Through social engagement, sustainability education, and theoretical and methodological knowledge development, our range of services help to create the context to support participants in becoming co-creators of change. Community building, social capital, and agency models support the learning process. Understanding issues of social, environmental, economic, and political justice becomes core to supporting the change process.
Our range of services
Catalyse Dialogues
The Space Encounter Labs
The space encounter labs are exploratory spaces to cross the boundary between formal and informal learning. Understanding that learning involves the experience of the learner provides new opportunities for inquiry that does not separate object and subject or place and person. Participants learn more effectively when they participate in the process of learning.
Build up skills capacity
Complexity Tools Training
We train individuals and organisations in using a broad range of skills and tools adapted to complex sustainability issues. The purpose of using new tools is to allow for accessibility, interaction and inclusive communication of complex information with a broad range of stakeholders. The main topics of the training include diverse type of modelling and information visualization. Note that a specific focus is given to the promotion of participatory processes and open source software.
Inform decisions
Consulting
Decisions about the environment must be made with consideration to the multiple and often conflicting ways that individuals use and conserve resources. We specialise in the development of interdisciplinary models (monte carlo simulation and bayesian models) to support the analysis of integrated systems and better inform complex decision making process. The thrust of our approach is to move toward integrated planning and identification/evaluation of trade-offs and synergies in implementing nexus approaches within a systems perspective. Our approach also stresses the need for integrating areas of disciplinary expertise, the ability to identify and address shared needs of diverse stakeholders, and facilitating tailored analyses over different geographical regions and temporal scales.
Our tools
Applied Theatre
The role of applied theatre is to give a voice to those who cannot find theirs. This is a powerful tool that allows dialogue and teaching and learning in a form that is inclusive and unintimidating to participants where the traditional teacher-learner hierarchy is demolished, making every participant both the teacher and the learner. Through this mechanism, participants are more likely to be receptive to learning, as they do not feel undermined and are less likely to feel that they are having the opinions and values of others imposed on them. Participants are also less likely to shy away from topics that would usually be too difficult or uncomfortable to discuss in a sit-down conversation as they can express themselves through the use of a role play that does more to explain the various sides of encounters than direct conversation is able to do.
Interdisciplinary Modelling
Complex socio-environmental problems
require collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts. A common approach to integrating disciplinary perspectives on these problems is to develop simulation
models in which the linkages between system components are explicitly represented. These issues demand that we take an integrated view that requires us to bridge perspectives and disciplines and deal with complex interacting processes that operate at different temporal and spatial scales.
System Thinking Games
Through the use of games, any awkwardness between participants from all backgrounds is erased where individuals can get to know each other through ice-breakers and other games that play an important role in removing any layers of nervousness or unease. The use of games is also vital in that conversations that would ordinarily be awkward or uncomfortable can be handled in a light-hearted matter to increase comfortability levels of participants and encourage them to participate without fear of the topics or issues to be discussed.
Participatory Mapping
Participatory mapping is a collective process of building a cartographic representation of a place. It
asks participants to share their experience, their values, and their vision about a particular place. This activity is attentive to the process, not just the product; how participants work together and negotiate issues of place and representation is as important as the map itself. This tool strive to be inclusive, empowering, and transparent.