Who is RinA for?
RinA is for people already embedded in projects, practices and organisations concerned to change the way we live and work for the sake of a healthier planet.
Our community includes people working in:
- Community Economies
- Activism
- Social Arts Practice
- Agroecology and eco-forestry
- Social housing
- Ethnobotany
- Education across all ages
- Food and energy systems
- Holistic consciousness
You might be:
- Leading, facilitating, organising or participating in a change project
- Facing complexity, uncertainty, responsibility and ethical challenges in your field of work
You do need:
- A real context of practice working towards regenerative change
- A willingness to examine your own action from many other perspectives
- A commitment to sustained inquiry over time
You do not need to be an academic or wanting to undertake research along traditional academic lines. We welcome and encourage curiosity and exchange across and beyond the usual disciplinary boundaries.
How do I join?
As a first encounter, we encourage you to participate in our webinars and other public activities so that you can learn more about RinA's approach. See What's happening for the latest events →
For those keen to deepen reflexive practice, most people begin with our 6-month foundational programme:
Space of Beginnings
An entry point into RinA's way of working
- Monthly small-group supervision (max. 3 practitioners)
- Guided by experienced convenors
- Focus on reflexive writing and developing an inquiry from your own field of practice
- Introduction to phenomenology, reflexive practice and research-in-action
This is a space to test whether this approach — and this community — is right for you. There is no formal application process. We begin with a conversation.
Space of Beginnings is run in English by RinA Fellows Ruth Cross and Anna Lena Hahn, with a similar programme running in Portuguese through Escola Schumacher Brasil led by RinA Fellows Beatriz Tadema and Juliana Schneider.
What is the Research Fellowship?
After Space of Beginnings, you may choose to continue into the RinA Research Fellowship — a practice-based research pathway for people who want to develop, articulate and share their inquiry publicly. It typically takes 3–5 years. The Fellowship is recognised through the Schumacher Society.
The Fellowship unfolds in four stages:
How do people research in RinA?
There is no single topic. Inquiries emerge from each practitioner's context. The common thread is not what people research, but how:
- Increasing how we notice ourselves in action
- Attuning to wider social and ecological patterns
- Examining how we make sense of situations
- Writing in ways that hold significance and shift our fields of practice
- Expanding our capacity to respond differently
- Articulating our inquiry and practice in public
This is research that shifts perception — and changes how action happens.
What is the time commitment?
- Monthly small-group sessions
- Ongoing writing and inquiry in your own time
- Reading the work of your peers in advance of the sessions
- Engagement with your field of practice — this is not separate from your work, it is within it
or fill in the expression of interest below and we will get back to you shortly:
Begin your conversation with us
We welcome expressions of interest on an ongoing basis. Cohorts begin on a rolling basis — once a small group is ready to start.