Content:

1. Editorial

  • Editorial, by Irene Ring

2. News from ESEE and its members

  • Results of the ESEE Board elections held in December 2015
  • Amended ESEE Constitution
  • ESEE Ecological Economics Training Institutes: Call for Applications
  • Online Environmental Values Articles

3. Hot topics

  • 2015 as seen from the dark side of the world, by Begüm Özkaynak
  • Being here: Biodiversity and human health, again, by Juha Hiedanpää
  • Time for Ecological Economist to Fly Less, by Clive L. Spash

4. Events, jobs and publications

  • Call for Papers: 22nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference
  • Call for Special Sessions: Degrowth Conference Budapest 2016
  • Report from ENVECON 2015
  • Job Vacancies: One doctoral and one post-doctoral researcher – Energy and the Post-Carbon Economy
  • Call for Papers: Feminist Economics Special Issue
  • Reminder of the special discount for ESEE members: Handbook of Ecological Economics

5. Students and early career

  • Call for Abstracts: Summer School Samothraki

1. Editorial

 

Editorial

by Irene Ring

Dear members and friends of ESEE,

Towards the end of this year I do not only look back on the last year, but to the end of my first 3-year term as ESEE President. When I started in this role back in 2013, I had various aims, with regard to different time horizons:

Regarding the short-term perspective, I intended to focus on the working structures of the ESEE Board. We had new chairs and teams over these years for all four committees of the ESEE Board, for Conferences & Meetings, Education, Membership & Fund Raising as well as Publications & Publicity. In this respect, I am really very happy to say that I enjoy working with a very motivated and lively team, where all team members are actively contributing. We have also revitalized or newly set up a number of important activities and initiatives in these past three years.

In the medium-term perspective, strengthening communication and networking both within ESEE as well as with neighbouring and like-minded societies or initiatives was on the agenda. Here, we are still in the middle of the process. Our immediate efforts focused on reactivating the ESEE country contact network. Under the lead of the Fund Raising and Membership committee, the ESEE Board updated its country contact network and held a first meeting ahead of ISEE 2014 in Iceland. Just before the ESEE 2015 Conference in Leeds, UK, we had the pleasure to meet with almost 20 country contacts from all over Europe, where we got a much better idea of the various Ecological Economics networks at member countries level and exchanged ideas of how to work better together. Furthermore, ESEE became supporting partner of some other conferences and, by way of a yearly competition, financially supported what we now call ESEE training institutes and summer schools. However, we admit that these activities did not lead to an increase in ESEE membership yet.

This leads us to the longer-term perspective. We definitely need to work towards a larger and stable membership. Although ESEE with its almost 300 active members is by way the largest Regional Society of ISEE, followed by the Indian and the United States Regional Societies with currently a bit more or less than 200 members, respectively, we once had considerably more ESEE members. This topic was also discussed very lively at the Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) during ESEE 2015 in Leeds. A few ideas were raised that we will definitely follow up with: for example, distinguishing at ESEE conferences between the OGM as the Society’s business meeting and more attractive community-building meetings for new members. After all, our two last ESEE conferences attracted a very large number of participants, more than 500 each. So we can try to benefit from these successful events in attracting more active members. Another step in this direction is to be expected by our Fund Raising and Membership committee that has been working on a strategy to be put to action soon on membership recruiting.

As we just closed this year’s ESEE elections, I would like to personally thank you for your strong support in me leading the Society for a second term! I congratulate our re-elected Vice-President Erik Gómez-Baggethun and new Vice-President Tom Bauler, our re-elected and new Board Members Begüm Özkaynak, Juha Hiedanpää and Daniel O’Neill. Looking forward to working with you during the next term! We also have some Board Members leaving the ESEE Board: Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská has served the Society for many, many years in different positions, as Secretary, Committee Chair, and at last two terms as Vice-President. Thank you very much for your long engagement Tatiana! Based on the elections’ results, Lenka Slavíková, our Publications and Publicity Committee Chair will not continue in 2016 – thank you Lenka for all the hard work you put into this committee, and for the newsletter and website in particular, extremely important for the face of the Society to the outside world. Furthermore, Leslie Carnoye, Student Representative on the Board, is about to finish her PhD thesis, which is always a great reason for changing priorities!

Last but not least, I wish you and your families a peaceful and relaxing Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year!

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2. News from ESEE and its members

Results of the ESEE Board elections held in December 2015

As the ESEE, we have been holding elections during the last month for the terms of office of the ESEE President, 2 Vice-Presidents and 3 Board Members. This year we unfortunately had no nominees for the open position of a second student representative and hence did not run a separate election in parallel for Student Representative.

101 members of the 274 ESEE members in 2015 voted, so that the 20% quorum was fulfilled.

As announced on the ESEE website, we had 3 candidates standing for the open positions of ESEE President and 2 Vice-Presidents for the term 2016-2018. We asked whether ESEE members support these candidates for the respective positions and here are the results.

1. Irene Ring | Candidate for Presidency | 91% Yes; 9% Abstain

2. Tom Bauler | Candidate for Vice-Presidency| 73% Yes; 8% No; 19% Abstain

3. Erik Gómez-Baggethun | Candidate for Vice-Presidency | 88% Yes; 5% No; 7% Abstain

We had 4 candidates for the 3 Board Member positions available, again for the term 2016-2018. Therefore, we kindly invited ESEE members to vote for up to a maximum of 3 candidates. Results are as follows:

1. Juha Hiedanpää | Candidate for Board Member | 57%

2. Daniel O’Neill | Candidate for Board Member | 61%

3. Begum Ozkaynak | Candidate for Board Member | 85%

4. Lenka Slavíková | Candidate for Board Member| 50%

According to these results, Juha Hiedanpää and Begum Ozkaynak have been reelected and Daniel O’Neill is our new Board Member.

We would like to cordially thank all nominees and ESEE members who took part in the elections and congratulate all candidates who have been elected.

On behalf of the election committee,
Begum Ozkaynak, ESEE Secretary

 

Amended ESEE Constitution

A large majority of ESEE members, who participated in the ballot on the ESEE constitutional amendments from October 16 – November 5, 2015, supported the amendments suggested by the ESSE Board earlier this year. 93 members of the 270 ESEE members in 2015 voted. Thus, the 30% quorum for a change to the constitution was fulfilled. Results are as follows:

1. Amendment A
YES: 100 %| NO: 0 | ABSTAIN: 0
This means that under “2 Objects” of the ESEE Constitution the following sub-paragraph will be added: “2.3 The Association shall not be organised or operated for profit.”

2. Amendment B
YES: 75,3 % | NO: 10,7 % | ABSTAIN: 14 %
Therefore, § 5.5.3 will be amended as follows: “Each Sub-committee will have as one of its members a Presidential or Vice-presidential Board member.” This means that Vice-Presidents do have the option to become Committee Chair in the future.

3. Amendment C
YES: 79,6 % | NO: 8,6 % | ABSTAIN: 11,8 %
In the future, only Active Student Members will be eligible to vote for the student representative posts on the ESEE Board. This relates to the two categories of ESEE student membership: Active Student Members are members with full membership and voting rights who pay a modest annual subscription fee; Student Members do not have full membership and hence voting rights, but can join ESEE for free. According to the results of the ballot, § 5.2.4 will be amended as follows: “All Members are eligible to vote for all Board posts except the posts dedicated to represent students. Active Student Members within Europe (as defined by the Board) may vote only for the post(s) dedicated to Active Student Members to represent students. The Board may determine whether or not to allow Active Student Members outside of Europe similar rights in any given election. Not less than 1 nor more than 2 posts on the Board shall be dedicated to the representation of students.” § 10.3.2 will be amended as follows: “Student Members will have no voting rights under this constitution.”

On this occasion, we would like to cordially thank ESEE members for their support. The amended ESEE constitution will apply with effect from January 1, 2016.

 

ESEE Ecological Economics Training Institutes: Call for Applications

The extended deadline January 15, 2016

The ESEE board is pleased to open its annual call for transdisciplinary and collaborative training institutes on Ecological Economics aimed at early career researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in Europe. Events can focus on any of the diverse range of topics associated with Ecological Economics, but will share a common participatory approach and structure.  Local organisers can (annually) bid for up to 2000 euros for events that meet a number of criteria, as detailed below:

EVENT CRITERIA
• Highly collaborative and participatory; not just a series of lectures and presentations.
• Transdisciplinary: including participants beyond academia, e.g. decision-makers, practitioners, community representatives, etc.
• Students are heavily involved in organising the event.
• Zero or low cost for participation, with some kind of bursary opportunities for those in a low-income situation.
• The organisers have to record participant feedback on the event and make this available to ESEE.
• Environmental awareness: a plan to minimise (and potentially compensate) the carbon footprint and other environmental costs.
• Involvement of one or more ESEE members to guarantee criteria are met and to further year-on-year learning regarding format and engagement.
• Organizers of training institutes supported by ESEE will provide a report on the event for the ESEE newsletter.

FURTHER GUIDELINES AND SUGGESTIONS
In addition to mandatory criteria, ESEE suggests the following guidelines for the events. These guidelines will also be used to decide between competing applications if more than one application is made for sponsorship in an annual round.
• Duration: 2 days for pre-conference events, 3-5 days for other events
• Number of participants: 20-30 participants; a relatively small group of students helps to build group cohesiveness and identity.
• A mix of students and post-docs with at least a third post-docs.
• Provide opportunities for publication of outputs.
• Provide opportunities for ECTL credits associated with courses.
• Remote locations preferred to maximise engagement.
• Family friendly with childcare options available.
• As the decision on competing proposals is taken by the ESEE Board, active ESEE Board members are excluded from submitting applications for competition. However, they are still free to submit applications, but these will only be considered in the case of no other eligible application(s) available from applicants outside the ESEE Board for the next year to come.

PROCEDURE FOR APPLICATIONS
Candidates can apply annually with ESEE for up to 2000 euros towards the cost of an event to be held within the following two years, provided it meets criteria, but are responsible for the remainder of funding.  Applications will include a short rationale for the meeting including a description of the meeting format (max 2 pages), a budget, an indication of what budget posts ESEE funds will be spent on, and an overview of other (potential) funding sources.

Applications for 2016 can be made at any time by January 15, 2016. Please, send the application to esee.training@gmail.com

 

Online Environmental Values Articles

From Clive Spash
Latest articles in Environmental Values now online; many on climate change.

Environmental Values
Vol 24, No. 6
December 2015

For the complete post click here

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3. Hot topics

2015 as seen from the dark side of the world

by Begüm Özkaynak


Any day now, 2015 is going to end. It turned out to be a year that hosted two critically important international events, both of which are expected to shape the future of humanity and the planet. First, in September 2015, UN Member States agreed on new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—17 in total, designed to end poverty and hunger by 2030. Second, just last week, the Paris Climate Agreement confirmed that we should aim to keep rising temperatures “well below” 2°C. In official circles, both agreements are generating a positive buzz. These moves will hopefully transform our world; save the future of our children. Should we be relieved? Will we remember the year 2015 as a historic year as some have argued; as a real turning point in social and environmental policies?

I would obviously like to be an optimist and see these international documents as a strategic opportunity to set goals and pathways consistent with a transformative agenda at the global level. However, as someone reporting from Turkey—an upper-middle income developing country and an emerging economy with huge social and environmental burdens, to say the least—I have many good reasons to think that even if we put political turmoil and the democracy deficit aside, these agreements will be far from enough to put pressure on countries like Turkey and push them onto a sustainable track.

Here is what our starting point looks like: Progress on the environmental fundamentals of human wellbeing is inadequate, several critical planetary limits are either being approached or have already been breached, and we all know that unless current production and consumption patterns—and more important, underlying social systems and mindsets—change, we will probably not be able to achieve transition at required levels. Promising signs of a transformative paradigmatic shift may be present at the individual level in some countries of the world, but without clear implementation schedules or binding agreements and contracts, that shift will not reach Turkey easily, and when it does, it will be too late.

On the SDGs front, while they aspire to outline a new development paradigm that places human wellbeing at the centre and leaves no one behind, operationalising them requires defining concrete quantitative targets and indicators at several levels. If we are to properly track long-term impacts and advances in sustainability, and ultimately ensure views convergence into a shared regional vision and ambition within planetary boundaries, then these targets and indicators are a must. Yet how the SDGs will be implemented still remains very vague; the very nature of the process is voluntary. While the need is urgent, in a country like Turkey, where political and social processes already suffer from illegitimacy and ineffectiveness, there is little hope that the political will (and capacity) exists to rearticulate and customise SDGs at the national level.

On the climate change front, although the document is non-binding for the signatories, the intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) Turkey submitted prior to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) was very weak: economy-wide emission cuts at a rate of 21 percent by 2030 under a reference scenario, which assumes, unrealistically, a yearly 5 percent growth for Turkey, and even higher after 2017.Such a target setting enables Turkey to increase emissions at an even faster rate than its growth over the past ten years, and hence to more than double over the next 15 years. According to experts, this is just playing with numbers, and keeping official future projections unrealistically high so that you can end up with almost no mitigation, and have a sort of pledge for augmentation. This is no surprise, as Turkey is a country where the Ministry of Energy (the minister happens to be Erdogan’s son-in-law in the new government) openly aims to expand the coal industry and build around 80 new coal power plants by 2023. Is this unavoidable? Not at all. According to a recent report commissioned by WWF-Turkey and the Istanbul Policy Center, called Low Carbon Development Pathways and Priorities for Turkey, Turkey could substantially reduce its emissions growth at insignificant costs to its economy, only if it followed a different path and introduced certain measures. External pressure and clear anchors are necessary for that, however.

At the end of the day, the desire to maintain hope is still there. Yet when viewed from the dark side of the world, it again seems as though political efforts remain feeble, and keep perpetuating a system that undermines the main drivers of change.

 



Being here: Biodiversity and human health, again

by Juha Hiedanpää

Nature is good for humans in a multitude of ways, thanks to biodiversity and its ecosystem services. Of course, nature still causes inner and outer suffering, but in general, and in advanced societies, biodiversity is good from the point of view of subjective and objective human well-being and health. There is growing evidence that nature is no longer a sorry constraint and an unknown that blocks the enlightened purposes of humans.

Ontologically speaking, human arrangements are extending deeper into the “wild”. For instance, a multitude of varieties of REDD+ schemes are being put into practice in different locations on Earth and new ways to identify, map, value and incorporate ecosystem services in resource and land use planning are already routine. Perhaps paradoxically, the days are forgotten when complexity and chaos theories complicated and challenged rational and deliberative planning and decision-making about natural assets, so strong is the optimism about the concept of ecosystem services.

But the “wild" does not stay out there beyond the boundaries of convenience. Under close examination, ecosystem services are not just benefits that flow from the environment to humans. Ecosystems and their services are part of human life, i.e. human life is constituted and sustained by the functional consequences of biodiversity. John Dewey was  already well aware of this. In Human Nature and Conduct, he writes about habits (1988, 14):

"…habits may be profitably compared to physiological functions, like breathing, digesting. The latter are, to be sure, involuntary, while habits are acquired. But important as is this difference for many purposes it should not conceal the fact that habits are like functions in many respects, and especially in requiring the cooperation of organism and environment. Breathing is an affair of the air as truly as of the lungs; digesting an affair of food as truly as of tissues of stomach."

Dewey’s insight was scientifically validated by Hanski et al. (2012), as they found that a decrease in the diversity and quantity of microbial exposure makes our immune system overreact to harmless targets such as our own tissues and allergens. It is now warranted knowledge that ecosystem services happen inside and outside the human body. Disturbances in the delivery of the functional consequences of ecosystems are not only problematic “out there” but “in here” as well. This is important. An increase in environmental pollutants and increased exposure to both those and non-diverse nature have harmful effects on the human immune system.

Diverse nature is good for humans. But it is a tricky question for a modern human as to where this nature is and how to get in contact with it. It is laborious and consumes time and effort to go to nature: people are connected with each other and technologies, but not with nature. We must recall that our backyards are right there in nature, and with their tongues, fur and feet, our pets bring nature inside our houses. As recent studies show, contact with house pets is good for the humans: not only do they contaminate us with positive emotions and motivation to move but also with micro-biota that reduce the risk of childhood asthma (Fall et al. 2015).

During the past few years, understanding of the functional role of biodiversity in ecological assemblages, immune defence systems and pollutant degradation has grown, experiment by experiment and publication by publication. Concrete policy advice is still thin. But the fact is that new findings about the interrelations between environmental variables and human health, particularly risks of autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases, helps planners and policy makers to see new problems but also new opportunities.

These opportunities are not without their implications. And these implications are the field of research for the pragmatically orientated ecological economics for the decades to come. Let me give in some broad brushstrokes a few implications that are ahead of us.

Habits are environmentally constituted. People just do not have habits: people are their habits. As we all know, habit-breaking is not just a matter of getting the correct information about the health impacts of, say, your consumption patterns or monotonous nature. Yes, of course, dramatic pictures may be highly disturbing, but images very seldom change your beliefs or the ways you act - they may change your attitudes, though.

Habit change takes a modification in your action environment. These modifications do not have to be large, but they need be to concrete - and often physical. Otherwise, the existence of new information or persuasion would do the deed. Living environments need to be modified so that the health effects of biodiversity permeate the human skin and membranes and, equally importantly, habits of feeling, acting and thinking: biodiversity needs to become part of us.

This is a challenge, because societies are organised for precisely the opposite purpose: to keep nature out and provide safe and well-planned access points to nature. But, as I have indicated above, new findings about the interdependence of biodiversity and human health will ultimately change how we plan our land use, design our houses and organise our everyday lives. Grasping these problems and designing solutions are still well beyond current scientific and policy understanding. Transdisciplinary - i.e. revolutionary, creative and experimental - advice for, say, city planning, child day-care and food processing is needed.

The list of emerging themes is much longer. But these examples suffice here. Biodiversity and health is the question of our time. There is no longer any reason to cherish what the late German social scientist Ulrich Beck called “the century error” and “organised irresponsibility”. It is not enough to take human purpose out into the wild and design ever more complex schemes for paying for ecosystem services. The wild needs to be brought inside the human domain (Hiedanpää et al. 2011).

Understanding this as an ontological necessity will help us to focus on the practical implications of changing habits of feeling, acting and thinking. Not only will an enormous sum of money be saved because of the increased well-being and prevention of autoimmune and related diseases in particular, but, more generally, being habituated to live with biodiversity and ecosystem services would put an end to organised irresponsibility and the century error: we must cherish what is part of us. This changes everything.

References

Dewey, J. 1988. Human Nature and Conduct. The Middle Works, 1899–1924: Vol 14. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Fall, T., Lundholm, C., Örtqvist, A.K., Fall, K., Fang; F., Hedhammar, Å., Kämpe, O., Ingelsson, E. & Almqvist; C. 2015. Early exposure to dogs and farm animals and the risk of childhood asthma. JAMA Pediatr 169(11):e153219. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.3219.

Hanski I., von Hertzen L., Fyhrquistc N. et al. 2012. Environmental biodiversity, human microbiota, and allergy are interrelated. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109: 8334–9.

Hiedanpää, J., Kotilainen, J. & Salo, M. 2011. Unfolding the organised irresponsibility: Ecosystem approach and the quest for forest biodiversity in Finland, Peru, and Russia. Forest Policy Econ 13: 159–165.

 



Time for Ecological Economist to Fly Less

by Clive L. Spash
(Institute for Multi-Level Governance & Development, Vienna University of Economics & Business)

A recent campaign initiative asks academics to sign-up and commit to fly less. That is not asking them to even stop flying, just fly less. Why academics? Because they are supposed to be intelligent enough to realise the consequences of their actions and are generally empowered enough to be able to do something about it. Many of the most active flyers are wealthy academics who often are not even paying for their own flights anyway. When we get to the environment there are too many hypocrites; too many who should be acting differently; those who claim they know better, but fail to act, whether in ecological economics, degrowth or the climate change scientific community. The inconvenience of public transport is just too much for busy planet savers who are too important to change their ways, while recommending social innovations for other less important mortals.

There are many good reasons to reduce, and even better stop, flying, besides preventing greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. Flying is part of the aerospace industrial-military complex and you indirectly support it when flying. The whole security paranoia and militarisation of civil society is communicated directly via airports. You support multinational corporations of the worst extractive types both for fossil fuels and minerals. The airport as a piece of infrastructure has become a leading edge, high tech, consumer interface, designed to boost sales of stuff. If doing short-haul flights, you often waste as much time going to and from airports as you save flying. The ‘time saving’ just results in faster and more hectic lives, or ‘time wasting’ elsewhere. People flying all over the place lose all conception of geographic space and connection to the planet they buzz around.

These are just a few random points. If you want more coherent environmental arguments checkout Kevin Anderson, a climate scientist who has been arguing against his own colleagues and their jet set lifestyle, as well as those of hypocritical environmentalists. See his online articles and debates: “Hypocrites in the air: should climate change academics lead by example?”; “Evangelising from 32 thousand feet: Why Brendan May is wrong in calling for more environmentalists to fly”; “Debate with environmental business advisor on flying, emissions & leading by example”; “Does Greenpeace’s sanctioning of short-haul flights mirror wider hypocrisy amongst the climate change community?”.

Personally I slowly (too slowly) moved to the no flying camp. Yet, once I got there, or even before arriving, I found very negative responses from within ecological economics. The India Society invited me for a plenary talk a few years ago, but when I said I would not fly, but instead do a telecommunication version, all went silent; I finally got a list of excuses for why this would not be possible, after being told they themselves often flew to Europe so what was the problem? An invited talk to the German ecological economics conference proved highly problematic because their travel agent only dealt with flights, and when I booked trains myself a refund was impossible because that was not in the protocol. The ISEE holds conferences in totally inaccessible locations for anything but flyers, such as Iceland, while sending out messages on global limits from sustainability professors and headlining the conference as addressing respect for planetary boundaries.

None of us is perfect but this is a millions miles from even attempting to go in the right direction. So if you are flying to another conference, workshop or meeting for your ever so important talk on how to save the planet, may be time to think twice. I also hope you are not trying to justify that with tradable permits, which would add political and ethical irresponsibility to the insult of planetary and humanitarian injury. Instead consider taking direct action and start to at least fly less, and make the commitment to do so by joining the campaign by clicking the link to fly less, and if you are an academic send your name to academicflyingpetition@gmail.com

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 4. Events, jobs and publications

Call for Papers: 22nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference,
July 13-15, 2016, Lisbon, Portugal


Conference Theme:
Rethinking Sustainability Models and Practices: Challenges for the New and Old World Contexts

The International Sustainable Development Research Society is pleased to announce its 22nd Annual Conference to be held 13-15 July 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference is hosted by the School of Science and Technology (FCT) and the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE) at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (UNL), in association with ISDRS. The conference will be preceded by the 1st Luso-Brazilian Symposium on Sustainability Models and Practices (11-12 July 2016), coordinated jointly by the CENSE-FCT-UNL and the Institute of Energy and Environment, University of São Paulo.

The 22nd ISDRS conference is dedicated to research contributing to explore sustainability threats and opportunities for emerging and fast changing economies and societies (New World). At the same time, it carries the accumulated knowledge about the models and results of countries with relevant past experiences in dealing with sustainability issues in more stable contexts (Old World). The major theme will focus on the current sustainability strategies, policies, practices and approaches and the need to rethink their roles and applicability in different socio-cultural and economic contexts. Furthermore, the ISDRS core themes and associated tracks include: Sustainable Development Science, Ecosystem Pressures and Limits, Climate Change and Energy, Sustainable Land Use & Sustainable Cities, Corporate Sustainability and Innovation, Society and Sustainability, Institutions and Governance Structures for Sustainable Development.

Oral and poster presentations will be accepted and will be subjected to a review process for formal publication in the conference proceedings. In addition, three Special Issues are foreseen as an output of the conference in the following leading indexed peer-reviewed journals: Sustainable Development, Journal of Cleaner Production and Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management.

Submit your abstract here
Abstract submission deadline: January 15, 2016
Deadline for early bid registration: March 31, 2016
Deadline for proceedings: April 15, 2016

More information

 

Call for Special Sessions: Degrowth Conference Budapest 2016

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce the call for special sessions for the 5th International Degrowth Conference. The submission platform will be open soon, please follow the updates here.

The upcoming conference will be a forum to present the latest in global degrowth thought and practice, and bring it into dialogue within the specific context of Central and Eastern Europe of the 21st century. In this respect, the conference will be organised around 12 themes which reflect the context of the conference and the open issues of the degrowth movement that were highlighted at the preceding conference in Leipzig.

You can apply to present your work through one of the 2 formats of special sessions:
*     Degrowth-in-action special sessions
*     Scientific special sessions
Both special session formats allow the applicants greater freedom in organizing the proceedings of the session to best present their work.
The deadline to submit your special session is Thursday, December 31, 2015.
More information about the call is available here.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

We would also like to inform you that it is planned to open the call for individual papers on January 15, 2016, with a closing date of March 1, 2016.
After this, we will announce and open the calls and programmes for other activities which will be happening during the conference and the degrowth week (networking, practical activities, cultural and creative workshops and performances, open discussions etc... and of course convivial parties).

Find an overview of the pathway leading to the Budapest conference here. Please feel free to contact us to announce your event or if you would like to organize one.  
Also, feel free to join us on our event page and share your ideas, proposals, announcements or support.

See you soon in Budapest,
Budapest Degrowth Conference team

 

Report from ENVECON 2015

The 3rd PanHellenic Conference on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics was organized by the Laboratory of Operations Research in the premises of the Department of Economics at the University of Thessaly on the 30th and 31st of October 2015. The goal of the conference was to exchange views, opinions and experiences of leading scholars in the area and researchers from all over Greece. Specifically, the conference proposed appropriate policies necessary to be adopted for solving various environmental problems.



Environmental management, sustainable tourism, sustainable transportation, economic development and environment, quantitative methods in environmental economics, environmental valuation, energy policies, biodiversity and urban economics were among the main topics of the conferences. The proceedings of the conference (11 sessions with 45 peer reviewed papers) are published both on the website of the conference (in Greek)
as well as in CDs and books.

Overall, the conference was successful with full participation from many academics, practitioners, and students. Interesting and constructive discussions made clear that environmental management requires multidisciplinary cooperation. This will be the target for the next conferences that additionally aim to create opportunities for research collaborations and scientific information interchange.

 

Job Vacancies: One doctoral and one post-doctoral researcher – Energy and the Post-Carbon Economy

The Department of Environmental Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies (FSS) of Masaryk University (MU) is inviting applications for one full time doctoral and one post-doctoral researcher

Successful candidates will join a large new project (MEDEAS) funded under the European Union H2020 program of which our department is a partner. The goal of this ambitious project is to develop a leading-edge policy tool based on WoLiM, TIMES and LEAP models and incorporating Input-Output Analysis (IOA) that allows for accounting of environmental, social and economic impacts of pathways in a transition towards a post-carbon economy. Both future position holders will build upon the prior research of the Principle Investigator at MU (Dr. Christian Kerschner) and colleagues, i.e. the analysis of economic impacts and vulnerabilities in the face of resource limitations such as Peak-Oil, using IOA and other quantitative methods. In close collaboration with other partners (in particular with Dr. Hubacek via IIASA in Austria), these approaches are to be integrated into MEDEAS’ policy tool. Moreover successful candidates will bring in their own skills and interests plus acquire new ones, to creatively push ahead the current frontiers in economic impact and vulnerability research on the path towards a post-carbon society. The results of this research will be in the form of project reports and publications in top scientific journals. Both positions will involve travelling to project meetings across Europe.

Applicants should submit a letter of interest (max. 5 pages), curriculum vitae (including list of publications), contact information for three referees and samples of the candidates work (e.g. his/her best research article) to Mikuláš Černík (mikulas.cernik@gmail.com) and Eva Dopplerová (doppler@fss.muni.cz).  The review of applications will start on Monday, January 11, 2016 until both positions are filled. Starting date is as soon as possible after selection. For queries please contact: christian.kerschner@mail.muni.cz;

The letter of interest should include:
• For the post-doctoral researcher: a short description of her/his own research agenda/projects, planned publications, etc. and how this relates to the ambitions of MEDEAS
• For the doctoral researcher: a short research proposal (two pages maximum) embedded in and compatible with our department’s tasks within MEDEAS.

Doctoral Researcher, full time contract for four years, subject to inscription into the doctoral program and completion of the PhD.
Post-Doctoral: Initial contract for one year, to be renewed for one year and then for two years.
For both posts the total period of employment may not exceed four years (the duration of MEDEAS). Nevertheless our department is committed to assist highly qualified and successful staff in building and continuing their career at our department.

 

Call for Papers: Feminist Economics Special Issue
Sustainability, Ecology, and Care

Feminist Economics invites papers for a new special issue on 'Sustainability, Ecology, and Care’, which is planned for print publication in January 2018 (with advance online publication in 2017). Feminist Economics especially welcomes contributions from the Global South and transition economies.   

Please send paper titles and abstracts (up to 250 words) along with your name and institutional affiliation, telephone, and email address to the to the Guest Editors at feministeconomics@rice.edu, no later than February 15, 2016. Indicate “Sustainability” in the subject line. (Queries should also be directed to the Guest Editors at this email address.)

If the Guest Editors approve the abstract, the complete manuscript will be due by July 31, 2016 and should be submitted to Feminist Economics through the submissions website.

Papers must be clearly written in English and not exceed 10,000 words, including tables and references. They must also adhere to journal style and formatting. For questions about these procedures, please contact feministeconomics@rice.edu, +1.713.348.4083 (phone), or +1.713.348.5495 (fax).

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This issue is being supported by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Rice University.

 

Reminder of the special discount for ESEE members: Handbook of Ecological Economics

Edited by Joan Martínez-Alier and Roldan Muradian



Edward Elgar Publishing has provided ESEE members with a special 35% discount code for the new book Handbook of Ecological Economics. To place an order, email (Quoting ESEE35) to: sales@e-elgar.co.uk. Your discount will then be allocated. Deadline for the offer is 31 January 2016.

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5. Students and early career

Call for Abstracts: Summer School Samothraki

Call for applications for the "3rd Summer School on Aquatic & Social Ecology: Theory and Practice" for masters and doctoral students on the island of Samothraki, Greece, 9-22 July 2016, organized by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, the Vienna Institute of Social Ecology (Alpen Adria University) and the University of Patras. Deadline for applications: 20 January 2016.

Download the full call here

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