Natures, Cultures, and Communities

Kevin Grecksch, CSLS Postdoc and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, was invited to participate and speak at the British Academy and Royal Irish Academy symposium on ‘Natures, Cultures, and Communities’. The symposium took place between 31 January and 1 February in Dublin, Ireland and invited 30 early career researcher form the humanities and social sciences to intensively discuss these themes and to develop future research collaboration between the two countries.

Drawing from his research experience on climate change adaptation and water governance, Kevin highlighted the difficulty of the management, regulation and governance of natural resources in the future. ‘Our current climate change and natural resources policies are characterised by path dependencies and lock-ins. We need more courage and trust to develop truly new policies.’ A key characteristic of these new policies must be the inclusion of all affected stakeholders and the co-creation of knowledge. A recent example of co-creating with stakeholders was Kevin’s work on water efficiency in the public sector.