On 9th March 2021, our More than Maps team delivered a workshop on the role of social sciences in climate change adaptation at the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival (SOTSEF).
SOTSEF is the University of Southampton’s annual award-winning science festival which showcases word-class research in STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) to the public. Due to the current COVID-19 regulations, the festival was held entirely online, which encouraged diverse audiences from different parts of the world to attend the event.
Dr Sien van der Planck started off the workshop by introducing the participants to More than Maps, the public engagement component of the SARTRAC project, and setting the scene for multi-faceted Sargassum research undertaken by the SARTRAC team. More details about the SARTRAC project and the research questions addressed by the international research team were presented by the Principal Investigator, Prof Emma Tompkins. For the reminder of the 2-hour workshop, participants were introduced to social science research methods and guided through stakeholder analysis for Sargassum management by PhD candidate, Marie Schlenker.
The workshop audience was highly diverse, ranging from renowned academics conducting research into Sargassum to podcast creators. The participants appreciated the interactive format of the workshop and contributed their expertise on Sargassum, making this workshop a valuable learning experience for both participants and workshop facilitators. Our experiences from the workshop highlighted the strong interest in the complex and highly dynamic relationships between different Sargassum stakeholders, which will be further investigated by the SARTRAC team.
The More than Maps team looks forward to engaging with more people in the future. For more information on upcoming More than Maps workshops, please follow our Twitter account @SARTRAC1.