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Dissertations, Essays and Articles

students taking a break from writing dissertationsThe following selected dissertations, essays and articles were produced by students who attended postgraduate courses at the College.

For further information on our postgraduate courses please visit our Postgraduate Courses page.

All work is reproduced by kind permission of the authors, as identified in their original submissions. All work is assumed to have been produced by the stated author, original and free of copyright and Schumacher College accepts no responsibility for any infringement on behalf of the author, whether intentional or otherwise.

For permission to reproduce extracts in whole or in part, please contact the College directly.

complex challenges

Can Design Catalyse the Great Transition? The 2016 Transition Design Symposium

Papers from the Transition Design Symposium, held on the Dartington Hall Estate, 2016.

Joshua Levene: River Basin Management - Dialogues on shifting the Paradigm and Practice

Joshua Levene 2017 This dissertation is seeking to explore how some principles and practice of ecological design thinking can be applied strenghten the current practice river basin management for the betterment of humans and nature alike.

Manda Scott: Whispering to the Amygdala

Manda Scott Elections are won and lost in the amygdala. The next electoral cycle may decide the future of both our democracy and our planet. Proposing these two statements, and in the belief that transformation can still be enacted through the ballot box, this paper contends that those of us dedicated to a sustainable, equitable and socially just future need to understand the means by which narratives shape our world.
gaia mother nature

Amy Seefeldt: Centring the Ecological Imagination a Catalyst for Change

Amy Seefeldt 2016 An exploration of ways in which the interconnected, systemic and global crises of climate, economics, and social justice demand that educators fundamentally re-imagine the way young people learn, empowering students through transformative, interdisciplinary experiences that encourage them to take responsibility for shaping their future.
Community

Anat Haas: (Ex)change to communities The effect of alternative exchange systems on the sense of community- Looking at four community-currencies

This research asks how four community-currencies affect the 'Sense of Community' of their members. Using an ethnographic approach, the researcher delves into the four schemes in four states and engaging with multiple community centers, talking with the workers, volunteers and the communities themselves.
Making sence of basic income

Charles Maxwell Young: Making Sense of Basic Income

This research document is a foray into, and a systemisation of, basic income discourse. While the idea has captured the popular imagination in recent years, many of its nuances are yet to be formalized – particularly when it comes to how the idea is enacted on the ground in experimental settings. This dissertation is an attempt to clear up confusion in the basic income space and to clarify collaborative ways forward.

Michael Martin: Design Through Making

Michael Martin: How is it possible illustrate the connection between design, making and the author's own worldview, or at least their perception of the physical world.
Rafaela Graça Scheiffer

Rafaela Graça Scheiffer - Towards a Non-violent Leadership

Rafaela Graça Scheiffer | 2017 | Towards a non-violent leadership | This article is part of the evaluation for the elective module 'Leading in the Midst of Complexity' - MSc Holistic Science. In this article, I draw my interest towards non-violence to illustrate how I started being a practitioner. Therefore, I present my perceptions in relationship to the thinking of leadership thinkers and bring memories of my behavior in groups.

Philip Franses - Living Ambiguity

Philip Franses | 2006 | Living ambiguity. Contextual choice in the outcome of DNA. Ambiguity allows one to approach the grand canvas before the world has determined how it will represent itself, as the common or the exceptional. The attempt to encapsulate the whole of life into one concept changed into seeing the world emerge from one idea.

Glenn Edney - Honouring Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Glenn Edney | 2012 | Honouring Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A qualitative approach to assessing the health of marine ecosystems.