Launching a platform for transformative research, education & engagement
We’re creating a hub to bring together researchers from a range of academic disciplines to tackle complex societal challenges.
You’re welcome to join us as we launch the new Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform at Erasmus University Rotterdam on 25 November 2021. It’s a space where all EUR colleagues can venture beyond their academic disciplines to collaborate for just and sustainable transitions.
How will we do it? By using design methods, action research and co-creation with societal actors. In fact, the DIT platform is an action research experiment in itself. Together, we are trying to find out the best ways to institutionalise and organise transdisciplinary academic work for just, sustainable futures. Join us!
Different ways of thinking and doing
The DIT platform will look for truly different ways of thinking and doing things. We’ll use a transdisciplinary philosophy to strive for cooperation and integration of different types of knowledge, and we’ll connect social issues to researchers from numerous disciplines to tackle complex societal challenges – they’ll need transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations and approaches.
Experience DIT at the launch event
Join us on 25 November for an exciting online programme. There will be interesting guest speakers, break-out rooms and an introduction to the DIT team. This is your chance to get to know DIT and find out how you can be involved yourself. Your DIT hosts and organizers for the day will be:
- Prof. Derk Loorbach, Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam and director of DRIFT, which offers consultancy and strategic interventions to help organisations understand their changing environment
- Marieke de Wal, managing director of the Partnerships Resource Centre at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). She uses an approach of pro-active social stakeholder engagement in her role in developing action research projects.
- Dr Mariangela Lavanga, Associate Professor at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). Mariangela researches and teaches on cultural and creative industries and urban development with active stakeholders’ engagement.
- Dr Yogi Hendlin, Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), and core faculty of the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Yogi is an environmental philosopher and public health scientist.
- Dr Ana Vasques, lecturer and course coordinator in Life Sciences at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Erasmus University College (EUC).
- Dr Julia Wittmayer, Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) and senior researcher and advisor at DRIFT. Julia researches sustainable transitions and the roles therein of social innovations, governance, research and transdisciplinary engagements.
You can download the programme of the day below. If you want to attend, please sign up using the form at the bottom of this page.
Speakers
Dr İdil GaziulusoyAssistant Professor Sustainable Design, Aalto University
Prof. Jennie C. StephensDean's Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy, Northeastern University
Prof. Liesbeth Noordegraaf-EelensProfessor Transformative Academic Education , Erasmus University
Download the programme here
More about the DIT approach
Universities harbour an impressive amount of knowledge about complex societal challenges and how to tackle them – and academics are increasingly asked by students, businesses, and public organisations to use this knowledge to make a positive societal impact.
Too often, universities offer their knowledge without translation; it’s given as a description without application or a recommendation without experience. Making positive contributions to transforming our economy and society within ecological boundaries in a just and inclusive way implies a transition in academia. The approach of the DIT platform is a change to how we ‘do’ academic work, namely using transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations and approaches in research and education, and a much more urgent and guided engagement with society. DIT aims to change the contributions of the EUR. No longer is it a knowledge institute at a distance, but it becomes a knowledge co-producer in the midst of society.
Many colleagues are already engaged in societal challenges, work with societal actors, and use their research to achieve scientific as well as societal impact. But too often they also face the boundaries of their discipline or their institutions or reach the limit of what one person can do. We also see that in many cases a fundamental academic debate around the negative impacts and necessary paradigm changes within disciplines is missing. What is the future of economics in an era of climate change and the decline of using fossil fuels? What is the future of business and marketing when we need to consume less? What is the future of law when it becomes an instrument for social change? What is the future of governance when a government needs to become mission-oriented?
DIT aims to facilitate such debates and collaborations across boundaries by being an environment where EUR colleagues can come together to find likeminded colleagues, exciting societal challenges, support for impact research, and to create a scientific grounding of what we collectively will develop.
This is perhaps the most exciting aspect: the DIT platform is an action research experiment in itself. Together, we are trying to find out the best ways to institutionalise and organise transdisciplinary academic work for just, sustainable futures.
We call upon all colleagues who support our mission to contribute to DIT and co-create the platform at the EUR.
Follow the webinar here!
Zoom Webinar: https://eur-nl.zoom.us/j/94538739480
Meeting ID: 945 3873 9480
Any questions about the event?
- Email address
- dit@eur.nl