Stephen Mainzer – The use of the TARDes model to explore local implications of climate change

Abstract

Climate change is a global phenomenon with real, tangible, and potentially dire impacts on places and the people who occupy those places. However, there is a persistent lack of agreement in both the science and values of climate change. More than ever, informed intervention by designers is needed to prepare for climate-driven socio-environmental change. This 2017 CPAD Discovery Grant piloted a novel pedagogical model that applies transdisciplinary methodologies germane to social sciences within the context of a traditional design studio to produce informed responses to climate change. 

 

Process

In Spring 2018, an advanced landscape architecture design studio (LARCH 414) explored local implications of climate change by adapting the Transdisciplinary Action Research Design Studio model (Mainzer 2016). The goal was to introduce value-oriented research methodologies, typically applied in social science approaches, as tools for informing locally sensitive design decisions. Penn State’s inter-college dual-title Ph.D. program, Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment (HDNRE), served as a model for the studio process. The HDNRE program inspires students to develop “…solutions to natural resource and environment-related problems and issues that require the integration of biophysical, sociodemographic, sociocultural, and historical dimensions.” (HDNRE 2016). The studio course challenged students to ground their climate-based inquiry through three activities: 1) identify a specific place-based environmental problem, 2) select an appropriate method for learning about the people of that place, and 3) propose an informed design intervention. Brief lectures, including sampling, validity, survey techniques, and interview techniques were offered as an introduction to new methodologies. Broadly, students engaged in the following activities:

  • Explored a range of climate change concepts and problems through media, lectures, and independent investigations;
  • Defined a specific climate change problem;
  • Identified a place most impacted by the problem;
  • Selected a method of learning about local people affected by the problem;
  • Designed a locally-sensitive climate intervention;
  • Presented their work at an exhibition in the Stuckeman School.

 

Outcomes

Nine students successfully navigated the unfamiliar structure of the studio. Informed by a viewing of Al Gore’s 2016 “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” and their follow-up investigations, the range of places chosen by the students was surprisingly vast. Their inquiries included the wildfire-prone American West, threats of sea-level rise to the Kiribati Pacific Islands and Maryland’s coastal Hart Miller Island, hurricane flooding in Houston, Texas, and socio-political divides in media representation of climate change in the southeastern United States. The diversity of places and problems presented substantial organizational challenges. Yet, lead by the students’ enthusiasm, we choose to prioritize exploring ways we might connect with people from these places. The most successful example was how one student connected with a local climate organizer in Kiribati through Facebook. This brief dialogue only consisted of several messages but imparted a strong sense of how the local people keenly understood the problem, were highly motivated, but faced material limitations in the remote location of their island. Other students attempted small-scale survey techniques that collected very limited data. We suspected that the 2016 national election cycle was likely to have impacted the visibility of our survey attempts or contributed to survey fatigue. Another student effectively applied a non-obtrusive method of collecting post-Katrina video media and distilling polarized narratives. Though quite different in their approaches, most students effectively incorporated local values into their proposed climate interventions.

 

While the Transdisciplinary Action Research Design Studio model proved educational, the scope of possible problems, places, methods, and interventions was daunting. Encouraging students to define the problem and place is a critical step in their understanding. But there may be logistical and pedagogical benefits to employing a team-based approach. 

 

References

Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the Environment. 2021. Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. https://agsci.psu.edu/hdnre. Accessed November 11, 2021.

Mainzer, Stephen. 2016. Towards a Transdisciplinary Action Research Design Studio: Adapting a Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Education Structure. Environmental Design Research Association Conference Proceedings. Raleigh, North Carolina. May 2016. p.81-86.