The first objective of the project is to analyse which representations of water and climate underlie existing water infrastructures and how they are challenged by current climate change. Adapting the work plan to the Covid situation and getting an assessment from the relevant Norwegian ethics body consumed a lot of project time in the first months. After a confirmation that the project is in line with Norwegian data protection legislation was issued 5 January 2022, the interviews with decisionmakers in the city of Reutlingen started. So far, about 20 interviews have been conducted with different stakeholders here. To analyse first interview data, I organised a workshop, also open to members of the CALENDARS team and additional members of my host institution, the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT). CALENDARS is an ERC-funded research project at SVT; methodologically, both projects share similar research interests. To provide further input on qualitative social research, an expert in the field was invited to discuss how to analyse our findings more rigorously. The workshop was specifically tailored to the needs of CANALS and CALENDARS.
The second main objective is to mobilise water cultures for climate change adaptation. As such, this work is scheduled for a later period when most interviews have taken place, i.e. autumn 2022. The main outcome in this WP so far has been the development of a concept for running a transdisciplinary workshop that can be used to extend the peer community that classifies and evaluates relevant knowledge for action and develops new knowledge. This concept is currently being further refined together with the stakeholders in the city of Reutlingen. In the development and implementation of the workshop, I am supported by a facilitator with great experience in the implementation of transdisciplinary participation processes (Daniel Oppold, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Sciences, Potsdam). CANALS’ ambition is to develop an innovative workshop concept that other European municipalities can adapt. Despite the early termination of the project, the workshops will be held in late 2022 and early 2023.
Most of the work in CANALS consisted of writing academic papers on conceptual perspectives and related methodological challenges. Dissemination and exploitation in CANALS was also happening via teaching. I developed a teaching format addressing different groups of learners (pupils, students, teachers) and started to produce teaching materials. A first course was held on 5/6 April 2022 at the University of Zürich (CH) and was developed in collaboration with two Swiss teachers. It is specifically targeted towards teachers as a crucial group of multipliers. The concept will be further tested with different target groups. First results will be published in an edited volume on education for sustainable development (Meisch et al., 2022) and in a conference proceedings volume (Meisch & Hofer-Krucker Valderama, 2022).
One of the main objectives of CANALS was to increase my skills in qualitative social science methods. For this reason, I organised a methods workshop and invited an expert in the field. This event served to deepen my theoretical and conceptual understanding of these methods and supported me in applying them to my research.
