About PATCCh

The Place-based Approaches To Climate Change research network (PATCCh) unites and develops perspectives from academics, researchers, and industry experts on the concepts of place and climate change, to exchange knowledge on notions of sense of place in relation to climate change. It bridges social science and scientific approaches to climate change from a place-based perspective, building capacity in this interdisciplinary research area and developing mutually supportive working relationships with non-academic stakeholders addressing the challenges of the climate emergency.

Our pan-Wales network has members from across numerous Welsh institutions and research centres, as well as those beyond the border who have expertise in climate change from a Wales perspective. The PATCCh WISERD network was developed in response to the need for a wider network across Wales, following the successful establishment of the Places of Climate Change Research Network (PloCC) at Bangor University.

The PATCCh WISERD network aims to:

  • Co-create resilient responses to climate change challenges by linking academic expertise with the tacit knowledge of communities who are addressing climate change.
  • Foster interdisciplinary academic collaboration on the key challenges of climate change.
  • Support local governance in developing innovative, transformative, inclusive responses to climate change.
  • Develop strategies to respond to and mitigate against climate change.
  • Challenge the political power and economic forces that are contributing to climate change.
  • Provide a forum to identify collaborators, experts and contacts beyond academia.
  • Enhance visibility of relevant outputs and projects.

Expertise and research interests

Creative industries, organisational behaviour, arts & literature, social science, language, hydrology, ecology, earth science, marketing, politics of climate change, urban design and planning, planetary health, geography, social innovation, glaciology.

Members’ interests include:

Climate action, the role of place in responding to climate change, semantics, tropical forest restoration, knowledge politics, codesign with communities, SDGs, emotion and its role in response to climate change, catchment hydrology, consumer behaviour and attachment to place, climate and art, climate narratives and stories, social tipping points, marine renewable energy, land and planning, materials and buildings, and human behaviour.

Membership

PATCCh currently has over fifty members representing eleven institutions. Members can take part in cross-institutional online seminars, informal online coffee chat meetings and wider engagement events. Members are also invited to join thematic sub-groups that emerge and evolve through our knowledge exchange. The network is also an opportunity to develop joint grants and projects.

Membership is based on expression of interest and new members will be added to the mailing list. This network has a focus on Wales, but it is not a pre-requisite for members to be based in Wales. To express interest please contact Dr Edward Shepherd: shepherde6@cardiff.ac.uk.

Leadership team

Dr Robin Mann (Bangor University) r.mann@bangor.ac.uk

Professor Thora Tenbrink (Bangor University) t.tenbrink@bangor.ac.uk

Professor Kirsti Bohata (Swansea University) k.bohata@swansea.ac.uk

Dr Geraldine Lublin (Swansea University) g.lublin@swansea.ac.uk

Professor Milja Kurki (Aberystwyth University) mlk@aber.ac.uk

Dr Abid Mehmood (Cardiff University) MehmoodA1@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Laura Norris (Cardiff University) NorrisLF@cardiff.ac.uk

Spotlight on projects

Ecological Citizens

Ecological Citizens is an EPSRC funded project led by the Royal College of Art in partnership with Wrexham University and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at York University. Ecological Citizens is a network project to support a sustainable digital society by looking at ways to visualise narratives and empower citizens to take care of their environment (relating to waste reduction and reuse, energy generation) and design their own experiences involving products, which promote wellbeing, learning, self-advancement.

Community Open Map Platform (COMP)

The Community Open Map Platform (COMP), an AHRC-funded collaboration with WISERD at Cardiff University, Cambridge University and Wrexham University, as well as several other partners, is supported by the Welsh Government and the Future Generations Commission in Wales who are investigating ways to measure and spatialise attainment against the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act – a world-leading piece of sustainability legislation.

Slate Landscape

The Slate Landscape project explored how local communities and the younger generation can benefit from the recently awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status for the Welsh Slate Landscape.​ Through interviews, focus group and social media and search engine analysis, the project identified a number of themes relevant to capitalising on the Slate Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site and the development of sustainable and regenerative tourism in North West Wales.

Enhancing Community Involvement in Low-carbon Projects

The Enhancing Community Involvement in Low-Carbon Projects aim was to evaluate and enhance community involvement in climate projects and environmental sustainability. Using the GwyrddNi Community Assemblies on the Climate as case study, we looked at what makes such assemblies work well and what the barriers are. Our aim was to identify the known issues surrounding engagement and ways to solve them, as well as finding new challenges and gaps that are yet to be considered. We found that climate engagement can be improved by tapping into localised community discourses and cultural heritage, weaving climate action into broader community narratives; and engaging communities in climate action can be enhanced by framing communications through place attachment and asking people to deliberate climate change from the perspective of their ‘home patch’.

UNESCO BRIDGES

PATCCh is associated with BRIDGES, a global sustainability science coalition organised within UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST).  PATCCh members are warmly invited to be part of the Wales hub to further support networking opportunities. Please see the BRIDGES website for further information.

Find out more

Visit the PATCCh YouTube channel to view the latest seminars.