IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter Nr. 28 – March 2013

CONTENTS

+ News

New Book LTSER
Summer Term 2013
Global SCP Clearinghouse
Job announcements
Guest Professors

+ Upcoming Events

ZUG-Minisymposium: „A Daughter of the Rhine“
ZUG-Minisymposium: „Learning to Live with the Danube“
Austrian Climate Research Day
WWWforEurope conference on Modelling „Growth and Socio-ecological Transition”
ESEH Conference 2013 “Circulating Natures: Water – Food – Energy”

+ New Research projects

IRP Trade (UNEP 2012): Trade, development and pressures upon the environment
Workshop „Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730) and the Contemporary Fascination for

the Telluric Reign: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from History to Science“

+ Public outreach / Media resonance (German only)

+ Staff news

International Guests
Incoming and Outgoing Students
Research Stay and Field Studies

+ New publications

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+ News

New Book: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER):
How to Study Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales.
Edited by Simron Jit Singh, Helmut Haberl, Marian R. Chertow, Michael Mirtl, Martin Schmid, Springer, 2013.
Over the last half century, exceptional changes in the environment have placed renewed importance on the study of society-nature interactions. Around the globe, ever increasing human demands on ecosystems not only harm the environment, but also induce great potential for social conflict. In this sense sustainability problems are not only “ecological” but “socio-ecological” since the ways societies interact with the environment affects both ecosystems and social systems.
The emerging interdisciplinary field of Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) is primarily concerned with questions of global environmental change and sustainability. It aims to conceptualise, observe, analyse, and model changes in coupled socio-ecological systems over generations. Tracking these changes over extended periods is accomplished in research traditions that include social and human ecology, industrial ecology, environmental history, human geography and anthropology. LTSER aims to provide a knowledge base that helps reorient socioeconomic trajectories towards more sustainable pathways.
The authors of the just published volume make a case for LTSER’s potential in providing insights, knowledge and experience necessary for a sustainability transition. Contributions from Europe and North America review the development of LTSER since its inception and assess its current state. Through many case studies, this book gives the reader a greater sense of where we are and what needs to be done to engage in and make meaning from long-term, place-based and cross-disciplinary engagements with socio-ecological systems.
For more information: http://www.springer.com/environment/sustainable+development/book/978-94-007-1176-1

Wolfgang Cramer recommends our new book in his article: „ Regional Environmental Change refocuses on sustainability and the human–environment relationship“, with the words „new quality of rigorous investigations into the human–environment relationship at the regional level“. See: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/369/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10113-013-0404-z.pdf?auth66=1362739226_a7d6f55a497c8bdedede9f8c0e3257c3&ext=.pdf

Summer Term 2013: Course information online
Detailed information can be found on our website: https://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/downloads/KoVo-SS-13-web.pdf
For further information please contact: mirjam [dot] weber [at] aau [dot] at

Global SCP Clearinghouse
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as the Secretariat of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, is starting a one-stop hub dedicated to advancing Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) worldwide. The Global SCP Clearinghouse is a harmonized and dynamic information and knowledge platform that will facilitate and trigger more innovation and cooperation towards SCP implementation. Today, in a context of increasing environmental degradation and climate change, it is clear that a systemic change is needed to move towards resource efficient and sustainable lifestyles. This requires the participation and action of all: governments to the business sector, civil society and citizens. During the pre-launching phase (till May) you can: Sign up and become a member to be among the first ones connected to the Global SCP Clearinghouse; Register as an expert or resource person; Share information about your SCP initiatives – policies, partnerships, projects, etc. to feed the worldwide SCP initiatives database.
Take a virtual tour on www.start.scpclearinghouse.org

Job announcements
We are providing a new service for our current and former students, and persons with similar educational backround, by posting job announcements from our project partners and several scientific communities we are involved in, on our website. If you are interested, please feel invited to visit us under following link: https://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/4789.htm

Guest Professors

Mikko Jalas PhD (Aalto School of Helsinki) currently works as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of management and international business at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki, Finland. His research concentrates on sustainable consumption, everyday rhythms, practice-theory and social aspects of time, temporality and business. Currently he is also conducting research on the implementation of technologies for distributed energy production and on the institutional development of business in new energy solutions in response to climate change. In summer term 2013 Mikko Jalas will give a seminar on “Sustainable Consumption, everyday rhythms and eco-social time policy”.

PD Dr. Martin Knoll (Habilitation at TU Darmstadt) is associate professor at the TU Darmstadt and visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Social Ecology, especially in co-operation with ZUG (Center of Environmental History). In summer 2013 Martin Knoll will give an excursion on “Environment in the view of arts”.

Martina Schulte-Derne, Dr. Michael Schulte-Derne are professional coaches at Conecta, their key activities are: advisory skills for managers, conflict management, supervision and coaching, mediation. In summer term 2013 they will give a seminar on „Advisory Skills as Complementary Qualification for Sustainability Researcher“.

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+ Upcoming Events

54. ZUG- Minisymposium: Ellen Arnold
Ellen Arnold, Assistant Professor of History, Ohio Wesleyan University will give a talk on „A Daughter of the Rhine“: Rivers and Identity in Gallo-Roman Poetry“
Abstract: „This presentation will attempt to assess the „environmental imagination“ of the early middle ages in Gaul by examining the poems, letters, and religious writings of three men. Ausonius, Sidonius Apollinaris, and Venantius Fortunatus. They were all active writers and also political and religious figures during the 300s-500s, and all members of what we now call the “Gallo-Roman elite.” All three of these men lived for much or most of their adult lives in Gaul, and all found themselves at least partially pulled between the culture of distant Rome and the immediacy, vibrancy, and beauty of Gaul – the “New Frontier” of Late Antiquity. Finally, all three wrote poems, letters, and other works that explicitly describe, discuss, and praise the natural and built environments of Gaul, and especially its rivers.
I will discuss the ways in which the poets described and used rivers in their writings, and how rivers helped them to present and negotiate complex issues of ethnic, cultural, and political identity. The rivers of Gaul, on the one hand fixed and permanent, on the other always shifting and changing their courses, came to stand in for the problems of defining, marking, and bounding the many ethnicities of the Roman and post-Roman world.“
IFF, 1070 Wien, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Thursday, 21st March 2013, 18.00 c.t. – 20.00
Details: http://www.umweltgeschichte.uni-klu.ac.at/index,5595,54.+Minisymposium+am+21.3.2013.html

55. ZUG-Minisymposium: Robert W. B. Gray
Dr. Robert W. B. Gray, Keele University will give a talk on „Learning to Live with the Danube:
Local Institutions and Community Knowledge in the Gemenc and Sárköz regions of Hungary in the Nineteenth Century“
Abstract: „The control of riparian resources along the Danube formed an essential part of Hungarian rural life since the thirteenth century. In a land dominated by water, the reed-beds, water-meadows, alluvial forests and side channels that characterized the extensive flood plains provided both a vital supplement to the peasants’ regular holdings and a significant source of income for their lords. Access to these common resources were regulated by village and estates institutions and governed by a complex mix of practice, custom and statute law. Following the revolution of 1848 and the end of Hungary’s old rural order, traditional means of regulation that emphasised communal rights were supplanted by statute laws and state institutions. Furthermore, as river regulation gathered speed from the late eighteenth century, first under the auspices of the ‘enlightened absolutist’ rulers in Vienna and subsequently the reformist government in Pest-Buda, local concerns were threatened by the wider interests of state and nation. This paper will investigate how communities within the Gemenc and Sárköz region of Hungary adapted their everyday practices, institutions and customs to account for the shifting riparian environment of the Danube. In this, it will reveal how customary practices and institutions – the repositories of community knowledge – adapted to and were accommodated within the competing interests of lords, state officials and experts during the breakdown of Hungary’s old rural order in the nineteenth century.“
IFF, 1070 Wien, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Monday, 22nd April 2013, 18.00 c.t. – 20.00

14th Austrian Climate Research Day
Austrian climate research, including climate impact, adaptation and mitigation research, will be discussed at the 14th Austrian Climate Research Day that will take place on 4th and 5th April 2013 at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna.
See: http://ccca.boku.ac.at/?page_id=880

WWWforEurope conference on Modelling „Growth and Socio-ecological Transition“
The aim of the WWWforEurope modelling conference in Vienna, March 12-13, is to promote the exchange of ideas among researchers active in the broad field of applied modelling, taking into account smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The availability of models incorporating the social and the environmental dimension is an important prerequisite to objectively and realistically evaluate the potential consequences of a socio-ecological transition.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/eng/downloads/wwwforeuropeconference2013.pdf

ESEH Conference 2013 “Circulating Natures: Water – Food – Energy”
The European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) will hold its biannual conference this year in Munich, August, 20-24. Our Center for Environmental History (ZUG) is strongly represented in the program. The program committee accepted all the c. 10 panels (co-)organised by ZUG-members, covering a wide range of such diverse topics as the environmental histories of rivers, of tourism, of war, on the circulation of food, feed and fertilizers in the past, on historical fish ecology, and on sustainable farm systems. In a special session for early career researchers alumni of our master program (G. Pollack, M. Neundlinger and S. Gierlinger) will present their research.
More information: http://eseh2013.org

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+ New Research projects

IRP Trade (UNEP 2012): Trade, development and pressures upon the environment
We wish to understand the impact of world trade on the size and distribution of environmental pressures, and therefore focus on the physical dimensions of trade. From a global perspective, it would be desirable that all resources were extracted and commodities were produced where they exert the least environmental pressure. If international trade were structured in a way that supports this optimally, it would support the decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts from economic activity on a global level (UNEP, 2011). If international trade, by contrast, were structured mainly by relations of economic and political power, it would concentrate also the environmental benefits with the high income nations, and externalize the environmental pressures to low income peripheries. World trade would then be creating structures far from a global optimum of minimal environmental pressure. This is the key distributional question we will pursue throughout this assessment for the International Resource Panel of UNEP, and we will look at the international structures of direct trade in material terms as well as at the upstream requirements of trade flows in material resources, energy and CO2 emissions, human appropriation of net primary production, and land. Contact: marina [dot] fischer-kowalski [at] aau [dot] at

Workshop „Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730) and the Contemporary Fascination for the Telluric Reign: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from History to Science“
This project aimed at bridging the gap between sciences and humanities, creating a unique interdisciplinary platform where the manifold early modern manifestations of interest in the telluric world were discussed in their biophysical and socio-cultural historical contexts. Luigi Ferdinando Marsili offered an excellent example for such an endeavour. A workshop funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and held in Vienna in April 2012 explored the environmental, scientific, economic, and imaginary dimensions of historical thinking about the soil and the subterranean. This project was led by Martin Schmid together with Rengenier Rittersma, a historian of science and food from the Netherlands.

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+ Public Outreach / Media resonance (selection, German only)

Zu viel und zu wenig Dünger
Die Presse, Sonntag, 3. März, Seite 22-23
http://diepresse.com/home/science/1351176/Zu-viel-und-zu-wenig-Duenger?_vl_backlink=/home/science/index.do

Grenzen der Leistungsfähigkeit der Ökosysteme
In einem aktuellen „Letter to SCIENCE“ in der gleichnamigen Fachzeitschrift diskutiert Karl-Heinz Erb vom Institut für Soziale Ökologie mit Co-AutorInnen, wie wir mit der Messung von Biomasseproduktion und -verbrauch die Grenzen der „Produktivkraft der Ökosysteme“ besser verstehen können.
For more information: https://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/downloads/Pressetext2012_12_Leistungsfaehigkeit.pdf

Wachsende Wälder teuer erkauft
Apa, Kultur & Gesellschaft/science.apa.at, 22. Februar 2013
http://science.apa.at/site/kultur_und_gesellschaft/detail.html?key=SCI_20130222_SCI39351351611582744

Wien und die Donau: Eine Scheinehe
Die Presse, Sonntag, 3.2.2013
http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/oesterreich/1340303/Wien-und-die-Donau_Eine-Scheinehe?from=suche.intern.portal

Astrid Kuffner
Kunstschnee, Alm und Landwirtschaft
Der Standard, Forschung Spezial, Mittwoch, 30. Jänner 2013, Seite 13
http://derstandard.at/1358305071313/Kunstschnee-Alm-und-Landwirtschaft

Wie Österreich von Biomasse leben könnte
science.orf.at, 07. November 2012
http://science.orf.at/stories/1707569/

Was soll wachsen?
Ö1 – Radiokolleg – 3. Jänner 2013, 09:05
http://oe1.orf.at/programm/324582

Fleischkonsum
BR – IQ – Wissenschaft und Forschung – Magazin – 09.01.2013
Brauchen wir eine Steuer auf Fleisch? – Über die ökologischen Folgen des übermäßigen Konsums http://www.br-online.de/podcast/mp3-download/bayern2/mp3-download-podcast-iq.shtml

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+ Staff News

Christian Lauk (SEC) finished his PhD in Social Ecology with his thesis on „Global Aspects of the Socioeconomic Metabolism”, on February 04, 2013. Congratulations!

We welcome Michaela Theurl at SEC. Michaela studied ecology at the University of Vienna and holds a degree in human ecology/plant physiology. In her diploma thesis at the Institute of Social Ecology, she specialized in Carbon Footprinting. Since 2010, she has been working on food production systems and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the different projects at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).

International Guests

Enric Tello is spending his sabbatical from January to June 2013 at SEC.
He is Full Professor and former Head of the Department of Economic History and Institutions (http://www.ub.edu/histeco/eng/inici.htm) in the Economics and Business Faculty at the University of Barcelona .
Besides collaborating with Fridolin Krausmann and all the members of the IFF group working in environmental history, and involved in the international research project “Sustainable farm systems: long-term socio-ecological metabolism in western agriculture”, the main project of my stay as a visiting professor at the IFF is to start writing a book on Socio-ecological transitions in Spanish agriculture (1850-2010): Resource use, Landscape Change and Biodiversity (provisional title) co-edited with Manuel González de Molina (Pablo de Olavide University in Seville) and co-authored with all the members of our coordinated research groups working in social metabolism of agricultural systems from a historical standpoint in Spain.

Incoming and Outgoing Students, Erasmus exchange

Marcela Stuker-Kropf is a PhD Student from Brazil (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (Seropedica city, Brazil) http://r1.ufrrj.br/wp/ppgcaf/ , staying at SEC from January to April 2013.
Marcela is focusing on transboundary protected areas with an interdisciplinary approach: environmental history, policy and management. At SEC, Marcela is having the opportunity to talk to experts on this subject and to visit the Austrian transboundary national parks. This internship should lead to compare the management benefits and challenges of these transboundary national parks in Europe with the ones in Brazil.

Jitka Strakova from the Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science , University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovic, http://www.prf.jcu.cz/en/ visited SEC the second time from January to Februar 2013 to work on her PhD thesis with the title: “Drivers of agricultural abandonment in the Czech marginalized regions: A case study from the Šumava Mountains.”

Heidi Astikainen from the University of Helsinki will spend her summer semester at the SEC.

Monika Sperrer and Severin Ettl will spend their summer semester at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in Germany.

Maria Niedertscheider (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Deutschland) will work on her PhD-project which is about analysing the Trajectories of Land use Intensity and Yield Gaps from a Multi-Level Perspective.

Robert Groß (Aalborg University, Denmark) will work on his PhD-project which is about the environmental history of winter tourism in Voralberg/Austria from 1920 – 2010.

Research Stay and Field Studies

The research project of Dominik Wiedenhofer at the Nagoya University in Japan aims to make use of an existing database of global resource use in order to develop a model for the long term evolution of global material stocks on the level of six world regions, from 1900 – 2010. This provides the basis for estimating future resource demand, impact of changes to service lifetimes, material efficiency and recycling potentials.

During her field study in Turkana (Kenia) Rebekka Fischer will focus on generating a time-use study of a family which lives in Turkana.
Lara Esther Bartels conducted her research on „The grazing system of pastoralists in northern Tanzania – A HANPP based Case Study“ at the Tanzania Natural Rsource Forum (TNRF). TNRF is an organization with the goal to promote the improvement of natural resource governance in Tanzania by linking policies and practices.

Nikolaus Ludwiczek has received an invitation from the Instituto Giramundo Mutuando in Brazil where he will work on his PhD-project. The Instituto Giramundo Mutuando is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable local development in the agriculture.

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+ New Publications

Andraschek-Holzer, Ralph, Schmid, Martin (2012): Umweltgeschichte und Topographische Ansichten: Zur Transformation eines österreichischen Donau-Abschnitts in der Neuzeit. In: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung Jg. 120 (1), Wien, pp. 80-115.

Cunfer, Geoff and Krausmann, Fridolin (2013): Sustaining Agricultural Systems in the Old and New Worlds: A Long-Term Socio-Ecological Comparison. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. New York: Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 269-296.

Dirnböck, Thomas, Bezák, Peter, Dullinger, Stefan, Haberl, Helmut, Lotze-Campen, Hermann, Mirtl, Michael, Peterseil, Johannes, Redpath, Steve, Singh, Simron J., Travis, Justin, and Wijdeven, Sander. (2013): Critical scales for long-term socio-ecological biodiversity research. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 123-138.

Egner, Heike and Schmid, Martin (2012): Wissensproduktion jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft – eine Herausforderung für Wissenschaft und für Gesellschaft. In: Egner, Heike, Schmid, Martin (Eds.), Jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft? Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft, München: oekom, Seite 7-26.

Egner, Heike and Schmid, Martin (Eds.) (2012): Jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft? Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft, München: oekom.

Fetzel, Tamara, Niedertscheider, Maria, Erb, Karl-Heinz, Gaube, Veronika, Gingrich, Simone, Haberl, Helmut, Krausmann, Fridolin, Lauk, Christian, and Plutzar, Christoph (2012): Human appropriation of net primary production in Africa: Patterns, trajectories, processes and policy implications. Vienna: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 137).

Fischer, Roland, Schendl, Georg, Schmid, Martin, Veichtlbauer, Ortrun, Winiwarter, Verena (2012): Grundsätzliche Überlegungen zu einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft und der Rolle von Wissenschaft. In: Egner, Heike, Schmid, Martin (Eds.), Jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft? Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft, München: oekom, pp. 49-70.

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2012): Über die Bedingungen der Macht von Wissenschaft als kollektiver gesellschaftlicher Akteurin. Ein Versuch im Rückgriff auf die Klassentheorie Alvin Gouldners. In: Egner, Heike and Schmid, Martin (Eds.): Jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft? Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft. München: OEKOM, pp. 159-174.

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Krausmann, Fridolin, and Smetschka, Barbara (2013): Modelling Transport as a Key Constraint to Urbanisation in Pre-industrial Societies . In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society Nature Interactions across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 77-101.

Gaube, Veronika and Haberl, Helmut (2013): Using integrated models to analyze socio-ecological system dynamics in LTSER regions. Farm households, agrarian subsidies, time use, land-use change and substance flows. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 53-75.

Gaube, Veronika and Remesch, Alexander (2013): Impact of urban planning on household’s residential decisions and energy use: An agent-based simulation model for Vienna. In: Environmental Modelling & Software, online first: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.11.012.

Gingrich, Simone, Schmid, Martin, Gradwohl, Markus, and Krausmann, Fridolin (2013): How material and energy flows change human practices and environments: The transformation of agriculture in the Eisenwurzen region, 1860-2000. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 297-313.

Haas, Willi, Singh, Simron J., Erschbamer, Brigitta, Reiter, Karl, and Walz, Ariane (2013): Integrated Monitoring and Sustainability Assessment in the Tyrolean Alps: Experiences in Transdisciplinarity. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 527-554.

Haberl, Helmut, Erb, Karl-Heinz, Gaube, Veronika, Gingrich, Simone, and Singh, Simron J. (2013): Socioeconomic Metabolism and the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: What Promise Do They Hold for LTSER? In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 29-52.

Haselsteiner, Edeltraud, Gaube, Veronika, Remesch, Alexander, Smetschka, Barbara, and Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2012): Urban Time and Energy (UTE): Time-space-energy Scenarios in Urban Areas. Re-mixing the city. Towards Sustainability and Resilience? Proceedings REAL CORP 2012.

Krausmann, Fridolin (2013): A city and its Hinterland: Vienna’s Energy Metabolism 1800-2006. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. New York: Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 247-268.

Krausmann, Fridolin and Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2013): Global socio-metabolic transitions. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 339-365.

Peterseil, Johannes, Neuner, Angelika, Stocker-Kiss, Andrea, Gaube, Veronika, and Mirtl, Michael (2013): The Eisenwurzen LTSER Platform (Austria) – Implementation and Services. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 461-484.

Schmid, Martin (2013): Book Review: Stéphane Castonguay and Matthew Evenden (eds.): Urban Rivers: Remaking Rivers, Cities, and Space in Europe and North America. In: Water History (January 2013), pp. 1-3.

Schmid, Martin and Egner, Heike (2012): Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft: Ein Resümee voller Gemeinsamkeiten, Widerprüche und Perspektiven. In: Egner, Heike, Schmid, Martin (Hg.), Jenseits traditioneller Wissenschaft? Zur Rolle von Wissenschaft in einer vorsorgenden Gesellschaft, München: oekom, Seite 229-240.

Schmid, Martin and Rittersma, Rengenier (2012): Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730) and the Contemporary Fascination for the Telluric Reign: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from History to Science (TELLUREXPLOR), Workshop Vienna, 19–21 April 2012, Schlußbericht an die Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Wien und Rotterdam.

Schriefl, E., Lauk, Christian, Kalt, G., and Kranzl, L. (2012): Can Austria „feed“ itself in a post-fossil world? Proceedings of the 15th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production, 2-4 May 2012, Bregenz, Austria

Singh, Simron J. and Haas, Willi (2013): Aid, metabolism and social conflicts in the Nicobar Islands. In: Healy, Hali et al. (Eds.): Ecological Economics from the Ground Up. Earthscan | Routledge, pp. 35-54.

Singh, Simron J., Haberl, Helmut, Chertow, Marian, Mirtl, Michael, and Schmid, Martin (2013): Conclusion. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 555-562.

Singh, Simron J., Haberl, Helmut, Chertow, Marian, Mirtl, Michael, and Schmid, Martin (2013): Introduction. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 1-26.

Singh, Simron J., Haberl, Helmut, Chertow, Marian, Mirtl, Michael, and Schmid, Martin (Eds.) (2013): Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in society – nature interactions across spatial and temporal scales (= Human – Environment Interactions, series edited by Emilio Moran, Volume 2)

Qiang, W., Liu, A., Cheng, S., Kastner, T., Xie, G., 2013. Agricultural trade and virtual land use: The case of China’s crop trade. Land Use Policy 33, 141–150.

Winiwarter, Verena, Schmid, Martin, Hohensinner, Severin, and Haidvogl, Gertrud (2013): The Environmental History of the Danube River Basin as an Issue of Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research. In: Singh, Simron J. et al. (Eds.): Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Studies in Society – Nature Interactions Across Spatial and Temporal Scales. Springer, Human – Environment Interactions, Bd. 2, pp. 103-122.

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Seit 1. März 2006 gilt das neue Telekommunikationsgesetz in Österreich. Es bestimmt, dass E-Mail-Aussendungen an mehr als 50 EmpfängerInnen nur dann legitim sind, wenn diese von dem/der EmpfängerIn so erwünscht sind. Falls Sie ungewollt diese Nachricht erhalten haben, möchten wir uns entschuldigen und bitten Sie, uns Ihre E-mail-Adresse mit dem Betreff *Entfernen“ zu senden.

Mag. Gabriela Miechtner
Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC)
Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz (AAU)
A-1070 Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Austria
Phone +43-1-5224000-336, Fax +43-1-5224000-477
http://www.aau.at/sec

IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter Nr. 27 – October 2012

CONTENTS

+ News

– Winter Semester 2012/13: Course information online

– Guest Professor: Espen Moe

– New material flow datasets available

– CFA: 2nd Vienna Workshop on Sustainable Development for Doctoral Students

– HumansandNature.org: Successful Economy without Continuous Economic Growth?

– JIE Special Issue: Greening Growing Giants

– New project: Sustainable Farm Systems

+ Events in Vienna

– IFF lecture: Werner Zittel: Peak Oil …

– 50^th ZUG Minisymposium

– IFF lecture: Ingolfur Blühdorn: Post-Democracy …

– IFF lecture: Erik Swyngedouw : Anthropocenic Promises …

– Marina Fischer-Kowalski: It’s the Ecology, Stupid!

– WWWforEurope lecture series

– Growth in Transition

+ Public Outreach (German only)

+ Staff news and guests

+ New publications

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+ NEWS:

– Winter Semester 2012/13: Course information online
Detailed information can be found on our website: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/downloads/KoVo-Web-WS12.pdf For further information please contact: mirjam [dot] weber [at] aau [dot] at

– Guest Professor: Espen Moe
Espen Moe, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow at NTNU Social Research in Trondheim, Norway, and has a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at UCLA. He is the author of “Governance, Growth and Global Leadership” (Ashgate, 2007). He has also worked for two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Industrial Ecology Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and one year at Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences Fellow at Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe-Sanda. His work has mainly focused on major processes of structural economic transformation and on the political economy enabling or hindering such processes, drawing on international political economy, economic history, energy policy, environmental policy and international relations. He publishes regularly, of late both in “Energy” and in “Energy Policy”, and is currently actively involved in three book projects on energy, one manuscript on the political economy of energy transitions since the Industrial Revolution, one on the political economy of renewable energy, and one as editor on a project on renewable energy and energy security in Japan, China and Northern Europe.
For more information: https://campus.aau.at/studien/lvkarte.jsp?sprache_nr=35&rlvkey=75631

– New material flow datasets available:
Please visit the data download area of the webpage of the Institute of Social Ecology to get access to data on long term trends of material and energy use in selected countries and regions. New additions are MEFA data for Japan (1878-2005), the USA (1870-2005), India (1961-2008), the City of Vienna (1800-2009). Also an updated version of the global time series (1900-2009) is now available.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/1088.htm

– Call for Abstracts: 2nd Vienna Workshop on Sustainable Development for Doctoral Students
The 2nd VWSD will be hosted by the Doctoral School of the Institute of Social Ecology (SEC) in Vienna on the 15th and 16th of November 2012, advancing the discourse and further increasing the academic networking among young researchers. The workshop will be organised around individual short presentations, followed by joint discussion rounds. The target audience is doctoral students as well as young academics and researchers at the early stages of their career, who are affiliated to a Vienna-based University or research institute and work on any issue related to sustainable development. Due to the interdepartmental nature of the Alpen-Adria University, researchers in Klagenfurt and Graz are also encouraged to apply and get advantage of this unique opportunity for scientific exchange.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/eng/downloads/VWSD-2_Call-EXT_1.pdf

– Center for Humans and Nature: successful economy without continuous economic growth?
The Center for Humans and Nature opened a discussion on the big question: How can we create a successful economy without continuous economic growth? Marina Fischer-Kowalski started her text with: When you pump a lot of energy into a system, it is going to accelerate. This not only holds true for physical systems, it also holds true for social systems. If a substantial part of this energy is withdrawn (as may be expected to happen in the next decades), the system will slow down. For many, this will be a great relief. But the system may also freeze to a very unpleasant state. HumansandNature.org is a new website that invites interaction on issues like socioecological transition and degrowth.
Read more at: http://www.humansandnature.org/questions-pages-7.php

– JIE Special Issue: Greening Growing Giants
Industrial Ecology reaching out beyond the core industrial countries: A special issue on Greening Growing Giants (eds. S.Hashimoto, M.Fischer-Kowalski, S. Suh und X.Bai) searches for another more sustainable development pathway for countries that now contain the majority of the world population, and will soon dominate the world economy.
For more information: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.2012.16.issue-4/issuetoc

– New project: Sustainable Farm Systems
How did farmers maintain soil fertility as they cultivated the same land over decades and centuries? How did they transfer energy and nutrients across the landscape to fertilize crops? How did farmers structure landscapes (field, pasture, woodland) to sustain communities, ensure long-term productivity, and produce profits? The way Western agriculture faced these challenges changed considerably over three centuries. In the transition from traditional to industrial agriculture, production and profits expanded but ecosystem functions degraded, threatening long-term sustainability. Guidance about options for sustainable agriculture resides in the rich historical record of rural communities on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The move from traditional to industrial agriculture in the 19th and 20th centuries was a major transformation. Researchers will investigate the drivers of that transition, explore why it began at different times in different places, and consider why the manufacturing sector industrialized decades earlier than the agricultural sector. The project Sustainable farm systems: long term socio-ecological metabolism in western agriculture integrates scholars from across a broad range of disciplines from Canada, the USA, Cuba, Colombia, Spain and Austria. It draws upon multiple case studies of historical farm communities in Europe, North America and Latin America will create a common database of agricultural systems over the past 300 years. The research program employs “socio-ecological metabolism” methods, an approach that views farms as ecosystems and measures flows of energy and soil nutrients through the landscape. This project’s overarching goal is to understand the biophysical choices and trade-offs available to farmers and the options that are possible for long-term sustainability. The project is funded by the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Councils (SSHRC Partnership Grant). It started with a kick off workshop in June in Colombia and runs for a period of five years. The Austrian subproject is coordinated by Fridolin Krausmann and involves Verena Winiwarter, Simone Gingrich and Michael Neundlinger.
Contact: fridolin [dot] krausmann [at] aau [dot] at
For more information: http://www.usask.ca/research/news/read.php?id=1075&newsid=1

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+ EVENTS:

– IFF Lecture: Werner Zittel (in German)
Werner Zittel, Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik Germany, will give a talk on “Peak oil as herald of further resource scarcities– What does this paradigm shift mean?”
IFF Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, Tuesday, 30. October 2012, 18:00
Details: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/iff/downloads/iff-lectures-Zittel-20121030.pdf

– 50. ZUG Minisymposium: Environmental History of the Danube 1500-1890 (in German)
The Center for Environmental History celebrates its 50th Minisymposium, where national and international guests present their research, and invites to a small reception. Environmental History of the Danube 1500-1890. With Gertrud Haidvogl, Severin Hohensinner, Martin Schmid, Christoph Sonnlechner and Verena Winiwarter.
IFF Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, Thursday, 8. November 2012, 18:00
Details: http://www.iff.ac.at/umweltgeschichte/

– IFF lecture: Ingolfur Blühdorn (in German)
Ingolfur Blühdorn, University of Bath, UK will give a talk on “POST-DEMOCRACY, POST-POLITICS, AND ECO-DICTATORSHIP: Some clarifications on controversial concepts”.
Abstract: What exactly is post-democracy? The discussion of this widely-used concept has in recent years started to develop into a debate on post-politics more broadly. It refers to the widely perceived tendency of an increasing exclusion of crucial societal matters from the sphere of political negotiation and decision and their subjection to a mode of administrative agency that does not allow for political alternatives. With a view to the politics of climate change and the environment, this could be perceived as leading directly into a technocratic-authoritarian eco-dictatorship. The lecture deals critically with the popular notions of post-democracy and post-politics. It analyses current changes in democratic values and opens an unexpected perspective on mobilisations against eco-dictatorial tendencies.
IFF Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, 15. November 2012, 18.00
Details: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/iff/downloads/iff-lectures-Bluehdorn-20121115.pdf

– IFF lecture: Erik Swyngedouw
Erik Swyngedouw, University of Manchester, UK will give a talk on “ANTHROPOCENIC PROMISES: The End of Nature, Climate Change and the Process of Post-Politicization”

Abstract: In the paper, I explore the paradoxical situation whereby the environment is politically mobilized, yet this political concern with the environment, as presently articulated, is argued to suspend the proper political dimension. I shall explore how the elevation of the environment to a public concern is both a marker of and constituent force in the production of de-politicization. The paper has four parts. In the first part, I problematise the question of Nature and the environment. I argue that there is no such thing as a singular Nature around which an environmental or climate policy and future can be constructed and performed. Rather, there are a multitude of natures and a multitude of existing, possible or practical socio-natural relations – and proper politicization of the environment needs to endorse this heterogeneity fully. In a second part, the emblematic case of climate change policy will be presented as cause célèbre of de-politicization. I argue how climate matters were brought into the domain of politics, but articulated around a particular imag(in)ing of what a ‘good’ climate or a ‘good’ environment is, while the political was systematically evacuated from the terrain of the – now Anthropocenic — environment. The third part will relate this argument to the views of political theorists who have proposed that the political constitution of contemporary western democracies is increasingly marked by the consolidation of post-political and post-democratic arrangements. In the fourth section, I discuss the climate change consensus in light of the post-political thesis. I shall conclude that the matter of the environment in general, and climate change in particular, needs to be displaced onto the terrain of the properly political.
IFF Vienna, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, 28. November 2012, 18.00
Details: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/iff/downloads/iff-lectures-Swyngedouw-20121128.pdf

– Marina Fischer-Kowalski: It’s the Ecology, Stupid! (in German)
Marina Fischer-Kowalski will give a lecture with the title „It’s the Ecology, Stupid! Warum die Ökonomie die Ökologie nicht überlisten kann und jede Hoffnung auf weiteres materielles Wachstum unserer Industriegesellschaft direkt in die Sackgasse führt.“ at the Symposium from Grüne Wirtschaft: „Weltwirtschaft XXL, Wie lange wachsen wir noch? Über das Ende des Wirtschaftswachstums und den schwierigen Weg zurück…“
Friday, 23 .November 2012, 10.30 –17.30 Uhr, Palais Eschenbach, Vienna
Details: http://www.gruenewirtschaft.at

– WWWforEurope lecture series
The lecture series will cover the main project topics as well as cross-cutting issues, for example gender equity, distributional aspects, education, green innovation and EU governance. We plan to invite interested researchers and the general public who seek to learn about recent developments in areas key for a socio-ecological transition, to this lecture series. The first lecture „Welfare Beyond GDP: Some Insights from Feminist Economics“ will be held by Julie A. Nelson, Professor of Economics, at the University of Massachusetts Boston/USA and internationally well-known expert on feminist and ecological economics on Monday, 8th of October at WIFO.
For more information: http://www.foreurope.eu/

– Growth in Transition
From 8 to 10 October 2012, the 2nd international conference „Growth in transition“ took place in Vienna, Austria. Within the framework of the “Growth in Transition” Conference committed people from political, administrative, scientific, economic, civil and other backgrounds discussed the key issues of the future and jointly work on solutions. Marina Fischer-Kowalski spoke at the opening session about the question „Where are we? The Paradigm of Growth put to test“.
For more information: http://www.growthintransition.eu/

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+ Public Outreach / Media resonance (German only)

– Das System sperrt sich selbst ein
Jorgen Randers, Mitautor des berühmt gewordenen Nachhaltigkeitsberichts „Die Grenzen des Wachstums“, tingelt derzeit durch den deutschsprachigen Raum. Im Gepäck hat er sein neues Mammutwerk „2052 – Eine globale Prognose für die nächsten 40 Jahre“. Wie wird’s uns in Zukunft gehen? Das Interview wurde geführt von Michael Neundlinger, der aktuell am Institut für Soziale Ökologie die Nachhaltigkeit österreichischer Landwirtschaft untersucht.
For more information: http://www.biorama.at/jorgen-randers-2052/ (german only)

– Stadt am Fluss: Häfen als sozio-naturale Schauplätze
Martin Schmid vom Institut für Soziale Ökologie sprach in den Ö1-„Dimensionen“ um Thema „Stadt am Fluss: Häfen als sozio-naturale Schauplätze“. Die Sendung berichtet von der Tagung „Orte der Stadt im Wandel vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart“ von 19. bis 21. September 2012 in Innsbruck, organisiert vom Österreichischen Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichtsforschung.
For more information: http://oe1.orf.at/programm/313912 (german only)

– Studier‘ was G’scheits
Studien, die nicht nur für die persönliche, sondern auch die gesellschaftliche Zukunft gewinnbringend sind, werden immer gefragter. Das Angebot ist vielseitig, für die Studenten aber auch verwirrend. Friedrich Faulhammer, Generalsekretär des Bundesministeriums für Wissenschaft und Forschung (BMWF) empfiehlt im Gespräch mit BIORAMA über nachhaltige Studien in Österreich das Lehrangebot des Instituts für Soziale Ökologie.
For more information: http://www.biorama.at/nachhaltige-studien/ (german only)

– Global Energy Assessment: Energiewende zahlt sich aus
Unser Planet steht vor großen Herausforderungen: 1,4 Milliarden Menschen leben noch ohne Versorgung mit elektrischer Energie, 3 Milliarden ohne moderne Kochmöglichkeiten. Für sie muss ein Zugang zu sauberer, nachhaltiger Energie geschaffen werden, ansonsten drohen ein Anstieg der Umweltbelastungen und eine weitere Beschleunigung des Klimawandels. Das Global Energy Assessment (GEA) der IIASA zeigt 41 Wege auf, wie ein Umstieg auf nachhaltige Energiequellen gelingen kann. ForscherInnen des Instituts für Soziale Ökologie haben an mehreren Teilen des Berichtes mitgearbeitet. Sie haben unter anderem neue Ergebnisse zum Zusammenhang von Ernährungssicherheit und Bioenergie beigetragen.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/main/inhalt/uninews_41711.htm (german only)

– Erst 4 von 90 Umweltzielen umgesetzt. Materialverbrauch und Landnutzung steigen weiter.
In zahlreichen internationalen Konferenzen haben sich die politischen Kräfte in den letzten Jahren auf die 90 wichtigsten Umweltziele geeinigt. Die ambitionierten Ziele können aber nur erreicht werden, wenn verstärkte Maßnahmen gesetzt werden. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt der aktuelle Bericht des „United Environment Programme (UNEP)“. Forschungsergebnisse zur globalen Ressourcennutzung vom Institut für Soziale Ökologie sind wichtiger Teil des UNEP Berichtes.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/main/inhalt/uninews_41704.htm (german only)

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+ Staff News and Guests

Marina Fischer-Kowalski was awarded honorary citizenship by the commune of the Greek island Samothraki for her sustained efforts to transform the island into a Man-and-Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO standards. The preparatory scientific work was supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

TERI – The Energy and Resources Institute, India, under the leadership of Dr.R.K.Pachauri – established an annual Georgescu-Roegen award and invited Marina Fischer-Kowalski to become part of the jury.
See www.teriin.org

Simone Gingrich, Senior researcher, is back from her maternity leave since October 1st.

Thomas Kastner gained a Phd and was awarded the Degree of Doctor by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Groningen, Netherlands for his thesis on “Changes in Human Food and Wood Consumption and their Impacts of Global Land Demand”

Martin Schmid was invited to be on the program committee for the International Water History Association’s 2013 conference in Montpellier, France, to be held June 24-29. The general conference website can be found at www.citg.tudelft.nl/waterhistory2013.

Simron Jit Singh, senior researcher at SEC, has been invited to University of Waterloo, Canada as Assistant Professor, from July 2012 to March 2013.

Mirjam Weber, Master in Human and Social Ecology, forms part of the administrative team since 1st of September. She is in charge of teaching agendas and student support at SEC.

– Guest Student Outgoing:

Sylvia Gierlinger will spend three month as a guest student at the Géographie-Cité Laboratory at the University Paris, Pantheon-Sorbonne working on her PhD thesis on “The urban metabolism of Vienna during the industrial transformation.”

– Guest Students Incoming:

Christelle Beyers, PhD Student, Sustainability Institute (University of Stellenbosch) and part time consultant in sustainability, development and planning fields has the research topic: „A study of material flow analysis to develop and empirical foundation and learning base to transition to a green economy.“

Contact: christellebeyers [at] telkomsa [dot] net

Antonio Cid Escudero, PhD Student, Agro-ecosystems History Laboratory, University Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain) has the research topic: „Water Metabolism in the Spanish Agricultural History from 1900 to 2010“

Contact: ajcid [at] upo [dot] es

Mariko Frame, PhD Student, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, has the research topic: “Ecological imperialism and ecologically unequal exchange with regards to the current influx of foreign investment in African primary sectors, with Tanzania as particular case study.”

Contact: mframe [at] du [dot] edu

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+ New Publications

Dullinger, S., Willner, W., Plutzar, C., Englisch, T., Schratt-Ehrendorfer, L., Moser, D., Ertl, S., Essl, F., Niklfeld, H., 2012. Postglacial migration lag restricts range filling of plants in the European Alps. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 21 (8), pp. 829-840.

Dullinger, S., Gattringer, A., Thuiller, W., Moser, D., Zimmermann, N.E., Guisan, A., Willner, W., Plutzar, C., Leitner, M., Mang, T., Caccianiga, M., Dirnböck, T., Ertl, S., Fischer, A., Lenoir, J., Svenning, J.C., Psomas, A., Schmatz, D.R., Silc, U., Vittoz, P., Hülber, K., 2012. Extinction debt of high-mountain plants under twenty-first-century climate change. Nature Climate Change, 2, pp. 619-622.

Exner, A. and Lauk, C. (2012): Social Innovations for Economic Degrowth. Solutions 3(4), pp. 45-49.

Groß, R., 2011. Das „schneereichste Dorf der Welt“ im Spannungsfeld „gigantischer Landschaftszerstörungen“ und „reiner Natur“. Eine Damülser Dorfgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Montfort. Zeitschrift für Geschichte Vorarlbergs, 63 (1), pp. 23-48.

Groß, R., 2012. Die Modernisierung der Vorarlberger Alpen durch mechanische Aufstiegshilfen. Montfort. Zeitschrift für Geschichte Vorarlbergs, 64 (2), pp. 13-25.

Groß, R., 2012. Als die Gäste ins Haus fielen. Eine Umweltgeschichte der 1950er Jahre in Damüls. Bregenzerwald Heft, 32, pp. 6-21.

Groß, R. (2012): Wie das 1950er Syndrom in die Täler kam. Umwelthistorische Überlegungen zur Konstruktion von Wintersportlandschaften am Beispiel Damüls in Vorarlberg. Institut für sozialwissenschaftliche Regionalforschung, Veröffentlichungen 10. Regensburg, Roderer Verlag, pp. 1-192.

Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Lauk, C., Plutzar, C., 2012. Menschliche Aneignung von Nettoprimärproduktion in Europa: Schlussfolgerungen für Bioenergiepotentiale. In: Leopoldina (Eds.), Bioenergy – Chances and Limits. Leopoldina – nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Halle, pp. 102-118.

Haberl, H., Körner, C., Lauk, C., Schmid-Staiger, U., Smetacek, V., Schulze, E.-D., Thauer, R.K., Weiland, P., Wilson, K., 2012. The availability and sustainability of biomass as an energy source. In: Leopoldina (Eds.), Bioenergy – Chances and Limits. Leopoldina – nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, Halle, pp. 9-42.

Haberl, H., 2012. Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP). In: Fogel, D., Fredericks, S., Harrington, L. and Spellerberg, I. (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Vol.: 6. Measurements, Indicators, and Research Methods for Sustainability. Berkshire Publishing, Great Barrington, MA, pp. 186-189.

Hashimoto, S., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Suh, S., Bai, X. (eds.), 2012. Greening Growing Giants. A Major Challenge of Our Planet. Special Issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology 16(4).

Hashimoto, S., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Suh, S., Bai, X., 2012. Editorial: Greening Growing Giants. A Major Challenge of Our Planet. Journal of Industrial Ecology 16(4), 459-466.

Krausmann, F., 2012. Global Material Flows. In: Ginley, D. and Gahen, D. (Eds.), Fundamentals of Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, 81-89.

Lauk, C., Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Gingrich, S., Krausmann, F., 2012. Global socioeconomic carbon stocks and carbon sequestration in long-lived products 1900-2008. Environmental Research Letters, 7 (034023)

Ramanujam, V.R., Singh, S.J., Vatn, A., 2012. From the Ashes into the Fire? Institutional Change in the Post-Tsunami Nicobar Islands, India. Society & Natural Resources, 25 (11), pp. 1152-1166.

Seitzinger, S.P., Svedin, U., Crumley, C.L., Steffen, W., Abdullah, S.A., Alfsen, C., Broadgate, W.J., Biermann, F.H.B., Bondre, N.R., Dearing, J.A., Deutsch, L., Dhakal, S., Elmqvist, T., Farahbakhshazad, N., Gaffney, O., Haberl, H., Lavorel, S., Mbow, C., McMichael, A.J., deMorais, J.M.F., Olsson, P., Pinho, P.F., Seto, K.C., Sinclair, P., Stafford-Smith, M., Sugar, L., 2012. Planetary stewardship in an urbanising world: beyond city limits. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, [online first: 10.1007/s13280-012-0353-7].

Schulze, E.-D., Körner, C., Law, B.E., Haberl, H., Luyssaert, S., 2012. Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral. Global Change Biology – Bioenergy, 4 (6), pp. 611-616.

Winiwarter, V., 2012. Die Donau als Kriegsschauplatz in der englischen Presse des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. In: Metzler, G. and Wildt, M. (Eds.), Berichtsband des 48. Deutschen Historikertag in Berlin 2010. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, pp. 88-89.

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To unsubscribe simply reply to this email with „unsubscribe“ in the subject line.

Mag. Gabriela Miechtner
Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC)
Alpen-Adria Universitaet
Schottenfeldgasse 29
1070 Vienna, Austria
www.aau.at/sec

IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter Nr. 26 – July 2012

CONTENTS

+ News & RIO +20 Special

– Global Energy Assessment (GEA) Report presented in Rio

– Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5) launched in Rio

– UNCTAD Report urges Africa to avoid ‘grow now, clean up later’ approach

– Online platform “OpenScience4Sustainability” (German only)

– Rio+20: researchers and young people are taking stock

– Extinction debt of high-mountain plants in „Nature Climate Change“

+ Public Outreach (German only)

+ Staff news: open calls and congratulations

+ New publications

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We wish all friends, students, project and cooperation partners a fabulous summer!

All the best, Helmut Haberl

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+ NEWS & RIO +20 Special:

– Global Energy Assessment (GEA) Report presented in Rio

The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) was presented in Rio de Janeiro in June. The aim of this project which was coordinated by the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), was to evaluate and summarize the current state of research on global energy issues in a policy relevant document. The GEA report comprises chapters on questions such as energy resources, climate-change mitigation, risks, scenarios as well as policy options and recommendations.

The Institute of Social Ecology (SEC) contributed to the three chapters on energy resources, trade-offs land and water and urban issues. SEC researchers involved were Karl-Heinz Erb, Helmut Haberl, Fridolin Krausmann, Christoph Plutzar, Julia Steinberger and Helga Weisz. GEA will be published as a book from Cambridge University Press which will become available in the course of July 2012.

IIASA press release: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/INF/PR/2012/2012-06-19.html

– Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5) launched in Rio

UNEP press release: “The fifth edition of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5), launched on the eve of the Rio+20 Summit, assessed 90 of the most-important environmental goals and objectives and found that significant progress had only been made in four. These are eliminating the production and use of substances that deplete the ozone layer, removal of lead from fuel, increasing access to improved water supplies and boosting research to reduce pollution of the marine environment.”

GEO-5 prominently quotes from research at the Institute of Social Ecology (SEC). Marina Fischer-Kowalski contributed as Scientific Peer-Reviewer.

The report features in various parts results from our database on global patterns and trends of material use in the last century by Krausmann et al. (Krausmann, F., Gingrich, S., Eisenmenger, N., Erb, K.H., Haberl, H. and Fischer-Kowalski, M. 2009. Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century. Ecological Economics 68, 2696–2705).

In the chapter “Land” a study on HANPP effects due to dryland degradation is discussed, which presents an innovative perspective on the important, but complex phenomenon of dryland degradation and desertification (Zika, M. and Erb, K.H. 2009. The global loss of net primary production resulting from humaninduced soil degradation in drylands. Ecological Economics 69, 310–318.)

Full report and materials: http://www.unep.org/geo/geo5.asp

– UNCTAD Report urges Africa to avoid ‘grow now, clean up later’ approach

UNCTAD press release: “Africa, a latecomer to establishing complex, modernized economies, should strive to do this in a way that uses the continent’s abundant natural resources in an efficient, „green“ manner that both raises living standards and protects the environment, a new UNCTAD report urges. The Economic Development in Africa Report 2012, subtitled Structural Transformation and Sustainable Development in Africa, was released on June 13th, 2012. It focuses on the dilemma of accomplishing much-needed economic growth while protecting the environment.”

The Team Social Ecology has contributed substantially to this report with a commissioned report on HANPP in Africa and is cited as:

UNCTAD (2012a). Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production in Africa: Patterns, trajectories, processes and policy implications. Written by Fetzel T, Niedertscheider M, Erb K H, Gaube V, Gingrich H, Haberl H, Krausmann F, Lauk C and Plutzar C. Alpen-Adria University. Paper commissioned by UNCTAD. Geneva.

Find the report as free pdf at: http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=131

– Online platform “OpenScience4Sustainability” (German only)

Die Initiative „OpenScience4Sustainability”, kurz “OS4S”, wurde anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums der Rio Konferenz ins Leben gerufen. „OpenScience4Sustainability” ist eine Plattform, auf der Infos zum Thema Nachhaltigkeitsforschung angeboten werden. Im Vordergrund steht die Kommunikation zwischen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit.

Neben Informationen zur UN Konferenz und Live Berichterstattung aus Rio, gibt es unter anderem eine digitale Galerie der Nachhaltigkeitsforschung mit Portraits von WissenschafterInnen. Interviews mit ForscherInnen des Instituts für Soziale Ökologie wie Helmut Haberl, Marina Fischer-Kowalski und Verena Winiwarter sind nachzulesen.

Viel Vergnügen mit „OpenScience4Sustainability”: http://www.openscience4sustainability.at/

– Rio+20: researchers and young people are taking stock

To mark the 20th anniversary of the pioneering United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Federal Ministry of Research and Science will grant 365 young people the opportunity to gain insight into Austrian sustainability research. The four-week summer internships in Austrian research facilities are organised in the framework of the initiative „Rio+20 – Stocktaking by Researchers and Young People“. Together with scientists from prestigious research facilities, the pupils will learn more about successful and thrilling research results or product developments conforming to the objectives of Agenda 21.

Three pupils will visit the Institute of Social Ecology this summer and report on the research projects they find most interesting.

Details: http://www.youngscience.at/rioplus20/

– Extinction debt of high-mountain plants in „Nature Climate Change“

Quantitative estimates of the range loss of mountain plants under climate change have so far mostly relied on static geographical projections of species’ habitat shifts. In this paper a European research team used a hybrid model that combines such projections with simulations of demography and seed dispersal to forecast the climate-driven spatio-temporal dynamics of 150 high-mountain plant species across the European Alps. Alarmingly, species endemic to the Alps seem to face the highest range losses. These results caution against optimistic conclusions from moderate range size reductions observed during the twenty-first century as they are likely to belie more severe longer-term effects of climate warming on mountain plants.

Stefan Dullinger, Andreas Gattringer, Wilfried Thuiller, Dietmar Moser, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Antoine Guisan, Wolfgang Willner, Christoph Plutzar, Michael Leitner, Thomas Mang, Marco Caccianiga, Thomas Dirnböck, Siegrun Ertl, Anton Fischer, Jonathan Lenoir, Jens-Christian Svenning, Achilleas Psomas, Dirk R. Schmatz, Urban Silc, Pascal Vittoz, & Karl Hülber. Extinction debt of high-mountain plants under twenty-first-century climate change. Nature Climate Change. Published online 06 May 2012. DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE1514

http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1514.html

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+ Public Outreach / Media resonance (German only)

Die Donau – Eine Sendung über die historische Lebensader der Stadt Wien
June 2012

Die Donau ist nicht nur schön und blau. Sie war über Jahrhunderte auch wild, unberechenbar und bedrohlich. Die Donau war auch immer schon ein vielfältiger und abwechslungsreicher Lebensraum – für Mensch und Tier. Ö1 Dimensionen von Wolfgang Slapansky mit starker Beteiligung der IFF (Zentrum für Umweltgeschichte am Institut für Soziale Ökologie) bereichtet über das derzeit laufende FWF-Projekt „ENVIEDAN – Umweltgeschichte der Wiener Donau 1500-1890“. Interview u. a. mit Projektleiterin Verena Winiwarter, Martin Schmid, Michael Neundlinger, Sylvia Gierlinger u. v. a.
Ö1 – Dimensionen
Montag, 25. Juni 2012, 19:05

Verena Winiwarter
Vom Gebären, Bilden und Ausbilden
Falter, heureka 25/12, Seite 3
Werner Reiter
Die vielen kleinen Bausteine nachhaltiger Lebensstile
Biorama Nr. 18, Mai 2012, Seite 73-74
Eva Linsinger und Edith Meinhart
Gefährlicher Wahnsinn Auto
Profil, Nr. 20, 14. Mai 2012, Seite 21

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+ Staff News: Open calls and Congratulations

Open call for a three year PhD position within EU project, see
http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/1.htm

Open call for a teaching administrator, see
http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/career/inhalt/271_878.htm

Michael Neundlinger won research grant of the city of Vienna

Michael Neundlinger has won the „Research Grant“ awarded by the Cultural Department of Vienna (Förderungspreise der Stadt Wien – Kulturabteilung) due to his work on the Environmental History of the Viennese Sanitation System. Neundlinger and the SEC team (Fridolin Krausmann, Sylvia Gierlinger & Gudrun Pollack) have reconstructed grand phases of the development of Vienna´s Sanitation Regime from Roman to Modern Times. First results will be published in the internationally renowned series “A History of Water” (I.B. Tauris) in 2013.

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+ New Publications

Abadi, B., Gaube, V., and Shahvali, M. (2012): Agro-environmental systems and agent-based simulation: specific implications and an integrated baseline. In: Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 3(1), pp. 54-62

Coelho, S.T., Agbenyega, O., Agostini, A., Erb, K.-H., Haberl, H., Hoogwijk, M., Rattan, L., Dos Santos Lucon, O., Masera, O., Moreira, J.R., Björklund, G., Krausmann, F., Msangi, S:, and Plutzar, C. (2012). Land and Water: Linkages to Bionenergy. In: Gomez-Echeverri, L., Johansson, T.B., Nakicenovic, N. and Patwardhan, A. (Eds.), Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. Laxenburg, Cambridge, UK: IIASA and Cambridge University Press, pp. 1459-1526

Erb, K.-H., Mayer, A., Kastner, T., Sallet, K.-E., and Haberl, H. (2012): The impact of Industrial Grain fed Livestock Production on Food Security:an extended literature review. Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 136).

Erb, K.-H., Plutzar, C., and Haberl, H. (2012): Dependency of global primary bioenergy crop potentials in 2050 on food systems, yields, biodiversity conservation and political stability. In: Energy Policy 47, pp. 260-269.

Essl, F., Dullinger, S., Plutzar, C., Willner, W., and Rabitsch, W. (2011): Imprints of glacial history and current environment on correlations between endemic plant and invertebrate species richness. In: Journal of Biogeography 38(3), pp. 604-614.

Fetzel, T., Niedertscheider,M., Erb,K.-H., Gaube,V., Gingrich,S., Haberl,H., Krausmann,F., Lauk,C., and Plutzar,C. (2012): Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production in Africa: Patterns, trajectories, processes and policy implications. Paper commissioned by UNCTAD. Geneva: UNCTAD

Fischer-Kowalski, M., Haas,W., Wiedenhofer,D., Weisz,U., Pallua,I., Possanner,N., Behrens,A., Serio,G., Alessi,M., and Weis,E. (2012): Socio-ecological transitions: definition, dynamics and related global scenarios. Vienna, Brussels: Institute for Social Ecology – AAU, Centre for European Policy Studies

Grubler, A., Bai, X., Buettner, T., Dhakal, S., Fisk, D.J., Ichinose, T., Keirstead, J.E., Sammer, G., Satterthwaite, D., Schulz, N.B., Shah, N., Steinberger, J., and Weisz, H. (2012): Urban Energy Systems. In: Gomez-Echeverri, L. Johansson, T.B., Nakicenovic, N. and Patwardhan, A. (Eds.): Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. Laxenburg, Cambridge, UK: IIASA and Cambridge University Press

Haberl, H., Steinberger, J., Plutzar, C., Erb, K.-H., Gaube, V., Gingrich, S., and Krausmann, F. (2012): Natural and socioeconomic determinants of the embodied human appropriation of net primary production and its relation to other resource use indicators. In: Ecological Indicators 23, pp. 222-231.

Hauer, F., Gierlinger, S., Nagele, C., Albrecht, J., Uschmann, T., and Martsch, M. (2012): Die Wiener Verzehrungssteuer. Auswertung nach einzelnen Steuerposten (1830 – 1913). Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 134).

Luyssaert, S., Abril, G., Andres, R., Bastviken, D., Bellassen, V., Bergamaschi, P., Bousquet, P., Chevallier, F., Ciais, P., Corazza, M., Dechow, R., Erb, K.-H., Etiope, G., Fortems-Cheiney, A., Grassi, G., Hartman, J., Jung, M., Lathiere, J., Lohila, A., Moosdorf, N., Njakou Djomo, S., Otto, J., Papale, D., Peters, W., Peylin, P., Raymond, P., Rödenbeck, C., Saarnio, S., Schulze, E. D., Szopa, S., Thompson, R., Verkerk, P. J., Vuichard, N., Wang, R., Wattenbach, M., and Zaehle, S. (2012): The European CO₂, CO, CH₄ and N₂O balance between 2001 and 2005. In: Biogeosciences Discussions 9(2), pp. 2005-2053.

Petridis, P. (2012): Perceptions, attitudes and involvement of local residents in the establishment ofa Samothraki Biosphere Reserve, Greece. In: eco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research 4(1), pp. 59-63.

Rogner, H.-H., Aguilera, R. F., Archer, C. L., Bertani, R., Bhattacharya, S. C., Bryden, I., Charpentier, R. R., Dusseault, M. B., Gagnon, L., Goswami, Y., Haberl, H., Hoogwijk, M., Johnson, A., Odell, P., Wagner, H., Yakushev, V., Arent, D., Bryden, J., Krausmann, F., Schilling, C., and Shafiei, A. (2012): Energy Resources and Potentials. In: Gomez-Echeverri, L. Johansson, T.B., Nakicenovic, N. and Patwardhan, A. (Eds.): Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. Laxenburg, Cambridge, UK: IIASA and Cambridge University Press, pp. 425-512.

Schmid, M. and Winiwarter, V. (2011): Umwelt Donau: Eine andere Geschichte. In: Der Donaulimes in Österreich (herausgegeben vom Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Projektleitung Andreas Schwarcz, Redaktion Sonja Jilek). Wien, pp. 32-35.

Schulze, E.-D., Körner, C., Law, B. E., Haberl, H., and Luyssaert, S. (2012): Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral. In: Global Change Biology – Bioenergy [online first: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1757-1707.2012.01169.x.]

Singh, S. J. and Dudley, N. (2012): Ecosystem Services in Rural Areas and Natural Resource Management. In: Wittmer, H. and Gundimeda, H. (Eds.): The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity for Local and Regional Policy Makers. London: Routledge, Earthscan, TEEB – Publication series, pp. 81-104.

UNCTAD, Niedertscheider, M., Gingrich, S., and Erb, K.-H. (2012): Changes in land use in South Africa between 1961 and 2006: an integrated socio-ecological analysis based on the human appropriation of net primary production framework. In: Regional Environmental Change, [online first: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0285-6].

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To unsubscribe simply reply to this email with „unsubscribe“ in the subject line.

Mag. Barbara Smetschka
Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC)
Alpen-Adria Universitaet
Schottenfeldgasse 29
1070 Vienna, Austria
www.aau.at/sec

IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter Nr. 24 – August 2011

CONTENTS

+ News

– Job vacancy: Assistant “Social Metabolism”

– UNEP Report 2011

– Samothraki: Biosphere Reserve

– Winter Semester 2011/2012: Guest professors

+ Upcoming Events

– World Resources Forum 2011 in Davos

– td-conference 2011 in Berne

– 12. Austrian Climate Research Day in Vienna

+ Public Outreach (German only)

+ Staff news

+ New publications

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+News

– Job vacancy: Assistant “Social Metabolism”

The Alpen-Adria-Universitaet Klagenfurt is pleased to offer the position of Assistant “Social Metabolism” at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna. We invite applications for the position of Assistant of “Social Metabolism” (B1, 50%, with the possibility of full employment financed by project funds) starting in September 2011 and limited to four years.

The applicant will help to advance the understanding of interrelations in socio-ecological systems. He or she will contribute to research in social metabolism, modeling and scenario building in support of policy processes. We are looking for an individual with an interdisciplinary background (natural and social sciences) and experience in methods of industrial ecology. We are seeking a committed and creative person with intellectual curiosity, strong communicative skills, organizational talent and enthusiasm for team work.

Details at the official job announcement: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/career/inhalt/269_761.htm

– „Humanity Can and Must Do More with Less: UNEP experts warn: ‚Decouple‘ resource consumption and economic growth rates“

By 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year – three times its current appetite – unless the economic growth rate is “decoupled” from the rate of natural resource consumption, warns a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and International Resource Panel Co-Chair Ashok Khosla, together with lead authors Marina Fischer-Kowalski and Mark Swilling, launched the report 12 May 2011 at the 19th annual meetings of the Commission for Sustainable Development, UN Secretariat, New York.

The full report, “Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth,” is available at www.unep.org/resourcepanel/decoupling/

– Samothraki: Biosphere Reserve

Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Laz Xenidis and Simron J. Singh gladly announce that the municipality of the Island of Samothraki has submitted an application to UNESCO for becoming a Biosphere Reserve. This is an important milestone in a transdisciplinary project supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences to create the first Biosphere Reserve in Greece. The Island of Samothraki is among the rare remaining examples of island natural beauty and rich biodiversity in the Aegean archipelago; most of its territory is mountainous, and there are numerous streams and waterfalls that flow all year round. Samothraki is also known for its rich archaeological heritage – the famous „Nike of Samothraki“ is now exhibited in the Louvre, but the impressive remains of the „City of the Great Gods“ where it came from attract many visitors. This project resulted from a collaborative effort of local NGOs, scientists and local administration directed at preserving the island from destruction by animal grazing and mass tourism, and seeking for a sustainable way of living for its inhabitants, which will be subject to a number of follow-up projects.

For pictures by a local photographer see http://samothrakisphotoblog.com/index.php?showimage=2661.

– Winter Semester 2011/2012: Guest professors

We are happy to announce two guest professors for the coming winter semester

An Environmental History of Fire

Geoff Cunfer, PhD; SE (1 SWS/2 ECTS)

Kick-off: 05.10.2011 from 14:00-15:00, blocked seminar: 19. Oct – 30. Nov 2011

Qualitative Approaches to Sustainability Research

in the Social Sciences

Henrike Rau, PhD & Dr. Ricca Edmondson; SE (1 SWS/2 ECTS)

Kick-off: 05.12.2011, blocked seminar: 5. Dec – 16. Dec 2011

Detailed information on course information can be found on our website in September: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/

For further information please contact: michael [dot] neundlinger [at] aau [dot] ac [dot] at

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+ Upcoming Events

– World Resources Forum, Davos, September 19-21, 2011

Shaping the Future of Natural Resources – Towards a Green Economy,
The World Resources Forum (WRF) is a science-based platform to exchange knowledge about the economic, political and environmental implications of global resource use. WRF promotes innovation for resource productivity by building bridges between researchers and policymakers, business, NGO’s and the public. Flagship activity is the bi-annual conference, held in Davos, Switzerland.

Marina Fischer-Kowalski will give a plenary talk on “Sociometabolic regimes, revolutions and transitions.“

Details: http://www.worldresourcesforum.org/program-overview

– td-conference 2011: Evaluation of Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research

Berne, 14-16 September 2011

Workshop: Sustainability Sciences: Evaluating Strategies of Setting and Shifting Boundaries

Organizers: Willi Haas and Barbara Smetschka (Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, SEC, Alpen-Adria University), Alexander Bogner (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Details: http://www.transdisciplinarity.ch/e/Conference/international/2011/

– 12. Austrian Climate Research Day (German only)

Forschung zu „Klima, Klimawandel, Auswirkungen und Anpassung“ in Österreich.

Zeit: Mittwoch, 21. September bis Donnerstag 22. September 2011

Ort: Exnerhaus der Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Peter Jordanstraße 82

Details: http://www.austroclim.at/index.php?id=klimatag2011

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+ Public Outreach / Media resonance (German only)

– Susanne Strnadl

Die Ökonomie als Organismus betrachtet

Der Standard, Wissenschaft/Forschung Spezial, Mittwoch, 29.Juni 2011, Seite 20

– Karin Krichmayr

Die Natur ist kein Handelspartner

Der Standard, Wissenschaft/Forschung Spezial, Mittwoch, 18.Mai 2011, Seite 30

– Josef Kirchengast

Vier Weltkriege, das Frühstück und ein Dorf in Oberösterreich

Der Standard, Crossover, Dienstag, 5.April 2011, Seite 8

– Sebastian Gilli

Hinter dir dein Fußabdruck

Der Standard, Kultur, Mittwoch, 30.März 2011, Seite 31

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+ Staff News

– Karlheinz Erb was elected junior member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) due to his ERC Starting grant.

– Marina Fischer-Kowalski was elected vice-president of the board of the European Society of Ecological Economics (ESEE).

– Marina Fischer-Kowalski has been coopted as a member of the ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant peer review panel for a third period.

– We welcome new team members Thomas Kastner (Human Ecology) and Christian Lauk (Social Ecology).

– Michael Neundlinger has finished his MA in Social Ecology with honours.

– Causing Ignition: Biofuels and Social Conflicts

Anke Schaffartzik was awarded a DocTeam fellowship for interdisciplinary teams by the Austrian Academy of Sciences for her PhD project on the potential of biofuels.

The potential to fuel future economies was ascribed to biofuels early in the public discourse. As of late, it seems that their spark ignites conflicts rather than engines.

Biofuels have been promoted as a solution to the multiple global crises of rising energy prices, climate change, and economic downturn. Internationally, economic powers such as the EU, the USA, Brazil, China, and India are determined to expand and develop the use of biofuels. Mandatory blending to motor fuels, most notably in the European Union, has created a strong demand for biofuels resulting in the emergence of a growing global market. Due to its strong impact on land use the production of biofuels is directly linked to cultural, ecological, economic, political, as well as social change.

– Prof. Geoff Cunfer has joined the Institute of Social Ecology as a visiting scientist from July to December 2011.

Prof. Cunfer is an environmental historian and Professor at the Department of History
and at the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. He is investigating land use change and environmental change in the North American Great Planes region and links historical and ecological approaches in his work. In cooperation with Fridolin Krausmann he is currently engaged in building up a research network on „Sustainable farm systems: long-term socio-ecological metabolism in western agriculture“.

The “New York Times” issue (26^th of July 2011) includes an article about historical

GIS, including some discussion of Prof. Cunfers research about the history of the Dust

Bowl: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/arts/geographic-information-systems-help-scholars-see-history.html

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+ New Publications

Bogner, Alexander, Gaube, Veronika, and Smetschka, Barbara (2011): Partizipative Modellierung. Beteiligungsexperimente in der sozialökologischen Forschung. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 36(2), pp. 74-97.

Eisenmenger, Nina, Schaffartzik, Anke, Krausmann, Fridolin, and Milota, Eva (2011): Ressourcennutzung in Österreich. Wien: Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft.

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2011): Analyzing sustainability transitions as a shift between socio-metabolic regimes. In: Environmental Innovation.and Societal.Transitions 1(1), pp. 152-159.

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Mayer, Andreas, and Schaffartzik, Anke (2011): Zur sozialmetabolischen Transformation von Gesellschaft und Soziologie. In: Groß, Matthias (Ed.): Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 97-120.

Gaube, Veronika, Smetschka, Barbara and Lutz, Juliana (2011). Sozialkapital und Nachhaltigkeit am Beispiel transdisziplinär entwickelter Computermodelle. In: Stefan Vater, Wolfgang Kellner, Wolfgang Jütte (Hrsg.): Erwachsenenbildung und Sozialkapital (Studies in lifelong learning, Band 4). Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 133-143.

Gingrich, Simone (2011): Foreign trade and early industrialisation in the Habsburg Monarchy and the United Kingdom – Two extremes in comparison. In: Ecological Economics 70(7), pp. 1280-1288.

Gierlinger, Sylvia and Krausmann, Fridolin (2011): The physical economy of the United States of America: Extraction, trade and consumption of materials from 1870 to 2005. In: Krausmann, Fridolin (Ed.): The socio-metabolic transition.Long term historical trends and patternsin global material and energy. Social Ecology Working Paper 131. Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology, Social Ecology Working Paper

Haberl, Helmut (2011): Feeding & fueling the 9 billion – sustainably. In: Options Summer 2011, pp. 8-9.

Haberl, Helmut and Erb, Karl-Heinz (2011): Feeding and fuelling the world 2050 – a new perspective on the food versus fuel debate. In: GLP News 7, pp. 5-6.

Jirsa, Franz and Winiwarter, Verena (2010): Eingeweidewürmer in Galens Schriften. Intestinal Helminths in the works of Galen. In: Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 122(1), pp. 14-18.

Kastner, Thomas and Nonhebel, Sanderine (2010): Changes in land requirements for food in the Philippines: A historical analysis. In: Land Use Policy 27(3), pp. 853-863.

Kastner, Thomas, Erb, Karl-Heinz, and Nonhebel, Sanderine (2011): International wood trade and forest change: a global analysis. In: Global Environmental Change 21, pp. 947-956.

Kastner, Thomas, Kastner, Michael, and Nonhebel, Sanderine (2011): Tracing distant environmental impacts of agricultural products from a consumer perspective. In: Ecological Economics 70(6), pp. 1032-1040.

Krausmann, Fridolin (ed.) (2011): The socio-metabolic transition.Long term historical trends and patterns in global material and energy use. Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 131).

Krausmann, Fridolin (2011): The global metabolic transition: a historical overview. In: Krausmann, Fridolin (Ed.): The socio-metabolic transition.Long term historical trends and patternsin global material and energy. Social Ecology Working Paper 131. Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology, Social Ecology Working Paper, pp. 74-102.

Krausmann, Fridolin, Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Schaffartzik, Anke, Steinberger, Julia K., Eisenmenger, Nina, and Weisz, Ulli (2011): Trends and Developments of the Use of Natural Resources in the European Union. Vienna: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 123).

Krausmann, Fridolin, Gingrich, Simone, and Nourbakhch-Sabet, Reza (2011): The metabolic transition in Japan: A material flow account for the period 1878 to 2005. In: Krausmann, Fridolin (Ed.): The socio-metabolic transition.Long term historical trends and patternsin global material and energy. Social Ecology Working Paper 131. Vienna: IFF Social Ecology, pp. 4-23.

Milota, Eva, Schaffartzik, Anke, and Eisenmenger, Nina (2011): Ressourcendaten – Verbesserung des statistischen Datenmaterials im Bereich natürliche Ressourcen. Projektbericht. Wien: Statistik Austria

Schaffartzik, Anke (2011): A Toe in America, a Heel in Asia? A Discussion of the Applicability of the Ecological Footprint to International Trade. In: Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 26(4), pp. 89-110.

Singh, Simron J. (2011): Introduction: The „nature“ of development studies. In: Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 26(4), pp. 4-13.

Singh, Simron J. and Köhler, Bettina (eds.) (2011): Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (JEP) [Austrian Journal for Development Studies]: The „nature“ of development studies. An ecological perspective on uneven development. Vienna: Mattersburger Kreis für Entwicklungspolitik an den österreichischen Universitäten26(4).

Singh, Simron J. and Haberl, Helmut (2011): Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) across Temporal and Spatial Scales. In: GLP News 7, pp. 15-16.

Steinberger, Julia K. and Krausmann, Fridolin (2010): What do economic resource productivities measure? In: Proceedings of the International Society for Ecological Economics conference: Advancing sustainability in a time of crisis, 22-25 August 2010, Oldenburg – Bremen, Germany. Oldenburg: ISEE, pp. 1-22.

UNEP (2011): Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth. A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Use Panel. Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., Weizsäcker, E.U., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Romero Lankao, P., Siriban Manalang, A. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Singh, Simron J., Krausmann, Fridolin, Gingrich, Simone, Haberl, Helmut, Erb, Karl-Heinz, and Lanz, Peter (2011): India’s biophysical economy, 1961 – 2008. Sustainability in a national and global context. In: Krausmann, Fridolin (Ed.): The socio-metabolic transition.Long term historical trends and patternsin global material and energy. Social Ecology Working Paper 131. Vienna: IFF-Social Ecology, Social Ecology Working Paper, pp. 50-73.

Virgl, Christoph (2011): Protest in der Weltgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag

Weisz, Ulli, Gingrich, Simone, Winiwarter, Verena, Radits, Franz, Soukup-Altrichter, Katharina, Schmied, Christopher, Spranz, Astrid, Antic Aleksandar, Bosina, Christine, Ecker, Irene, Kalla, Maximilian J., Petrin, Walter, and Steinkellner, Gudrun (2011): Schüler(innen) auf der Suche nach den Wurzeln unserer Umweltprobleme. Umwelthistorische Forschung in technischen Schulen als Beitrag zur Bildung für nachhahaltige Entwicklung. In: GAIA 20(2), pp. 122-128.

Winiwarter, Verena (2010): Abordagens sobre a História Ambiental: um guia de campo para os seus conceitos. In: Abordagens Geográficas 1(1), pp. 1-21.

Winiwarter, Verena (2011): Rezension von Aloys Winterling (Hg.), Historische Anthropologie. (Basistexte 1, ed. Winterling), Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 2006, 301 S., in: 2, 295-297.

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To unsubscribe simply reply to this email with „unsubscribe“ in the subject line.

Mag. Barbara Smetschka

Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC)

Alpen-Adria Universitaet

Schottenfeldgasse 29

1070 Vienna, Austria

http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/