Intensive Course - Malta 2024
Courses > Malta 2024
A city is a state – of mind, of taste, of opportunity. A city is a marketplace – where ideas are traded, opinions clash and eternal conflict may produce eternal truths.
How can communities become co-creators of green, inclusive and just cities in urban contexts?
From the 15th until the 19th of April 2024, the SciCultureD’s third intensive course invited 26 participants to explore ansswers to this challenge in the context of a post-colonial country such as Malta, with the cultural and built heritage that it entails.
In an era of complex urban challenges affecting environmental and social wellbeing, the very same cities can become the hubs of just and sustainable communities.
A place where people with diverging experiences, ideas, and perspectives can work together to create innovative partnerships between entrepreneurs, public institutions and civil society. Cities are spaces that can open doors to explore, discover and test ways towards better, healthier lives for those living in them.
Who were the guest speakers at the 2024 edition?
Dr Charles Xuereb
Historiographer, lecturer and author of “Decolonising the Maltese mind, in search of identity” (UM).
Dr Sarah Scheiber
Lecturer within the Faculty for the Built Environment, specialised in urban design & spatial planning (UM).
Dr Wendy Jo Mifsud
Lecturer within the Faculty for the Built Environnement, specialised in spatial planning & infrastrcture (UM).
Karyn Scerri
PhD candidate and researcher at the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development (UM).
Emma Clarke
VARCITIES project support officier at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation (CEBI-UM).
Integrating the Design Thinking process with Creative Pedagogies
Design thinking is a methodology to understand problems and provide solutions. It is a framework based on the principles of Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Criticality of design thinking focuses on it being a WEIRD methodology, formalisation of existing structures.
The SciCultureD course integrated the Double Diamond approach with 8 Creative Pedagogies, eight practical features of a creative science education identified by the CREATIONS team. These pedagogical features guided the design of the course (present as card suite in the Course Kit planning tool) and strongly emerging during the activities.
The eight creative pedagogies are: dialogue, transdisciplinarity, individual, collaborative and communal activities for change, balance and navigation, empowerment and agency, risk immersion and play, possibilities, ethics and trusteeship.
Photogallery
Photo credits: ScicultureD (Erasmus+ funded)
Hover over the pictures to read more about the VDC community and the city
Where co-creation happens
Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe, and at just 0.61 square kilometres: it is the European Union’s smallest capital city. A unique example of the Baroque, this city has been designated a World Heritage City. In 2018, Valletta was the nominated European Capital of Culture, allowing great renovation works.
The Valletta Design Cluster (VDC) is a culture and creativity centre in Valletta, Malta. Inaugurated in March 2021, it is housed in a former slaughterhouse known as the Old Abattoir (Maltese: Il-Biċċerija l-Antika) which was originally built in around the 17th century. Today, VDC is a community space for cultural and creative practice supported by the Valletta Cultural Agency.