Summer Academy on Social VulnerabilityGlobal Water Hotspots: Water-related social vulnerabilities and resilience-building23 – 29 July 2006, Munich Re Center at Schloss HohenkammerPurpose:The 2006 Summer Academy on Social Vulnerability was established by the Munich Re Foundation and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). The purpose of the academy is ultimately to contribute to providing people knowledge that they can use to reduce their vulnerability and improve their quality of life. The Summer Academy works towards this purpose by giving a small number of outstanding PhD candidates from all over the world a platform to present and discuss their research with peers and high level scientists. The Summer Academy will advance the science of social vulnerability in discussion of the “state of the art,” research needs, and strategies to address academic, policy, and practical knowledge gaps. The Summer Academy will provide intensive interaction between PhD candidates, leading international experts and scholars in social vulnerability, as well as senior scientists from the United Nations University and Munich Re Foundation. The academy is designed to be interdisciplinary in order to overcome the limits of approaching social vulnerability from the confines of one academic discipline. This interdisciplinary approach will allow participants to tap competence networks and comprehensive, practical approaches to vulnerability reduction. The Summer Academy involves a broad scope of academic participants, ranging from PhDs working on their dissertations to international experts and tenured senior professors. With this type of participants, the learning objectives will center on synthesis and evaluation competences (Bloom 1984). That means that the Summer Academy will facilitate active discussion move beyond knowledge, comprehension, and application—classic undergraduate classroom learning objectives—and focus more on higher-level competences useful for advanced research work. If successful, the 2006 Summer Academy will foster these competences vis-à-vis various research approaches in social vulnerability science. The 2006 Summer Academy will enhance the ability of participants to contribute to social vulnerability science, through the further refinement of essential academic and professional skills. Learning objectives cover three areas, with the goal of deepening knowledge and skills useful for high-quality research in social vulnerability science. The objectives complement the activities of the Munich Re Foundation. Specifically, the program of the Summer Academy has been developed to foster and support: | • State-of-the-art update (and literature): | o Gain an overview of the “state-of-the-art” in social vulnerability science, including active exchange about key literature and research methods. | | - Outcomes: Participants will come away from the Summer Academy with a strengthened overview of the state-of-the-art in social vulnerability research. Participants will have an improved knowledge of key recent literature, emerging trends in methodological approaches, and new knowledge of vulnerability reduction activities. | | - Success is measured through self-assessment at the beginning and end of the Summer Academy: participants will assess their degree of exposure to previously unknown literature references and methods at the Summer Academy, where 5 new literature references or methods would be deemed satisfactory. | o Relate knowledge from several academic disciplines to finding solutions/building capacity in the field of social vulnerability. Participants will have the chance to be rapporteurs and identify the major issues presented during sessions. In this capacity the rapporteurs will support the MRF chairs and session participants to articulate the most pressing issues/emerging research agenda in social vulnerability. This “list” of pressing issues will set the stage for discussion about possible solutions to research gaps in social vulnerability science. | | - Outcomes:
- List of most pressing issues in social vulnerability research, recommendations on how researchers could proceed.
- Selected PhD papers in Source (UNU publication series), and
- Proceedings for participants, resulting from rapporteur reports for each session.
- Further, a brief summary of the outcomes of the Summer Academy will be posted on the MunichRe Foundation and UNU-EHS websites and partner websites. | | - Success is measured in two ways:
- First, rapporteurs will measure their own progress through self-assessment at the beginning and end of the Summer Academy.
- Second, conference organizers will assess the achievement of this objective by the ability of rapporteurs and MRF chairs to articulate a list of “most urgent issues” by the end of the Summer Academy (a satisfactory result), and possibly a complementary list of reasonable accompanying actions to address these urgent issues. |
| • Peer review feedback: | | Articulate how selected models and approaches in specific research problems, such as PhD dissertation research projects, fit in the spectrum of social vulnerability science. Identify bridges to other research topics and critically assess the circumstances which particular research methods are appropriate. This objective will be reached through peer review opportunities. | | o Outcomes: Participants will leave the Summer Academy with heightened ability to articulate the scientific validity and usefulness of various models and research questions related to social vulnerability. Participants will leave the Summer Academy with an idea of some of the theoretical strengths and weaknesses in the spectrum of social vulnerability research, and will be able to offer use-able feedback to peers on social vulnerability research. Although an intangible outcome, this heightened peer feedback will contribute to progress in social vulnerability research. | | o Success is measured: Peer reviewers should have or develop the ability to verify the value of evidence presented, assess the value of theories, and compare and analyze ideas presented in the sessions. Success is measured through self-assessment at the beginning and end of the Summer Academy: participants rate their own ability to offer useful peer feedback that helps colleagues strengthen current research activities. |
| • Professional networks: | o Extend and deepen professional networks, in particular between PhDs and senior experts and professors. Participants should learn enough about their colleagues´ work to be able to create strategic relationships for collaborative research and activities that address reduction of social vulnerability. | | - Outcomes: Expected outcomes will depend on the interpersonal dynamic of participants during the Summer Academy. Indicators of networking outcomes such as email dialogues, plans for joint publications, research project collaboration, and other types of networking resulting from connections made in the context of the Summer Academy would all be satisfactory outcomes. | | - Success is measured through self-assessment at the beginning and end of the Summer Academy: participants rate the degree to which the Summer Academy has facilitate the building of professional networks in social vulnerability research. |
The Summer Academy program consists of three types of sessions: Keynote lectures by the Munich Re Foundation Chairs, PhD research presentations, and roundtable discussions lead by UNU-EHS academic officers. The program is designed to fulfill the objectives of the Summer Academy (above) by assigning specific responsibilities/roles to each individual participant. |