The CALENDARS project work was organized in three progressive phases, and an additional, cross-cutting programme to develop scientists and policy-makers literacy for discussing the adaptation of seasonal timings.
Phase 1 - Examining seasonal cultures
Phase one saw researchers embedded in case study organizations or groups, to uncover their seasonal cultures. Most work was with groups in Bergen in Norway, and the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand, though as the research group expanded, it drew in other global case studies. Groups ranged from schools, to a beekeeping club, an amateur writing group, an arboretum, a café, and conservation clubs, for instance.
Researchers conducted mixed-method ethnography, designed to stimulate reflection amongst groups on what seasons mean and do for them. Key to CALENDARS was that the research was co-created with the groups under study. Research subjects were co-investigators, who guided the research and its outputs.
In phase one, researchers also zoomed out to study the seasonal cultures of the wider communities where case study groups were based, through science fairs, or citizen science for example.
Phase 2 - Appraising seasonal cultures.
Phase two enabled groups to critically appraise the quality of their cultures for timing activities in the face of rapidly destabilizing seasonal patterns.
Within case study groups, we deployed methods for stimulating a critical take on seasons; from narrative interviews to workshops where groups draw or carve calendars, creative writing tasks, collaborative film-making, or seasonal walks. CALENDARS also convened case study groups in dialogue, through meetings and symposia, to confront these groups with quite different ways of seeing seasons, and invited case study groups to contribute a chapter to an edited book.
Phase 3 - Creating alternative frameworks
Phase 3 enabled case study groups to recalibrate their seasonal patterns of activity to be more agile to rapid seasonal change, as an extension of the appraisal phase. Making alternative representations was a collaboration between the research team, case study groups, and creative artists. These representations functioned as (a) a method for triggering critical reflection and discussion on seasonal cultures and their change, and (b) a product for wider dissemination. We produced such diverse representations as: carved plank calendars, a documentary film, a virtual reality simulation, a dedicated CALENDARS art exhibition, poetry and short stories, drawings of calendars, website-based calendar generators, organized seasonal walks, or group exercises. Most of these representations were (and still are in many cases), freely and publicly accessible, and remain as a legacy on the project website.
Developing seasonal literacy
A goal that emerged was to create settings where early career scientists and practitioners could build literacy in the concepts, tools and approaches of working with temporalities. We developed; (i) an undergraduate course; (ii) two PhD courses led by CALENDARS; (iii) co-development of two further PhD courses; and (iv) a cohort of masters and PhD candidates who have developed their theses under CALENDARS.
