Under the Land Use / Urban and Rural Development research area, IGCS focuses on urban expansion, particularly on the peri-urban fringes of cities and functional urban-rural interdependencies. Researchers seek to understand the drivers behind expansion and growth, the role of institutions and policies and how they interact with urban, suburban and rural aspirations, the social, economic and environmental impacts of peri-urban growth and how these processes are governed.
Last Friday, our Katchipedu Nook Self-learning Space was honored by a visit of Mr. Scott Hartmann, Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, and his colleague Mr. Gokula Selvarajan, Experiential Learning Coordinator. They took a keen interest in the project activities, enjoyed the fun interaction with the learners, and also participated in a field visit to Katchipedu village. The Consulate has many opportunities for funding the promotion of individual learners in various ways, including scholarships and beyond, which also offers workshops for further qualification. We are looking forward to more collaborations in the future. A big thanks for your visit!
IGCS is proud to announce that the 5th iteration of the Indo-German Dialogue was successfully conducted on 13th – 15th October 2023 at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, South India, on the theme “Genus loci – Locality matters: Embedding sustainable transformation in local contexts”. Congratulations to IGCS-post doc Dr. Christoph Woiwode, the F5Green Foundation, and Tiruvannamalai. Over the years not only a network but also a sort of “IGD family” has grown with new delegates joining in every time. We are extremely grateful for the partnership with Renuka and Raj from F5 Green Foundation who welcomed some 30 participants to their ‘Vaan Sirappu’ Knowledge Exchange Centre on their marvellous farm in what was to be an experiential immersion to local sustainability practices and places of practice.
Sharing one’s own experiences from practice and research through case studies and field trips, in discussions, dyadic encounters, through reflective exercises and group interactions, also developing ideas to create a potential for collaborations, describes in a nutshell the format of the IGD series as a continuously evolving platform of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural Indo-German interaction. Besides plenty of sharing, talking and chatting, we explored the ‘genus loci’ by climbing the sacred mountain Arunachalamalai. We were also deeply impressed by a farmers’ collective whose members displayed their detailed, intergenerational knowledge about the ecosystem habitats related to agriculture. It has been once more an extremely rewarding and worthwhile event. A big thanks to IGCS for the co-funding and to every one and all who made this IGD such a glowing event.
IGCS postdoc Christoph Woiwode conducted two more workshops in the Sustainability Workshop Series for the Katchipattu Nook near Chennai on 15th and 25th May. Dr. Woiwode says:
“These sessions are tailor-designed for the learners of our self-learning space and build on each other, using explorative and experiential learning approaches to nudge the ingenuity and creativity of the kids aged between 6 to 16.
The second workshop was designed by IGCS intern Maria-Sofia Caputo, a psychologist graduate from University of Saarland. Besides generating a wonderful learning spirit and ambitions among the learners, potentials and opportunities for contributing to community development in the village are also explored. Thus, we had a fantastic arts exhibition of posters depicting favourite and likeable places as well as disliked and ugly spots, we calculated our ecological footprint and discussed how it is related to resources and carbon emissions. A field visit to the village pond helped to understand its relevance and why it is being littered. The second day concluded with crafting flower pots from plastic bottles to plant seeds and plants to beautify the Nook learning space.
We are grateful to the entire Nook team in Katchipattu for their support and the wonderful work they do every day. We shall keep you posted on the workshops to follow!”
