Transhumance is a type of pastoralism entailing a seasonal movement of livestock between summer and winter pastures along designated trails; historically, given their economic importance, the presence of these routes used to have major effects on the uses of land. Most have disappeared, but many are still clearly visible in mountain and rural landscapes, and are often subject to landscape protection measures. Further traces can be found in place and family names, cultural practices, architectural elements, archaeological findings, and the memories of the elderly. Transhumance was practiced in many European countries. It has shaped European cultures, societies and landscapes for centuries. Such heritage needs to be preserved, also as a resource for rural and mountain economies that often suffer from depopulation. The analysis, understanding and conservation of this heritage is the target of very different disciplines. Making the most of such heritage should be the focus of responsible policy-making, programming and planning. However, given the cross-cutting nature of transhumance, a transdisciplinary approach must be applied for ensuring the best effects of policy making and planning on landscape, economy, society, reduction of natural risks, and conservation of cultural assets. The overall objective of PECUS is to define HE methods and tools based on cognitive mapping, able to convey the complexity and trans-disciplinarity of the issues related to the conservation, management and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural assets – in particular, focusing on the transhumance heritage. For this purpose, PECUS combines two elements to promote and achieve transdisciplinarity in teaching & learning: - the involvement of teachers and students in workshops centred on transdisciplinary planning for the conservation and management of transhumance landscapes and the sustainable development of related environments and economies - the use of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) as a tool to facilitate the representation and understanding of complex problems, and foster transdisciplinary decisions. FCMs are a symbolic representation of complex systems in terms of concepts and their mutual interactions. Their construction requires inputs of human experience and knowledge on the system under consideration; therefore, the outcome is an integration of the experience and knowledge accumulated by the persons involved, concerning the underlying causal relationships amongst factors, characteristics, and components of the same system. For this reason, PECUS intends to apply this tool as a support for a new, transdisciplinary educational approach for developing programmes/plans affecting the spatial, social and environmental status of an important asset of the common European culture. PECUS will involve both students and teachers from partner organisations: - 12 teachers will participate in a preliminary workshop aimed at defining the contents and methods for the following workshop - 50 students will be selected by partner universities to participate in a 7-day international, intensive workshop centred on the practice of transdisciplinary planning for the conservation and promotion of transhumance landscapes, supported by the use of cognitive mapping, and tutored by the 12 teachers having participated in the preliminary workshop - 250 additional students will be involved by partner universities in further local activities based on the use of FCMs. Besides the above educational activities, PECUS will deliver a series of Intellectual Outputs, namely: - an online repository of educational materials supporting the project activities and made available to anyone interested - a modular online course made of thematic “pills” on the project topics (videos, presentations, animations, self-evaluation tests, etc.) - a set of methodological guidelines for FCM-based transdisciplinary teaching practices - the proceedings of the final conference focused on the project outcomes. The project is intended to contribute, in the long term, to: - develop cross-boundary skills in future professionals and decision makers - contribute to the European and international debate on how to analyse, preserve and valorise tangible and intangible cultural heritage, in particular related to transhumance - contribute to the development of a collaborative environment among teachers, researchers and students in partner HEIs - contribute to open up traditional educational practices in partner HEIs through the diffusion of the use of FCM in HE courses - increase the quality of HE teaching and research in the field of the preservation, management and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, thanks to the diffusion of a trans-disciplinary approach. The sustainability of the project’s approach relies on the adaptability of the FCM method to different topics and contexts.
Overall objective was defining higher education methods and tools based on cognitive mapping, able to convey the complexity and trans-disciplinarity of the issues related to the conservation, management and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural assets – in particular focusing on the transhumance heritage. Specific objectives were: 1) providing a transdisciplinary educational approach to the project topic, integrating practices and methods typical of spatial planning, history, conservation, anthropology, archaeology and ecology; 2) disseminating cognitive mapping as a tool to foster trans-disciplinary learning within lab-like learning environments; 3) strengthening the network among EU higher education institutions and improving their educational capacities and practices with a special focus on trans-disciplinarity. All the objectives set have been achieved.
A transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning entails collaboration among disciplines towards a common purpose. It requires “boundary-crossing” skills, which should be taught to higher education students as future planners, policy makers, researchers and professionals in the related fields; however, such skills are seldom fostered by traditional, domain-specific higher education curricula. For this reason, it is important to give students the possibility to develop transdisciplinary thinking through additional, dedicated activities. PECUS intended to combine two elements to promote and achieve trans-disciplinarity in teaching and learning: - the involvement of teachers and students in international, interdisciplinary workshops; - the use of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) as a tool to facilitate the representation and understanding of complex problems and foster transdisciplinary decisions. FCM as a teaching and learning tool is virtually applicable to any field of knowledge. In this case, the chosen topic was the conservation, management and promotion of traditional landscapes related to pastoralism and transhumance. This is an example of a highly interdisciplinary topic where different competences are required.