Content:

1. Editorial

  • No contribution this time

2. News from ESEE and its members

  • ISEE Board Election Results
  • Forthcoming activities of GoverNAT project and the CETIP

3. Other news

  • Ph.D. course in climate change and climate policy
  • Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics
  • ALTER-Net Summer School 2010
  • CEECEC trial online course

4. Hot topic

  • Participation in European multi-level environmental governance: does it deliver?

5. Events

  • International Workshop: ADVANCES IN ENERGY STUDIES 2010 - Call for papers
  • Land Systems, Global Change and Sustainability: GLP Open Science Meeting 2010
  • ERSCP-EMSU 2010 Conference
  • International Workshop on "The Social Dimension of Adaptation to Climate Change"
  • International Workshop on "Reconciling Domestic Energy Needs and Global Climate Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for China and India."
  • EXIOPOL SUMMER SCHOOL on Environmental Accounting: Externality Valuation and Input-Output Tools for Policy Analysis
  • EASY-ECO Conference on Sustainable Development Evaluations in Europe: From a Decade of Practices, Politics and Science to Emerging Demands
  • 12th annual conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics
  • Summer school in ICTA on environmental conflicts
  • Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC)
  • Hallsworth Conference on Financialisation and Environment: The Implications for Environmental Governance of the Global Financial Crisis
  • Ester Boserup Conference 2010 - A Centennial Tribute

6. Job openings

  • Chief Economist
  • Assistant Professorship Climate Change and Sustainable Development
  • Environment Associate

7. Publications

  • 'Ecological Economics Reviews' journal


1. Editorial:

No contribution this time.

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2. News from ESEE and its members:

ISEE Board Election Results

The ISEE Election Committee is pleased to announce the results of the election for President Elect and 4 Board Members.

Voters selected Bina Agarwal as President Elect and Kathryn Davidson, Richard Howarth, Roldan Muradian and Matthias Ruth to the Board. This information will be posted on the ISEE website in the near future.

We wish to thank the candidates and voters and offer congratulations to our new President Elect and Board Members.

Joan Martinez-Alier
ISEE Election Committee Chair


Forthcoming activities of GoverNAT project and the CETIP

The Centre for Transdisciplinary Study of Institutions, Evolutions and Policies (CETIP) at the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, is pleased to inform you about the upcoming events undertaken within the 6. FM project: Marie Curie Research Training Network: "Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe" (GoverNat).

At the initiative of CETIP, IF-SAS with the support of Academia IREAS Czech Republic, the Central European Conference: Multilevel environmental governance – What does it mean for Europe in Future?, will take place in Prague on 15 and 16 April 2010 convening the main actors engaged in the development and implementation of EU environmental policy within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The participation is by invitation only.

The book 'FROM GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNANCE? New Governance for Water and Biodiversity in Enlarged EU' edited by Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská (Alfa Printing), will be introduced to the conference audience. The book collect 5 chapters presenting conceptual contribution to the evolution of environmental governance in the enlarged EU and 8 case studies on the tools and processes for new governance of water and biodiversity in Europe. It intent to provoke academic and policy debate on the evolution of environmental governance in the region of Central and Eastern Europe The book will be of interests to interdisciplinary researchers, Central European policy maker and students.

For more details please click here.

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3. Other news:

Ph.D. course in climate change and climate policy

The Ph.D. school Environment and Society at the Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change (ENSPAC) at Roskilde University in collaboration with other Danish universities calls for applications for an interdisciplinary Ph.D. course in climate change and climate policy.

It will be held from May, 3-14, 2010.

Further information is available at climatephd.ruc.dk.


Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics

The European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Catania, with the sponsorship of the Municipality of Belpasso, are pleased to announce the Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics for postgraduate students.

The 2010 Summer School will take place from the 12th to the 18th of September at Belpasso, a city in the Province of Catania, Sicily, Italy. The theme of this Summer School is The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation.

For further information on application and funding please access the Summer School Website at www.feem-project.net/belpasso_2010 or contact the Summer School Secretariat.


ALTER-Net Summer School 2010

The summer school will be held on 5-14 September 2010 at Peyresq, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France and is organized by the ALTER-Net Summer School Secretariat at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany.

For more details click here or here.


CEECEC trial online course

Running from April 12, 2010 – July 02, 2010, CEECEC will be piloting an online course on ecological economics, free of cost. This is based on case studies written by environmental NGOs in different countries. A selected number of students from around the globe, preferably from NGOs but also from public administration, universities, or any other profession will have the opportunity to participate. In total a commitment of 12 hours per week for 12 weeks is required to complete the course.

For more informations click here.

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4. Hot topic:

Participation in European multi-level environmental governance: does it deliver?
by Jouni Paavola

Participation has become an important element of European environmental policies after the ratification of the Aarhus Convention in 1998. The Convention’s key provisions have also been integrated to subsequent environmental directives, such as the Water Framework Directive. The directives on access to information and public participation and EC Regulation on access to justice in turn seek to provide a basis for participation in matters structured by older EU environmental directives.

The participatory agenda can be seen to be underpinned by several different rationales or motivations. Firstly, participation can be understood valuable in itself as an instance of democratic practice. Secondly, participation may enhance the quality of decisions by improving their substantive informational basis. Thirdly, participation may improve the acceptance or legitimacy of environmental measures and thus facilitate their implementation. The question remains: does participation deliver and, if so, to what extent?

Over the past three and half years, Marie Curie Research Training Network Multi-level Governance of Natural Resources: Tools and Processes for Water and Biodiversity Governance in Europe (GoverNat) has examined the role of participation in European governance of natural resources, particularly of biodiversity and water. Researchers from ten partner organisations across Europe have participated in the effort. For more details on Governat and involved researchers, visit the website www.governat.eu

The research conducted by GoverNat and other similar research efforts suggest that the experiences with participation are varied and can offer lessons for organising participatory processes in the future. The key lessons of this research can be summarised as 1) participation falls short of its promise in many occasions; 2) participation practices vary across cultural and political contexts and; 3) people participate when they have to, in order to obtain benefits or to avoid burdens. I will focus below mainly on the first of these results.

So, ongoing research suggests that in many occasions participation falls short of its perceived promise. Actors on the ground are not necessarily eager to participate, even if they are "mobilised". When actors do participate, they are often frustrated and feel that their ability to influence plans and decisions remains limited. As a result, engagement with participatory processes may cease or at least become more muted. This is not intended to deny that there are also highly successful participatory processes.

Several reasons can lead to less satisfactory participation outcomes. Firstly, academic arguments promoting participation are based on abstract, general and acontextual reasoning which does not appreciate the challenges of participation in the institutional, cultural and other contexts of the real world. That is, legal systems and provisions may not support participation, or only make it available when the most important decisions are already made. This may leave little scope for genuine participation and render participatory processes mere legitimation exercises. Lack of administrative capacity (both in terms of skills and resources) may in turn hinder the implementation of participatory agendas. Finally, the expectation that there is an active, plural and eager to participate civil society may not be in tune with the reality and omit economic and other disincentives to participate.

So where does this leave us? My view is that the near future will offer an exciting opportunity to research unfolding participation processes in Europe with a view of contributing to the improvement of participation practices and processes. The time has come for a more nuanced approach to researching participation: we should be able to handle contextuality and to differentiate between different degrees of participation, and say more about them. This not only needs new empirical research efforts but also theoretical work to underpin the finer resolution of research. This is also likely to require plural theories and approaches to participation rather than grand, unified approaches.

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5. Events:

International Workshop: ADVANCES IN ENERGY STUDIES 2010 - Call for papers

The International Workshop ADVANCES IN ENERGY STUDIES 2010 - Breaking the Addiction to Fossil Energy - will be held in Barcelona (Spain), 19-21 October 2010. This is the seventh in an ongoing series of biennial meetings dedicated to advances, innovation and visions in energy and energy-related environmental and socio-economic issues. Addiction to fossil energy is one of the most obvious and least discussed sources of environmental destruction in present times. With this conference the Advances in Energy Studies community puts the issue centre stage and challenges participants to come up with clear descriptions and practical solutions for the problem.

The call for papers is now open and proposals for contributions can be submitted through the website: www.societalmetabolism.org/aes2010.html. The organisers look forward to seeing you at what promises to be an exciting event!


Land Systems, Global Change and Sustainability: GLP Open Science Meeting 2010

The Global Land Project (GLP) is pleased to announce the GLP 2010 Open Science Meeting (GLP OSM), to be held 17-19th October 2010 at Arizona State University. This Meeting is organized in close cooperation with IHDP's Urbanization and Global Environmental Change project (UGEC). Registration and abstract submission are welcome.

For more details please visit www.glp2010.org.


ERSCP-EMSU 2010 Conference

The conference on sustainable consumption and innovation is organised in Delft fortcoming October (25-29). Besides sustainable innovation and sustainable education, sustainable consumption is one of the key pillars.

More information can also be found on the website www.erscp-emsu2010.org.


International Workshop on "The Social Dimension of Adaptation to Climate Change"

The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) - a joint initiative of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (FGC) - and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC) are pleased to announce their International Workshop on "The Social Dimension of Adaptation to Climate Change" to be held in Venice, at Palazzo Querini Stampalia, on February 18-19, 2010.

Three main topics will be considered:

  • The social and behavioural dimension as key factors to adapt to climate change;
  • The flexibility of social systems in adapting to climate (institutional and social capability, multistakeholder engagement, including governments, Ngos, the private sector, communities, and individuals.)
  • The learning capacity as a means to overcome behavioural and social constraints to changing technologies (development and adoption of new technologies).

The workshop is structured around three main sessions, each composed by at most four papers in order to provide enough time for a in depth presentation of each participant's research.

Further information, including the programme, is available here.


International Workshop on "Reconciling Domestic Energy Needs and Global Climate Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for China and India."

The workshop will be held on March 15th, 2010 in the Palazzo Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy.

The purpose of this Workshop is to discuss ongoing work for the Special Issue "Reconciling Domestic Energy Needs and Global Climate Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for China and India", edited by Carlo Carraro and Emanuele Massetti for International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (INEA). A first set of papers will introduce present energy sector dynamics in China and India. A set of scenarios built using global and regional models will be presented to show the necessary transformations that China and India have to undertake were they part of a global agreement on climate with an active role. The challenges and opportunities of these required transformations will be then assessed by two papers, one on China and the other on India. A final set of three papers will discuss how to build a new international climate policy framework in which China and India will play an active role.

Invited authors are major world experts of energy and climate policy in China and India. There are the premises to make the Workshop and the Special Issue a valuable reference for those who are studying how China and India could contribute to climate change control.

Further information, including the programme, is here available.


EXIOPOL SUMMER SCHOOL on Environmental Accounting: Externality Valuation and Input-Output Tools for Policy Analysis

The 2010 Exiopol Summer School will take place from the 11th to the 17th of July at the VIU campus on the Island of San Servolo, in Venice, located just in front of St. Mark' Square. The theme of this Summer School is "Environmental accounting: externality valuation and Input-Output tools for policy analysis".

Policy makers are increasingly searching for tools that allow them to address economic, social and environmental problems in an integrated framework, consistent with a sustainable development framework which is driving much of the thinking of public policy. At the micro level researchers employ valuation methods to develop estimates of the value of environmental goods and services, so that decisions in this domain can be informed by the costs and benefits of environmental changes. But many policy decisions need to be taken not at the micro level of the plant or local community, but at the level of the state, region or even the Union. While there are many tools for making such decisions in the economic sphere, including the use of input-output matrices, the same is not true for the environmental sphere. The 'scaling up' from the micro to the macro is being addressed by the FP6 EXIOPOL Integrated Project. Taking advantage of the research experience of this IP, the Summer School, presents and discusses the up-to-date bottom-up externality valuation methods and top-down Environmentally Extended Input Output tools.

For further information on application and funding please access the EXIOPOL Summer School Website at: www.feem-project.net/exiopol/scheda.php?ids=45 or contact the Summer School Secretariat.


EASY-ECO Conference on Sustainable Development Evaluations in Europe: From a Decade of Practices, Politics and Science to Emerging Demands

The 2010 EASY-ECO conference in Brussels will firmly focus on the European perspective of evaluation of sustainable development (SD), taking stock of almost a decade of the EASY-ECO programme and SD evaluation practice at EU- and national levels in order to identify – with important European actors – the challenges ahead.

The conference is organised by Tom Bauler at the Free University Brussels (Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB), and will take place in Brussels in the European Parliament, the Palais des Sciences, and the ULB, Campus Solbosch, on 17-19 November 2010. The call for papers has been published at the EASY-ECO website: www.sustainability.eu/easy/?k=conferences&s=brussels. Applications for EU Grants to cover the costs of participation are open until 15 May, 2010.

Key topics include: SD evaluation in the policy-making process; tools and instruments for the European Commission's Impact Assessment (CEC-IA); SD and the evaluation of external dimensions of EU policies; SD evaluation and monitoring processes of the EU strategies; supporting vertical integration for multi-level governance through evaluation; horizontal collaboration in SD evaluation; role of municipalities and regions in advancing SD evaluation practice; diffusion of SD evaluation standards across international institutions; contribution of SD evaluation to good governance.


12th annual conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics

The conference will be held from 7th-10th July 2010 at the University of Bordeaux in France. It includes seven peer-reviewed themes. Keynote speakers so far include Diane Elson, Arild Vatn and André Orléan and a screening of the acclaimed new documentary film on Iceland's bank crisis "Maybe I should have: a tale from the economic wonder Iceland" presented by producer Lilja Skaftadottir and director Gunnar Sigurdsson, a founder of the Iceland Civic Forum.

The deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to April 11th 2010 to allow time to respond to the themes so far accepted. Abstracts received by the previous deadline of 7th March will be processed as previously stated by March 22nd.

To submit proposals and find out more, visit the AHE's new conference website at www.hetecon.org or www.hetecon.net, or contact the conference organiser Ali Douai at Ali.douai@u-bordeaux4.fr, or the AHE coordinator Alan Freeman at afreeman@iwgvt.org.

The revised call for papers can be downloaded here.


Summer school in ICTA on environmental conflicts

It will be held from 27 June to 10 July 2010 and it's mostly oriented to those students who are finishing their master degree or starting their PhD. They are going to have students from Univ Lund, Budapest and Manchester and professors of these universities and IFF-Vienna.

Deadline for applications: 30th March.

For more details please click here.


Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC)

The conference takes place from January 10-14, 2011 in Hyderabad, India. It will be hosted by the Foundation for Ecological Security and chaired by Mr. Nitin Desai, Co-Chair: Jagdeesh Puppala.

Theme: Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future

The Conference will provide opportunities for academics, researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience. Multiple forms of participation are envisaged at this global meeting. These include: Paper presentations, Thematic panels, Poster presentations, Video presentations, Pre-Conference workshops, Practitioners’ Colloquium, Young researcher sessions and Exhibitions.

Important dates:

  • March 31st 2010: Deadline for submission of paper, panel and poster proposals
  • September 30th 2010: Deadline for submission of papers
  • August 1st 2010: Early registration deadline (tentative)

For more details please visit the conference website http://iasc2011.fes.org.in.


Hallsworth Conference on Financialisation and Environment: The Implications for Environmental Governance of the Global Financial Crisis

The conference will be held from 15-16 April, 2010 at the University of Manchester. More details can be found here.


Ester Boserup Conference 2010 - A Centennial Tribute

Ester Boserup was one of the pioneers of an integrated theoretical approach to questions of development and sustainability. 2010 marks the centennial of her birth. The Ester Boserup Conference 2010 "Long-term trajectories in population, gender relations, land use, and the environment" wishes to pay tribute to her work and to her intellectual heritage.

Keynote presentations structure the conference. They highlight Boserup's theoretical work, intellectual legacy and relevance to policy institutions. Preliminary topics include:

  • Billie Lee Turner II: Agriculture and Land Use
  • Ramon Lopez: Development Issues
  • Marina Fischer-Kowalski: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Change
  • Wolfgang Lutz: Population, Education and Economy (tbc)
  • Melissa Leach: Sustainable Livelihoods (tbc)

The call for contributions can be downloaded here. For further information please visit the conference website.

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6. Job openings:

Chief Economist

The successful candidate for this exciting position will be responsible for taking forward nef's (the new economics foundation) ambitious project on the macroeconomics of sustainability, combining modelling work with the establishment of a network of like-minded practitioners, within the UK and beyond. The Chief Economist will build and integrate technical expertise within nef, developing and overseeing our work on economics and contributing to projects across all our programme areas.

For more details please click here.


Assistant Professorship Climate Change and Sustainable Development

The position will be open from April 1st 2010 or later.

The successful candidate is expected to focus on anthropogenic climate change, mitigation strategies against greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation strategies. Sustainable development and climate change shall be addressed considering the department's focal research areas on "Global Change" and "Megacities". Acknowledgement of gender aspects in relation to climate research is appreciated. Teaching shall include introductory and advanced courses on Bachelor, Master, and PhD level.

In accordance with § 102a of the "Berliner Hochschulgesetz", the successful applicant holds a university degree in geography or a relevant discipline, offers an outstanding research potential proven through a PhD, and a dedication to teaching. We expect the ability to work synergistically both within the Department, in collaboration with other units at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and with leading institutions on climate change research in the Berlin area.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is an equity employer and encourages applications by women. Persons with disabilities will be preferably employed when otherwise equally qualified.

Letters of application should include a curriculum vitae, a statement outlining teaching and research interests, and evidence of research and teaching ability. Applicants should arrange for three letters of reference to be sent prior to the closing date.

All queries should be directed to Prof. Dr. Wilfried Endlicher, Chair of Climatology (wilfried.endlicher@geo.hu-berlin.de), or Prof. Dr. Patrick Hostert, Head of Department (patrick.hostert@geo.hu-berlin.de).

Please send your application until 30.04.2010 with reference to job offer JP/005/10 to: Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät II, Geographisches Institut, Geschäftsführender Direktor, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany. Documents should be sent in copy only, as materials will not be returned.


Environment Associate

Sustainability Research Institute seeks to appoint an Environment Associate to work with Dr William Young and Ningtao Mao on a 3 year Knowledge Transfer project with the UK carpet industry on LCA, EMS & Eco-labelling. The Carpet Foundation, a trade association representing the interests of most UK carpet manufacturers and retailers, offers an exciting opportunity for a recent graduate or post-graduate to "fast track" their career by leading a high profile and strategically important project to a successful conclusion. Closing date for applications is 20th April.

More details on the vacancy are available here.

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7. Publications:

'Ecological Economics Reviews' journal

Recently the inaugural volume of Ecological Economics Reviews, a join of US Society for Ecological Economics and NY Academy of Sciences publication, was published. The volume contained authors such as Rudolf de Groot, Richard Cowling, Bruce Hannon, R. Kerry Turner, Peter Nijkamp, Peter Söderbaum, Barry D. Solomon, Pushpam Kumar, and many others. You can find the complete volume here.

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