Thinking and Action: Preparing Students to Engage Complexity within Themselves and in the World

This essay explores the dynamic tension between the human need to cultivate an autonomous identity and the desire to be part of a larger reality, suggesting that authentic morality emerges from a person’s struggle with the ever-shifting overlap between these two drives. Creating an intersection between thinking and action, service-learning pedagogy draws us into a creative confrontation with these drives, preparing students to engage complexity within themselves and in the world

Churros

We are here in the middle of a country. At night I anchor myself to my husband as if we were surrounded by water instead of a flat, dry plane of land. I hook my foot around his ankle and breathe in dust and the smell of other people\u27s kitchens. Frying foods fuel my dreams. ~excerpt from pros

Urban river recovery inspired by nature-based solutions and biophilic design in Albufeira, Portugal

Mass urbanisation presents one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century. The development of cities and the related increasing ground sealing are asking even more for the restoration of urban rivers, especially in the face of climate change and its consequences. This paper aims to demonstrate nature-inspired solutions in a recovery of a Southern European river that was canalised and transformed in culvert pipes. The river restoration project naturally tells the history of the city, creates a sense for the place, as well as unifying blue-green infrastructure in a symbolic way by offering areas for recreation. To improve well-being and city resilience in the long term, a regenerative sustainability approach based on biophilic design patterns was proposed. Such actions will provide greater health, social cohesion, and well-being for residents and simultaneously reduce the risks of climate change, such as heat island effect and flash floods, presenting the benefits of the transition to a regenerative economy and holistic thinking.Foundation for Science and Technology; PTDC/GES-URB/31928/2017; Erasmus+ programme of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Voces Del Canal: Building Safe Communities Through Strong Partnerships in the Canal

The Canal, a vibrant community of Latino immigrant families, is rich in diversity and cultural traditions, strong family networks, and a determination towards economic selfsufficiency. Latino immigrants in Marin County are heavily concentrated in the Canal and have the highest labor force participation rates in the County.i Despite being a vital part of Marin’s social, economic, and cultural society, Canal residents continue to struggle to meet basic necessities for their families. To this end, a coalition of resident leaders from the community came together to form Voces del Canal to lead an unprecedented community-driven research project. Residents wanted to affirm their role as authentic, local experts and give power to the collective experiences of 678 residents who shared their personal stories, opinions, and vision for a stronger and safer Canal

The Brookside Farm Wetland Ecosystem Treatment (WET) System: A Low-Energy Methodology for Sewage Purification, Biomass Production (Yield), Flood Resilience and Biodiversity Enhancement

Wastewater from domestic developments, farms and agro-industrial processing can be sources of pollution in the environment; current wastewater management methods are usually machine-based, and thus energy consuming. When Permaculture Principles are used in the creation of water purification and harvesting systems, there can be multiple environmental and economic benefits. In the context of energy descent, it may be considered desirable to treat wastewater using minimal energy. The constructed wetland design presented here is a low-entropy system in which wastewater is harvested and transformed into lush and productive wetland, eliminating the requirement for non-renewable energy in water purification, and also maximising benefits: biodiversity, flood resilience and yield. In permaculture design, the high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous compounds in sewage are viewed as valuable nutrients, resources to be harvested by a constructed wetland ecosystem and converted into useful yield. Similarly, rainwater runoff is not viewed as a problem which can cause flooding, but as a potential resource to be harvested to provide a yield. This paper presents a case study, with both water quality and productivity data, from Brookside Farm UK, where the use of Permaculture Design Principles has created a combined wastewater management and purification system, accepting all site water