Content:

1. Editorial

  • Editorial, by Irene Ring

2. News from ESEE and its members

  • Results of the ESEE Board elections held in winter
  • Videos about ecological economics
  • New EU project on political ecology

3. Hot topic

  • Ecological Economics: Challenging Complexity in the Time of Global Governance?, by Veronika Chobotová and Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská

4. Events

  • ASEH Call for Proposals - 2014 Conference in San Francisco
  • Invitation for Conference - The Intersection of Society and Nature in Sustainability Research, 1-3 October 2013, Uppsala, Sweden
  • Resilience 2014, May 4-8, Montpellier, France
  • Informed Cities Forum 2013 & InContext Final Conference - How to create space for change? Rediscovering the power of community, 6-7 June 2013, Berlin (Germany)
  • Fifth “Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop” (WOW5), Indiana University Bloomington, 18–21 June, 2014
  • Global Land project: Land Transformations Between Global Challenges and Local Realities, Humboldt University Berlin, 19-21 March 2014
  • 2014 Norwich Conference on Earth System Governance: ’Allocation and Access in the Anthropocene’

5. Job openings

  • Early stage research posts (leading to PhD)
  • Three research fellow positions, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds
  • Researcher position at the new economics foundation

6. Publications

  • Human - Wildlife Conflicts in Europe: Fisheries and Fish-eating Vertebrates as a Model Case
  • Worldwatch Institute State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?
  • Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
  • Equity within Limits: Theory and Practice
  • Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences

7. Students and early career

  • New ESEE student rep
  • Student and early career email list and LinkedIn group
  • University of Leeds Research Fellow posts and fully funded PhD scholarship in ecological & energy economics - deadline 12th May
  • Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics: September 1-7, Belpasso, Italy
  • Klaus Toepfer Fellowship - Klaus Töpfer Programme
  • Greek Summer School in Conservation Biology, Zagori, Greece, 1-12 July 2013
  • An Introduction to Post Keynesian Economics and Political Economy, 11-13 July 2013, Kingston University, Surrey, England.
  • ARALIG 2013 PhD Course - Reflecting Through Images: Theorizing and Practising Participatory Video and Social Photo-Matrix
  • ESEE Research Student Exposé: Pablo Piñero

1. Editorial

 

 Editorial, by Irene Ring


Dear ESEE members,

I do welcome you as the new ESEE president as we recently had elections to fill a number of open positions in the ESEE Board. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all ESEE members who supported my candidacy. I feel deeply honoured to be involved in leading this society which I consider my true scholarly home. However, it is also a great challenge and definitely will be demanding. With my start in this position, I do set myself the following aims, with regard to different time horizons:

As we have had a number of changes in Board membership both in 2012 and 2013, my immediate focus will be to establish a Board that works well and is based on team spirit – this, in my view, is key to involving present ESEE members much more in relevant matters of the society and, not least, to recruiting new members for the society’s continuing existence. We will have new chairs and teams for all four committees of the ESEE Board, for Conferences & Meetings, Education, Membership & Fund Raising as well as Publications & Publicity. We all need to familiarise ourselves with our routine tasks, and then develop new and exciting ideas for the future of the society, each one in his or her position.

In the medium term, my focus will be on strengthening communication and networking both within ESEE as well as with neighbouring and like-minded societies or initiatives. For example, we do have a valuable ESEE network of country contacts that was established under the presidency of Arild Vatn. I do feel that we have a lot of potential for better and more regular communication between the ESEE board and the country contacts who in turn facilitate the transfer of information between the membership at large and the ESEE Board. I would like to take you on a journey experimenting with new modes of working, workshop-style meetings, reflecting where together we stand and where to we want to go from here as a society.

Where should ESEE then go in the longer term? We definitely need a larger membership and increase our financial basis, providing us with the opportunity to organise smaller and more focused meetings between our biannual conferences. By growing in strength and developing ever better arguments, we will hopefully make a lasting impact both on policy choices and on directions in research and education, for a sustainable future. I envision ecological economists being naturally asked for advice by decision-makers regarding the important question of sustainable development.

Last but not least, I hope that I will soon meet many of you at the upcoming ESEE conference from 18 – 21 June 2013 in Lille, France. Actually not just France and not just the city of Lille! A large and very engaged organising committee with members from universities and research institutions almost all over France, and even in transnational co-organisation with the Université libre de Bruxelles, has put together an exciting programme with events in Reims, Brussels, Lille and Villeneuve d’Ascq. I do wish the organisers of the 10th ESEE conference all the best for a very successful event!
 

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2. News from ESEE and its members

Results of the ESEE Board elections held in winter
 
We ran elections for the ESEE board in winter 2012. We had 7 candidates standing for the various positions open in the board (President, 2 Vice-Presidents, and further board members). Exactly 100 members of the 338 ESEE members in 2012 voted, so that the 20% quorum was fulfilled.
 
Candidates and results:
 
1. Irene Ring | President | 89%
2. Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravksá | Vice President | 74%
3. Erik Gómez-Baggethun | Vice President | 82%
4. Begüm Özkaynak | Board Member | 86%
5. Lenka Slavíková | Board Member | 79%
6. Juha Hiedanpää | Board Member | 79%
7. Leslie Carnoye | Student Representative | 90.6%
 
As we had fewer candidates than positions open in the ESEE Board, all candidates have been elected. The constitution foresees 9 – 15 board members, and we now have 12 board members as a result of these recent elections, including our two student representatives (Jasper Kenter and Leslie Carnoye).
 
The term of office of Sigrid Stagl (President), Marina Fischer-Kowalski (Vice-President), Klaus Kubeczko (Secretary) as well as board members Ines Oman, Janne Hukkinnen, Giorgos Kallis and Unai Pascual ended. We would like to cordially thank them all for their active engagement in the ESEE Board.
 
For those members continuing or newly elected in the ESEE Board, I wish us all a very productive time!
 
Irene Ring

Videos about ecological economics
 
A new VIMEO group has been created on the topic of Social Ecological Economics
 
This group aims to explore and explain Social Ecological Economics through lectures, interviews and presentations as well as other forms of video communication.
 
Moreover, a video series Exploring Ecological Economics can be accessed on youtube, including a series of interviews during the ESEE Conference of 2011 in Istanbul.

New EU project on political ecology
 
A group of eleven organisations, coordinated by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), will train 18 researchers in Political Ecology over the next three years, within the framework of the European project ENTITLE. The initiative aims to create an international network of expertise in the field and to build a stable collaboration on Doctoral studies that takes into account the multidisciplinary training needed in this area.
 
The project involves eight universities, two NGOs and one SME. Funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union under the Action PEOPLE-Marie Curie Initial Training Networks, it has a budget over 3.5 million euros and a duration of 4 years.
 
The project is now fully operational and ENTITLE can be consulted on the website of the project: http://www.politicalecology.eu/. In addition to information about the courses and seminars that will be organised by the network over the coming years, the site will include videos with classes and lectures on political ecology, and links to political ecological research around the world.

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3. Hot topic

Ecological Economics: Challenging Complexity in the Time of Global Governance?, by Veronika Chobotová and Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská
 
“Complexity is not the same as chaos”, said Elinor (Lin) Ostrom [1] in Stockholm after being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009 for her groundbreaking research on the analyses of institutions’ arrangements and their effects on the performance of complex social ecological systems.
 
Professor Ostrom's work on collective action and the commons goes beyond a single scientific discipline. It is a field of research that extensively utilizes a combination of multiple methods, and addresses the benefits of collaboration between disciplines. There are many reasons for social scientists to welcome methodological pluralism and the greater use of mixed methods that Lin often highlighted. Each method can make a valuable contribution if applied properly, but relying on any single method has its limits. The application of multiple methods can increase the validity of research results. Questioning simple theoretical models to prescribe universal solutions by developing a common, classificatory framework to facilitate efforts toward a better understanding of complex social-ecological systems has placed complexity in the dominant position of Lin’s research over the last decade.
 
What is the way forward? How do we address complexity in the global arena? How does uncertainty of information, future policy options, and the fragility of social and ecological systems affect the prospects of Earth’s system governance? Those questions have been left open to be challenged.

The Centre for the Study of Institutions, Evolution and Policies (the CETIP Network) continues to honour the work of Lin Ostrom with further research on the importance of multiple methods to study the governance of commons under the complexity of the global world and the uncertainty of external events such as natural and social shocks. The starting point was the international colloquium ‘Discussing Complexity and Environmental Policy’ held on the date of Lin’s planned second visit to Slovakia (October 24, 2012 (www.cetip.sk)).  The event was accompanied by ecological economists Dan Bromley and Jouni Paavola, who addressed the further research challenges of complexity, arguing for a multiple methods approach as novel methodology to analyse and predict behavioural changes under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. Addressing institutional, spatial and temporal diversity, and in particular understanding how to manage and navigate unexpected events and shocks to which society is exposed, or scaling up findings from small- to medium-sized commons to larger decision-making arenas are challenges to be addressed at the forthcoming ESEE 2013 conference in a special session entitled: Fragile governance.
 

[1] Lin Ostrom was born on August 7, 1933 in Los Angeles and died on June 12, 2012 in Bloomington (US).
 

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4. Events

ASEH Call for Proposals – 2014 Conference in San Francisco
 
The program theme "Crossing Divides" calls attention to new scholarship in environmental history that bridges geographical and disciplinary differences. We seek panel and roundtable proposals that engage with this theme in creative ways: studies in environmental history from comparative regional and cultural perspectives; investigations in such topics as food culture, urban and rural sustainability, labor and migration, bodies and toxicity, and the past and future of political ecology. The program committee seeks to further discussions that cross disciplinary or conceptual divides in new ways. We especially invite proposals that span gender, generational, and geographic differences among presenters as well as topics. We see the location of the conference in San Francisco as a special opportunity to encourage panels that study the wider Pacific world, and we welcome proposals that involve non-historians with shared interests.
 
Proposals can be submitted electronically beginning in late May 2013. See www.aseh.net "conferences".
ESEE 2013 Call for papers - Extended deadline: December 14, 2012

Invitation for Conference - The Intersection of Society and Nature in Sustainability Research, 1-3 October 2013, Uppsala, Sweden
 
Organized by Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD Uppsala) at -Uppsala University and The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala.
 
Questions and information: eva.friman@csduppsala.uu.se or heidi.moksnes@csduppsala.uu.se
 
Conference web site: http://www.csduppsala.uu.se/societynatureresearch/

Resilience 2014, May 4-8, Montpellier, France

Resilience 2014 seeks to explore multiple perspectives on social and ecological change and the multiple links between resilience thinking and development issues.  Reports by major development players are using resilience and social and ecological system frameworks as key concepts to guide and shape strategies on issues such as biodiversity conservation, urban growth, human security, and well-being. Additionally the conference will explore relationships between different scientific approaches to social and ecological change. Ecosystem management, planning and development are all being approached by diverse research fields, many of which are pursuing concepts that resonate with a resilience approach. The deadline for session as well as abstract submission is August 16, 2013.

More Information: http://www.resilience2014.org/

Informed Cities Forum 2013 & InContext Final Conference - How to create space for change? Rediscovering the power of community, 6-7 June 2013, Berlin (Germany)
 
Informed Cities 2013 will be the meeting place for local government and community representatives, researchers and other actors interested in exploring how, by working together, we can create space for change and move towards better places, stronger communities and resilient societies.
 
Registration is open. To register, go to www.incontext-fp7.eu. The conference is free of charge and limited funds are available for travel reimbursement.
 
For more information please contact the Events team at Ecologic Institute at incontext@ecologic.eu, as well as the following link.

Fifth “Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop” (WOW5), Indiana University Bloomington, 18–21 June, 2014.

The WOW conference is an event held every five years by The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.

WOW5 will be organized around “Working Groups”. A conference theme is currently under development.  If you are interested in forming a Working Group, please submit your proposal via e-mail to Gayle Higgins (wow5@indiana.edu) by August 30, 2013.

Global Land Project: Land Transformations Between Global Challenges and Local Realities, Humboldt University Berlin, 19-21 March 2014.
 
The 2014 Global Land Project Open Science Meeting will synthesize and discuss the role of the land system as a platform for human-environment interactions, connecting local land use decisions to global impacts and responses. The main conference themes are:

  1. Rethinking land change transitions: drastic changes in land cover and subtle changes in land management
  2. Local land users in a tele-connected world: the role of human decision making on land use as both a driver and response to global environmental change
  3. Impacts and responses: land systems changes to mitigate global environmental change impacts and adapt to increasing demands for food, fuel and ecosystem services
  4. Land governance: the ways in which alternative approaches to governance of land resources can enhance the sustainability transition
 Submission of abstracts open: Deadline is June 30, 2013.

2014 Norwich Conference on Earth System Governance: ’Allocation and Access in the Anthropocene’

This event is part of the annual conference series organized by the Earth System Governance Project and the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. The conference will be co-hosted by the School of International Development, the School of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. The full Call for Papers will be released soon. Further details as well as background information and updated information will be published on the conference website: norwich2014.earthsystemgovernance.org

Deadline for abstract submission is November 15, 2013.

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5. Job openings

Early Stage Research posts (leading to PhD)
 
Two Early Stage Research posts (leading to a PhD) in Human Geography: “Resilience in East African Landscapes” at the Department of Human
Geography, reference number SU FV-1225-13. Deadline for applications is May 30, 2013.

For further information see announcement here.

Contact: Lowe Börjeson, Dept. of Human Geography, 106 91 Stockholm, e-mail:
lowe@humangeo.su.se

Three research fellow positions, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds.
 
The jobs are part of a new five year research centre called UK INDEMAND that will explore how to reduce the UK’s energy demand through changing our demand of materials and products across the whole supply chain. You will be working with the research team of Professor John Barrett:
 
-Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow in Energy/Ecological Economics (40 months)
-Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow in the Governance of Sustainable Pathways (40 months)
-Research Fellow in Material Flow and Input-Output Analysis (24 months)
 
For more information click here.

Researcher position at the new economics foundation
 
The Centre for Well-Being at nef (the new economics foundation) is recruiting a new Researcher. 
 
You can also find more information at: http://www.neweconomics.org/pages/jobs

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6. Publications

Human - Wildlife Conflicts in Europe: Fisheries and Fish-eating Vertebrates as a Model Case

Editors: R.A. Klenke, I. Ring, A. Kranz, N. Jepsen, F. Rauschmayer, K. Henle. Springer, Heidelberg.
 

The book presents a structured procedure covering ecological and legal, economic, and social aspects of the human-wildlife conflicts. It is about conflicts between different stakeholder groups triggered by protected species that compete with humans for natural resources. It presents key ecological features of typical conflict species and mitigation strategies including technical mitigation, policy instruments and the design of participatory decision strategies involving relevant stakeholders. The book provides not only case studies from various European countries, it also presents a framework for the development of biodiversity conflict reconciliation action plans that can be used globally.
 
Keywords: Biodiversity - Conflict Reconciliation - Fishery - Nature Conservation - Vertebrate Species


Worldwatch Institute State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?
 
Every day, we are presented with a range of “sustainable” products and activities, from “green” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets. But with so much labelled as sustainable, the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline?
 
In Worldwatch Institute’s newest project, scientists, policy experts, and thought leaders tackle these questions, attempting to restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool. Within this website, you’ll find State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, which explores these questions in depth in over 30 articles. As well, you’ll find additional essays, videos, presentation materials, news updates, and additional translations of the report.

 Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill, Routledge in the UK/Europe

 
We’re overusing the earth’s finite resources, and yet excessive consumption is failing to improve our lives. In Enough Is Enough, Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill lay out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth—an economy where the goal is enough, not more.  They explore specific strategies to conserve natural resources, stabilize population, reduce inequality, fix the financial system, create jobs, and more—all with the aim of maximizing long-term well-being instead of short-term profits. Filled with fresh ideas and surprising optimism, Enough Is Enough is the primer for achieving genuine prosperity and a hopeful future for all.
 
“A lucid, informed, and highly constructive book.”  -- Noam Chomsky
 
For more information see: http://steadystate.org/enough-is-enough

Equity within Limits. Theory and Practice
 
An e-book and accompanying Background Paper have recently been published. These publications were completed as part of an FP7 research project (CONVERGE). The authors sought out inspirational examples of initiatives from all fields of life - including policy, business, research and community initiatives, in different parts of the world that address the imperatives of both living within the limits of the planet (contraction) and sharing its resources equitably (convergence). The e-book provides a summary of the research with information on the methodology used, introduces the 28 case studies (initiatives) studied in detail and presents their analysis and evaluation.

 
Methods of sustainability Research in the Social Sciences
 
Edited by Frances Fahy & Henrike Rau and published by SAGE (London) March 2013
 
This book is a systematic and critical review of the key research methods used when studying sustainable strategies and outcomes at local, regional and national level. Written by Irish and European contributors from across the social sciences, it is complete with case study material and practical advice for academic and non-academic audiences interested in sustainability research.

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7. Student and early career

New ESEE student rep
 
Leslie Carnoye has joined the ESEE board as student representative on the ESEE board. Leslie is a PhD student at the University of Lille. Her thesis focuses on the role of integrated assessments of ecosystem services in biodiversity management. Leslie will be joining Jasper Kenter. The two ESEE student board members represent student interests within the ESEE board and work on networking between students, summer schools and other events.


You can contact Leslie at leslie.carnoye@ed.univ-lille1.fr and Jasper at jasper.kenter@abdn.ac.uk.
 

 
Student and early career email list and LinkedIn group
 
To ease communication between student and early career ESEE members, we have set up an email list and LinkedIn discussion group. Posting on either is open to all subscribers. The email list is particularly meant for sharing events and announcement that may be useful to other ESEE members. The LinkedIn group is particularly useful for discussions and requests – e.g. you may be looking for useful paper references, you may be looking for help or feedback in preparing teaching materials, you want someone to informally review a paper, you may be looking for funding sources etcetera: http://www.euroecolecon.org/studentlist/
 


University of Leeds Research Fellow posts and fully funded PhD scholarship in ecological & energy economics - deadline 12th May
 
One fully funded PhD position is available in the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds. The jobs are part of a new five year research centre called UK INDEMAND that will explore how to reduce the UK’s energy demand through changing our demand of materials and products across the whole supply chain. You will be working with the research team of Professor John Barrett.
 


Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics: September 1-7, Belpasso, Italy
 
The Department of Agri-food and Environmental Systems Management (DiGeSA) at the University of Catania, in cooperation with the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and with the support of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), organise the Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics. The 2013 Summer School will take place from the 1st to the 7th of September in Belpasso, a city in the Province of Catania, Sicily, Italy. The theme of this Summer School is "Frontiers in Economics of Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction - Financing Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation".


For further information on application and funding please access the Summer School Website at http://www.biss2013.it/application.html
 

 
Klaus Toepfer Fellowship - Klaus Töpfer Programme
 
The Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme aims to strengthen organisations from the nature conservation sector in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, by developing the personal capacity of early-career conservation professionals to overcoming global biodiversity loss. The training programme catalyzes personal capacity development through training on international best conservation practice and policy, management training, and personal network development. The deadline for submitting applications is 14 June, 2013.
 
More information: http://www.bfn.de/klaus-toepfer-fellowship.html
 

 
Greek Summer School in Conservation Biology, Zagori, Greece, 1-12 July 2013
 
This summer school aims to equip participants with an understanding of the principles of modern biodiversity theory. They will learn practical skills for biodiversity fieldwork including sampling design and monitoring. Students will learn how to use some of the main computer packages for biodiversity data analysis, and have the opportunity to try these out on their own datasets. The course will involve lectures, fieldwork, computer labs and an individual project in roughly equal proportions. There will also be regular evening lectures and activities of a more general interest. The course will be worth 6 ECTs (transferable course credits).
 
More information: http://www.jmax.gr/gss2013
 


An Introduction to Post Keynesian Economics and Political Economy, 11-13 July 2013, Kingston University, Surrey, England.
 
The Global Financial Crisis has demonstrated the limitations of mainstream economic theory and neoliberal economic policy. This workshop will introduce two of the main alternatives to orthodoxy - Post Keynesian Economics and Marxist Political Economy. Post Keynesian Economics has at its core the concepts of effective demand and distributional conflict. Marxist Political Economy is focused on the fundamental conflict between capital and labour on the basis of the conception of the capitalist mode of production. The workshop is aimed at students of economics and social sciences. As the aim of Post Keynesian Economics and Political Economy ultimately is to provide the foundation for progressive economic policies, it may of interest for a broader audience. Booking must be done online.
 
More information: http://postkeynesianeconomics.eventbrite.com
 

 
ARALIG 2013 PhD Course - Reflecting Through Images: Theorizing and Practising Participatory Video and Social Photo-Matrix
 
The ARALIG-2013 PhD course aims to contribute to participants’ self-development as reflective practitioners.  It will advance their critical craftmanship with a focus on skillfulness as an expression of nature of the person as action researcher. In particular it aims to address the opportunities, constraints, and paradoxes of participation as experienced through the application of different action research and action learning methods. The course will combine theoretical discussions with practical activities and provide group tutoring exercises in order to support participants to develop their reflective capacities and methodological reach and to advance their research topic. ARALIG-2013 will have visual techniques for participation as its focus. Participants will have an opportunity to learn together about applying participatory video and social photo-matrix as part of action research methodology.


The 5 ECTS credits course is organised by the Action Research Action Learning Interest Group (ARALIG) in co-operation with the Business Administration Doctoral School, Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB) and Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala. It will be held at CUB in Budapest, on 23-28 June, 2013. The course fee is 250 EUR (incl. accommodation, meals, and field trip to an ongoing participatory action research project with a Roma community).


Application deadline: May 31, 2013. For more information please visit https://www.essrg.hu/hu/node/80 or contact: fabok.vera@essrg.hu
 


Student Research Exposé  - Pablo Piñero

Tell me about yourself.
 
I am currently a PhD student at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain. In practice, I’m dividing my time between university and my family farm where I maintain an agro-ecological vegetable plot. At the moment, I am looking for a new place to continue my research career, because in my country, funds in our field are becoming more and more scarce due to the current economic situation. So I would like to study at a new institution soon where I could focus more in-depth on the interactions between nature and society. This is an issue that has captivated me as a result of experience in Paraguay working on different cooperation projects. I observed how aluminum cans were kept as treasure by poor people, tires and electric cables were burnt to obtain scrap and copper, and how people spent hours with a knife trying to separate polypropylene labels and caps from polyethylene soft-drink bottles. Why aren’t actions taken to simplify and facilitate recycling and to help people whose livelihood depends on it?
 
What is your research about?
 
Until now, I have been working on the relations between Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Economy-wide Material Flow Analysis (Ew-MFA), studying the points where these two tools could be mutually beneficial, especially with regards to the estimation of unused and indirect flows and in environmental impact assessment of the flows involved in Ew-MFA (i.e., application of the evaluation phase of LCA to Ew-MFA). In a broader sense, I am interested in Ecological Economics, Industrial Ecology, trade and inequality.
 
If you were in charge of the world economy for one day, tell me one thing that you would do and why?
 
I am convinced that new approximations are needed to reconcile nature and society. Thus if I were in charge of the world economy, even if only for one day, I would support creative manners to capture and value the interactions between socioeconomic and natural systems, deeply and beyond pecuniary values. In my view, this would go hand in hand with a decrease in our suicidal consumption, a more just welfare distribution and protection of nature.
 
Tell me one thing that you think many ecological economists don’t realise, but should?
 
My advice to the ecological economists is that if we are going to change our relationship with nature, this challenge should be undertaken globally. If not done in a global manner, such an effort could be viewed in the developing world as a sign hung on the door of the debate: “We are thinking about how to take care of the planet. Please do not disturb.” In my opinion, we should make an effort towards creating a world where all walk together; otherwise, we run the risk that ecological economic theories could be labeled as eco-colonialism.
 
Pablo can be contacted at ppineromira@hotmail.com.
 
Are you a research student and would you like to talk about your work in the next ESEE newsletter? Please write an answer to the four questions below in a Word document (max 500 words in total), include a photo of yourself, and email to Jasper.Kenter@abdn.ac.uk by August 31. The four questions we would like you to answer are: Tell us about yourself? What are you researching? If you were in charge of the world economy for one day, tell me one thing what you would do and why? Tell me one thing that you think many ecological economists don’t realise, but should. 


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