Dear ESEE Member,

We are pleased to send you the autumn edition of the electronic ESEE newsletter.
Supported by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management the Sustainable Europe Research Institute SERI is able to maintain the website of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and publishes this newsletter.

The newsletter is distributed only to members of the European Society for Ecological Economics. To join ESEE or renew your membership please visit www.euroecolecon.org.

If you want to publish interesting news, or information about events, job openings and new publications on the website or in the newsletter, feel free to send an email to esee@seri.at. We are also open for suggestions to improve our communication channels.

1. News from ESEE and its members

• Note from the ESEE Board by Karen Refsgaard
• 8th ESEE conference in Ljubljana - Call for Papers
• Call for future ESEE Conference Organisers
• European Environment re-launches as Environmental Policy and Governance in 2009
• ESEE Board elections to be held in Autumn
• ESEE funding support from Danish Merkur fond

2. Other news

• Report: Workshop devoted to 15th anniversary of the Department of the Economy of Ukraine
• Proceedings of the Degrowth conference
• CEECEC - Towards bridging the gap between civil society organization knowledge and ecological economics research
• Carbon Crucible - Innovating for a Low Carbon Society

3. Hot topic

• The EU Floods Directive - by Wendy Kenyon

4. Events

• "Complex Systems and Changes: Water and Life" Conference
• EU Funded Course on "Sustainable Innovation"
• International Conference: Sustainable development twenty years on: new theoretical interpretations, methodological innovations, and fields of further exploration.

5. Job openings

• Junior or Senior Faculty Position in Economics at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
• Three Research Positions in the areas of Engineering, Economics and Management at the Centre for Management Studies of IST, Lisbon (Portugal)
• Research vacancy at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
• New senior post at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi
• Reader, Senior Lecturer, Lecturer at the School of Development Studies
• GTZ International Services seeks Energy Experts

6. Publications

• New Book: Understanding Sustainability Economics. Towards pluralism in economics
• New Book: Recent Developments in Ecological Economics

Note from the ESEE Board by Karen Refsgaard

Food, water and (human) waste - are natural resources in crisis! Production, consumption and discharge of food (and other disposables) require huge amounts of water around the world. However the availability and the access to these resources are not equally distributed between countries or between population and income groups. The property rights in water are unequally distributed and subject to different regulatory regimes.

Through the toilet we discharge about one third of our household consumption of water. In a city the water toilets account for 20-40 percent of the water use. In the USA one flush can use up to 20 l of water!! In Scandinavia this might not be a problem, but just turn to the Mediterranean and this consumption is not possible at all. As Professor Petter Jenssen at the University of Life Sciences in Norway expresses it "the 150 year old water toilet is an anachronism! It would never have been accepted by the health or environmental authorities as a solution today".

Over 1.1 billion people in the world today lack access to safe water supply, and 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation. Approximately 84% of these are in rural areas; however the situation is also very serious in urban areas, where the population is growing rapidly. In 2000, the global number of those in urban areas without improved provisions for water supply were about 170 million and without proper sanitation about 400 million - majorly in Africa or Asia. Furthermore, around 1.7 billion people live in countries that are water-stressed and this number will rise significantly unless major changes are made to global water management. Most are poor countries where scarcity is not evenly distributed. Existing legislation in many countries favours conventional, centralised sanitary systems. Privatisation of access to water resources allow for the economic powerful to benefit on basic needs for the poor.

The impacts of the lack of safe water and adequate sanitation are enormous, reinforcing the poverty cycle in a multitude of ways such as reducing the time available for income-producing activities and limiting educational opportunities for girls (who must carry water for hours each day). The health hazards related to this lack of safe water and adequate sanitation are endemic in many regions of the world, resulting in 2.2 million deaths per year from diarrhoea alone, mostly among children. Again, it is the poor who are hit first and hardest.

Existing legislation in many countries favours conventional, centralised sanitary systems and must be revised to encompass ecological sanitation. That means encouraging the implementation of decentralised solutions and more focus on promoting health, social issues and resource management.

This year of 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation in UN, with the Millennium goal to halve these numbers of people lacking clean water and access to proper sanitation.

And there are comprehensive experiences and available technologies that meet new and sustainable sanitation requirements. Professor Jenssen and his colleagues not least in Scandinavia have developed a large variety of ecological sanitary solutions, see www.ecosan.no. These ecological sanitation solutions constitute a diversity of options for both rural and urban areas, for poor and for wealthier countries and from household level up to wastewater systems for mega-cities. The solutions consider especially water saving, recycling of phosphorus and organic matter, energy savings and use of local resources. Soil or light clay fabricates are often used as a treatment solutions which are supposed to avoid many of the problems with water transferred epidemics, and organic residues?

However when it comes to the institutions there are vast challenges and tasks for ecological economics. This both considers formal institutions like regulations, education and economic arrangements and informal institutions like conventions and norms surrounding it with cultural taboos and attitudes. It is a universal attitude that excrement is sordid and the research about it is disgusting!

Within the next ESEE conference in Slovenia there are possibilities for reflecting and discussing these issues under the theme "Natural Resource Use" focusing on rural development, landscapes, biodiversity, food and equity, and use of water.

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8th ESEE conference in Ljubljana - Call for Papers

The European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE), in co-operation with the University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, are pleased to invite you to join us in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the 8th biennial international conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics with the title "TRANSFORMATION, INNOVATION AND ADAPTATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY - INTEGRATING NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES" at 29 June - 2 July 2009.

See the Call for Papers or visit the conference website www.bf.uni-lj.si.

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Call for future ESEE Conference Organisers

ESEE holds its conference biennally. These conferences normally attract 350-450 social and natural scientists. Last year we met in Leipzig, and Prof. Andrej Udovc and his team are currently busy organising next year's meeting in Ljubljana.

For 2011 and 2013 we are now looking for individuals / groups who might be interested in applying for organising a conference in either of these years. Organising a conference is an opportunity to highlight the profile of a research group (or several groups in a country). Don't worry, if you don't have experience in organising big academic events. ESEE offers advice based on past experience and key points have been summarised in a conference handbook. But we need somebody with enthusiasm for the field and for bringing people together.

If you are interested, please ring Sigrid Stagl at ++44-1273-872784 or s.stagl@sussex.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

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European Environment re-launches as Environmental Policy and Governance in 2009

The journal, European Environment (Wiley-Blackwell and the ERP Environment editorial team), will re-launch from 2009, which will see the journal extend its scope and start a new partnership with the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE).

Renamed as Environmental Policy and Governance the journal will continue to publish applied, policy relevant research papers but with a broadened geographical scope and an expanded focus on environmental governance issues from across the environmental social sciences and at the inter-face between the social and natural sciences.

For a call for papers and special issues, see here.

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ESEE Board elections to be held in Autumn

The term of office of Jouni Paavola and Felix Rauschmayer as board members of the ESEE ends this year. I have also moved to a new job in the Scottish Parliament and will be unable to continue on the Board. The society will therefore hold elections soon. We hope Jouni and Felix will be willing to stand again. A formal call for nominations will be emailed to members in the next few weeks, but if you are interested in standing for election to the ESEE board, please contact me or any other member of the board and we will provide further information. Being on the ESEE board provides an opportunity to influence the direction of the Society and Ecological Economics in Europe, with the added bonus of getting to know and working with a great bunch of people!

Change to the Constitution

The ESEE constitution currently requires elections to be held by postal ballot. However, this is costly in terms of time and money, and we would like to amend the constitution so that elections can be conducted using a secure and anonymous method via email or the internet. Along with the elections, we will ask members to vote for a change to the constitution so that we can use this more efficient method for elections in future.

Please do use your vote in the ballot. Both votes significantly affect the future and the efficient running of the ESEE.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me.
Wendy Kenyon (ESEE Secretary, w.kenyon@macaulay.ac.uk)

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ESEE funding support from Danish Merkur fond

ESEE has recently received approximately EURO 670 to support the operation of our homepage for one year from the Merkur Fond (foundation) in Denmark. ESEE recently moved its account to the Danish Merkur Bank because of its focus on social justice within a sustainable economy, see www.merkurbank.dk. These are the two crucial issues underlying the ecological economic approach which needs to be considered before economic efficiency can be optimized.

At the moment there is a great deal of "in-kind" contributions of the board members and their relevant institutions. We haven't in the past being paid for the time involved in writing the newsletters, flyers and running the society, just the costs of printing and distribution. At the moment SERI are fulfilling this task, but the responsible institution for the tasks may differ over time. Such a funding contributes to secure an appropriate dissemination of activities and ideas still these are core activities that we prioritize through our membership fees.

Report: Workshop devoted to 15th anniversary of the Department of the Economy of Ukraine

On April 29 2008, the Department of the Economy of Ukraine, of Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko, together with the Ukrainian Scientific Association of Physical Economics named after S. Podolynsky (its major concepts are close to those of Ecological Economics) held a Round Table - the Workshop- devoted to 15th anniversary of the Department of the Economy of Ukraine which is currently led by Professot Lydia Hryniv. The Ukrainian and international top level academics, representatives of government bodies and self-government local authorities, leaders of public organizations and non-government institutions attended this session. The major aim of the Workshop was to discuss theoretical, methodological, scientific and applied aspects of the development of the Ukrainian scientific school of Physical Economics and to examine possibilities of applying the paradigms of this school for the creation of new models to achieve a more sustainable development of Human-Environmental inter-relationships at a global scale. Recommendations from this Round Table were forwarded for consideration to the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine and to the Cabinet of Ministers. It is planned that relevant documents from this session will also be submitted to the Presidium of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, to government bodies and major stakeholders.

Info about the project carried out by Ukrainian and British partners:

Entrance hall to the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute. (From L to R) Professor Richard Aspinal Chief Executive, Professor Petro Lakyda the Director of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture of the National Agricultural University of Ukraine, Dr Maria Nijnik Senior Researcher of the Macaulay Institute and project leader, Dr Soloviy from the Institute of Ecological Economics of the Ukrainian National Forestry University and Dr. Richard Birnie the Macaulay Institute Head of Communications and Outreach.

The goal of recently completed scoping project "Examine the impacts of institutional reforms on economic and environmental performances in Ukraine's agriculture with respect to land abandonment" supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh was to develop initial knowledge on how to link institutions and capabilities with sustainable land use practices for currently abandoned lands in Ukraine and to find out appropriate socio-economic mechanisms to facilitate multi-functional use of the abandoned lands, under simultaneous maintenance of the sustainable rural development. We examined socio-economic opportunities and challenges existing in rural areas in Ukraine, gained knowledge, and exchanged experience concerning possible land use management scenarios, including forestry development on the abandoned lands. We are grateful for the support of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and this project is seen as a starting phase of international research partnership for which the National Agricultural University (Director, Prof Lakyda) and Ukrainian National Forestry University (Dr Soloviy) are considered as focal points for Ukraine. Our purpose now is to develop the established collaboration further and to advance scientific ideas and methodologies by the exchanging of expertise between specialists from different countries, including from Ukraine and Britain, and by providing of ecological economics solutions of land use problems existing in Europe and beyond.

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Proceedings of the Degrowth conference

In the last newsletter (printed version, which has been sent to all ESEE members and can be downloaded from www.euroecolecon.org/newsletter.htm), we have informed you about the Degrowth conference, which took place in Paris last April. The proceedings of this conference can now be downloaded.

Follow the links on the site www.degrowth.net.

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CEECEC - Towards bridging the gap between civil society organization knowledge and ecological economics research

CEECEC (Civil Society Engagement with Ecological EConomics) is a European Commission FP7 funded project that commenced with its kick off meeting in April 2008, parallel to the Paris De-Growth conference, and runs until 2010. It is coordinated by Prof. Joan Martinez Alier, and involves 6 research partners: ICTA-UAB (Barcelona), ULB (Brussels), Ecoman (Lisbon), IFF-UKL (Klagenfurt), SERI (Vienna) and GEPAMA (Buenos aires), and 8 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs): Centre for Science and Environment (India), Centre pour l'Environnement et le Développement (Cameroon), Acción Ecológica (Ecuador), Endemit (Serbia), A Sud - Ecologia e Cooperazione (Italy), Vlaams Overleg Duurzame Ontwikkeling, (Belgium, Flanders), SUNCE (Croatia), Instituto Rede Brasileira Agroflorestal (Brazil)

The main objective of the project is to enable to engage CSOs in and lead collaborative research with ecological economists. The overall focus is not on theory but on case study learning, whereby CSOs and academics will identify and explore key issues for research in areas such as water management, mining, energy, forestry and agriculture, based on CSOs needs and interests. The end result will be online materials and a handbook in several languages explaining the principles, the tools and the methods of Ecological Economics for CSOs and the general public.

A workshop to be held at this year’s Biennial ISEE conference in Nairobi will present CEECEC’s work to date, including a review of some of the case studies under development. Also, the special participation of members of African CSOs such as the Centre pour l´Environnement et le Développement (Cameroon) and the East African Wild Life Society (Kenya) will allow an open debate around the potential collaboration areas for EE in the Region. Another workshop is planned for the upcoming ESEE conference in 2009 in Ljubljana.

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Carbon Crucible - Innovating for a Low Carbon Society

The Carbon Crucible is a new professional and personal leadership programme, which will together 30 energy researchers from a mixture of academic, industry and other research backgrounds. The programme will inspire participants to think differently about, and work together on the low carbon energy challenge. As a group, participants will attend 3 residential workshops (LABS), each spread over 3 days, where they will explore the wider social, technological, economical and political context of a low carbon society. The LABS will be a mixture of lectures, seminars, skills sessions, tours, informal discussions and visits. Participants will meet and hear from inspirational people, who will explore innovation and collaboration, and you will learn about yourself. Working together they will expand creativity to generate new ideas and collaborations to meet the energy and low carbon research challenge and embark on new exciting directions in their work.

More information is available on the web site.

The EU Floods Directive
by Wendy Kenyon

Flooding in Europe and around the world is increasing, and with it the associated social and economic costs including damage to housing, agriculture, transport and industry. Floods can also lead to environmental damage such as the destruction of wetlands and the reduction of biodiversity. A number of key factors are contributing to this rise in flood events: first the scale and frequency of such events are increasing due to climate change; second, inappropriate river management increases flood risk and third, construction in low lying areas and a growing number of people and economic assets being located in flood risk areas creates problems.

The Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Assessment and Management of Floods has been developed as a result of a communication of the European Commission in 2004, which identified the need for increased flood protection and legislation to ensure proper flood risk measures are taken. The communication was in response to the severe floods of recent years. 100 severe floods occurred between 1998 and 2004 including the devastating flood events of 2002 along both the Danube and Elbe. These floods caused 700 deaths, displaced 0.5 million people and insured economic losses accumulated to €25 billion. Since many European rivers are trans-boundary, the Directive is viewed as essential to enable better management and cooperation between Member States.

The objective of the Floods Directive is:

'to help Member States prevent and limit floods, and their damaging effects on human health, the environment, infrastructure and property'

The proposal for the Directive on the Assessment and Management of Floods was adopted on the 18th January 2006 by the European Commission and agreed in April 2007. The Directive encourages the use of natural approaches to flood risk management (such as the creation of wetlands and regeneration of native woodlands) that work with the natural environment rather than against it, and also encourages stakeholder participation in the development of flood risk management plans.

This renewed interest in flooding and flood risk management policy, and the new paradigm that focuses on sustainable solutions and participation offers an opportunity for ecological economists to deliver research and analysis that supports the new approach. Research opportunities are arising in this area such as the 2nd ERA-Net CRUE Funding Initiative: 'Flood resilient communities - managing the consequences of flooding' (www.crue-eranet.net/calls.asp ) which closes on the 15th October. Members of the ESEE have much to offer in this area, and I hope that members get involved and contribute to improved flood risk management in Europe in coming years.

EU Funded Course on "Sustainable Innovation"
Malta, 19th - 23rd January 2009

An EU funded, training course is being organized on the island of Malta about the topic of "Sustainable Innovation" that explores innovation from a sustainability and indeed, European perspective. This course, being organized by MECB Ltd. also provides participants with an insight of how the knowledge acquired can be taught to others and thus includes a section on pedagogic training, using e-Learning technology. In addition, attendance at this course will allow you to network with other stakeholders from across Europe, practice speaking in English and, indeed, enjoy a bit of Mediterranean culture on the island of Malta.

How To Obtain an EU Grant to Attend The Course

European adult citizens, involved in some form or full-time or part-time training, mentoring, curriculum development and/or training quality assurance (but you do not need to be a teacher/professor - see web page for examples), are eligible to apply for an EU grant of 1,500 Euros to cover expenses incurred with attending this one week training course being held on the Mediterranean Island of Malta. Full course details are available at: www.mecb.com.mt/G3

If you are seriously interested in attending this course and learning about the topic of "Sustainable Innovation", please note that applications need to reach your National Agency of your country by not later than 30th September 2008. Details of how to actually register (one page only) for a "provisional letter of acceptance" from our end (needed to submit with your application for an EU grant) for this Jan 2009 course are available in our web page above.

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"Complex Systems and Changes: Water and Life" Conference
29-31 October 2008, Taormina, Sicily (Italy)

It is jointly organised by the Life, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (LESC, www.esf.org/lesc) unit of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and by the intergovernmental initiative for European COoperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST, www.cost.esf.org).

Life on Earth is based, in its most simple form, on a few key chemical components, and the main one is Water. Water plays a pivotal role in many complex systems studied in the natural sciences. But at the present time, water is also a threatened resource that creates socio-economic and strategic challenges for the near future.

This joint ESF-COST event is dedicated to the link between water and life in all its diversity and complexity. The following topics will be covered:

• origin of life
• water & life in extreme environments
• changes in the anthropocene
• future challenges

More information is available at: www.esf.org/waterlife.

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International Conference: Sustainable development twenty years on: new theoretical interpretations, methodological innovations, and fields of further exploration.

An international conference, taking place in Lille (France) from November 20-22, 2008 will deal with issues around the concept of Sustainable Development along 5 axes. More than 200 presentations, quite a few from ESEE members, in the axes Theories, Methods, Actors, Development and Spatial will be given in this bi-lingual conference, supported by ESEE.

More information on www.univ-lille1.fr/clerse.

Junior or Senior Faculty Position in Economics at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

The School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) at Yale University invites applications for a tenure-track or tenured faculty position in economics. The successful candidate is expected to have a Ph.D. in economics and an established research program on such topics as: environment and development (sustainable development), international trade and the environment, agriculture and environment, integration of ecosystem and economic models, or global public goods. International, women, and U.S. minority candidates are especially encouraged to apply. The successful applicant will be expected to teach courses at the graduate level in F&ES and at the undergraduate level in Yale College. The successful candidate will be expected to build on existing strengths in economics at Yale and also to develop collaborative activities with other disciplines working on crosscutting environmental issues.

Applicants should send a curriculum vitae, a statement of research interests, a statement of teaching interests, one representative paper, and a list of three references via email to jane.coppock@yale.edu or via surface mail to:

Economics Search
c/o Assistant Dean Jane Coppock
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
205 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
USA

The committee will begin reviewing applications November 1, 2008. The search remains open until the position is filled.

For more information about the position, contact search committee chair Professor Robert Mendelsohn at robert.mendelsohn@yale.edu.

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Three Research Positions in the areas of Engineering, Economics and Management at the Centre for Management Studies of IST, Lisbon (Portugal)

The Centre of Management Studies of Instituto Superior Técnico (CEG-IST) offers three research positions in Engineering, Economics and Management, namely in the areas of Decision & Information, Economics & Finance, Operations & Logistics, Strategy & Organizations and Sustainable Development.

Research at CEG-IST in these areas has been focusing upon:

• Decision and Information: Development, enhancement & integration of methodologies, tools and practices in decision analysis and conferencing, behavioural decision-making, information systems, problem structuring methods, multi-objective and ordinal classification problems, risk analysis, project management, resource allocation, socio-technical approaches in engineering and decision making in health systems.
• Economics and Finance: Development of methodologies in the areas of investment & risk analysis, industrial organization and policy, assessment of engineering, labour economics, industrial organization, firms' mergers, technology roles in economic growth & development, and health economics.
• Operations and Logistics: Development of novel models and methodologies in the areas of design, planning & scheduling of production systems; supply chains management, operations sustainability, stochastic simulation and forecasting.
• Strategy and Organizations: Development and enhancement of methodologies in organizational strategy & behaviour, marketing management, strategic management & development of tourism, strategy and technology, project finance & risk management and operational concepts of knowledge, technology and capital.
• Sustainable Development: Integrating the three pillars of sustainability (territory, economics and ecology) and to develop the methods and applications in the areas of strategic environment assessment, of innovation in territorial management and of governance towards sustainability.

The candidates will carry out research of international standards in these research areas, and are expected to contribute to current research projects, to create new research projects as well as to support activities of scientific supervision and training. Candidates should have the ability to develop research activity within a multidisciplinary environment while using management science methods, and are expected to strengthen different areas of CEG-IST and to foster collaborative research with CEG-IST members and with international research networks. The working language is English.

Qualifications and Experience required

Applicants should hold a PhD in Engineering, Management, Economics or in related fields. Should have a strong publication record in a relevant field of research and provide evidence of the ability to work independently and to effectively participate in inter-disciplinary and international projects. Applicants should display evidence of significant scientific accomplishments and of experience in developing solutions to real world problems using management science methods. 3 years of post-doctoral research experience are preferably required. The successful candidates are expected to carry out research in the areas listed above.

Successful candidates should propose, after adjustment to the new environment, their innovative research projects in agreement with the nature of the on-going research. Will be motivated to work in a multidisciplinary environment, where their own ideas and initiatives will be encouraged. Candidates are expected to master the English language but the language of communication could be English or Portuguese.

Contract conditions

The successful candidates will receive a salary in accordance with the university regulations for a senior researcher. The contract offered will have duration of up to 5 years, renewed yearly based on mutual agreement. The annual gross income, before taxes, will be approximately 3.101,87 Euros x 14 months.

The successful candidate will celebrate a contract with IST- Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST).

Evaluation and Selection

The applications should be addressed to the E-mail to cegist@ist.utl.pt before 17th of September. Applications should include:

- Covering letter
- Identification of the candidate
- Curriculum Vitae/resume
- Letters of Reference
- Statement of purpose for the period of the contract
- Copy of main publications
- Brief research plan proposal for the period of the contract

The jury will consider the CV of the candidates and the capability of candidates to strengthen different areas of CEG-IST and to foster collaborative research with CEG-IST members and with international research networks.

For more information click here or here.

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Research vacancy at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)

Join a EU-Project analyzing the influence of indicators on policy-making and policy-actors in the realms of environmental and sustainable development policy.

For detailed informations click here.

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New senior post at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi

Under the general guidance of the UNEP Senior Management Team and the Direct supervision of the Director, Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI), the incumbent will be responsible for the UNEP-wide coordination of the Ecosystem Management Programme.

For detailed informations click here.

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Reader, Senior Lecturer, Lecturer at the School of Development Studies

Development Studies: Natural Resources and Environment (Ref: ATR779)

The School of Development Studies (www.uea.ac.uk/dev) is making an appointment to strengthen teaching and research in natural resources and the environment. We welcome natural or social scientist applicants from a wide range of subject areas, and identify climate change and/or agricultural or natural resources management (e.g. soils, fisheries, water) as being areas of special interest.

Further particulars and an application form can be obtained from the University's web page at: www.uea.ac.uk/hr/jobs/acad/welcome.htm or by e-mail at: hr@uea.ac.uk or by calling the answerphone on 01603 593493 or by mail to the Human Resources Division, UEA, Norwich NR4 7TJ.

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GTZ International Services seeks Energy Experts

GTZ International Services is currently bidding for two EC-funded projects concerning energy policy and energy market issues in the NIS countries:

1. Strengthening of the INOGATE Technical Secretariat(ITS)- NIS
2. Support to Energy Market Integration and Sustainable Energy in the NIS(SEMISE)

LT-Experts for the following positions are seeked:

• Energy Policy Expert
• Energy Investment Expert
• Expert in Sustainable Energy
• Energy Governance Specialist

New Book: Understanding Sustainability Economics. Towards pluralism in economics
by Peter Söderbaum

The book provides a brief history of economics and looks at the intersection between politics and the often hidden values embedded in economics. Also covered are the roles of individuals and organizations, political structures and institutions, democracy, environmental decision-making, sustainability assessment and a vision of a future underpinned by sustainability economics. main point raised is that, in any serious attempt to come to grips with unsustainable trends, fundamental issues such as the theory of science, the role of science in society, paradigms in economics, ideological orientations and institutional arrangements need to be critically examined. The theory is supported by case studies, explanatory figures, further reading sections and discussion questions to facilitate debate and learning.

For more information click here.

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New Book: New Recent Developments in Ecological Economics

Edited by Joan Martinez-Alier, Professor of Economics and Economic History, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain and Inge Røpke, Associate Professor, Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, Technical University of Denmark.

Contributors include: R. Ayres, D. Bromley, R. Costanza, C. Folke, J. Gowdy, S.Hanna, R. Norgaard, C. Perrings, C. Spash, A. Vatn

Ecological economics is an increasingly important subject that addresses the current conflict between positive economic growth and negative environmental consequences. In this state-of-the-art two-volume set, the editors, both leading scholars in their field, have selected the most important recently published papers on the subject. This authoritative collection will be a vital resource for researchers and practitioners in ecological economics, human ecology, industrial ecology and environmental sciences. 72 articles, dating from 1994 to 2007

ESEE members are entitled to purchase one copy of this title at a discount of 75% off the list price (excluding postage and packing). £83.75 instead of £335.00.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please email Karen Plowman (karen@e-elgar.co.uk) with your order.