Research timeline

Four years: 2020–2024

Grant awarded

JPI Climate, SOLSTICE

At the end of 2020, we were notified that we'd received funding for three years from JPI Climate - SOLSTICE funding stream.

December 2020

Building the team

Recruitment phase for remaining team members

During this time, David, Kate, Lisa and Marie joined the Just-Scapes team. And in this time, the rest of the team began working on the literature review, and the design of each of the four research strands: semi-structured interviews; writing workshops; survey; and transformations labs.

January - March 2021

Fieldwork begins

We begin interviewing - sometimes live, sometimes virtually

The first part of our research, the semi-structured interviews, were due to begin in Spring 2021. The pandemic pushed us back a few months, but interviews began in May: in-person in France and online in the Czech Republic. Our UK team began interviews in September.

May - December 2021

First 'T-lab'

Designing and running our Just Transformation labs

We ran two 'Just Transformation' laboratory workshops with stakeholders in each case-study site. The labs were designed to be transdisciplinary and collaborative. We're using them as a tool to find shared visions of sustainability and just transformation. We'll be running two 'T-labs' for each of our three cases. In the first, we worked with a group of stakeholders we met through the initial interviews in each site.

March 2022 - June 2022

Survey

Cross-cultural survey

We designed and ran a survey to try and find out what stakeholders across all three sites think about justice ("justice beliefs") and potential pathways to transformation. The survey has now taken place in all three sites, and we're currently in the process of analysing the results. The survey will also allow us to begin drawing comparisons between the three contexts.

May 2022 - March 2023

Creative writing workshops

We'll be running creative writing workshops in all three sites

Jean McNeil (joined in France and the Czech Republic by a local writer) led creative writing workshops with a group of stakeholders in each site. The first workshop is took place in Scotland in June 2022, followed - in very quick succession - by workshops in France and the Czech Republic.

June 2022 - October 2022

Second 'T-lab'

Our second, and final, Just Transformation lab

In our last on-site intervention, we'll run a second T-lab with the same group of stakeholders in each site. In this T-lab, we'll bring in things that came up in the survey and the writing workshops, as well as building on the previous lab. Our second T-lab in Scotland took place in November 2022, and the French and Czech versions are coming up soon.

November 2022 - February 2023

Writing up

Conclusions tbc...

We hope that findings from Just Scapes will directly benefit the sites and people in the Czech Republic, France and Scotland. But we also want the project to have broader results: better understanding and methodologies for proposed rural land-use climate actions in general. We’ll share our findings with our networks – both in academia and in policy – to promote scientific and social impacts, nationally and internationally.

March 2023 - November 2024