We believe that knowledge is only valuable when shared. Every person has something to teach and something to learn — regardless of their age or profession.
Our philosophy is based on mutual learning and collaboration. Scientists, teachers, students, farmers and craftsmen unite through the exchange of experiences and ideas.
From weaving workshops to augmented reality applications and online communities.
Our work is based on four basic pillars that connect knowledge with practice:
We create educational and lifelong learning opportunities in remote areas.
We highlight weaving, local professions and forms of experiential knowledge.
We organize medical missions and social actions in mountain communities.
We promote development models based on cooperation, self-sufficiency and respect for nature.
The "University of the Mountains" constitutes one of the most multidimensional challenges that can be undertaken. The product of an authentic, systematic and original reflection, it is undoubtedly one of the most difficult and complex projects of integrated intervention in the Region. In essence, it reflects the very challenge of establishing the conditions for implementing a development vision, which will be governed by respect for the particularities of locality, for the long-standing cultural tradition of the mountainous region and the special characteristics of the local society and economy. In this context, the project of combining the interaction of Locality and University with the sustainable development of the Region (with the initial model-field of application being the mountainous region of Crete) is founded.
After all, the ecological landscape of its mountainous and semi-mountainous societies, their history, their demographic stability, as well as aspects of social organization and cultural values and their contemporary transformation constitute a constant challenge for research and development.
But what is the "University of the Mountains"? Let us define what it is not in principle:
It is not a conventional University, nor a simple Lifelong Learning Structure.
It is not limited to the regularities and normative commitments of a typical Institution. And it certainly does not reproduce the formalistic dichotomy of teacher-student.
Recognizing, however, that the University is a historical subject, the "University of the Mountains" does not deviate from the mission of a real University. It is irrigated by the experiential dimension of knowledge. It invests in interdisciplinary and presupposes a mutual teaching disposition.
In short, the University of the Mountains is the project of establishing a Community. A dynamic community of researchers, academics, social partners and citizens of the mountainous region, who genuinely interact and learn from each other.
But why a “University of the Mountains”? Why now, why there? And above all, what pre-existed and what research and development needs does it allow us to detect?
The reflection on the creation of the “University of the Mountains” from the very beginning moves beyond the known “off-the-shelf” development techniques and seeks new and genuine goals that dialogue with the specific and complex historical, social and cultural setting of the region. The ecological landscape of mountainous and semi-mountainous societies, their history, their demographic stability, as well as aspects of social organization and cultural values and their contemporary transformation, have been the subject of interest from many different sides. Attempting a schematic presentation of the ways of approaching space, we can claim that so far they have moved in three directions:
- The first concerns approaches in the fields of social organization, cultural values and health by individual researchers or small research groups. In these approaches, the local community constitutes a field of research for the enrichment of theoretical knowledge or for testing the limits of existing theoretical models.
- The second direction concerns the use of space as a field of "practical training" for students of Social Sciences and Health Sciences, mainly of the University of Crete.
- The third direction concerns various development intervention policies, mainly in the form of stimulating or strengthening the economy of the region. From the consequences of development policies, we realize that in the process, through such a process, external experts who come to implement an intervention plan in the region, may ultimately turn themselves into objects of their own project. This is because these societies have a relentless ability to reverse their theatrical relationship with the external intervener, an ability that largely derives from their chronic familiarity with the theatricality of social play, with coded behavior and with the negotiable nature of the outcome of social relations.
Therefore, measuring the development projects that have been carried out in recent years, we observe the following:
1) the high degree of specialization and the often short-lived perspective of the interventions to date
2) the lack of specifically designed interventions that dialogue with the conditions under which locality is constituted
3) the absence of a constructive "reconciliation" of a theoretical concern and specific empirical data
4) the absence of an interdisciplinary approach and
5) the absence of a plan that will extend over time, while at the same time setting prospects.
The above reflection on the scientific and development approaches of the area and the lessons learned from the contemporary situation that has developed in the region, we believe that it raises issues ("challenges", we could more accurately claim) in the field of a theoretical foundation of transformation models and, consequently, in the adoption of interventionist policies.
