No research without action, no action without research — TEAM 5
This semester we are working on a challenge on climate change within a group of 5 people. The questions seemed so broad, and in the beginning, we kind of felt lost, to be honest. As a team, we started to think about the research process not as a giant, but as a series of smaller, interconnected steps — there is no correct, straight line to follow. Our research was not straightforward, and due to the volume of information that the internet provides, we sometimes felt confused. We were not sure in what direction we were tending to go and what we were aiming to find. Who are we supposed to interview and how do we convince them to participate?
Firstly, we understood that we have to take a closer look at the big topics: What is climate change? How can you enhance resilience and which relationship does it have to climate risks?
Secondly, we realised that the interdependences between resilience, risk management, and vulnerability are fundamental. After a couple of hours of research on the internet, I brainstormed my learnings and tried to put them in a framework in order to visualize what I’ve learned and better understand the relationships between them (Figure 1).
This week we have just finishing developing our interview guidelines and are curious to start our interview journey with interesting personalities. Speaking of the interviews, we separated our team into two groups: one is responsible for conducting interviews with NGOs and climate activists whereas the other ones are more focused on vulnerable people who suffer from climate risk. By making regular calls, we set internal deadlines, and try to always stay on track and share new insights about our topic in order to engage mutual exchange of learnings, collaborations as well as lively discussions.
All in all, we make as a team great process, support each other to the fullest, and overall it is inspiring to work in such an inclusive and diverse community which allows wider perspectives to be integrated when brainstorming, problem-solving, and developing new ideas as a team. We really hope to be the team that will be able to take first place on the podium.
