ACElab · Alpine Community Economies Lab: Bringing together multi-level stakeholders to co-produce sustainable alpine futures in the light of economic globalisation and climate change
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-04-01 → 2021-12-10
- EU contribution
- €180,277
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Alpine Community Economies Lab: Bringing together multi-level stakeholders to co-produce sustainable alpine futures in the light of economic globalisation and climate change
The research project Alpine Community Economies Lab (ACElab) addressed the question of how to inventively support participatory processes of sustainable socio-economic development in the Alps in times of climate and biodiversity crisis. The Alps are Europe’s second largest biodiversity reservoir, home to 14 million people and part of a macroregion comprising 80 million people. Currently, economic globalization, the high vulnerability to climate change and pressure on biodiversity pose significant challenges to the Alps and all its inhabitants. To safeguard the Alps as a space in which humans can thrive in synergy and interdependence with nature, it is crucial that local inhabitants are empowered to act and work in synergy with multiple political and research-based stakeholders in defining sustainable modes of livelihood provisioning. ACElab has worked on three main objectives: - the setting up of a site-specific and street-level research lab based in the Vallagarina valley (Italian Alps) that brings together civic and institutional actors; - the development of a gender-sensitive open-access toolkit that can support communities in generating visionary collective actions for sustainable regional development; - the evaluation of the effectiveness of the lab and the toolkit in generating policy proposals and instances of co-produced regional development that acknowledge social and environmental interdependencies. To deal in empowering ways with the environmental and social challenges of our times, inventive and participatory methods can be key to get local communities on board a larger movement that works on the transition to ecologically and socially just modes of sustaining livelihoods. In the socio-economic transitions ahead, it is important that citizens have a strong voice, are able to interact with policy makers and have access to the latest break-throughs in science, when they develop their own sustainability initiatives. Moreover, it is important that power disparities, such as those related to gender inequality, are being addressed in order for local development initiatives to be beneficial for the widest range of actors possible.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Alpine Community Economies Lab (ACElab) uses participatory design methods to support alpine communities in addressing cross-cutting concerns of sustainable socio-economic development outlined in the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region and the Alpine Convention. Via a gender-sensitive community-based research space, I will engage a diversity of civic actors and policy makers in the collaborative investigation of (trans)local economies (e.g. forestry, tourism, crafts) sustaining their valley district. Together we will envision developments that have both people and the environment at their core. To do so, I mobilise my expertise in design-led civic participation and feminist economic geography and my Host and Secondment institutions’ expertise in regional development and participatory governance. Together we will prototype, test and refine a multifaceted community economies toolkit to be released via open-access.ACElab will enhance my expertise in leading participatory research projects with a gender-sensitive approach that work across the public and private sector. Through collaborations with the Host, the Secondment institution and the partnering policy makers (from local to European level), I will gain significant skills in research governance, public engagement and impact creation. I will gain expertise on alpine regional development and build research networks for follow-on grants. Thus, the fellowship will support my intended career of leading a participatory research lab in the alpine region. Beyond myself, ACElab offers significant value in the context of Horizon 2020 by addressing areas of special focus (e.g. economic growth & innovation, inclusive & reflective societies) and key objectives (e.g. build an effective research and innovation system, increase the economic potential of strategic areas) in collaboration with policy makers. Its value is significant for the Host as it premiers a community-based research lab and working with design-led methods.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ACCADEMIA EUROPEA DI BOLZANO · BolzanoCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union