SPS academic to lead new project on care and sustainability initiatives in Scotland
Content
School of Social and Political Science (SPS) academic Dr Sarah Parry has received funding for a project exploring everyday care and its relationship to sustainability.
The project, titled Building Sustainability on a Foundation of Care, will examine how to build more harmonious people-planet relations by exploring the transformative potential of everyday caring practices.
Dr Parry, who works in the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies subject area at SPS, is leading the project team, which aims to connect social science knowledge with lived experiences in communities of inter-human, inter-species and inter-generational relations. The research will focus on three existing sustainability initiatives in Badenoch and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands: a community amenity project, a regenerative farm and a landscape restoration project.
In collaboration with musician Mhairi Hall, the research will inspire the composition of new Scottish music to bring people together and better understand how a strong foundation of care can be used to help build sustainability. It will deepen academic scholarship of care and its uptake alongside increasing confidence, knowledge and skills in communities to engage with environmental sustainability.
The Cairngorms National Park is a contributing partner in the project through the Cairngorms 2030 programme, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players.
The project is one of three awarded in the second round of the ACCESS - Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science - Flex Fund. The fund supports the development of new ways of thinking, new approaches and new networks that will advance the impact of the social sciences to address the transition to a sustainable and biodiverse environment and a net zero society.
Dr Parry said: “We are excited to embark on this unique project working with partners and communities in Badenoch and Strathspey to elaborate socioecological care. The ACCESS funding affords opportunities to connect social scientific knowledge with those in communities with lived experiences of socioecological care to explore its transformative potential through academic, public and creative outputs.”