Wednesday 6th 2022 blog
Blog post 1: By Sarah Hatherly
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be a participant in the ReSToRE 2 summer school. Having a multidisciplinary group with such a diverse range of backgrounds creates an incredible environment to foster ideas, creativity, and learning. 30 countries are represented across 50 participants, with a wide variety of both academic and industry disciplines (including Earth science, mining, environmental policy, psychology, engineering, anthropology and more). Each person has a unique background and perspective to bring to the table.
Over the past few days, we have had public lectures on topics including Sustainable Development & Global Transitions, Assessing Sustainability in Mine Closure & Repurposing, Circular Economy, Carbon Neutrality & Prosperity, and Collaborative Action for Sustainable Artisanal Mining. These presentation topics align with the specific challenges of the workshops that participants are split into. My favourite part of these lectures is realizing how connected all of these topics are. Each of our workshop challenges relate to one another, and forming those connections and discussing them with other summer school participants leads to many interesting conversations.
I am part of the Stakeholder Engagement workshop, looking at a case study (and the bigger context) to establish community engagement strategies to improve social acceptance and allow companies to be involved in mining practices. Obtaining a Social License to Operate can be challenging due to stakeholders’ perception of mining activities. The workshop is conducted as an open-format collaborative effort. A lot of brainstorming and problem definition has been done by our group the past few days. Some of our group members are quite closely related to the case study (working in the industry, from the country of the project), while others bring relevant experience with NGOs, policy, environmental assessments, and more. We are constantly learning from each other’s experiences and how they have shaped our points of view. There have been many exciting moments and breakthroughs as ideas come together that none of us would have thought of individually. I can’t wait to see the implications of our work.
Blog post 2: By Constanza Araya Ibarra
Half of the summer school has gone by and it's been great so far. The Just transition workshop group includes people from Australia, Tunisia, Iran, the UK, Italy, Chile, Sudan, and Tanzania. And even though it was challenging to make some decisions at the beginning, we are starting to see some results now. When it is needed, there is some small group research, but most of the time, we are all discussing, listening to each other, asking questions, taking some notes, and shaping our framework for the final presentation on Friday. And having people with different backgrounds, styles of work, histories, and interests has been a challenge but, most of all, an inspiration. I've been inspired by people's creativity, their wishes, aspirations, ambitions, and expectations for their countries, of having, in the end, better conditions for communities, for vulnerable groups, and a transition to a better world without leaving anyone behind.
