the small things stick in my mind: the tightly filled fruit basket for everyone, the guitar lesson at the workplace and anecdotes from Azerbaijan.

While the lunch breaks, which were spent with the whole team, I furthermore got impressions of cosy Stockholm coffee places, hipster areas and of the best wrap in town!

What is the story with the cherry blossom picture about? You may find it out by yourself during a journey to Stockholm in spring.

Back f.l.t.r: Börje Andersson, Sharan Srinivas, Alessa Rhode, Ole von Uexküll, Steffi Geilhof // Front f.l.t.r.: Laura Marinică, Lauren Glenmere, Kajsa Övergaard

Welche Gründe bewegen Menschen zur Flucht? Können wir als Noch-nie-Geflüchtete darüber reden? Wie werden Grenzen bewacht, welche Legitimation besitzt Frontex und welche Hindernisse erwarten Flüchtinge in der EU? Was geht es mich an und was kann ich tun?

Die Idee war, uns auf dieser Reise mit einem Thema auseinander zu setzen, was bei den meisten von uns im Alltag leider oft zu kurz kommt obwohl wir es für wichtig halten. Um dies zu ermöglichen wollten wir einen offenen und freien Raum jenseits des Alltagslebens schaffen um mit- und voneinander zu lernen. Der Traditionssegler Lovis schien uns der passende Ort dafür – setzt sich die Crew doch schon seit Jahre mit Flüchtlingspolitik auseinander. So kamen 25 junge Erwachsene aus Deutschland und Dänemark zusammen und brachten die unterschiedlichsten Vorkenntnisse mit sich. Einige konnten bereits aktiv in der Flüchtlingshilfe Erfahrungen sammeln, andere waren mit dem Thema nur aus den Tagesmedien vertraut. Genau dies war die Voraussetzung für ein produktives, gemeinsames Lernen.

Segeltörn vom YFP auf der Lovis zum Thema Grenzen überWINDen

Lernen und Leben auf engstem Raum, Segeln und Ankern, Anlegen und Segelbergen, Kleingruppenarbeit, Open Space und Diskussion. Unsere Tage wurden zunächst durch das Segeln strukturiert. Beim Segelsetzen oder bei Manövern waren alle gefordert und durften mitanpacken. In den Zwischenzeiten haben wir uns zusammengefunden und inhaltlich gearbeitet. Es gab Kleingruppendiskussionen zu Themen wie FRONTEX oder Klimaflüchtlinge, Input-Referate zu Critical Whiteness und Selbsterfahrungsrunden zur Mainstream-Margin Problematik. Wir haben uns ein Bild der rechtlichen Lage machen können und von aktuellen Beispielen zur Unterstützung von Geflüchteten vor Ort gehört.

Abwechslungsreicher Wochenplan

Neben der inhaltlichen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema haben wir gemeinsam gekocht und gelacht, Ingwer gegen die Seekrankheit gemampft und uns im Klüvernetz die Gischt um die Ohren spritzen lassen. Wir haben von den Skipper_Innen viel über die Situation im Mittelmeer gelernt, aber auch was das Besan oder ein Backstag ist.

Nach dem fünftägigen Segeltörn sind wir gemeinsam nach Hamburg gefahren und haben uns mit der Flüchtlingsarbeit vor Ort auseinander gesetzt. Am Samstag haben wir uns am nationalen Aktionstag von Blocupy unter dem Motto „Solidarity Beyond Borders, Building Democracy From Below“ einer Demonstration in der Hamburger Innenstadt angeschlossen. Am Abend konnten wir im Café Knallhart noch persönlich mit Refugees aus Lampedusa in Kontakt kommen und so die Geschichten von Menschen hören, die das, worüber wir nur theoretisch reden können praktisch erlebt haben – sein Zuhause, die Familie zurücklassen um den Versuch einer Grenzüberquerung in die EU zu wagen.

Weitere Fotos bei Facebook.

What are the reasons for people to flee their home? Can we as not having made this experience talk about this? How does the EU secures their borders, what legitimacy does Frontex have and what are the obstacles encountered by refugees in the EU? Why does it affect me and what can I do?

The idea of this journey was to look into a topic, which gets to less attention in our daily life despite the fact that we think it is an urgent and important one. In order to learn from and with each other we wanted to create an open and free learning space beyond our daily life. The traditional sailing boat Lovis seemed the perfect place for this – since the crew is dealing with refugee policies for several years now. Therefor 25 young adults from Germany and Denmark joined the project, all with their different levels of knowledge on the topic. Some were already engaged activists, some know the topic only from news and media. This was the basis for a collective and fruitful learning experience.

Sailing Seminar from the YFP with the Lovis about refugees, migration and borders

Learning and living in a small space, sailing, anchoring, landing and setting the sails, small group work, open space and discussions. Our days were structured by the sailing. For setting the sails or maneuvers, everybody had to help, because only all together we were able to sail the boat. When the wind gave us a break or when we landed in the different harbours we had time to work on the Topic of migration-policy in the EU. We covered a wide range of topics like Frontex, the juridic situation in Europe, climate refuges, Critical Whiteness and the Mainstream-Margin problem were everybody worked on their own experiences. During the last day on the sea we heared about current examples of supporting refugees.

Scedule for the week

Besides dealing with content we cooked together and laughed, chewed ginger against seasickness and felt the wind and the ocean on deck. From the crew members we learned not only how to sail the boat but as well about the situation in the Mediterranean Sea.

After the five-day sailing trip we travelled to Hamburg and joined the Blocupy demonstration under the slogan: „Solidarity Beyond Borders, Building Democracy From Below“. In the evening we were able to meet refugees from Lampedusa in Hamburg. In the “Café Knallhart“ we cooked for them, had the possibility to talk and discuss different topics and played some table-top soccer. The time in Hamburg was a intense mixture of raising our voice in public and getting to know people who actually went throug what we, could only try to grasp – leaving home, family and everything that is valuable to try to cross the european borders.

More Pictures at Facebook.

Read about a project that came out of the Youth Future Conference 2013, a group of activists from Kosovo (or better: Kosova, as the local people named it) starting to raise awarness for environmental issues in a country where everyone justs plunks down their garbage in the streets.

What is it?

youthinkgreen Kosova is an NGO that works on projects concerning sustainable development and environmental awareness. It was founded by two teenagers from Prishtina, Kosovo, consisting a working group of ten people (so far).

What do we do?

We work on and organize projects, workshops and different events that have to deal with environmental awareness in Kosovo. Kosovo is one of the most polluted countries in Europe and the steps taken to improve that are very slow. Kosovo deals with different types of toxic pollutions which are as bad as for the environment, they endanger people’s health very seriously. Education and awareness of people for this issue is very small. Our main objective is to educate people of Kosovo on how to treat the environment better and healthier so that we can have a healthier life. Also we take actions and organize different protests, all of them addressing the Ministry of Environment and also the government of Kosovo so that they do more in this direction.

How do we do it?

We have different fields and areas on how we organize our work.

• Presentations: First of all many people in Kosovo are not aware with the problems that they are dealing or that they are going to deal with in the future because of the uncontrolled environment pollution. So we go to different schools and different institutions, to inform the people about the issues, consequences and the reforms that they can make to improve the situation.
• Workshops: We organize also different workshops, mostly with young people, where we can discuss and find different ways and solutions on stopping and improving the bizarre treatment of the environment here in Kosovo. Workshops include different researches, programs and different games and activities.
• Activities and actions: Our NGO also organizes activities and actions where the people of Kosovo can take part and be active. Different events like, cleaning your neighborhood and your city, environment day, earth day, etc. All of them with the idea of awareness building, stimulating and making people take action for a change. Also different protests are started from our NGO addressing the government, ministries and municipalities to do more on changing the policies that are polluting our environment, make greener decisions and cooperating with people in this direction. One good example of it is the “Tree of Hope “ that took place in Prishtina, in front of the government building.
  

Tree of hope

On December 5th, the international day of volunteering, we were introducing us to people with the action “tree of hope”. It is the international day of volunteering so we are introducing us to people with the action “tree of hope”. A couple of weeks ago we had the project week in our school. I suggested the school border that the week has to be the “week of sustainable development”. A lot of projects were done there with 250 pupils. We also have built the tree of hope with used material and garbage.

The tree of hope is an action that encourages people to write a wish or a demand in a papper leaf to our government about the environmental issues in Kosovo. Then the leaves are placed in the tree. This action is going to be in front of the government, like a protest. You may call it a peaceful protest. There are going to be presented the projects that were done in the project week. Also a lot of activities are going to take place there to draw attention to people. Then this tree, which is 2.5 meters big, is going to be sent by us to the Ministry of Environment here in Prishtina. The media is going to be there also. We are going to give away flyers for warning the people about the issues etc. Basically is going to be fun at the same time a protest. We have also spread leaves to children in different schools so they can write something in them and then take part on the action day.

Lots of things happen in the project at the moment, you’ll get an update soon!