Active8-Planet Project Context
Challenge
Recent global movements (such as for instance School strike for Climate) indicate a rapidly growing awareness, frustration, and eagerness of the European youth to actively engage with securing a sustainable future for all. Even though the need for a holistic, interdisciplinary and cross-sector approach to sustainability has been increasingly recognised on research and policy levels, the trickle-down to higher education curricula and learning approaches has been slow.
Innovation
In the Active8-Planet project we aim to research and experiment with unconventional approaches towards teaching and learning that would empower and mobilise students towards future-oriented climate and sustainability actions and enhance transformation of the university research and knowledge in planet-centred interventions. We provide young people a platform to act.
Paradigm Shifts
Moving from the expert mindset to the people-centred mindset, and from the people-centred to the planet-centred mindset. Leaving behind the egoistic mindset, in which we put solely ourselves in the centre, and grasping a more eco-driven mindset, in which we put our planet in the main focus. Through our project activities we aim to raise the first cohorts of active and passionate individuals – the so-called “Planeteers” – becoming our ambassadors, who will stand for and share our key values and principles across geographical and sectoral boundaries.
EU Context
Active8-Planet is an international project funded by the European Union. Students, teachers, and company partners from four different countries participate and collaborate to innovate education. In each country a 7+1 team is formed to work in multidisciplinary teams together with professional stakeholders. Each team tackles its own challenge.
VU Context
At the Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam (VU) the project is combined with the thesis of four master students of two different master programs; SCA (MSc Social and Cultural Anthropology) and COM (MSc Culture, Organization & Management). This means these students and their supervisors will be using the Active8-Planet challenge as their thesis topic. This allows them to spend more time on the project and use it for multiple purposes. However, the project will cost additional time, besides the thesis work. Extracurricular activities (some optional, others mandatory) are organised within the project to promote collaboration with external stakeholders and translate the academic results into practical insights. See below an overview of all project activities.
VU Challenge – Community Garden
A Community Garden is a concept where a green space is created and used by a (local) community. It is already being applied in many places in Amsterdam, including the Zuid-As. The concept has much in common with the work of Hans Cox and Peter van Kesteren in making the VU Campus more sustainable.
What we are going to investigate
“How can we realise an inclusive community garden on the VU Campus?”
With the Active8-Planet project at the VU we want to investigate the Community Garden concept in a qualitative way. For the time being there is no space for it on the VU campus. But in many other places in the city, and on other campuses, this concept has already been implemented and sometimes even researched. The concept is in line with many objectives from the VU, including setting up a living lab. Also, there is a neglected island next to the Botanical Garden without any development plans. Our clients are interested in the added value and preconditions of a Community Garden for a university campus. This is exactly what we will investigate with Active8-Planet.
“In Amsterdam, there is more need than supply.”
To be able to cultivate a piece of land in Amsterdam, you have to have a lot of patience and/or luck. An allotment soon has a waiting period of 15 years. Especially among the population of (international) students, getting an allotment is often not possible.
“Through this research, realising a Community Garden on the VU Campus can move up on the list.”
What themes are relevant
| Greening | “The VU has the ambition to become the greenest urban campus in the world.”
A Community Garden is a form of greening. What is interesting is the difference between the current design, which is mainly passive greenery. A Community Garden is an active application of greenery. What is actually the added value of space for agriculture compared to a green park? Is this added value enough to modify the current plan for the campus? |
| Social Cohesion | “If people are mesmerised by it, it will stay with them.”
A Community Garden requires maintenance. Usually this is carried out by volunteers from the local area. These people come together with a common goal. In doing so, in addition to greening, a Community Garden also fulfils a role in facilitating encounters. This social interaction, often also between different layers of society, can also play a role in promoting student welfare, and provide space for mindfulness and social cohesion in an area. But what aspects of a Community Garden are crucial to promoting social cohesion? How can we apply them from the VU? |
| Education | “You only learn to appreciate green space when you can touch it.”
In an urban environment, for many residents there is a great distance to food production. Not only a physical distance but also a distance in understanding. With growing food on a Community Garden, you reduce this distance. You bring production closer, which of course reduces the footprint, but also provides space for expanding the understanding around food production. What (life) lessons do people involved in a Community Garden learn? What opportunities are there to link VU education to a Community Garden? |
Active8-Planet is looking for partners – join us!
Are you eager to make this campus greener? Become a partner of our EU-funded multidisciplinary project Active8-Planet to green our university campus and make it more sustainable. We’re looking for interested partners to collaborate and support our proposal to the VU board to help us realize an inclusive community garden on our university campus.
In many cities and university campuses, community gardens are being developed and researched. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam also wishes to green its campus, approaching it as a living lab. For example, students are encouraged to experiment with different greening projects.
So, do you want to think along with which functionalities the garden needs to have, help setup communication strategies to recruit volunteers, and convince the VU board that this garden needs? Be our partner! We’ve already teamed up with the Student Wellbeing Point and FCO (Facilitaire Campus Organisatie) but we’re eager to connect to more relevant parties to incorporate all the VU-Campus needs and support.
Join us!
Please contact Soesja van Wijgerden (s.van.wijgerden@vu.nl) to discover how you can be part of this movement.