Month: October 2023

GovERN Research Community Workshop

Dr Mike Hynes of the Governance and Sustainable Development Research Cluster in the School of Political Science & Sociology at the University of Galway led a hybrid workshop of the GovERN research community at the L’institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE) in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux, France on Wednesday 18th October 2023. This workshop preceded a public conference organised by the GovERN the previous day titled The Natured-based Solutions We Want: Shifting Perspectives on Rural and Peri-urban Nature-based Solutions attended by academics, practitioners, government agencies, and civic organisations from across Europe and Canada. GovERN is an international research community that seeks to advance collaborative research on social challenges and emancipatory opportunities when governing rural and peri-urban Nature-based Solutions. Members of the collective represent academic, government, and civic organisations and institutions in France, the UK, Finland, Spain, Italy, Canada and Ireland and are actively engaged in collaborative research and writing, teaching, and research funding applications and opportunities.

Dr Mike Hynes leading the workshop and discussions on the application and implementation of Nature-based Solutions for the GovERN Research Community

First-Year BASS Fieldtrip

Dr Mike Hynes, Programme Director for the B.Sc. (Social Sciences) programme, led a first-year class on a fieldtrip to several sites and locations in the Connemara region on Friday 13th October 2023. A group of 26 students first stopped off at Oughterard to explore and investigate from a social science, planning, and semi-rural redevelopment perspective the village and its surrounds before heading to Ballinahinch to view and walk a portion of the Galway to Clifden Greenway. A 6-kilometre section of the Greenway runs through idyllic native woodlands before and after Ballinahinch Castle, and the students discussed such a cycle and walking network that connects the city to Clifden in terms of its economic, social, and environmental value. The class then travelled to Roundstone village where a discussion on the world-renowned cartographer Tim Robinson, who made the village his home for many years, was had before the group walked the short distance to Gurteen Bay. After more discoveries and discussions on the physical landscapes of the area, the group returned to the village and began the short bus journey back to Galway. A very successful and enjoyable fieldtrip, such activities are embedded within the ethos of the B.Sc. (Social Sciences) programme as students are continually encouraged and supported to apply the understanding and knowledge they obtain in the classroom to the city and wider region that is illustrative of the culture at the University of Galway.

The first-year BASS students on the section of the Galway to Clifden Greenway at Ballinahinch