The afternoon of 3 March, the international workshop “Dialogues on Theoretical Development and Modeling towards Sustainability” ended at the UDC. This two-day workshop, brought together some thirty sustainability experts. From different disciplines among Social Sciences as Economy, Political Sciencies and Psychology but also from Computer Engineering and Industrial Ecology, the positions were brought together to keep on working in the European Research Project GLAMURS, coordinated by Prof. García Mira and which will finish in 2016.
During the 3rd of March session, the discussions focused on how to integrate the work developed by some of the 11 Universities involved within the project. More specifically, the work revolved around a survey design, one agent-based model and the econometric analysis, all of which will be outcomes of the Glamurs project and developed during the next steps of it. These three tools will also be crucial to understand the drivers of the sustainable lifestyles already present in the seven european regions Glamurs is focused.
Throughout the project a deeper knowledge will be achieved on some outstanding initiatives in the transition to sustainable lifestyles in Europe. These include some initiatives from Aberdeen (UK) working to reduce its oil dependence; Renewable-energy cooperatives in central Germany; Ecovillages in Timis (Romania), agroecological initiatives near Rotterdam and the region of Lazio (Italy).Likewise, the People-Environmet Research Group, from the UDC, will study some initiatives from Galicia working in sustainable food and clothing.

Aside from researchers working at the University of Corunna, the theoretical meeting sessions of this international workshop engaged expert researchers from the following Universities and Research Centers : University of Bath (UK), James Hutton Institute (Scotland, UK), University of Roma Tre (Italy), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), and Universidad de La Laguna (Spain, Canary Islands) .

On March, the 2nd, took place the first of the group of training sessions the People Environment Research Group organizes under the title “”Dialogues on Theoretical Development and Modeling towards Sustainability”. This meeting is intended to help in the building of a consensus among the different streams of expertise the GLAMURS project uses as foreground, including Psichology, Economy, Political Sciences and Computer Engineering. This last discipline was the one the discussions centred, especifically on how the changes towards a more environmentally friendly lifestyles could happen and be included in a model for the future.

GLAMURS, the research project, started in January, 2014 and will finish in 2016. It is managed by the University of Corunna team, and Prof.Dr.Ricardo García Mira is its Coordinator. In it, 11 European Universities are involved and they count on financial support from the European Comission.

Apart from the researchers from the UDC, the theoretical meeting sessions of this international workshop engaged expert researchers from the following universities and Research Centers : University of Bath (UK), James Hutton Institute (Scotland, UK), University of Roma Tre (Italy), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), and Universidad de La Laguna (Spain, Canary Islands) .

On Saturday, 28th, February and taking advantadge of the presence  of several researchers from the Glamurs Consortium in Corunna, we visit one of the initiatives the UDC team will study as a responsible consumption organisation. The  aims of the NGO, Equus Zebra, www.equuszebra.es/es/, are the integration of immigrant communities in Corunna, but also is focused in sustainable clothing and sustainable consumption. Victor Omgba, his president, explained us about its functioning, activities and the daily routines of the NGO, which has its headquarters in neighbourhood of Agra.

On the 26th and 27th of February a couple of training sessions took place at the University of Corunna, Spain for capaciting researchers within the Glamurs Project in some of the more innovative techniques of qualitative analysis. In this case, Eugenio de Gregorio, an expert on qualitative methodologies gave both of the sessions on Atlas.ti, one of the best softwares  for qualitative research and qualitative data analysis. The objectives of the of the sessions were to train the researchers  and prepare them to apply this kind of analysis when modelling the change in lifestyles and in sustainable consumption initiatives.

On February, the 25th, an international Seminar organised by the People Environment Research Group on “Back-casting scenario development” took place at the University of Corunna, Spain.

This kind of workshop is one of the main tools by which the group of researchers from the UDC manages and provides specialized training to the rest of the members of the Consortium for the Glamurs Project. In this case the training was on a methodology to create participation scenarios with the case studies included within the project and which whom the researches have been working since January 2014, date when the project started.

Apart from the members of the manager team, this international workshop gathered together other members of the Glamurs Consortium from Scotland, Austria., Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands. Other members from Leipzig (Helmholtz Institute) and Magdeburg (University of Magdeburg) also joined the meeting through video-conference.