Hi Paul,

My department has quite a lot of international co-operations: we have two double degrees (one with Russian university and one with a Thai university) in the Master's programme and we do a lot of EU-funded projects, which are based on international co-operations. We have a so-called "transfer centre" (research). My colleagues there specialise in EU-funded projects. The projects involve not only universities of EU member states but also of other countries, like Ukraine, Russia, and more. 

I myself am responsible for the academic co-ordination of the double degree with the Russian university. The partnership involves student and staff exchanges. Conversations take place in Russian and English. We have been meeting in person and online. 

Personal involvement is an important driver. And another driver are definitely the EU-funded projects. 

Why would you like to develop these kinds of networks? In fact, most research point out that top-down creation of networks is not possible. Networks must be created bottom-up and concern a problem that the participant share.

I cover the problems of creating and managing networks in the political field of security. Please look at my doctoral thesis to find relevant discussion on meta-governance of networks. It is posted here on RG, called the governmenatlity of meta-governance. You may find the literature review on network governance (chapter 2) particular useful!

sorry, did not see that you were an established scholar! Still, more specifically you might want to look up this article!

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2006.00418.x/full

Dear Paul, I have been working in several European Projects as 'leader'. My advices:

- It is important to have face to face meetings (at least one each year).

- It is very important to elaborate a table with the task every partner have to perform and the time of completion. So everybody knows in advance what have to do. I know it is a very laborious task, but believe me IMPORTANT.

- It is very important to crate an atmosphere of fellowship, friendship, respect and assistance. 

- Everyone has to assume that it is a group of porfesionales and what is expected of each precisely acting as such professionals. This means not constantly telling everyone what to do.

- If in the team the members use other language (may be english and Spanish), try to help the people that do not talk very good in english to use the Spanish language. 

- Use the technologies as a way of be in touch, but prevent the overbooking/saturation of massive messages and post... and use simple, no complex technologies.

Sorry if my recommendations and suggestions seems very simple, but a project could fail for simple reasons or  misunderstandings.

Un abrazo. Félix

I'm not certain how fruitful it would be, but I wonder if the Humboldt Foundation might be a means to get a network going, since it could facilitate connections in the EU and elsewhere, AND provide funding for the necessary travel recommended in an earlier post? https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/humboldt-kollegs-en.html (also, they have Canadian "alumni associations" that might be helpful)

Good morning Paul,

I co-authored with Dr. Sierra (U de Antioquia) a chapter that addresses several of the issues that you raised in your question. The chapter will be published in early 2016. The chapter (Practicing Community Engagement for Biodiversity Conservation in Rural Colombia) provides strategies for individuals trying to facilitate the development of community-based conservation solutions for protecting biodiversity in rural areas. As the planet’s condition worsens and human needs for equitable access to food, water, and other natural resources grow more acute, it has become important to develop alternatives to current dominant ways of understanding economic and social development relating to nature. Based on our working experiences with communities and national & international institutions in rural Colombia, we provide in the chapter an account of the conceptual and practical dimensions of a community-engagement process created by a group of community-based organizations and national and international expert institutions . This community-engagement process was developed to strengthen the capacity of culturally diverse rural groups to resolve conservation challenges linked to the biodiversity of their natural environment. First, we outline the conceptual foundations of this community-engagement process in an international context. Second, we share some strategies for building a collaborative learning process among diverse local, national, and international partners in tackling local biodiversity conservation issues.

I can share with you the draft of the chapter as long as it is for your yes only.

Let me know!

Gerald

Hi, Paul.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

The answers received so far are clearly from persons who have given the topic a lot of thought. The one option that I think you might consider is to see how you might tie into a larger network.

I was very involved with the UNESCO Associated Schools Project in the 1970s and 1980s in terms of their policies (I did the worldwide evaluation of the project in the late 70s and wrote a number of the papers for their international meetings and some handbooks for schools as well as a published chapter on networking within countries all over the world). You might want to consider the possibilities that exist within this larger framework that already exists: it involves very large numbers of institutions on all continents with linkages in each country to scholars and institutions. An "intra-network" of persons with special interests at the academic level might be developed by you with some push from the UNESCO National Commission in Ottawa, where you explore the collaboration of persons interested in this area and who wish to share thoughts on dimensions that you are interested in.

You might suggest to them a "special interest sub-group" around a topic that appeals to you, but the general phrasing you use is too vague: "..such concerns as neoliberalism in education, social inequalities, and democracy in and through education.." If you pursue this suggestion, you should set up a meeting with someone at the Commission in Ottawa to see how they conceptualize the project and present yourself as someone who would like to contribute to how they view the world. You would need to be focused and practical, since their aims are really to affect school practice on all these topics. After the briefing from them, a few nose-to-nose discussions with people in the ASP network for Canada could hone your ideas well enough that you can conceptualize an approach via Paris. Anyway, you might give it a try. My latest old contact, Sigrid Niedermayer has already retired and I don't know the new people. Also, please note: you will have to find your own money from our national sources, not from UNESCO.

All this, just a thought.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you and your wife.

Stacy

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your very thoughtful and insightful responses.

Regular, face-to-face, meaningful engagement is a key, and I have also noted some of the references and examples that have been provided. 

Thanks Stacy, and wonderful to hear from you. The UNESCO network is on the radar. I spent three months in Paris last year working on projects at the headquarters in Paris, and have also commenced some engagement with the Canadian commission.

Thanks Féliz as well, and I very much appreciate your insight in linguistic issues.

And thanks Gérald, Laura, Oscar and Edith!

The objective of our proposed project is not to create a top-down hierarchical model but, on the contrary, to bring together researchers and civil society groups in relation to education for democracy. Funding is in very short supply, and the ten years of research I've been involved in in this area has led to a semi-structured, loosely-based, informal network, which is why I would like to now formalize it.

I would be interested to know what people think about the integrity, viability, robustness and criticality of the research if we start to mesh with international and governmental organizations. Will that affect the direction of what we want to do? My own sense is that all of these relationships have to be constantly negotiated and clarified. Since we are interested in have an impact on formal education, I accept that such partnerships will involve diverse considerations.

Thanks again, everyone!

Paul