The Sustainable Households theme, led by Sarah Parry and Faye Wade, hosted a residential retreat at LochInsh Outdoor Centre in January. The three-day residential was attended by 37 people and was a first step in bridging, consolidating and amplifying Scottish research expertise in the arts, humanities and social sciences with a focus on household sustainability. The aim was to develop new interdisciplinary research collaborations, think creatively about what sustainable households are and can be, and identify priority agendas for future research.
Sessions included a series of creative provocations to help us think about sustainable households. This involved collaborative mapping of our expertise and interests, activity sessions on thinking with and through nature and music, and a cabaret of methods. Participants were encouraged to engage with Scottish culture and the surrounding landscape, which was achieved with a short walk, an evening discussion from Mhairi Hall, who creates music using underwater recordings in Cairngorm National Park, and some even broke through the ice to take a dip in the frozen loch!
Participants were overwhelmingly positive about the experience. They noted that ‘“freely exploring ideas without the need to define endpoints was very creative”, and that “gaining an understanding of how different disciplines think about sustainability and the different methodological approaches has been extremely useful.”
One participant highlighted: “The residential opened up an incredibly generative space of openness and exploration in which ideas and cross-fertilisation could be shared and developed.
“It highlighted for me how important it is to have such immersive multi-day events in which the building of robust ideas and research relationships can be built in meaningful ways, and without undue competitive forces at work.”
It was a very lively few days, and we are excited to have started building a network of researchers working in this space. Following the retreat, the Sustainable Households theme has developed their first Seed Fund with more on the successful projects coming soon!
