IGSD Dr Feng Mao and researchers across the globe are collaborating to tackle the threat of climate change to humanity – thanks to the Futures Climate Research Cohort Programme established by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the British Council.

An interview with Elena Korosteleva, the IGSD’s Director, about the role and function of the Institute.

***We are launching a Call for the Expression of Interest to become an IGSD Thematic Fellow (ITFs) to contribute to one or more thematic networks, and to become a member of a wider research impact forum, with its benefits and expectations***  

Dr Nikoleta Jones, Institute for Global Sustainable Development, has developed a prototype tool, that can be used across Europe, to assess the social value of Protected Areas. This project was supported by the Policy Support Fund.

On Monday 27 March 2023 the event 'Social Science Impact celebration event' took place in the Slate, organised by the Warwick Social Sciences Faculty and emphasising the extensive impact of projects funded through the ESRC Impact Accelaration Account between 2019-2023, across the world. During this event, IGSD's member, Assistant Professor Dr Vangelis Pitidis, was awarded the Outstanding Early Career Impact Award for his project 'Accelerating the Impact of Citizen-Generated Data for Improving the Monitoring and Management of Catastrophic Flooding'. Dr Pitidis's Project received a funding of £49,523 throught the ESRC IAA and was geographically focused on Brazil initially emphasising on combining and expanding the results of two previous larger research projects.

As an extension to the impact work already in progress, Dr Pitidis and his team took advantage of strongly established connections with local communities and of personal experience in organising and implementing participatory mapping activities with local partners in Brazil to introduce a critical mapping campaign across three different Brazilian marginalised communties: Cai Cai in São Paulo, 06 de Agosto neighbourhood in Rio Branco and Guarani Kaiowá in Contagem, Minas Gerais. of our new collaborator’s, the NGO Teto partnership network (Guarani Kaiowá in Contagem, Minas Gerais). Such activities allowed researchers to apply the a newly developed methodology entitled 'dialogical participatory mapping' and maximise the benefits from its implementation by introducing it to a new partner and collaboratively implementing it not only to one of the existing project sites but also to a newly selected area without any prior exposure to our dialogical methods. It should also be mentioned here that our new project partner, TETO, has now added participatory mapping as an operational technique in their organogram, already implementing it in other sites beyond the one piloted in the context of this project.

Based on the graphic and visual support, the maps produced in the application of the participatory-dialogical methodology provided visibility to the most urgent problems in the territory, identified by local residents. The reflection and connection with other themes, signalling the consequence of the perpetuation of such problems. Throughout the application of the methodology in the three different neighbourhoods, researchers observed the different types of risks at the local level and, through participatory mapping, shaped from the dialogue with citizens, it was also possible to produce outputs rich in technical content and relevant information in the community context. Such output included:

• Community workshops in all three neighbourhoods.
• Several participatory mapping events, with the participation of local citizens and authorities
• Artistic exhibitions
• Policy Briefs
• Manuals regarding the implementation of dialogical participatory mapping in English and Portuguese (https://publishing.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/uwp/catalog/series/water)
• Videos including reflections by researchers and community members involved in the participatory mapping process
• Academic publications