Category: Okategoriserade

Our time in Gotland is almost finished now. After having interviewed all actors, we have to work hard writing the report about our analysis, results, and also to go together through our notes about group dynamics. We will try to apply the theories about conflict management that we got familiar with in previous weeks. However, if… Continue reading Interviews, reflections and snow, lots of snow

When the ferry dropped us at the harbor, the picture of Gotland as summer destination took the form of a snowy charming town. Some classmates were already waiting to drive us to the cabins, but most of us walked through the town for a while and enjoyed the views. After settling in, we had a common meeting, had dinner and… Continue reading Exploring Gotland

This week all groups had to figure out how to approach the project work. We started out considering the actors that may be involved or impacted somehow in the chosen topic, such as water scarcity in our case. Lecturers were available for consultations and we visited their office a few times last week, although they… Continue reading Working on the project outline

From the 26th of February to 2rd of March the whole class will be travel to the island Gotland in order to conduct a project field work.  The research project is independently designed by us, which is cool, although we will be supervised in the process through consultation meetings. The aim of the field trip is… Continue reading Getting ready for Gotland!

The 13th of February is known as Fettisdagen (The Fat Tuesday) here in Sweden. Apparently, Fettisdagen is when people usually eat a “Semla”, quite a big bun full of cream which honors its day’s name.    All bakeries had some Semlas at the storefront!        It reminded me a bit to “The pancake day” in England to… Continue reading Fettisdagen (The Fat Tuesday)

Today I will share with you the 40 min of “No lecture” we experienced the other day. “Yes!” right?… No, not really. It was confusing! There was just one piece of paper on each table with “instructions for studies of group relations”. The instructions explained first that there were boundaries between the social system and… Continue reading A unique way of starting a lecture

Today the lecture was about how power is framed in planning theory, and the different strategies that facilitators may take, such as Authentic dialogue, Agonism, Radical Action and Instrumental rationalism. In order to explore the different strategies we did and exercise and we looked at interviews of facilitators. The session concluded with points such as… Continue reading Facilitators and power

Today the lecturer handed out the instructions of an exercise. The instructions included the conflict case background and the description of actors and their roles in the case, such as several landowners, two members of the CAB, and a member of a Conservation Society. The aim of the exercise was to experience the feelings and… Continue reading Role play! Experiencing conflict

Today we went through practical examples at the international, national and local level in which conflict appeared. The lecture focused on what you need to know about the situation, the possibilities that you can do something or not, and how to investigate this. CASE 1. Oil extraction case in Niger Delta. One point made in… Continue reading Conflict management

Yesterday we had to imagine that we were consultants commissioned by a municipality to design a participatory process over a year to handle a complex problem. In groups, we designed a participatory process that would be run during a year. We had to think about a purpose depending on the study case we received and… Continue reading Context, process and facilitation design