European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE)

NEWSLETTER

Dear ESEE Member,

We are pleased to send you the spring 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.

Content:

1. Editorial

Is the current crisis calling for another form of growth?

2. News from ESEE and its members

Election for the ESEE board
ISEE announces its 11th biennial conference: "Advancing Sustainability in a Time of Crises"
Testimonial to the memory of Carl-Erik Schulz
News about Ben Davies

3. Other news

IRN World Forum
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) - Call for Evidence
New UK research centre launched to tackle climate change economics and policy
Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School (Report)

4. Hot topic

Food prices and hunger: What is the risk for future events? - by Charlotte Da Cunha
Did you say "natural" risks? - by Albert Merino-Saum

5. Events

ESEE 2009: Early registration open until 14th of April
Event 4 of THEMES summer school series
Great Places, Great Cities 2009
11th Annual BIOECON Conference
International scientific conference in Kyiv, Ukraine
9th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS)

6. Job openings

Senior Professor for the International Chair in "Generating Eco-innovation"
Short term research opportunity the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia
Research Associate at the Leuphana University Lüneburg
Position at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

7. Publications

City out of Chaos: Urban Self Organization and Sustainability
Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Economic Development
Who holds the reins in integrated product policy? : an individual company as a target of regulation and as a policy maker
Special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on Materials Use Across World Regions

1. Editorial:

Is the current crisis calling for another form of growth?
by Ines Omann

Do not worry! I am not going to get into the crisis and growth debate that accompanies us every day right now. I would rather like to give you an impression how we (SERI, SDC and partners) discuss the crisis in the light of sustainable development and thereby questioning the objective of ongoing economic growth, which is triggering our societies so much.

We live in a growth society - and this leaves its mark on our behaviour, our value judgments and our institutions. In the past, economic growth was instrumental in increasing our quality of life: economic growth was the successful response to the social crisis of the 19th century and the job crisis of the 1920s, providing the foundation for post-war reconstruction (Blazejczak, 1998).

In political circles, high growth rates are commonly still considered an essential prerequisite for our future development. In the white book "Towards Higher Employment via Economic Growth Based on Innovation and Qualification" commissioned by the Austrian social partners, Aiginger et al. (2006) argue that higher growth based on innovation and qualifications is an important lever for job growth, and therefore reducing unemployment. At the EU level, the heads of state and government agreed in the "Lisbon Strategy" to "become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" (European Council, 2000).

From these commitments, it becomes clear that economic growth is considered the primary solution for social, economic and even some ecological challenges.

On the other hand, economic growth is closely tied to the exploitation of (ever scarcer) natural resources. This results in increased waste volumes, emissions, etc., and is ultimately endangering our economies and indeed our own existence on an irreversible scale (climate change, loss of biodiversity, desertification, but also increasing food prices, poverty, etc.). Economic growth is thus the main "driver" of global environmental change (cf. Global Environment Outlook (GEO) of the United Nations Environment Programme, www.unep.org). Besides these negative environmental impacts of economic growth, its social effects are increasingly negative. Two examples should show what I mean. First, economic growth is strongly based on material consumption and our consumption behaviour, which is dependent on our income. Income is generally based on working in paid jobs, which more and more include overtime hours - taken for granted. We work more in order to have more income to consume more AND to have less time for things that really increase our well-being such as friends, family, sports, being in nature, sleeping, caring for ourselves, culture etc. Second, this lifestyle based on growth is entailing addictions, for instance to consume, eat, gamble, shop and so on. Two strongly negative side-effects of the so wanted ongoing economic growth.

Therefore, alternatives to an economic system solely based on quantitative growth should be considered when trying to find solutions to our current and future problems. To date, however, the risk of long-term negative growth as a potential consequence of sustainable development has not been sufficiently examined.

The Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) and the Sustainable Development Commission UK (SDC) are dealing with this issue in two different projects. SERI's project "What kind of growth is sustainable?", which was commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, focuses on the question: What conditions are necessary to allow for a different kind of growth in wellbeing - one that is geared toward compatibility between economic growth and sustainable development - and would be acceptable to inhabitants of the 'rich' parts of the world?" Starting from the sustainable development strategy of the EU, arguments of such an "alternative growth" were compiled, whereby an emphasis is placed upon concepts of human quality of life and well-being. The following questions were analysed in particular: Does economic growth resolve the issues we have (such as unemployment, rising poverty, the destruction of natural resources and environmental pollution) or is economic growth precisely what causes these problems? What options do we have for a different type of qualitative growth? The final report can be downloaded in German at www.wachstumsargumentarium.at. The English version will be available for download in April. Another result of this project is a book in German, entitled: 'Welches Wachstum ist nachhaltig? Argumentarium', edited by Friedrich Hinterberger, Harald Hutterer, Ines Omann and Elisabeth Freytag. It can be ordered directly at the publisher Mandelbaum (www.mandelbaum.at).

The SDC, which is the UK Government's independent adviser on sustainable development established in 2000, runs a project on "Redefining Prosperity" that aims to map out the relationships between the three aims - growth, sustainability, wellbeing - and ask what issues are raised. Do we have to choose between these aims? Can we combine them? What sorts of policies or approaches would we need to have? These questions go to the heart of what sustainable development is about. The project report, "Prosperity Without Growth?", will be published in April (www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html).

A workshop series is organised as follow-up of the SERI project. It starts with a workshop in Brussels, "Redefining Growth and Prosperity" organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Sustainable Development Commission. It will be the Brussels launch of the SCD report and will take place on 21st of April (for more information see here).

Two more workshops will take place in April and May in Vienna. An international conference (30th Nov - 1st Dec 2009) will complete the project and the workshop series. It offers a synthesis of all previous events and aims to develop and discuss scenarios and approaches for 'growth in transition'.

For further information see www.wachstumsargumentarium.at (the complete information will be available from April on) or contact me at ines.omann@seri.at

References:

- Aiginger, K., Tichy, G., Walterskirchen, E. (2006). WIFO-Weißbuch: Mehr Beschäftigung durch Wachstum auf Basis von Innovation und Qualifikation. WIFO Monographien, 10/2006.

- Blazejczak, J. (1998) (Hrsg.). Zukunftsgestaltung ohne Wirtschaftswachstum? Ergebnisse eines Workshops des DIW im Auftrag von Greenpeace Deutschland. DIW Diskussionspapier Nr. 168, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Berlin.

- European Council (2000): Presidency Conclusions – Lisbon European Council 23 and 24 March 2000, DOC/00/8.

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2. News from ESEE and its members:

Election for the ESEE board

We just ran the election for the ESEE board. We had five candidates standing for three positions and each member could vote for up to three candidates. Further there were two amendments to the consititutions to be voted for. Here are the results of the election:

Turnout: 122 of 315 voting members voted

Candidates:

Nina Eisenmenger: 70 votes

Nicolas Kosoy: 46 votes

Pushpam Kumar: 66 votes

Jouni Paavola: 80 votes

Felix Rauschmayer: 62 votes

Constitutional Amendments:

Accepting amendment 1: 118 votes

Accepting amendment 2: 108 votes

This means that Jouni Paavola, Nina Eisenmenger and Pushpam Kumar will fill the three new positions. Congratulations to them with the election. Felix Rauschmayer and Nicolas Kosoy were not elected, however Felix was close and thanks to him for a great job on the board.

Felix is as in the board of editors of the newly launched journal Environmental Policy and Governance representing ESEE.

ISEE announces its 11th biennial conference: "Advancing Sustainability in a Time of Crises"

The 11th Biennial ISEE Conference, 2010 will take place from 22 - 25 August, 2010 with the theme: "Advancing Sustainability in a Time of Crises". The conference will take place in the two adjacent cities of Bremen and Oldenburg.

The conference will be hosted at the University of Oldenburg and University of Bremen. Both universities have a strong record in ecological economic research and teaching and are centres of interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability research with a strong focus on social science and economic dimensions of the problem.

A preliminary set of themes based on research topics addressed by teams in Oldenburg and Bremen includes the following:

Climate change and adaptation to climate change

Biodiversity and ecosystem services

Governance

Knowledge and social learning for societal change

Dematerialization and de-growth

Business strategies for sustainable management

Land use patterns

Coastal zone management

(renewable) energy and sustainable energy systems

Sustainability science and transdisciplinary research designs

Evolutionary economics

Institutional economics

Postautistic economics

The executive committee is expected to take all central decisions concerning the call for papers, the venues, the review process, the keynote speakers, the organisation of sessions, and other organizational details in coordination with the local organizing teams in Oldenburg and Bremen.

Proposed Members are:
Professor Klaus Eisenack (Oldenburg University),
Dr. Katherine Farrell (Aarhus University),
Professor Michael Flitner (Bremen University),
Professor John Gowdy (Rennselear Polytechnic Institute, ISEE President elect),
Dr. Pushpam Kumar (University of Liverpool),
Professor Peter May (ISEE President, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro),
Dr. Felix Rauschmayer, (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig),
Professor Inge Røpke (Technical University of Denmark),
and Professor Bernd Siebenhüner (Oldenburg University).

The organizing team is responsible for the organizational details, in particular rooms, accommodation, transportation, catering, and alike. There will be local organizing teams in Oldenburg and Bremen to prepare the particular events at the particular locations. The teams will be supported by a larger number of student volunteers at both conference venues.

It will be the main task of the scientific committee to serve as reviewers in the selection process of paper and poster submissions. The online tool owned by ISEE will be used for the review process. Around 100 ecological economists from around the world will be summoned for this purpose.

Also the organization of the Conference will count with the partnership of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE), Vereinigung für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (German Association for Ecological-Economic Research, VÖW), Vereinigung für Ökologische Ökonomie (German Association for Ecological Economics, VÖÖ), International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), among others.

Testimonial to the memory of Carl-Erik Schulz

Carl-Erik Schulz passed away in December last year. He was in South Africa working on a project. When he was having some time off walking in a mountain area, he fell down from the track and injured himself so badly that his life could not be rescued. He reached the age of 62.

Carl-Erik had a PhD in economics. He had served on the Board of several institutes in Norway and led a long series of research projects. He chaired the Economic Research Unit and later the Board of the Poverty-Peace Program of the Norwegian Research Council. He lectured at the University of Western Cape since 1995. In 1997 he became professor of economics at the University of Tromsø. In 2006 he moved to the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) working first in the Department of Economics and Resource management and later in the Department of International Environment and Development Studies.

Carl-Erik was an active member of ISEE/ESEE. Most importantly he was the country contact for Norway since the system has been set up. He participated in several of our conferences. His work was focused not least on issues related to natural resource management, trade policy and ecology. Carl-Erik was a thinker both of the critical and constructive kind. He engaged in discussions about the foundation of economic theory, about alternative economic systems. He acted both as a researcher and activist.

I learned Carl-Erik to know much better the last few years of his life as he moved to UMB. He hence became both a colleague and friend from 2006. I learned him to know as an extraordinary person, open-minded, caring, engaging and with a sharp intellect. His ability to combine academic work with political engagement stands as great model in a world where academia is retreating more and more into its own confines.

May we remember him well and hold his qualities dear to us.

Arild Vatn

News about Ben Davies

Some of you will know Ben Davies from his role on the ESEE Board when I was President and his great work in producing the hard copy Newsletter over many years. In January Ben was unfortunately involved in a road accident with a car while cycling in Aberdeen and suffered severe head injuries. He was in a comma for a while and underwent serious operations. Happily he has made good progress and was back doing some work recently. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Ben all the best for a full recovery.

Clive Spash

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3. Other news:

IRN World Forum

Close to 1bn of the World's people today are hungry, and about 80% of the poor and hungry live in rural areas, around half being small farmers, and over 20% landless labourers. About one fifth live in sub-Saharan Africa and the same proportion in India. Over 25 000 people, of whom at least 10,000 are children under 5, die each day of hunger and hunger-related causes. These are very stark figures. Whatever it is we have done or sought to do to end poverty and hunger since the promises of the 1974 World Food Conference has evidently not yet worked. There is a clear need for new thinking and new approaches if we are to deal with these vital issues which touch the heart of human rights, indeed humanity itself.

The International Rural Network (IRN) is a small non-profit organization currently involving members in about 47 countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceanea, and N and S America. It is organizing a World Forum on key rural issues in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, from 23-28 August 2009 with the help of our South Asia group and a fine local NGO called Seva Mandir.

The IRNs core business concerns rural health, education, environment, equality and development. Our aim is self-help learning about innovative and 'joined up' solutions to problems of rural health, education, environment, equality and development in the context of globalization, the rapid growth of cities, resource limitations, rural-urban migration, and climate change. We do this through exchange of knowledge and identification of knowledge gaps. We bring together people working at the "coal face" with rural NGOs, villages, etc, the private sector, researchers engaged in applied research, and policy makers, and also seek to improve dialogue between these groups.

We firmly believe that poverty, hunger and malnutrition, health, farming, water, waste, and environmental care and deeply interconnected, and need to be tackled together, in connected and imaginative ways. We think that we attract many of those who know about such new methods, as well as many who would like to know about them, to our Fora. In several important cases, such as water, sanitation, health and recycling of nutrients ecological methods are of great future importance, and we are particularly interested in encouraging participation in these areas.

More information is available at www.international-rural-network.org or from irnforum09@gmail.com.
The official flyer can be found here.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) - Call for Evidence

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) asks you to consider the most recent Call for Evidence related to TEEB, a global study to be presented at CBD COP10:
ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/pdf/d2.pdf.

TEEB draws attention to the local and global benefits of biodiversity and to the social and economic costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. It is a cooperative effort of researchers from North and South, led by Pavan Sukhdev (UNEP) and funded by the EU and several governments.

Your response will inform the 'TEEB D2 Report for Local and Regional Policy Levels' which is intended to offer orientation for sub-national policy makers and stakeholders. They are looking for studies, case descriptions and personal accounts (both published and unpublished), that deal with the potential, the implications and the caveats of applying economic valuation tools at local and regional level.

You find further information about the TEEB Initiative and its other Calls for Evidence at ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/.

The deadline for contributions is June 30th 2009.

New UK research centre launched to tackle climate change economics and policy

A new UK centre to lead research on climate change economics and policy was launched in January 2009 by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Several members of ESEE have prominent roles in the Centre’s research programme, including Prof. Andy Gouldson, Dr. Jouni Paavola and Dr. Tim Foxon.

The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy will be chaired by Lord Stern of Brentford, who was author of the highly influential report on ‘The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review' in 2006.

The Centre will have five research programmes:

Developing climate science and economics

Climate-change governance for a new global deal

Adaptation to climate change and human development

Governments, markets and climate-change mitigation

The Munich Re Programme: Evaluating the economics of climate risks and opportunities in the insurance sector

In his address at the launch event, Lord Stern said: "We are at a crucial stage in the battle to avoid the worst potential impacts of climate change, which could have devastating social and economic consequences for people around the world. I am determined that this Centre should generate rigorous and innovative research to inform public and private action. We really need to put our best researchers to work on the difficult problems that we face in substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and preparing effectively to deal with those effects of climate change that we cannot now prevent."

Professor Andy Gouldson, who is director of the Centre at the University of Leeds, said: "We know the climate is changing and that governments are adopting ambitious new policies in response. Some countries, communities, businesses and individuals will be more able to respond than others, both by reducing their own carbon footprint and by adapting to life in a changed climate. The Centre's ambitious programme of research will build our understanding of how we can best reduce our impact on the climate as well as the climate's impact on us, so that everyone, and particularly the most vulnerable, can adapt to this changing world."

Further information about the work of the Centre can be found at www.cccep.ac.uk.

Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School (Report)

Biodiversity Governance was the primary theme of the Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School organised between 6-10 October 2008 at the Corvinus University, Budapest by the European Commission's - JRC - KAM group in straight collaboration with Environmental Social Science Research Group (www.essrg.hu) at the Szent Istvan University. The objectives of the Budapest Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School (Budapest KFS) was to present state-of-the-art tools and methodologies to assess knowledge in an extended way, engaging a wider range of social actors and dealing explicitly with complexity, uncertainty, values and frameworks. Lectures of György Pataki on Participatory Biodiversity Management, Giuseppe Munda on Social Multicriteria Evaluation, Serafin Corral Quintana on Quality Assurance Framework for Policy-making, Matthieu Craye on Qualitative uncertainty assessment, using pedigree-based tools, Andrea Saltelli on The critique of modeling and sensitivity analysis, Gilberto Gallopín on Scenarios as tools for international environmental assessments, Ângela Guimarães Pereira on Public Participation Methods and Tiago De Sousa Pedrosa on Communication in Policy Contexts can be downloaded from www.essrg.hu/kfs/lecturers.html

Please see the background material "Land use and biodiversity in the Homokhátság, Central Hungary" on local socio-ecological issues, key actors and conflict points and stakeholders' views on how to improve the water regime and irrigation/amelioration systems -- www.essrg.hu/kfs/casestudy.html

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4. Hot topic:

Food prices and hunger: What is the risk for future events?
by Charlotte Da Cunha

During the last four decades, the rising food demand of developing nations, the impacts of human activities (soil erosion, biodiversity loss?), and more recently the growth of biofuels have led to world food price rising. They have increased by 50% from 2002 to 2006, and then doubled between the beginning of 2006 and the summer of 2008 due to the poor harvests in 2005-2006.

During these same decades, the EU and US agricultural policies have contributed to the underdevelopment of agriculture markets in the developing countries and have harmed their agricultural producers and exporters.

The consequences reflected during 2008 were hunger and then riots sparked in numerous countries. FAO pointed out that the surge in food prices over the past year has increased the number of undernourished people in the world to an estimated 923 million.

Additionally, the financial crisis of the last few months has carried out a price drop, which contributed to tighten credit markets and introduce greater uncertainty about next years. Producers are adopting very conservative planting decisions.

The increasing trend of wheat, corn, milk, and plant-oil prices, coupled with the consequences of the present financial crisis, looks as an indication for long-term inflation. Poor people (weakened by several decades of price increasing) are more and more sensitive to price movement. Events, as the hunger and riots of 2008 and 2009, can become a recurring issue.

Did you say "natural" risks?
by Albert Merino-Saum

Situated in different continents and separated by thousands of kilometres, the region of Sichuan (Southwest China), the city of Tartagal (Northwest Argentina) and the State of Victoria (Southeast Australia) have apparently nothing in common. However, in only two days, several newspapers from different countries have outlined that the "natural" disasters occurred during last months in such places may have been triggered by human activities. Thus, according to Le Monde (12/02/2009), the massive earthquake in Sichuan (May 2008) could have been set off by the added pressure of water collected behind the Zipingpu dam, built only five kilometres away from the epicentre of the quake. Moreover, El País (13/02/2009) points out that the deforestation operated by tree companies in the Province of Salta may have led to the destructive mudslide recently experienced in Tartagal. Lastly, Los Angeles Times (13/02/2009) links the devastating wildfires in Australia (February 2008) and their extreme and unprecedented intensity to both eucalyptus plantations (with their "explosive oil-sap and fire-ready bark") and global warming.

These three examples -among many others- show the growing awareness of the central role that human activities play in relation to "natural" risks. It is important to note that such role is not only related to the degree of exposure of human systems to a "natural" and exogenous hazard but, on the contrary, to the hazard itself. Thus, hazards are perceived not anymore as an external fatality imposed to human society, but rather as an element belonging to a complex system in which natural and human worlds are inextricably interrelated. Consequently, the traditional separation between the concepts of "hazard" (probability of occurrence) and "vunerability" (potential damages) seems today largely inappropriate. Such classical framing needs to be replaced by new ways of management considering at least three basic points. At first, "natural" risks should be managed through more holistic approaches explicitly relating risk to the way in which human society has transformed its environment. Secondly, the simplistic goal of risk minimization should be completed (if not substituted) by an amalgam of mulitidimensional stakes (local incomes, security, ecosystem quality, mutual trust, local identity...) concerning the different spheres of sustainability and being partly mutually exclusive, so that trade-offs between them are unavoidable. And last but not least, both uncertainties and complexities (ontological as well as epistemological) compel a more inclusive and participative framework in which the principal character is not anymore an expert or an agency, but rather the society itself. To what extent is the later one ready to assume such a responsibility?

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5. Events:

ESEE 2009: Early registration open until 14th of April

Don't forget to register for the ESEE 2009 Conference: Transformation, Innovation and Adaptation for Sustainability - Integrating Natural and Social Sciences, which will be held from 29 June to 2 July 2009 at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Early registration is open until 14th of April.

Event 4 of THEMES summer school series

Event 4 of the THEMES summer school series (Emerging Theories and Methods in Sustainability Research) will be arranged June 15-26, 2009. The title of this school is: Integrated Analysis of Complex Adaptive Systems. It will be arranged at the Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), University of Sussex (Brighton, UK).

For further information visit www.umb.no/research/themes.

Great Places, Great Cities 2009

This two-day conference will be held on 4th and 5th of June, 2009 in Glasgow. It will bring together an international audience to discuss the role of public space and green networks in creating truly sustainable cities – cities which have a reduced impact on the environment, which cope better with the consequences of global climate change and where people want to live and work.

An action-packed programme includes presentations, study tours and workshops – confirmed keynote speakers include:

David Sim from Gehl Architects on international work to develop people-centred spaces and cities

Howard Frumkin MD from the US on international action to create health promoting environments

Miquela Craytor from Sustainable South Bronx – a community-led organisation working to regenerate the South Bronx through local environmental and greenspace action

For more information and to book visit www.greenspacescotland.org.uk/GreatPlacesGreatCities. Early bird rate of £295 before 23 March.

The call for abstracts is now open - opportunities to present research findings and greenspace project outcomes relating to the conference themes, through speed presentations and poster displays.

11th Annual BIOECON Conference

The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei announces the Eleventh International BIOECON Conference on "Economic Instruments to Enhance the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity". The Conference will be held at the Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, in Venice, Italy, on September 21st-22nd, 2009.

The Conference is targeted to researchers, environmental professionals, international organizations and policy makers who are interested in working in the management and conservation of biodiversity. The Conference is focused on identifying the most effective and efficient instruments for biodiversity conservation, such as auctions of biodiversity conservation contracts, payment-for-services contracts, taxes, tradable permits, voluntary mechanisms and straightforward command and control. Special emphasis will be given to policy reforms aimed at increasing the commercial rewards for conserving biodiversity, increasing the penalties for biodiversity loss and circulating information on the biodiversity performance requirements of firms. An increasing number of businesses, which were responsible for biodiversity loss in the past, are now supporters of biodiversity conservation. Markets for organic agriculture and sustainably-harvested timber are developing at double-digit rates, while rapid growth is observed in the demand for climate mitigation services, such as the protection of forests and wetlands to absorb carbon dioxide. Bio-prospecting, the search for new compounds, genes and organisms in the wild, is another biodiversity business on the rise.

For more details please click here.

International scientific conference in Kyiv, Ukraine

In Ukraine, the School of Physic Economics has intensively developed. On behalf of the Ukrainian Scientific Community of Sergiy Podolynskyj, an international conference is held for the second time.

The International scientific conference "Physic Economics: Methodology of Research and Global Mission of Ukraine" will take place on 9 and 10 April 2009 in Kyiv National Economic University of Vadym Hetman.

The conference was proposed by the President of the Ukraine and is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science.

Topics include:

Physic Economics in the context of the civilization paradigm of economic science

Sergiy Podolynskyj – founder of the National School of Physic Economics

Development of ideas of Sergiy Podolynskyj in works of V. Vernadskyj, M. Rudenko, Ukrainian and foreign scientists

Physic Economics and the innovative development of science

the methodological potential of Physic Economics in solving problems of sustainable development

the Heritage of the Ukrainian School of Physic Economics and the global mission of Ukraine

Audience: national and international scientists - economists and specialists from scientific research institutes and from higher schools who focus on problems of Physic Economics

Official languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English.

9th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS)

NESS 2009 - Knowledge, learning and action for sustainability, will be held from 10th to 12th of June 2009 in London. It provides a multi-disciplinary platform for the elaboration and discussion of research on environmental social science. Being held in London for the first time, the Conference provides a special opportunity for Nordic and British scholars working in the field of environmental social science to meet and talk.

For more details please visit the official homepage www.environment.fi/ness2009.

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6. Job openings:

Senior Professor for the International Chair in "Generating Eco-innovation"

Five major corporate groups Alstom, GDF-SUEZ, Italcementi, SAUR et SNCF have linked together with the founding establishments of the PRES UniverSud Paris (a federation of research and higher education institutions in the Île de France region of France) to create an International Chair in "Generating Eco-innovation".

The Chair will be an international pole of excellence for teaching and training, R & D and entrepreneurship aiming to facilitate eco-innovations at all points along the life cycle, from the emergence of an idea to its commercialisation in the market. The official launching of the Chair took place on December 3rd 2008 in the Castle of Versailles, France.

The Chair holder will be responsible for the direction of a Masters level teaching programme (of about 25 students per year), for a doctoral programme (including supervision of selected doctoral students), and for initiating research in the management of eco-innovation. She or he will pilot cooperative research projects engaging private sector companies and public sector research centres associated with the Chair, with an interdisciplinary perspective covering the full life cycle of eco-innovation, from initial concepts to commercialisation. This post is intended for an established professor or a senior researcher who has proven excellence in scientific activities and teaching in the field of innovation management.

Starting Date (can be negotiated): 1st September 2009
Principal work location: Versailles (France)
Field of Activity: management of the innovation process
Working language: English, with some French preferred

For more information click here.

Short term research opportunity the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia

The School of Environmental Sciences, at the University of Nova Gorica, is interested to host a young researchers under this scheme. During a short research period the candidate will be supervised by a staff member and upon a prior agreement can choose to undertake a short-term research project within one of the following:

social learning and natural resource management

European environmental governance

participatory processes in nature protection

integrated rural development.

Candidates can be either in the process of commencing their M.Sc. thesis,or be interested to carry out part of their D.Phil. research (max 6 months) at our department. Language requirements: the candidate must have a good command of English language.

Candidates are invited to Email a research proposal of 1000 words and a CV to Dr. Rodela (romina.rodela@p-ng.si) before March 30th, 2009. The School of Environmental Sciences will support successful candidates with supervison, accommodation, research infrastructure, and other ways as specified in the call documentation.

Research Associate at the Leuphana University Lüneburg

The Leuphana University Lüneburg, Institute for Environmental Communication, research group Sustainable Development and Participation, is offering a post for a social scientist as Research Associate (Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) within a project funded by the German Research foundation (DFG). The post will be available from 1 May 2009 on a half-time basis (salary group TV-L 13) for a duration of three years. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to complete a doctoral dissertation and to obtain a doctoral degree.

For more details click here.

Position at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is offering a position to work on the analyses of tradeoffs and trends in ecosystem services. Through case studies the candiate will develop approaches for the valuation of ecosystem services and how to link requirements for the conservation of living ecosystems and habitats with opportunities for economic development.

For more details click here.

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7. New Publications:

City out of Chaos: Urban Self Organization and Sustainability
R.M. Pulselli, and E. Tiezzi, University of Siena, Italy

The rhythms of technology and nature are out of phase. This fact underlies the global environmental crisis. Man-made perturbations, even small local ones, can trigger large-scale effects. To reinstate an alliance between humans and nature, as described by Prigogine, the father of evolutionary physics, it is necessary to learn to observe the general behaviour and evolution of real systems, including human systems in their context. The theories of chaos and complexity can help us to understand these systems.

The theories of chaos and complexity can help us to understand these systems: all natural and man-made processes on our planet have a common matrix and are interconnected. Evolutionary physics is the study of the emergence of novelty from the complex fabric of relationships of which we are part. It explains the formation of living structures and their evolution in a dynamic world. Dissipative structures, steady state systems, self-organization, fluctuations and feedback are some of the concepts considered by the authors in their treatment of complex systems such as climate, society, economies and cities.

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Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Economic Development
edited by
Andreas Kontoleon, University of Cambridge, UK,
Unai Pascual, University of Cambridge, UK,
Melinda Smale, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA

This book reflects current developments in the economics of agrobiodiversity and focuses its attention on the role agrobiodiversity can have for economic development. As a new and rapidly expanding subfield at the interface of environmental/ecological, agricultural and development economics, the editors and contributors to this volume provide a thorough, structured and authoritative coverage of this field.

Topics covered include the economic modelling of agrobiodiversity, policy and governance solutions for the conservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, contracts, markets and valuation. The authors include well-known and respected academics and researchers who have a real policy perspective into the role of agrobiodiversity and economic development. The book provides coherent and up to date coverage of the economics of in-situ agrobiodiversity conservation which is to a large extent currently absent.

For more information please read the official flyer.

Who holds the reins in integrated product policy? : an individual company as a target of regulation and as a policy maker

is a publication (doctoral dissertation) from Petrus Kautto for those interested in how Nokia has influenced EU regulations.

For more details click here.

Special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on Materials Use Across World Regions

The Journal of Industrial Ecology has recently published a special issue on Materials Use Across World Regions: Inevitable Pasts and Possible Futures. The special issue examines resource use on a global scale-focusing on materials use at national and world regional levels, detailed analysis of metals cycles within this context, and assessment of existing governmental policies that are based on material flow analysis (MFA). Countries and regions examined include Australia, Japan, Austria, the USA, Europe, Latin America, and the transition economies. The special issue is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121581908/issue.

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