For the past decade I have, as an artist/researcher, investigated the uses of photographic pictures in East African country Uganda. The relation between photographic pictures and memory have been well researched and argued. But this is often done from a rather one sided Eurocentric perspective on photographic pictures. Over the past decades its universality has been questioned.A rather hybrid artistic practice, in which my role shifts from maker to curator to analyst and back again, provides the method to enter correspondences [Ingold, 2012] on (photographic) pictures with their Ugandan makers and users. Together we explore the continuously changing situated knowledge [harraway, 1988] embedded in photographic pictures in Uganda.One of the case studies in my PhD research is the cultural biography of one of the first photographs made in the kingdom of Buganda. Explorer Henry Morton Stanley produced it in 1875. Three vintage prints of this picture, depicting the Kabaka (King) and some of his chiefs are part of a collection of material related to the colonial past of Belgium. The photograph was hardly known in Uganda when I started showing it around. Interpretations of it were known, but not connected to their source. Together with Ugandan artists I explored and commented on the past that was, is and could remembered through the availability of the photograph and both its historical and newly made interpretations. Visuals and spoken word have equal weight and are woven into an argument in the proposed presentation.
DOCUMENT
Citizens’ initiatives are believed to be a suitable alternative approach to service provision, especially in rural areas where services and facilities are under pressure because of depopulation and the decentralization measures of the state. To date, research has mainly focused on successful examples of these types of initiatives, revealing which factors influence success and how success can be facilitated. However, understanding the process of failure is equally important in order to provide the needed support and to increase the chances of success. This paper specifically focuses on citizens’ initiatives that are perceived by their initiators to have failed. This study adopts an integral approach, not only focusing on failure factors but also considering failure as a process. Within the literature, six obstacles to the success of citizens’ initiatives were identified based on studies of success. Three case studies on failed citizens’ initiatives in the Northern Netherlands revealed three themes in the process of perceived failure: interactions with governments and institutions, appropriation and personal investment. We also conclude that the process of perceived failure is dominated by a discrepancy of scale because citizens’ initiatives operate on the local level, yet they depend on and must interact with governments and institutions that operate at the regional level.
LINK
The in-depth assessment of the situation of the European textile and clothing sector is composed by six independent reports with a close focus on key aspects useful to understand the dynamics and the development of the textile and clothing industry, drivers of change – most notably the impact of the financial crisis – and identification of policy responses and best practices. This has been done in six specific tasks leading to the six reports: Task 1 Survey on the situation of the EU textile and clothing sector Task 2 Report on research and development Task 3 Report on SME situation Task 4 Report on restructuring Task 5 Report on training and Education Task 6 Report on innovation practices This present report of task 5 provides an in-depth analysis of what has been done in terms of VET developments over the last decade in three key TC regions in Europe. It investigates industry ‘s attitudes and practices, education and training changes, and eventually tries to identify how mismatches between skills supply and demand have been addressed there and could possibly be addressed in the future in other regions of Europe.
MULTIFILE
Energy transition is key to achieving a sustainable future. In this transition, an often neglected pillar is raising awareness and educating youth on the benefits, complexities, and urgency of renewable energy supply and energy efficiency. The Master Energy for Society, and particularly the course “Society in Transition”, aims at providing a first overview on the urgency and complexities of the energy transition. However, educating on the energy transition brings challenges: it is a complex topic to understand for students, especially when they have diverse backgrounds. In the last years we have seen a growing interest in the use of gamification approaches in higher institutions. While most practices have been related to digital gaming approaches, there is a new trend: escape rooms. The intended output and proposed innovation is therefore the development and application of an escape room on energy transition to increase knowledge and raise motivation among our students by addressing both hard and soft skills in an innovative and original way. This project is interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary due to the complexity of the topic; it consists of three different stages, including evaluation, and requires the involvement of students and colleagues from the master program. We are confident that this proposed innovation can lead to an improvement, based on relevant literature and previous experiences in other institutions, and has the potential to be successfully implemented in other higher education institutions in The Netherlands.
Designing cities that are socially sustainable has been a significant challenge until today. Lately, European Commission’s research agenda of Industy 5.0 has prioritised a sustainable, human-centric and resilient development over merely pursuing efficiency and productivity in societal transitions. The focus has been on searching for sustainable solutions to societal challenges, engaging part of the design industry. In architecture and urban design, whose common goal is to create a condition for human life, much effort was put into elevating the engineering process of physical space, making it more efficient. However, the natural process of social evolution has not been given priority in urban and architectural research on sustainable design. STEPS stems from the common interest of the project partners in accessible, diverse, and progressive public spaces, which is vital to socially sustainable urban development. The primary challenge lies in how to synthesise the standardised sustainable design techniques with unique social values of public space, propelling a transition from technical sustainability to social sustainability. Although a large number of social-oriented studies in urban design have been published in the academic domain, principles and guidelines that can be applied to practice are large missing. How can we generate operative principles guiding public space analysis and design to explore and achieve the social condition of sustainability, developing transferable ways of utilising research knowledge in design? STEPS will develop a design catalogue with operative principles guiding public space analysis and design. This will help designers apply cross-domain knowledge of social sustainability in practice.
Aandoeningen die te maken hebben met slijtage, zoals degeneratieve kraakbeen defecten, zullen steeds meer voorkomen vanwege de ouder wordende generatie. Momenteel zijn alleen al in Nederland 1,5 miljoen mensen die lijden aan een dergelijke aandoening. Kraakbeen is van zichzelf niet in staat om te genezen. Met dit project werken we naar een mogelijkheid om defecten te verhelpen met 3D-bioprinten.
Lectoraat, onderdeel van NHL Stenden Hogeschool
