What is RECOMS? In the final event we talk about Spaces of Possibility

For the past three years Luke has been a partner in the European Horizon2020 Marie Curie Innovative Training Network RECOMS (Resourceful and Resilient Communities). The project has had an innovative approach to current sustainability crises through focusing on place-based community driven ways to face, adopt and tackle local environmental problems.

We, Rubén and Viola, are two early career researchers hosted by Luke and part of the 15 fellows group of RECOMS based in six different countries. Creative methods and transdisciplinary research approaches are at the core of RECOMS. The project has trained young scientists to critically think around topics of justice, representation and marginalized voices in the current sustainability discussion. These topics have also guided our work during the past nearly three years and taken us to memorable places and situations when we have conducted our studies in the Netherlands, Colombia (Rubén), Finland and Sweden (Viola).

Rubén’s work initially engaged with behaviour and preferences for nature conservation, using digital technology such as GIS for Participatory Mapping. More recently, the focus has shifted towards macro-analysis: how climate change is shaping government spending for the green transition. Viola’s work has taken an in-depth look at the epistemic dimensions of human-nature relationships and knowledge production in sustainability science aiming at just transformations in natural resources management.

RECOMS is coming to an end in August 2021. With the idea of reflecting, sharing and exchanging experiences within the project and other researchers, the RECOMS team organizes a CONFEX (stands for a conference and exhibition) called Spaces of Possibility: Communities and places in times of social and environmental uncertainty. The themes of the event reflect closely the key topics of RECOMS. They aim to highlight the many pathways that can be taken to direct humanity towards a more sustainable future with the focus on the resourceful practices found in local communities close to each one of us. The conference part of the event is hold online, 7-9th June, and the exhibition takes place physically in Brussels. Read more