Fourth breakfast seminar: Pådriv

The seminar started with the centre's leader Trine Hvoslef-Eide (see presentation here) presenting the news of what has happened with relevance for the centre since last seminar. Of greatest interest are two applications submitted to EU calls in January:

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Innovative Training Network (ITN) 

• 12 PhDs in network (2 will go to NMBU)
• NMBU responsible for training network

FNR-03 A comprehensive vision for urban agriculture

• Participating from Norway: NMBU (BIOVIT, LANDSAM, REALTEK, MINA, HH) Pådriv, Fylkesmannen i Oslo og Viken
• Outputs after 27 months:
• Comprehensive holistic overview of ua in Europe and globally

  • Dissemination and workshops, identify research gaps, policy suggestions to achieve goals, WP5 education and research: European transdisciplinary master's degree

Two new applications to be submitted this semester:

• Såkormidler for continuation of the centre
• Application to Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU) who has a program for student active learning. We will apply for funding for the new Master's degree in urban agriculture

Pådriv

The main presenter for this seminar was Aasmund Bunkholt (see his presentation here). He is managing the company Trefokus which is a partner in Pådriv, where Aasmund is also Head of the board. Pådriv is a network, or a "samfunnsdugnad" working with sustainable urban development. The network has not set their own goals, they consider global goals (such as the UN development goals), national goals and municipal goals their own goals. Sustainable urban development is seen as a wicked problem, meaning that there are no one solution for it. It's also a problem that is owned by everybody. The challenges faced requires a focus on all the aspects of sustainability, but, according to Pådriv, with the social as a priority. If we can solve that, much of the rest will follow. 

The main focus area of Pådriv is Hovinbyen, a 11 km2 area of Oslo going though massive development. Currently there are 200 pådrivere (frontrunners): individuals contributing hours to Pådriv projects on a volunteer basis. Pådriv's approach is anti-silo, holistic, equal, transparent and includes activities "on the ground". One of the projects they are working with now is on handling masses in Hovinbyen. Developing an area includes both removing and adding masses. If the masses are not removed from the area, they can be reused by someone who needs it. In terms of finances, the partners of Pådriv contributes with money once a year, and they decide themselves how much to contribute. Formally Pådriv is now an association (forening) and is now in the process of being established in Arendal, Trondheim and Stavanger.

Vollebekk fabrikker

The biggest project Pådriv has been working on is Vollebekk Fabrikker. It's located in the development area og Vollebekk on land owned by OBOS and Aspelin Ramm. Pådriv asked to do some temporary activity in this factory while waiting for it to be demolished. After some negotiation they got a deal for two years. For the past years the building has been used by 38 companies, 100 persons, 287 tons reused, 30 people work training (integration, social part), 140 summer jobs, 10 000 visitors. Now it will be demolished to make space for the housing development, meaning that a new place must be established for all these companies and people. In the governing platform of Oslo municipality the facilitation for circular economy and supporting clusters and incubators is emphasised. The idea now is to move Vollebekk Fabrikker to Pådriv-senteret, which will be an innovation centree in Økern. It will be a cooperation arena for sustainable development for all kinds of people with the themes grow, learn, create, inspire. Økern and Løren are quite recent development areas, only 10 years old, and already they are facing many social problems. Pådriv wants to address this by including youth in the centre, giving them a space to do things. 2020 will be a test year for Pådriv-senteret, and it will be fully functioning in 2021.

Urban agriculture in Hovinbyen

Pådriv is looking at different ways of integrating urban agriculture in theur projects. One example is vertical farming, where the urban areas can be utilised to a larger extent for food production. Looking at areas in Hovinbyen with a radius of 1 km Pådriv asks the questions: How are elderly and young supposed to travel safe? How and how many insects can we make live and survive here? How can we produce 10 % of food consumption here?

One idea is to make Økern-senteret into a production site. That is establishing a nursery for plants to be used in Hovinbyen. Another project is Østre aker kirke, could the church be used for urban agriculture? Religious biodiversity –  a church for everyone. In Økern there are plans for making a new small city centre, and here the competence from NMBU is crucial for making urban agriculture a part of it. Pådriv has huge expectations for NMBU in this.

New master programme in urban agriculture

Pådriv is an external partner in the development of the master programme. Aasmund is also working at NTNU with their Experts in Teamwork courses, which are mandatory for all master students at NTNU. That is 1200 students divided in 80 so-called villages. NMBU should take inspiration from this. According to Aasmund, the learning philosophy of NMBU is good, but missing one aspect: the world out there. In addition he would like to see more student involvement. 

Building on that, Agroecology graduate Idil was encouraged to talk about her experience with a special syllabus course Design for Society. Coming form the Agroecology master's programme with action learning and focus on how to best learn, Idil and co-students asked themselves: Why don't other students from other departments learn this way? That's why they made a course open to all students, using the mechanism of special syllabus. It was a 10 credits course runing for 1 semester. They approached Pådriv to get real life challenges and wicked problems and worked with cases provided by them. This way, the students are fully responsible for their own learning.

We thank all participants to this seminar for coming, and welcomes you to the next seminar on Friday March 6th at the same time and place.