On 28 November 2019, the Roundtable Workshop on „Behaviour Change“ took place at the Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center. The purpose of this workshop was the discussion of the research agenda of the work package and the exchange on the social and urban context of Phnom Penh and Cambodia according to the theories of environmental psychology.

Agenda of the WP#1 Roundtable Workshop on “Behaviour Change, 28 November 2019

The workshop was locally organised by Dr. Serey Sok from the Research Office of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).

Dr. Vanny Sok held the opening remarks in his duty as the Vice-Rector of RUPP and outlined the importance of the Build4People research aims and the complementary perspective of psychology on the topic of climate change and sustainable urban planning in Phnom Penh.

Thereafter, Prof.Dr. Ellen Matthies introduced the perspective of environmental psychology on social transformation processes and the importance of cities in the time of global changes and climate change. She highlighted both the vulnerability of (Asian) megacities and their role as important players of change regarding their social force and innovation potential.

Dr. Anke Blöbaum continued with a talk about the psychological perspective in WP1 within the Build4People project. She explained different theories and methods of environmental psychology and their application to the context of Phnom Penh.

The highly informative talks were followed by a panel discussion. Prof. Dr. Ellen Matthies, Dr. Anke Blöbaum and Annalena Becker as representatives of the University of Magdeburg and Kao Sovandara, a member of the psychology faculty at RUPP and local research partner within the Build4People project, were answering questions and commented on input from the audience. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Serey Sok.

At the end of the workshop phase, Annalena Becker introduced the working plan and time table of the research agenda. She described the methodology of the research aims and the next steps of the joint research with RUPP.

The roundtable workshop was rounded off by a lunch at the university campus.

We thank everyone for participating in our roundtable workshop and for making that fruitful exchange of ideas possible.