Integrated development scenarios for the Georgios Karaiskakis Municipality (Collective Work)

Integrated development scenarios for the Georgios Karaiskakis Municipality (Collective Work)

The ongoing multidimensional crisis demands new development approaches that respond to actual needs and describe the way for the creative utilization of the particular characteristics of the natural and socioeconomic environment. The need for this kind of planning approaches becomes more intense in mountainous areas, which remained to a large extent outside the dominant development strategies. Integrated approach, interdisciplinarity and education can be key features of these new approaches. In this context, within the course “Introduction to Environment and Development Science” of the interdisciplinary postgraduate programme “Environment and Development” at the National Technical University of Athens (concentration “Environment and Development of Mountainous Areas”), the students conduct development surveys for different regions in Greece using the methodology of WID (Worthliving Integrated Development). During the academic year of 2015-2016, an interdisciplinary workgroup of students of various disciplines conducted a development study for the mountainous municipality of Georgios Karaiskakis, based on the methodology of Worthliving Integrated Development. This paper presents the methodological steps followed in the educational process in order to highlight to the general public the systematic methodology of integrated development, as well as its developmental results for the study area.