TerraPlaces: Enlivening Relationship with Place
Katrina Davenport & Craig Chalquist

Place Based Leadership: An Action Research Project
Julie Auger

Learning and Teaching with Place
Marian Hazzard, M.Ed, & Edmund Hazzard, M. Arch, M.A.T.

The Powers of Place Initiative encourages and supports seminal research into a variety of areas related to right relationship between people and place.

At left is a list of some studies already underway. Upon completion, the results of these studies will be posted in the Studies and Papers page.

Here's a little more information about them:

TerraPlaces: Enlivening Relationship with Place
by Katrina Martin Davenport, M.A. Craig Chalquist, Ph.D.
This research project - open to all - invites participants into a deep and sustained relationship with places of their choosing. Based on the work of Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., participants learn and use terrapsychological research methods that include observation, journaling, art, and dreamwork. The purpose of the project is to reconnect human beings with natural places and to analyze the effects of such experiences, including shifts in individual consciousness, improved relationships (with other people, the community and the environment), and increased action toward stewarding of natural places. The first phase of the research begins August 1, 2010 and continues through September 20, 2010. The second, deeper, phase commences September 21, 2010 and ends December 20, 2010, coinciding with the autumn season. For more information and to join the research, join the TerraPlaces group in the Field.

Place Based Leadership: An Action Research Project
by Julie Auger
Based on her participation at the Place Based Leadership Forum held in Banff, Alberta, Canada in May 2010, Julie is capturing and exploring the story of the gathering itself, the learning that came from it, and the effects it had on the participants' subsequent thinking and actions. The stories and language captured act as a vessel in which to invite others into the conversation around "place-making". She is interested in ways in which the notion of "leaders as place-makers" may be of service to the world as a life generating transformation experience. The Place Based Leadership Forum was jointly sponsored by the Powers of Place Initiative and Leadership Development at the Banff Centre.

Learning and Teaching with Place: Green School, Bali, Indonesia
by Marian Hazzard, M.Ed. and Edmund Hazzard, M.Arch., M.A.T.
This is a phenomenological research study on behalf of the Powers of Place Initiative in partnership with the the Green School in Bali-Indonesia.  It will be a qualitative study including observations, interviews and exploration of the reciprocal relationship of place, space and environment on the educational experience of children and families. There will be an emphasis on the interface between built and natural environment and developing young people for leadership for sustainability in the next generation. Outcomes of the research will consist of a report, data for potential articles for public conversation, short media pieces, stories and narrative.