Through the Passage(s)

Yesterday and today, we had attended several lectures on leadership, the environment, and sustainability in the Southwest of England, wrapping up the end of the Fulbright week, and passing into a new part of the programme - the International Summer School (more on that later).

The first lecture we attended was given by Dr Beverley Hawkins, a lecturer in Leadership studies. It was interesting to learn about the theories behind sustainable leadership after seeing it in practice at Embercombe. Her lecture dovetailed nicely with everything that Mac had explained to us during our tour at Embercombe - that leadership can take many different forms and is often context dependent. We engaged in a fun activity where each of us were told to draw and label a children's playground from a specific perspective, which was given to us on a folded up piece of paper. I picked the mother of a six-year old child, so I labeled areas of the playground that I thought would be of interest to her. Other perspectives included those of a fourteen-year old girl, a six-year old boy, a gardener, and a health and safety inspector. Naturally, even though we had all essentially drawn the same thing, the labels were very different. Dr Hawkins stressed the idea that perspectives are not simply ways of seeing the world - they are also ways of not seeing the world. Because the job of a leader is to frame his or her followers' perspectives, this can obviously be quite dangerous, as history as shown.

The second class we attended yesterday was taught by Professor Jonathan Gosling. We discussed a reading we had done about World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Climate Saver Companies, specifically a case study of Tetra Pak, a Swedish food packaging corporation that has a large presence in the Chinese milk industry, where it provides packaging services to leading milk-producing companies. Tetra Pak has worked with the industry to bolster the country's milk consumption (historically, China has never consumed much milk), but has come under fire for being unsustainable due to low recycling rates, despite the fact that Tetra Pak packaging produces less carbon emissions than other types of packging. Having said that, Tetra Pak's support of a growing industry which depends on cattle has drawn criticism from some within WWF, since cattle produce harmful emissions and (ideally) need large grazing areas that often require deforestation. Tetra Pak also was linked to a larger milk scandal that hit most of China's top-producing milk companies several years ago. The business therefore faces many challenges, all of which will need to be met with strong sustainable leadership. We discussed supply chains, environmental impacts, business relationships, and how businesses create demands where there were previously none. On a somewhat related note, Professor Gosling told us about Jaffa Cakes, a British food which, due to new food tax laws, is the center of an ongoing debate of whether it qualifies as a "cake" or a "biscuit." We were encouraged to go out and try some ourselves. After several experiments in the field, we came to the scientific conclusion that they are biscuits, despite their name.

Today, we finished our last Fulbright class with none other than Professor Clive Sabel, who discussed his URGENCHE project with us. URGENCHE stands for the Urban Reduction of Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions in China and Europe. The project has brought together a number of leading interdisciplinary researchers from many different countries. The objective is to study the effects of existing GHG reduction policies on human health. An interesting exercise Professor Sabel had us do was list the ideal characteristics of a fictional city, which helped us envision the difficulties policymakers face in managing urban areas. We also discovered that the qualitative data for GHG reduction policies is sometimes very unconvincing to policymakers and to the general public, even though common sense dictates that such policies are important to the overall health of a city, especially in the long run. It was an engaging and thought-provoking end to an exciting week.

Find out more about URGENCHE at: http://www.urgenche.eu/

A section of Exeter's underground passages

We had the afternoon off today, so we explored the city and ate at Tea on the Green, a restaurant near the cathedral where I had a tasty butternut squash and pomegranate wrap. Then we went through Exeter's underground passages, which were originally used to bring fresh water to the city's wealthiest inhabitants during the 14th and 15th centuries. They were later used as bomb shelters during WWII, though modern research now shows that the tunnels were too close to the earth's surface to have given protection to refugees.

Luke, the medieval man

Me, crouching in a passage. Do you like my hat?

The passages were a unique experience. We were all given hardhats before entering, which we were quite glad of, since we bumped our heads several times on the ceiling (at least I did). We also had the option of crawling through one of the lower passages, which we all took advantage of. The small admission fee to the passages also included a video and a small museum space. And we got to see Luke, the somewhat creepy medieval man!

If you ever come to Exeter, the passages are a fun and unique experience for all ages. They are also the only medieval underground passages open to the public in Great Britain!

Visit Exeter's passages via: http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2914

We ended the day with a visit to the Firehouse Pub for some elderflower cider before heading back to our dorm's balcony to mix some apple and blackcurrant juice with the champagne the older gentlemen gave us a few days earlier (it was delicious).

I will be in London for the next few days where my friends and I will join other students on the International Summer School programme. We'll be touring all over the city, which is very exciting (I wish it was going to be cooler though). I won't have my laptop with me for a few days, but I will be sure to post when I get back.

Stay cool everyone! It's hot out there!