Linda in Stockholm

Linda Luvuno attended a course at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. Here is her story.

Pre-departure:

I unfortunately lost my little brother two weeks before I had to leave so my memories of that time are a bit misty. My excitement was tainted by the need to be around people who were going through what I was going through.

What I do remember though is the struggle to find affordable accommodation. This was the biggest headache to be quite honest! I eventually found something the eve of my brother’s funeral, 6 days before I fly out. On that day my supervisor and I were still deciding whether we should take the only expensive available option! We did. It cost 12 000SEK which is about R18 000! There are cheaper options though if you can pay the deposit and stay a bit longer than the 4 weeks I was there for.

The rest of the arrangements went well. I had no issues with visa applications, booking flights and travel insurance which was easily handled by Neelsie Travel.

Experience at Summer School:

An hour after arriving in Stockholm my phone died. I bought a Swedish sim card because I needed to navigate to the University to meet my supervisor and call her if I got lost. I had to quickly accept my circumstances and make my way through into the city without a phone. I “asked” my way there. My trip also included stopping at the central train station to rent a locker for my big luggage. I made it there a 30 minutes later then I was initially meant to. Luckily my supervisor and I had discussed how to get there before. I had made some alterations to the route though. Instead of two train trips (one leaving from the airport to the central station) and a bus, I had decided on a bus, two train trips and another bus! That was my first Swedish adventure!!

I was at Stockholm University, at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The centre is made up of Trans-disciplinary groups of researchers (residential and visiting researchers), PhD and Masters Students. Something already very different to me. Social scientists, economists, political scientists and ecologist working together to try and get a better understanding of the complex social-ecological systems they were researching! The research done at the SRC emphasizes the role that living systems at different scales play in social and economic development and how to govern and manage for resilience in integrated social-ecological systems.

I was there to join an introductory PhD course which was to give the new PhD students an insight into the centre – its research goals and the methods applied to answer all those questions. We had some of the top scientists in the world come in to give us seminars each day. These ranged from the history of science, ontology and epistemology, methods and how to write scientific papers; to ways of collaborating in research teams and what are the current research frontiers. The most striking thing I found that was different about the centre is the amount of collaboration and the willingness to share ideas that exists eliminates competition. The PhD students are given the space and opportunity to grow and collaborate between themselves. There’s a lot more freedom to explore your topic and other areas of interest if you are not stressing about coming up with a project and finishing in the 2 yr 8month period we are given here. PhD’s are employees with all the perks of a job. The atmosphere as a whole was different where the PhD students felt respected and contributors and not merely students. I saw a lot of student lead collaborations and initiatives then I see here where everyone is deeply involved in their projects! Rightfully so though, time is a precious entity around here!

On the social side I saw a WOLF!!!…bears and other northern hemisphere animals! Did I mention I saw a wolf?!!! I saw a wolf! 😀 Oh, I also went mushroom picking in the forest (Thanks to Vanessa, Gavin and Matilda). We found chicken of the woods, which isn’t something that happens often! Pretty awesome!

Return:

My last week Sweden I realised I had fallen in love with the place! I remember driving down to the south of Sweden from Stockholm with the lake on my left, forest painted with autumn colours, different shades of green, yellow, orange and red on my right, and a blue sky splashed with white fluffy cirius clouds, and thinking wow! This is what falling in love feels like. I fell in love with the majestic simplicity of Sweden. An oxymoron I know but it’s gorgeous without trying. I constantly felt like I was in a dream or movie. I was surrounded by green and blue. The architecture is old but not too extravagant! Though I had been there for a month, I still felt as though it was short! I hopefully will get to spend some more time at the centre on a collaboration.

Something said by the Science Director really stuck with me “The Stockholm Resilience Centre is built on trust and collective action, not on competition between peers and comparing individuals accomplishments.” That’s a very different way of doing things. I liked it and I hope to have the same environment in my future research team. I think I will also adopt the Scandinavian model of a PhD and not put so much pressure on myself to churn out a PhD in 3 years without fully experiencing the process and utilizing exchange opportunities such as these. Any learning experience is great and I appreciate that. I am determined to attend another summer school programme to meet and learn from new people. Networking is such an important skill and I plan to sharpen it during my PhD. I got invited to Princeton by one of the SRC Board Members. I cannot pass up that opportunity just because I have to finish my research in 3 years. Richard Branson says “successful people connect with people, make the most of meetings & build relationships. A rounded learning experience full of meaningful connections is what I’m after…that’s why I’m aiming for a 4yr experience.

Otherwise, it was a lovely experience that made me appreciate my Africanness even more. I struggled with the lack of connections with people on the street. I guess there’s not a lot of that either in Stellenbosch compared to KZN, but you still find people willing to greet and connect with you on that small level. At one point, I tried greeting someone and I got “talkative aren’t you?!” He was surprised at my greeting him and asking how he was, and I was surprised at how invasive hello is to Swedes! On the flight to South Africa I could already tell the atmosphere was completely different and I appreciated being back home – even if I was only in a plane at that point! I really had a great time and met awesome people. The Swedes are great once they get to know you! I feel like though the connection were made over a short time, they were real and will last.