Summer School 2026:
Glocal Sustainable Practice
The 2026 Summer School was the second full run of the SOC-ENVI International programme. Ten students from six universities across South East Asia and East Asia gathered in Bangkok for a fortnight of teaching, fieldwork, analysis and collaborative design.
The cohort
Undergraduate students, drawn from:
- Kasetsart University, Thailand (host)
- University of Westminster, London (partner)
- Misamis University, Philippines
- Peking University, China
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Hanoi University, Vietnam
- IPB University, Indonesia
- Universitas Sriwijaya, Indonesia
The academic programme
The fortnight was structured in three phases: understanding, immersion and design.
Opening lectures on global sustainability challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals, followed by sessions on glocal thinking, local sustainable foundations, urban sustainability in Southeast Asia, and the ethics of community engagement.
A lecture by Dr Najmah Najmah of Universitas Sriwijaya on gender, health and coal extraction in Lahat, South Sumatra, framed through Feminist Participatory Action Research. Followed by a three day residential field trip to the King's Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project in Petchaburi, including mangrove planting, wetland ecology and salt farming.
Two intensive morning lectures on social innovation and small scale transformation, and on becoming a sustainability changemaker, framed the afternoons. Students designed community-based sustainability projects in mixed international groups, presented them at a faculty and peer showcase on 16 July, and closed the fortnight with a reflection ceremony on the morning of 17 July.
Fieldwork at the LERD Project
Students spent three days at the Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project in Petchaburi, an environmental research programme established in 1998 under His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The project uses constructed wetlands, oxidation ponds and mangrove forests to treat municipal wastewater from Phetchaburi Municipality, and serves as a living laboratory for community based sustainability practice.
Faculty and visiting lecturers
- Prof. Dr Ngamlamai Piolueang · Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kasetsart University
- Dr Farhang Morady · Distinguished Scholar, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kasetsart University; Director, Democratic Education Network, University of Westminster
- Dr Korakit Choomgrant · Faculty of Social Sciences, Kasetsart University
- Dr Najmah Najmah · Universitas Sriwijaya, Indonesia, and International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University (visiting lecturer)
Lecture materials
Slides and reading lists from the 2026 fortnight, shared by the lecturers themselves. Free to use for teaching and study, with attribution.
Global Challenges in a Shared World, and the SDGs in Everyday Life
Download slides →Gender, Health and Resource Extraction in Southeast Asia: Mothers in a Sumatran Coal Mining Case
Download slides →Innovation for Sustainable Communities: Social Innovation and Small Scale Transformation
Download slides →Becoming a Sustainability Changemaker: Leadership, Collaboration and Future Pathways
Download slides →Lectures and workshops by the Kasetsart Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Environment
Student projects
Two international teams designed and presented projects during the closing showcase.
Group 1 · Ha Giang Loop, Vietnam
Five students proposed a set of interventions to address the safety and labour crisis in Vietnam's Ha Giang Loop motorcycle tourism industry. The project traced accidents to the erosion of wages for skilled Easy Rider drivers, and proposed licensing, safety and training reforms alongside a cooperative wage floor.
Download presentation →Group 2 · Citarum River, Indonesia
Five students proposed a bamboo waste trap system for Tarumajaya village in West Java, drawing directly on the King's LERD Project's nature-based approach and on Dr Najmah Najmah's Lahat case. The project centred the voices of local mothers and youth as the researchers and maintainers of the system.
Download presentation →Outputs
- The Democratic Education Network's main website: democraticeducationnetwork.net, home of DEN's global activity, partnerships and archive.
- DEN's publications library: DEN Publications, where past books, conference proceedings and student-led volumes are collected.
- Ten reflective blog posts by the 2026 cohort, published on DEN's online magazine: insidewestminster.co.uk, between August and October 2026.
- A small number of chapters for DEN's forthcoming book, "The Future of Sustainable Development in a World Beyond the UN SDGs" (in press, 2027).
From the fortnight
A gallery in six images, from arrival to closing.
With thanks
Warm thanks to the Deans of the Faculties of Social Sciences and Environment at Kasetsart University, to Dr Korakit Choomgrant for hosting so generously, to Dr Najmah Najmah for her lecture, and to the whole SOC-ENVI academic team for making the fortnight possible.