Grassroots Innovation towards Planetary Justice. The Parts that reflect the Whole?
Dr Yulia Sugandi, 16 June 2021
Yulia Sugandi has PhD in Anthropology and Sociology from the Institute of Ethnology, University of Muenster, Germany, a MSc in Sociology and Intercultural Counselling Programme from University of Eastern Finland as well as Bachelor in Sociology from Gadjah Mada University. Yulia has been supporting socio-ecological justice over 20 years through direct working experience of development as a development/ humanitarian worker and board member of various projects and combines this with teaching and researching social equity and inclusive development, positive peace, and human ecology.
As a transdisciplinary practitioner who believes in the power of empathy, Yulia embraces the integration of knowledge beyond disciplinary, sectoral, and societal boundaries. She has collaborated with various parties to support grassroots solutions and their contribution to organic social change and systems transformation. Yulia is passionate about promoting the connection between knowledge, attitudes, and practice in public policies. She has developed curricula on inclusive green growth and empathetic leadership to produce Evidence-Based Policies against the socio-ecological crisis.
Yulia adopts a wide range of qualitative methods and participatory approaches to achieve dignified social change processes in which ordinary people can be listened to and responded to through appropriate public policies. Her mission is aligned with a vibrant global network of 91 UNDP Accelerator Labs, aimed at re-imagining development for the 21st century and testing new ways of working to address social and environmental challenges. Yulia is the Head of Solutions Mapping at UNDP Accelerator Labs where she applies ethnographic methods and immersion in community dynamics, identification of and work with lead users, and implications of bottom-up solutions for the policy design. She is on the journey to accelerate collective action in building a resilient system against water-related disasters by addressing bottlenecks that prevent some low-income urban communities from developing their own solutions. This implies that one cannot know the whole if the parts are not known.