IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter No. 31 - August 2014

CONTENTS

+ News

New curriculum
New book out now: Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability
Job offer: Senior scientist positions at the Institute of Social Ecology
GAIA masters student paper award
New publication: Changes on land system dynamics in Germany despite drastic political changes stable since 1883
New publication: Climate Change: Management boundaries
IPCC report: Climate Change 2014
It’s launch time! Global Atlas of Environmental Conflicts
Greening history: Studying the environment across disciplines, past, present and future – Call for papers

+ Public outreach / Media resonance

+ New publications

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+ News

New curriculum
The master program in Social Ecology has been established in 2005 and it has been a success in many respects. Student numbers have been growing rapidly in the last years with currently c. 180 students enrolled. After almost a decade of experience with the initial curriculum, an evaluation of the program and new developments in the field of sustainability science, we have started a process to thoroughly revise and update the curriculum last year. The new curriculum, which is in effect as of fall 2014, emphasizes inter- and transdisciplinary methods and approaches even stronger, integrates internships and offers a range of thematic specializations in the broad field of Social and Human Ecology. Most courses are currently offered in German, but the share of courses held in English shall be further increased in the future.
For more information: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/5240.htm

New book out now: Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability
It is with great pleasure we can announce the release of our book “Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability. Orientations for Contemporary Research”. This book is the fourth volume in the human-environment interactions series which provides a broad scope of the research on the pervasive impact that human activities have on the earth system. Within this series, the book at hand has a unique focus as it proposes a re-evaluation of Ester Boserup’s pioneering work in the field of sustainability science by tracing her impact on current research. Boserup’s theories on the role of women in development, first published in 1965 and followed by a second book in 1970, and on the interplay between population dynamics, agricultural growth and the environment, as outlined in her most comprehensive book in 1981, continue to resonate in many fields of research and in the current discourse on sustainability.
Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Reenberg, Anette, Schaffartzik, Anke, and Mayer, Andreas (Eds.). (2014): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer (Human-Environment Interactions; 4).
To the full version of the book: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-017-8678-2

Job offer: Senior scientist positions at the Institute of Social Ecology
The Institute of Social Ecology at the School of Interdisciplinary Studies & Continuing Education (IFF) of Alpen-Adria-Universitaet Klagenfurt (Vienna campus) announces five positions of senior scientists. Deadline of applications: 27^th of August and 10^th of September 2014.
Details: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/career/inhalt/269.htm

GAIA masters student paper award
Opportunity to publish in GAIA: The international journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society invites Master students to participate in the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award. Master students are encouraged to publish their results from research-based courses or Master Theses in the field of transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability science.
Details: http://www.oekom.de/zeitschriften/gaia/student-paper-award.html

New publication: Changes on land system dynamics in Germany despite drastic political changes stable since 1883
Germany is an especially interesting case study for land system dynamics due to fundamentally changing economic and institutional conditions: the two World Wars, the separation into East and West Germany, the accession to the European Union, and Germany’s reunification. A team of researchers of the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna show, that land system change in Germany was surprisingly gradual, indicating high resilience to the drastic socio-economic and institutional shifts that occurred during the last 125 years.
Details: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378014001113

New publication: Climate Change: Management boundaries
Changes in the management of existing agricultural land can warm the local climate to an extent similar to that resulting from the conversion of natural vegetation to farmland, according to research published in Nature Climate Change. These findings demonstrate the challenges of meeting growing food demand without exacerbating climate change. A team of scientists, including Karlheinz Erb of Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna found out, that the net effect — when all cooling and heating influences were accounted for — was localized warming of around 1.7 degrees Celsius. Consequently, the intensification of agriculture to meet growing food demand will have direct climatic implications that should be considered alongside greenhouse gas emissions when weighing up different policy options.
Paper preview: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n5/full/nclimate2196.html

IPCC report: Climate Change 2014
Concluding four years of intense scientific collaboration by hundreds of authors from around the world, this report responds to the request of the world’s governments for a comprehensive, objective and policy neutral assessment of the current scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change. The report has been extensively reviewed by experts and governments to ensure quality and comprehensiveness. The quintessence of this work, the Summary for Policymakers, in which Helmut Haberl of the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna was involved, has been approved line by line by member governments in April at the 12th Session of IPCC WG III in Berlin, Germany. The Working Group III contribution to the AR5 deals with the mitigation of climate change. It sets out the technological, economic and institutional requirements and associated risks of climate change policies at the global, national and sub-national level, investigates mitigation measures for all major sectors, and assesses investment and finance issues.
For more information: http://mitigation2014.org/

It’s launch time! Global Atlas of Environmental Conflicts
The Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) project launches today its Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, a visually attractive and interactive online mapping platform detailing around 1000 environmental conflicts (and growing). It allows users to search and filter across 100 fields and to browse by commodity, company, country and type of conflict. With one click you can find a global snapshot of nuclear, waste or water conflicts, or the places where communities have an issue with a particular mining or chemical company. Click on any point to find the actors and a conflict description with the outcome and sources. Featured maps will focus on issues ranging from fracking to conflicts over mega-infrastructure projects to maps on violent targeting of activists (and more).
The Atlas is a product of the EU-funded EJOLT project. Over 100 people from 23 universities and environmental justice organisations in 18 countries plus dozens of independent collaborators from all around the world have joined forces to create this huge and valuable resource. The project is coordinated by Professor Joan Martinez-Alier and his team of ecological economists from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB).
For more information: http://ejatlas.org/

Greening History: Studying the Environment across Disciplines, Past, Present and Future – Call for Papers
The European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) is pleased to invite proposals for sessions, individual papers, roundtables, posters and other, more experimental forms of communicating scholarship for its 2015 biennial conference “Greening History: Studying the Environment across Disciplines, Past, Present and Future“. The University of Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines will be hosting the conference in Versailles, France, from 30 June to 3 July 2015. Deadline for submissions: Proposals are due no later than October 1, 2014. For more information: http://eseh.org/event/upcoming-conference/call-for-proposals/

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+ Public Outreach / Media resonance

“Climate Change: Global Development Model on Trial”
Helmut Haberl in BRIDGES
See: http://ostaustria.org/bridges-magazine/item/8232-climate-change-global-development-model-on-trial

People in the Spotlight: Austrian Scientist of the Year 2013, Environmental Historian Verena
Verena Winiwarter in BRIDGES
BRIDGES is the free, online magazine of the OSTA published since April 2004. Bridges – and their association with connection and communication – reporting on European, American or Canadian science, technology and higher education policy.
See: http://ostaustria.org/bridges-magazine/item/8171-austrian-scientist-of-the-year-2013

For more media resonance, see:
http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/3602.htm and http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/3234.htm

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+ New Publications

Bartels, Esther Lara (2014): Socio-Ecological Impacts of Land Grabbing for Nature Conservation on a Pastoral Community: A HANPP-based Case Study in Ololosokwan Village, Northern Tanzania. Wien: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 149)

Erb, Karl-Heinz, Niedertscheider, Maria, Dietrich, Philipp J., Schmitz, Christoph, Verburg, Peter H., Rudbeck Jepsen, Martin, and Haberl, Helmut (2014): Conceptual and Empirical Approaches to Mapping and Quantifying Land-Use Intensity. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 61-86

Fehlinger, Julianna (2014): Teilweise waren Frauen auch Traktorist. Geschlechtliche Arbeitsteilung in landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben Ostdeutschlands heute – Unterschiede in der biologischen und konventionellen Bewirtschaftung. Wien: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 150)

Fetzel, Tamara, Gradwohl, Markus, and Erb, Karl-Heinz (2014): Conversion, intensification, and abandonment: A human appropriation of net primary production approach to analyze historic land-use dynamics in New Zealand 1860–2005. In: Ecological Economics 97, pp. 201-208

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Krausmann, Fridolin, Mayer, Andreas, and Schaffartzik, Anke (2014): Boserup’s Theory on Technological Change as a Point of Departure for the Theory of Sociometabolic Regime Transitions. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 23-42

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Krausmann, Fridolin, and Pallua, Irene (2014): A Sociometabolic Reading of the Anthropocene: Modes of subsistence, population size and human impact upon Earth. In: Anthropocene Review 1(2014), pp. 8-33

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina and Hausknost, Daniel Hg. (2014): Large scale societal transitions in the past. The Role of Social Revolutions and the 1970s Syndrome. Wien: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 152)

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina and Reenberg, Anette (2014): Conclusions: Re-Evaluating Boserup in the Light of the Contributions to this Volume. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 259-265

Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, Reenberg, Anette, Schaffartzik, Anke, and Mayer, Andreas (Eds.). (2014): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer (Human-Environment Interactions; 4).

Fritz, S., See, L., You, L., Justice, C., Becker-Reshef, I., Bydekerke, L., Cumani, R., Defourny, P., Erb, Karl-Heinz, Foley, J., Gilliams, S., Gong, P., Hansen, M., Hertel, T., Herold, M., Herrero, M., Kayitakire, F., Latham, J., Leo, O., McCallum, I., Obersteiner, M., Ramankutty, N., Rocha, J., Tang, H., Thornton, P., Vancutsem, C., van der Velde, M., Wood, S., and Woodcock, C. (2013): The need for improved maps of global cropland. In: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 94, pp. 31-32

Haberl, Helmut (2014): Climate Change: Global Development Model on Trial. In: Bridges – the Office of Science and Technology’s Publication on S&T Policy. 40(July 2014)

Haberl, Helmut, Erb, Karl-Heinz, and Krausmann, Fridolin (2013): Global human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP). In: Victor, P. A. (Ed.): The Costs of Economic Growth. The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, Elgar Research Collection, pp. 304-319

Haberl, Helmut, Erb, Karl-Heinz, Lauk, Christian, and Plutzar, Christoph (2013): Menschliche Aneignung von Nettoprimärproduktion in Europa: Schlussfolgerungen für Bioenergiepotentiale. In: Stellungnahme: Bioenergie, Möglichkeiten und Grenzen. Halle and der Saale: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 116-132

Hausknost, Daniel (2014): Decision, choice, solution: ‘agentic deadlock’ in environmental politics. In: Environmental Politics 23(3), pp. 357-375

Hausknost, Daniel and Haas, Willi (2013): The Role of Innovation in a Socio-Ecological Transition of the European Union. Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Kastner, Thomas, Schaffartzik, Anke, Eisenmenger, Nina, Erb, Karl H., Haberl, Helmut, and Krausmann, Fridolin (2014): Cropland area embodied in international trade: Contradictory results from different approaches. In: Ecological Economics 104(August 2014), pp. 140-144

Kastner, Thomas, Erb, Karl-Heinz, and Haberl, Helmut (2014): Rapid growth in agricultural trade: effects on global area-efficiency and the role of management. In: Environmental Research Letters 9, pp. 034015 -(10pp.)

Krausmann, Fridolin (2014): Gesellschaftlicher Stoffwechsel, Biomasse und Nachhaltige Entwicklung. Eine globale Perspektive auf Potenziale und Limitationen der Nutzung von Biomasse. In: Soziale Technik 1, pp. 2-4

Krausmann, Fridolin, Gingrich, Simone, Eisenmenger, Nina, Erb, Karl-Heinz, Haberl, Helmut, and Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2013): Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century. In: Victor, Peter A. (Ed.): The Costs of Economic Growth. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, pp. 421-430

Loy, Christian (2013): The rise of the semi-periphery: A physical perspective on the global division of labour. Material flow analysis of global trade flows (1970-2005). Wien: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 147)

Luyssaert, Sebastiaan, Jammet, Mathilde, Stoy, Paul C., Estel, Stephan, Pongratz, Julia, Ceschia, Eric, Churkina, Galina, Don, Axel, Erb, KarlHeinz, Ferlicoq, Morgan, Gielen, Bert, Grunwald, Thomas, Houghton, Richard A., Klumpp, Katja, Knohl, Alexander, Kolb, Thomas, Kuemmerle, Tobias, Laurila, Tuomas, Lohila, Annalea, Loustau, Denis, McGrath, Matthew J., Meyfroidt, Patrick, Moors, Eddy J., Naudts, Kim, Novick, Kim, Otto, Juliane, Pilegaard, Kim, Pio, Casimiro A., Rambal, Serge, Rebmann, Corinna, Ryder, James, Suyker, Andrew E., Varlagin, Andrej, Wattenbach, Martin, and Dolman, A. J. (2014): Land management and land-cover change have impacts of similar magnitude on surface temperature. In: Nature Clim.Change 4(5), pp. 389-393

Mayer, Andreas (2014): 40 Jahre globaler Ressourcenverbrauch: Ein Überblick aktueller Debatten. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 01(2014), pp. 55-72

Meyfroidt, P., Lambin, E. F., Erb, Karl-Heinz, and Hertel, T. W. (2013): Globalization of land use: distant drivers of land change and geographic displacement of land use. In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5, pp. 438-444

Niedertscheider, Maria, Kuemmerle, Tobias, Müller, Daniel, and Erb, Karl-Heinz (2014): Exploring the effects of drastic institutional and socio-economic changes on land system dynamics in Germany between 1883 and 2007. In: Global Environmental Change 28(2014), pp. 98-108

Niedertscheider, Maria and Erb, Karl-Heinz (2014): Land system change in Italy from 1884 – 2007: Analysing the North-South divergence on the basis of an integrated indicator framework. In: Land Use 39(July 2014), pp. 366-375

Nwakeze, Ngozi M. and Schaffartzik, Anke (2014): Revisiting Boserup’s Hypotheses in the Context of Africa. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research, Human-Environment Interactions. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 175-188

O´Brian, Karen, Reams, J., Caspari, C., Dugmore, A., Faghihimani, M., Fazey, I., Hackmann, H., Manuel-Navarrete, D., Marks, J., Miller, R., Raivio, K., Romero-Lankao, P., Virji, H., Vogel, C., and Winiwarter, Verena (2013): You Say you want a Revolution? Transforming Education and Capacity Building in Response to Global Change. In: Environmental Science and Policy 1145(28), pp. 48-59

Pallua, Irene (2013): Historische Energietransitionen im Ländervergleich. Energienutzung, Bevölkerung, Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Wien: IFF Social Ecology (Social Ecology Working Paper; 148)

Peters, M., Herrero, M., Fisher, M., Erb, Karl-Heinz, Rao, I, Subbarao, G. V., Castro, A., Arango, J., Chará, J., Murgueitio, E., Hoek, R. v. d., Läderach, P., Hyman, G., Tapasco, J., Strassburg, B., Paul, B., Rincón, A., Schultze-Kraft, R., Fonte, S., and Searchinger, T. (2013): Challenges and opportunities for improving eco-efficiency of tropical forage-based systems to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. In: Tropical Grasslands – Forrajes Tropicales 1, pp. 156-167

Petridis, Panos (2013): From economism to autonomy: A Greek economic emergency and the transformative vision of degrowth. Greek Politics Specialist Group

Petridis, Panos (2013): Potentials of the debate on de-growth for socio-ecological transformation and climate change policy. Wien: TrafoReview – Transformation Review

Plutzar, Christoph, Hejjas, F., Zika, Michael, and Kohler, B. (2013): Linking the wilderness continuum concept to protected areas Mittersill, Salzburger Nationalparkfonds

Ringhofer, Elisabeth, Singh, Simron J., and Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2014): Beyond Boserup: The Role of Working Time in Agricultural Development. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 117-138

Schaffartzik, Anke, Mayer, Andreas, Gingrich, Simone, Eisenmenger, Nina, Loy, Christian, and Krausmann, Fridolin (2014): The global metabolic transition: Regional patterns and trends of global material flows, 1950-2010. In: Global Environmental Change 26(May 2014), pp. 87-97

Schaffartzik, Anke, Plank, Christina, and Brad, Alina (2014): Ukraine and the great biofuel potential? A political material flow analysis. In: Ecological Economics 104(August 2014), pp. 12-21

Smetschka, Barbara, Gaube, Veronika, and Lutz, Juliana (2014): Working Time of Farm Women and Small-Scale Sustainable Farming in Austria. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4, pp. 221-238
L.Turner II and Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (2014): Ester Boserup: An Interdisciplinary Visionary Relevant for Sustainability. In: Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. (Eds.): Ester Boserup’s Legacy on Sustainability – Orientations for Contemporary Research. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York, London, Human-Environment Interactions, Bd. 4,: Springer, pp. 3-11

Weisz, Ulli, Karner, Sandra, Grossmann, Ralph, and Heintel, Peter (2014): Zwischen Welten. Transdisziplinäre Forschungsprozesse realisieren. In: Dressel, Gert et al. (Eds.): Interdisziplinär und Transdisziplinär forschen. Praktiken und Methoden. Bielefeld: transkript Verlag, pp. 121-137

Winiwarter, Verena and Bork, Hans R. Hg. (2014): Geschichte unserer Umwelt. Sechzig Reisen durch die Zeit. WBG Verlag

Winiwarter, Verena (2013): The 2013 DIAnet International School, its aims and principles against the background of the sustainability challenges of the Danube River Basin Trieste: EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste

Winiwarter, Verena and Bork, Hans R. Hg. (2014): Umweltgeschichte: Ein Plädoyer für Rücksicht und Weitsicht. Picus Verlag

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