LUCSUS

 

 

 

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Postal Address:
P.O. Box 170, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Visiting Address:
Geocentrum 1, Sölvegatan 10, Lund 4th floor

 

 

 
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RLC-

Right Livelihood Award Foundation and LUCSUS organised seminars in Oslo and Stockholm on the topic of “Global Food Security: A rights-based approach to agricultural technologies”

Half a century after the Green Revolution, the conflict between different visions and techniques of agriculture, and between social movements and transnational corporations, continue to escalate in both developed and developing countries. Seeds and agrochemical inputs have become a source of much controversy as well as the social organisation of agriculture and food markets.

Parliamentarians, journalists, diplomats, academics and representatives from civil society groups in Sweden and Norway will discuss the topic with RLA Laureates who work with these issues on a daily basis, as well as with researchers from Lund University. There will also be an event open to the general public. Wes Jackson (RLA 2000), Percy & Louise Schmeiser (RLA 2007), Shrikrishna Upadhyay (RLA 2010) will participate in the seminars in Stockholm and Oslo and share their experiences.

An interdisciplinary, scientific report on "Rethinking Agriculture: In Search of a Rural Modernity" from the Right Livelihood College campus at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) was launched at the seminars and is available for download: Swedish version (pdf) and English version (pdf).

Apart from the two closed seminars in the Swedish Parliament (12 June) and in Oslo (11 June), there will be a public event organized by a group of Swedish civil society organizations in Stockholm (12 June, 17.00-19.00).

 

 

 

 

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Bonanno

Guest lecture

Beyond trauma and resilience:
Mapping the heterogeneity of responses to potential trauma

Professor George A. Bonanno
Columbia University

When:    May 27, 16.30 – 18.00
Where:  Pufendorf Institute, Sölvegatan 2 /Biskopsgatan 3

George A. Bonanno, Ph.D. is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1991. His research interests center on the question of how human beings cope with loss, trauma and other forms of extreme adversity, with an emphasis on resilience and the salutary role of personality, positive emotion and emotion regulatory processes. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. He co-edited the book, Emotion: Current Issues and Future Directions (Guilford), and recently authored The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Can Tell Us about Life after Loss (Basic Books).

Organisers: Social Medicine and Public Health;
                    LUCSUS

Poster (pdf) »

 

 

 

 

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GIOVANNIThesis
MINEthesis

PhD Dissertation
Giovanni Bettini, a LUCID and LUCSUS PhD Candidate

Climatised Moves
Climate-induced Migration
and the Politics of Environmental Discourse

More info about the thesis »

Faculty opponent: Professor Erik Swyngedouw,
The University of Manchester, UK

When: June 5, 2013, 13:15
Where: Världen, Geocentrum, Sölvegatan 13, Lund
 

PhD Dissertation
Mine Islar,  a LUCID and LUCSUS PhD Candidate

Private Rivers:
Politics of Renewable Energy and the Rise of Water Struggles in Turkey

More info about the thesis »

Faculty opponent: Professor Esteban Castro,
Newcastle University, UK.

When: May 31, 2013, 13:00
Where: Världen, Geocentrum, Sölvegatan 13, Lund
 

 

 

 

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YengohThesis

3yengoh

PhD Dissertation
Yengoh Genesis Tambang, a LUCID PhD Candidate

On Friday the 3rd of May at 13:00 Yengoh Genesis Tambang will be publically defending this doctoral thesis, Explaining Agricultural Yield Gaps in Cameroon. In his research, Yengoh undertakes an interdisciplinary investigation into the contemporary problem of food security in the west-African country of Cameroon through the key concept of yield gaps, an issue that at its core is concerned with the socio-ecological aspects of food insecurity and the implications different modes of food production have for overcoming it. In his work, Yengoh draws on methods from both the natural and social sciences, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches ranging from statistical analysis and spatial modeling to participant observation and interviewing. Yengoh launches his investigation from the fact that, in Cameroon, the gaps between crop yields obtained on farmers’ farms and those of experimental stations are large. Narrowing these yield gaps is pivotal for achieving food security; thus, Yengoh’s study assesses both the size of these yield gaps and the biophysical and agronomic constraints associated with closing them, with agronomic constraints proving to be the most problematic. Drawing on examples from other regions of Africa, as well as his own experiences in the field, Yengoh highlights the possibilities for addressing the yield gap problem and achieving food security through techniques of sustainable intensification, emphasizing that sustainable approaches should be prioritized over more conventional methods that have proven less beneficial in the long-term in other regions of the world

During his time researching under the LUCID center, Yengoh says he gained valuable insights into his work through interactions with senior researchers and fellow doctoral students who come from a wide variety of academic and cultural backgrounds. This interdisciplinary working environment provided Yengoh the space and encouragement to cross disciplinary boundaries in an internationally competitive context, which he believes constituted a unique opportunity for developing new research ideas and sharing knowledge produced in the research process both within and outside academia. When asked what he would recommend to future PhD candidates coming to study at LUCID, Yengoh exclaimed with a smile “Just be yourself!”
 

 

 

 

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ingegerd

Sustainability Education: from Knowledge to Action
Conference June 3, 2013

This conference is organized in honour of Ingegerd Ehn, the former director of studies of the LUMES programme, who retired in 2012. Inspired by her enthusiasm for sustainability education and transdisciplinary collaboration for contributing to societal change, the conference addresses the future challenges for the university, and inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability education.

Invited speakers, workshops and a panel debate with representation from non-governmental and governmental organisations will address challenges, opportunities to tackle them, promising examples, and the role of university education for developing knowledge and skills that make graduates able to contribute to “make change happen”. Via concrete examples from urban gardening, local community initiatives, sustainable consumption etc., the conference also has the ambition to inspire engagement in activities for change toward sustainability.

Invited speakers are from the current LUMES batches (15 and 16) as well as from LUCSUS staff. Guest speakers are Dzulkifli Abdul Razak (President of the International Association of Universities IAU) and Carina Borgström-Hansson (Expert Ecological Footprint at WWF).

More information and programme »

 

 

 

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Call for applications within the LUCID Programme -
5 PhD positions and one post-doctoral fellowship

We invite applications for five PhD positions and one post-doctoral fellowship within the frame of the interdisciplinary research programme LUCID at Lund University.

LUCID is a Linnaeus programme sponsored by The Swedish Research Council Formas for the period 2008-2018. LUCID is coordinated by the faculty independent Centre for Sustainability Studies at Lund University (LUCSUS). Linnaeus Grants are awarded to exceptionally strong environments performing research of the highest international quality and aiming at innovative research. See LUCID website for more info »

We are looking for highly motivated applicants with a Master’s degree relevant to LUCID such as: development studies; environmental studies; global studies; sustainability studies or in one of the disciplines participating in LUCID such as geography.

Successful candidates will be part of an interactive team and contribute to the development of a young, vigorous and interdisciplinary research environment.

Application instructions

Please follow the links below for further information on the positions and for instructions for application. If you are interested in applying for more than one of the five positions you must submit one application to each of the positions.

PhD Student Positions

  • PhD Student in Sustainability Science with a Focus on
    Politics of Land in Sub-Saharan Africa 
    Reference # PEPA 2013/262
    Project overview »
     
  • PhD student in Sustainability Science with a  Focus on
    Sustainable Urban Transformation for Climate Change Adaptation.
    Reference # PEPA 2013/261
    Project overview »
     
  • PhD student in Sustainability Science, Open Call.
    Reference # PEPA 2013/260
     
  • PhD student in Sustainability Science with a Focus on
    Renewable Energy Directive and Associated Sustainability Criteria - Sweden in an European and Global Context.
    Reference # PEPA 2013/251
    Project overview »
     
  • PhD Student in Geobiosphere Science with a Focus on
    Land Systems Science.
    Reference # NPA 2013/202
     

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

  • Post-Doctoral Fellowship with a Focus on
    Politics of Land in Sub-Saharan Africa.
    Reference # PEPA 2013/282
     

 

 

 

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airbusorg

 

LUMES students

LUMES Students participate in the Airbus global design contest
”Fly your ideas”

The LUMES students Oliver Loran, Leonhard Späth and Luisa Teixeira  participate in Airbus big competition "Fly Your Ideas" and has made ​​it through to round two.
- We were over 600 teams that competed in the first round and 102 were chosen for the second round. We were quite surprised, says Oliver Loran.

The idea that took them further in the competition is about how to manage to find land that works to cultivate biofuel for the aviation industry. It's about finding land that is unsuitable for food but suitable for biofuel production.

Now in the second round they are supported by an expert and mentor from Airbus.
- The actual learning process in the second round, when we get the support of Airbus and can develop our idea further, is very valuable, says Oliver Loran.
Winner will be announced June 13 in Paris. First prize is 30,000 euros and the opportunity to get an Airbus expert to participate in an innovation week at the team's university.

Read more about the contest at Fly your ideas with Airbus »
Read the interview with Swedish newspaper Ny Teknik »

 

 

 

 

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4Hsmall2

LUMES students - 4H farm contributes to sustainable development

LUMES students presented a report of how a 4H farm can contribute to sustainable development in Tranås municipality.

Read the article in Tranås Tidning (pdf) »

 

 

 

 

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grodan2

LUCSUS obtained Lund University Environmental Certificate “GRODAN”

Vice-chancellor Per Eriksson and Lund University Environmental Manager Claes Nilén attended LUCSUS christmas party and handed over Lund University Environmental Certificate “GRODAN” to LUCSUS.

“GRODAN”  is a simplified environmental management system and has been developed to facilitate the systematic environmental work at the departments.

For more information, please contact Cheryl Sjöström at LUCSUS
cheryl.sjostrom(at)lucsus.lu.se

 

 

 

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book2

story

book-image-new

LUMES students designed a
Sustainability Adventure Book for Children

Read about this at Lund University website (in Swedish) »

Four LUMES student, from Sweden, Iceland, Germany and the US, decided to work with children to promote a positive message for youth on sustainability for their Making Change Happen Project.

“Tired of the doom and gloom of so many books and information about the ice melting and other environmental issues of the globe, we want to encourage the young and old alike that there is worth in doing good and we can have an impact for the positive! The book will be a fun adventure story that illustrates what is happening, but also show what alternatives to turn to. Check out our story here!

CONCEPT: To combat continued environmental degradation and sustainability issues we believe it is important to change human behavior and the key to doing so is through knowledge.

PURPOSE: Green education is an essential part of sustainability. The earlier people are exposed to environmental friendly practices and ideas, the better! Knowledge is a first step into realizing the sustainability ideas and concepts and taking that into our daily lives. We are hoping to educate children but also reach out through them to their parents, peers, and teachers.

We believe it is important to complement education with stories that can encourage empowerment of children through positive messages, showing them they can make a difference that matters.  It is critical for the children to have some knowledge and tools in order understand and change global environmental issues. Letting the children become aware of what their part is in a sustainable future. A participatory method is one step towards showing the children how they can collaborate and feel empowered.

GOALS: We are designing a storyline for a children’s book and include the children and teachers in the process. The book will be in Swedish and English.

Feedback on the story will be central for creating a participatory approach so the children can learn during our process. The age we want to target will be 6-10 year old children because we believe this age group is the most susceptible to understand our message and it might be easier to communicate due to developed reading and computer skills. We will be visiting schools to introduce the story to get some feedback and comments.

Read the book at http://sustainabilityadventure.wordpress.com/

More about the LUMES programme »
 

 

 

 

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foodwaste

Don’t waste the taste
LUMES students served delicious buffet made from food waste

Read about this at Lund University website (in Swedish) »

Don’t Waste The Taste is a project started by seven LUMES students. The project started to help spread awareness about food waste, a major problem affecting us all both environmentally and economically.

Rejected food turned into lunch for 130 people
Don’t Waste The Taste hosted the first food waste event and served a steaming hot vegan curry with amazing organic bread, C vitamin boosted fruit salad and a hot glögg-style drink to over 130 people!!

Read more about the event in newspapers Sydsvenskan »  and Skånskan »

Visit the webpage Don’t Waste the Taste »

Visit LUMES webpage »

 

 

 

 

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Students in Berlin

LUMES students explore Berlin - 
A field trip “Urban Systems and Sustainability”

For the first time LUCSUS organised an excursion for students from the LUMES master to go to Berlin. 28 students from the “urban systems and sustainability” course together with Christine Wamsler and Henner Busch from LUCSUS left Copenhagen on the 11th of November by bus for a week of learning and exploration. Tobias Abrahamsson - a project coordinator for citizen involvement in urban development at Lund municipality and LUMES alumni - joined the group.
Our colleagues from the Habitat Unit at Technical University (TU) of Berlin organised the first day of the excursion for us. After two lectures during which the institutes presented their work to each other the LUMES students had the chance to informally get together with students from the TU’s mater programme in Urban Management. This meeting was followed by a lecture on urban development in Berlin and a 1½ hour tour through the changing neighbourhood around Warschauer Strasse.

On day two of the excursion the group visited the second of the four Berlin universities. The division of Resource Economics was so kind to host us for a day. During the morning Christian Kimmich presented his PhD research, which was part of the Megacity Hyderabad Project. In the afternoon a former employee of B&SU Berlin presented the work of the Environmental Relief Programme of the Berlin Senate.

While day one and two were dominated by classroom teaching which set the stage for a conscious exploration of the city, day three was the day of city-walks. Berlin greeted us with beautiful sunshine and temperatures around 9 degrees C: Just the right conditions to explore the Tempelhofer Feld during a guided tour. Our two guides did a great job in explaining the history of the place, its ecological features and they provided us with insights into the ongoing conflicts about the future development of the former airfield. As one tour isn’t enough, the afternoon took us to Bernauer Strasse. During a tour the students learned about the impacts the Berlin Wall has had on the city. What scars in the urban fabric remain? How does Berlin cope with this heavy historical heritage? What developments have set in after the wall came down in 1989? And how does gentrification actually look like? – These and many more questions were addressed while we hiked from Mitte to Prenzlauer Berg.

Thursday was the day of voluntary activities. Being a real Berliner Henner took some of the students on a city walk along the main tourist attractions and historic sites. Highlight of this tour was doubtlessly the organic Currywurst we had close to Brandenburg Gate. In the evening around ten of us attended the festive opening of the new Mercator Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change. We enjoyed thought-provoking speeches by Prof Robert Stavins from Harvard University and Prof Ottmar Edenhofer from TU Berlin and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Their inspiring talks were topped up with excellent food and good wine.

The last activity of the excursion was a visit at the annual “Heldenmarkt” at Postbahnhof. Heldenmarkt is a trade fair for sustainable consumption and NGOs active in the field of nature protection and sustainable development. More than 150 stands provided information, good ideas, food and drinks. Again fate smiled at our excursion: We won 2 kg of organic cheese at the fair’s tombola! The rest of the weekend was free of mandatory activities. The students had time to explore the city’s flea markets, museums, cafes, street-food, bars, clubs and parks. But as all good things come to an end, we said our good-byes to Berlin after an exciting week and set off to Sweden on Sunday morning.

Visit LUMES webpage »

 

 

 

 

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RLC-

CAT

 

The 2012 Right Livelihood Award Laureate,
Campaign Against Arms Trade, CAAT
 “Challenging the Global Arms Trade”

Henry McLaughlin representing one of the 2012 Right Livelihood Award Laureates, Campaign Against Arms Trade, CAAT,  is coming to Lund December 4. He will give a presentation Challenging the Global Arms Trade and participate in a panel discussion.

Discussion Panel: Annika Bergman-Rosamund and Magdalena Bexell, Peace and Conflict Research, Dept. Of Political Science rlcposter

When: December 4, 18:00 - 20:00

Where: Edens Hörsal, Paradisgatan 5, Lund

Poster (pdf)
 

 

 

 

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SESYNC

SESYNC FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: THEMATIC PURSUITS

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is a new national research center supported by the National Science Foundation through a grant to the University of Maryland. SESYNC funds the world’s leading social scientists, natural scientists, and humanities scholars to travel to the Annapolis facility and work intensively in small trans-disciplinary groups to advance fundamental research on socio-environmental problems. Computational science is also supported by the center.

SESYNC invites applications to support synthesis research projects (“Pursuits”) under the following new Themes:

Theme 4: Globalization and Socio-Environmental Systems
SESYNC seeks proposals focused on the relationship between globalization and socio-environmental diversity. The goal of this call for proposals is to increase fundamental knowledge related to the interaction of social and environmental systems as they respond to globalization. For more information:
http://www.sesync.org/themes/globalization-and-socio%E2%80%93environmental-systems

Theme 5: Water, People, and Ecosystems
SESYNC seeks proposals that integrate data and develop models (e.g., simulation, theoretical etc.) to enhance our understanding of the relationships between the spatial and temporal variability of water, ecological systems, and human welfare or behavior. This solicitation specifically focuses on the intersection of these three components with implications for policy and practice. For more information:
http://www.sesync.org/themes/water-people-and-ecosystems 

Applications are due no later than 5:00pm EST on JANUARY 25, 2013. Details and application guidelines can be found at http://www.sesync.org/node/181.

Announcement (pdf) »
 

 

 

 

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rio20malmo

After Rio+20, A conference in Malmö, October 30

After this summer's UN conference in Rio, there are many questions that need to be straightened out: What was decided and what was not decided? How do we continue the work locally to create a sustainable future?

On October 30, you will meet experts and "do'ers" from across the region. We inspire each other and share our ideas and methods on our continued work with sustainable development in Skåne!

The conference will be held in Swedish, except for two of the workshops during the afternoon:

  • Reflections of Rio + 20, what was said and what was missing Workshop with students of LUMES- Environmental studies and Sustainability Science (MSc)
     
  • Organizational Change and Sustainability: the Role of Governance
    Seminar/workshop discussion with Timothy Engström, Professor of Philosophy at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in New York.

Registration and more information at www.malmo.se/globalamalmo

Programme (pdf) »

For more information contact:
Elin Hasselberg
Globala Malmö
tel 0709-467372
elin.hasselberg@malmo.se

The conference is organized by
Malmö (GLOBAL MALMÖ), Malmö University, Skåne HBS, RCE Skåne and ISU

 

 

 

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linnea_roddarroman_serdar_mendlekristin_tovaas
moa_forstorpnicole_harper

LUMES students organise a workshop during the After Rio+20 Conference in Malmö -
Reflections of Rio + 20, what was said and what was missing

The LUMES students Linnea Roddar, Roman Serdar Mendle, Kristin Tovaas and Moa Forstorp,  and Nicole Harper, an IIIEE student are organising a workshop during the conference After Rio+20 in Malmö the 30th of October.

They participated the Rio+20 conference in Rio de Janeiro, and now they want to share their experiences and reflections from Rio+20 at this workshop in Malmö,

Registration and more information at www.malmo.se/globalamalmo 
Programme (pdf) »

For more information contact:
Elin Hasselberg
Globala Malmö
tel 0709-467372
elin.hasselberg@malmo.se

The conference is organized by
Malmö (GLOBAL MALMÖ), Malmö University, Skåne HBS, RCE Skåne and ISU

Visit LUMES webpage »

 

 

 

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devday12

Development Research Day 2012 -
Climate and Development

When: October 16, 9:00-12:30, 13:30-17:10
Where: Geocentrum I, Sölvegatan 10, 1st floor

Poster (pdf) »
Programme (pdf) »

Development Research Day is an annual event intended to bring together those interested in development issues from a wide variety of disciplines. This year it will be held on October 16 and hosted by LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies).

PhD and master students are especially encouraged to participate, this event is designed to give you the opportunity to present your work. Of course, we are more than happy to welcome senior researchers, professors, and post-docs as well.

It is a full day programme with a  plenary session in the morning with keynote speakers. The afternoon will highlight the variety of development research at Lund University through parallel sessions with short presentations and a poster exhibition.

Keynote Speakers
The UN-led Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the
2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The IPCC is the most important scientific process for advancing science and policy related to climate change. Their 5th Assessment Report is in the making and will be presented in Spring 2014. The morning session includes two of the coordinating lead authors who will share their experiences from coordinating and writing chapters highly relevant for development.

Professor Richard Klein from Stockholm Environment Institute and Linköping University leads the chapter on Adaptation opportunities, constraints, and limits and professor Lennart Olsson from LUCSUS leads the chapter on Climate Change Impacts on Livelihoods and Poverty.

Sida is a leading actor to promote climate change actions globally in Sweden. AnnaKarin Norling, Research Advisor at Sida, will present Sida’s work related to climate change in development assistance.

Finally, Professor (em) Göran Hydén from University of Florida, a world renowned scholar on development politics, will discuss the politics of climate change in an African perspective.

Welcome!

For further information please contact:
Molly MacGregor
PhD Student, Member of LUCID Research School
LUCSUS, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies
Phone: +46(0)46-222 8416
E-mail: molly.macgregor@lucsus.lu.se 

Programme

Programme as a pdf file »

Plenary Session 09:00-12:30
Venue: Geocentrum1, 1st floor, room “Världen”
9:00     Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Change Policies
            on Livelihoods and Poverty
            Lennart Olsson, LUCSUS

9:45     Sida and Climate Change:
            Policy and Experiences in Development Cooperation
            AnnaKarin Norling, Sida

10:30   Coffee break

11:00   Using Climate Finance and Development Assistance to Promote
            Climate Change Adaptation: Constraints and Limits
            Richard Klein, Stockholm Environment Institute and Linköping University

11:45   Governance for Sustainable Development:
            What Have We Learnt?
            Göran Hydén, University of Florida

12:20   Hydén Award Ceremony

 

Parallel sessions, 13:30 - 17:10

 

Session A1, 13:30-15:10

Venue: Geocentrum 1, 1st floor
            Room “Flygeln”

Facilitator: Barry Ness, LUCSUS, LU

13:30-13:50
Transnational Adaptation Governance
Adis Dzebo, Political Science, LU
 

13:50-14:10
Con la ayuda de dios: gender, violence and "illegal" travelling - mobile research along the migrant route, Central-America to the United States
Sara Alemir, LU

14:10-14:30
Legal Empowerment of the Poor and Reflections from Rio + 20
Linnea Roddar, Roman Mendle, Kristin Tovaas and Moa Forstorp, LUMES, LU

14:30-14:50
Do Foreign Aid and Globalization Affect Health in Developing Countries?
Anna Welander, Economics, LU
 

14:50-15:10
Ecological peacebuilding in the Jordan River Basin, a serious game
Joshka Wessels, Political Science, LU
 

Coffee break

Session A2, 15:30-17:10

Venue: Geocentrum 1, 1st floor
            Room “Flygeln”

Facilitator: Henner Busch, LUCSUS, LU

15:30-15:50
The urban green matrix – climate adaptation and resilience of local green infrastructure
Johanna Deak Sjöman, Landscape Architecture, SLU

15:50-16:10
The Rights to "Nature" in the City - exploring human ecologies, public space and lived experiences in the urban landscape, departing from the case of "saving the Lilacs" in Lund, Sweden
Matti Larsson, Human Ecology, LU

16:10-16:30
The new developmental city: poverty reduction through state policies and community organization for informal vendors in Bogota 
Ana Maria Vargas Falla, Sociology of Law, LU

16:30-16:50
Various barriers to environmental action and sustainable development: Evidence from the Lone Star State (Texas, U.S.A.)
Chad Boda, LUCSUS, LU

16:50-17:10
Citizen Driven, Community Based, Nature Conservation instead of Land Development
Duane De Witt, University of California at Berkeley

Session B1, 13:30-15:10

Venue: Geocentrum 1, 1st floor
            Room ”Världen”

Facilitator: Sara Brogaard, LUCSUS, LU

13:30-13:50
Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farms in Southern Ethiopia
Molly MacGregor, LUCSUS, LU

13:50-14:10
A typology of agricultural modernization for food security
Cheryl Sjöström, LUCSUS, LU

 

14:10-14:30
Improving local citizens
Winnie Bothe, Political Science, LU

 

14:30-14:50
Where 'everyone' has migrated: Exploring social transformation under the impact of labour migration
Srilata Sircar, Human Geography, LU

14:50-15:10
Religion in Climate Change
Sigurd Bergmann, Archaeology and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Coffee break

Session B2, 15:30-17:10

Venue: Geocentrum 1, 1st floor
            Room “Världen”

Facilitator: Vasna Ramasar, LUCSUS, LU

15:30-15:50
Politics of renewable energy development : Water grabbing for energy?
Mine Islar, LUCSUS, LU

 

15:50-16:10
Street Art/performance and the Production of Public Space in Cairo, Egypt after the 25th of January 2011: Providing access to public space for women and the working class
Nihal Ragab, Human Ecology, LU

16:10-16:30
The Role of Institution in Promoting Quality Growth in Indonesia: A Capability Approach
Abdullah, Imaduddin; Syafrian, Dzulfian Development Studies , LU

 

16:30-17:10
Film: Masculinities in development
Gustaf Sörnmo; Karin

 

 

Welcome!

 

 

 

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saito 

 

 

japan-tsuname

Open guest lecture by Professor Fumihiko Saito, Ryukoku University, Japan
Post 3.11 Implications for Japan and the World

When: Thursday August 30, 10h15-12h00
Where: Geocentrum 1, 1st floor, Flygeln, Sölvegatan 10

On March 2011, a triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami, and a severe accident at the nuclear power plant, hit Fukushima and Japan. Putting this 3.11 into perspective would be quite valuable not only for Japan but probably for the world. One of the important causes of the nuclear accident is a fraud decision making process of nuclear energy. Therefore,  3.11 poses a serious question about energy choice in democratic society. 3.11 also raises how to make transitions to green growth/green economy. These questions further relate to our much deeper understanding whether the current liberal democracy and capitalist economy would be good enough for sustainable future.

Dr. Fumihiko Saito is a professor at Ryukoku University, the oldest university in Japan. He was educated at Ryukoku University in Kyoto (PhD in Economics); Yale University (MA in International Relations); Amherst College (BA magna cum laude); and Doshisha University in Kyoto. He previously worked with UNDP in Bangladesh and Uganda. He was until recently co-directing a large research project examining comparative experiences of decentralization in developing countries. One of his books received an award from Japan Society for International Development.

Welcome!

 

 

 

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iSimangaliso

 

iSimangaliso

LUCID Workshop on the Enclosure of natural resources, iSimangaliso
Wetland Park (IWP), South Africa, August 2 – 7, 2012

This workshop aims to explore the multiple ways in which “enclosure” has been implemented in a range of geographical and political settings, through development or conservation projects. There are similar effects of enclosure on state-community relations, property regimes, participatory mechanisms and benefits, although enclosure takes place with different resources, at different scales and geographies. The workshop will explore some of these effects in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (IWP) in South Africa, as an example of protected area formation for conservation. The workshop will address and discuss the following questions in relation to the study site:
I.    How and by whom is enclosure introduced and legitimized?
II.  What new rules and property regimes appear during and after the process
      of enclosure?
III. What new social and social-ecological relations are produced?

See the full programme (pdf)  »

 

 

 

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cover_nature

 

A Nature publication by a LUMES Graduate:
International trade drives biodiversity threats in developing nationsdan

Dan Moran, a LUMES graduate from the batch 2005-2007, is now a PhD candidate in Integrated Sustainability Analysis, School of Physics at the University of Sydney. One paper he was working on as part of his PhD was recently published by Nature.

Congratulations!

Read the article at
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7401/full/nature11145.html

 

 

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rio20

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LUMES Students participate in Rio+20
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

18 June 2012

One of the main themes for the Rio+20 conference is how the world can move towards a green economy. Master students at Lund University have formed a study group on Green Economy and Linnea Roddar, Roman Serdar Mendle, Kristin Tovaas and Moa Forstorp, LUMES students and Nicole Harper, IIIEE student are now in Rio de Janeiro, to learn more. 

We look forward to the workshop they will organise when they are back in Lund.

 

 

 

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Right Livelihood Award and LUCSUS organised a Lunch seminar at the Swedish Parliament:
Landgrabbing – What is it, why is it happening, and what are the effects?

13 June 2012

Right Livelihood Award Foundation and LUCSUS organised a lunch seminar the 14th of June, at the Swedish Parliament on the topic of landgrabbing.

Parliamentarians, journalists, and some individuals and institutions were invited to the seminar. The same evening, there was also an open seminar arranged by some Swedish NGOs engaged in the issue.

During the last few years, it has become increasingly common that richer states and private interests buy or lease large tracts of land in poorer countries - often as a pure investment. This trend, which has been termed landgrabbing, has immense effects for local people. Recently, we’ve heard of various cases where also Swedish companies and pension funds are involved. This seminar described the trend and present an overall picture of where this is happening, to what extent, and why. The idea was also to give seminar participants plenty of time to pose questions to the panel consisting of Right Livelihood Award Laureates who work with this issue on a daily bases, as well as researchers from Lund University.

A new policy brief on landgrabbing from LUCSUS was presented at the seminar, Internationell handel med jordbruksmark - Ett modernt baggböleri
(pdf in Swedish) »

For more information, e.g. video and media coverage,
please see Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s website »

 

Lennart Olsson

Short report from the lunch seminar on land grabbing in the Swedish Parliament, June 14th 2012

Lennart Olsson, LUCSUS, Lund University
The seminar was opened by professor Lennart Olsson from LUCSUS, Lund University, who introduced the concept of land grabbing and presented a broad picture of where, why and to what extent land grabbing currently takes place. The findings presented were based on a report in Swedish prepared by LUCSUS staff. This report is building on data from the Land Matrix Project, which is the most systematically collected and verified data on land grabbing available. As pointed out by Lennart, land grabbing is a topic that has received increasing attention and a number of reports has recently been published. Not least various activist groups and non-governmental organizations have been active in documenting the trend and in assessing the effects on local people. The GRAIN database is one of the most comprehensive and important.

 After a short discussion on what terminology is most appropriate to describe the phenomena of states and private actors buying or leasing large areas of agricultural land in poor countries, ‘large-scale land acquisitions’ was proposed as the most neutral concept. At the same time, Lennart quoted a report stating that there is little in the data that does not justify the term ‘land grabbing’ to describe the ongoing trend.

It was pointed out that the actor landscape is complex and diverse, but four main actors were identified:
1) investors (including food trade companies, pension funds, agro-business, development assistance banks and pure financial investors),
2) investment vehicles (e.g. SEKAB, ADDAX),
3) facilitators/gate openers (national and regional governments welcoming FDI, local level politicians and leaders anticipating economic gains), and
4) land users (who often are poor and have little power over land, and are discriminated in compensation).
In sum, Lennart argued, this is a landscape of extremely unequal power relationships, spanning from the global to the local, which means that the conditions for fair land deals are minimal. It was pointed out that women is a particularly marginalized group, since they generally have less access to and control over land, and often are discriminated in compensation for loss of land compared to men.

The picture is constantly changing, which makes it difficult to estimate the extent of land grabbing. While the common understanding previously was that it is mainly rich countries that are not self-sufficient in food production that are investing in farm land, the picture is now much more complex. For EU counties (including Sweden), the motive is mainly production of biofuel crops, such as jatropha , sugar cane and oil palm, whereas countries like South Korea and South Arabia invest mainly in food crop production. The drivers of land grabbing are numerous. One of the most important and immediate is the recent food price increases. More long term drivers include concerns over future food production, biofuel targets, and structural changes in the global political economy which drive territorial expansion. 

Various initiatives to reduce the risk of negative social consequences of land grabbing was mentioned and discussed. FAO has, for instance, developed a set of voluntary guidelines with the aim of protecting local land users and increasing the transparency in large scale land deals. Although such voluntary guidelines can be criticized for being inadequate in safeguarding rural populations and ensuring fair processes, Lennart argued that they are at least better than nothing and said that these guidelines has been developed through a relatively inclusive process.

Lastly, the case of the Addax Bioenergy project in Sierra Leone (co-funded by Swedfund) was briefly discussed. While this has been presented by Swedfund as the best bioenergy project in Africa, Lennart argued that it is a telling example of the unequal realities of land grabs. The involvement of local stakeholders in negotiation processes has more or less been absent, compensation to local land users has been minimal, the promised employment opportunities have largely not been realized, and more than 90 percent of the returns of the investment have ended up in the hands of the owners. In other words, this can hardly be seen as a development assistance project.

Camila Montecions

Camila Montecions, GRAIN (Right Livelihood Award 2012)
Camila opened her presentation by stating that the debate about land grabbing is a debate about the future of millions of people who depend on small-scale agriculture. She argued that the data available on the actors and the type of investments made clearly show that large-scale land deals are not about development, but about making profit, often at the expense of local land users.
Concerns about future food production and energy needs, in combination with recent price increases were identified as the main drivers behind the increased corporate interest in land. Arguments about ‘under-utilized’ agricultural land in developing countries and low productivity of small-scale agriculture have often been used to justify foreign investment. Camila emphasized that land grabbing cannot be separated from the political context in which it occurs. Building on the unequal power relationships outlined in Lennart’s presentation, she gave a number of place-based examples of negative social consequences of land grabbing and pointed out that the trend now seen make an already bad situation even worse in terms of small-scale farmers’ limited control over global farm land.

Camila argued that land grabbing is unacceptable for a number of reasons: it violates the right of people to define their own development, it expels people from their land and thus take away the basis for rural livelihoods, it makes food more expensive and less available, it destroys job opportunities for rural populations since large-scale agriculture is less labor intensive compared to small-scale farming, it worsens other problems such as water scarcity, and investments are often pure financial speculation with no social responsibility.
According to Camila, voluntary guidelines or ‘codes of conduct’ do not represent a solution to reduce the negative consequences of land grabbing. What is needed is stricter regulation and monitoring, as well as increased transparency of land deals. Furthermore, Camila argued that customary land rights need to be fully recognized and that genuine investment in and support to local food production is the only real basis of broad-based rural development.
 

Tony Clarke

Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute (Right Livelihood Award 2005)
Tony turned the focus to the importance of water issues in large-scale land acquisitions. Based on research by the Oakland Institute, he stated that land grabbing is often accompanied by ‘water grabbing’, which has important implications for the lives and livelihoods of rural populations. Numerous cases studies from Africa were brought up, which demonstrated that foreign investments in land often also involve construction of dams and pumping systems for large-scale irrigation, with major negative impacts on Africa’s river systems. Biofuel crops, which play a key role in current land grabs, also require large amounts of water compared to production of other crops. He argued that the biofuel targets in EU and other countries therefore can be seen as built-in drivers of land grabbing and the increased pressure on water.

Tony concluded that all this implies considerable stress on the Africa’s river systems and freshwater supply, and exacerbates a situation where one third of the African population lack adequate water access. Based on estimations made by the Oakland Institute, he stated that given that the rate of land acquisitions continue and land is brought into cultivation as planned, the demands for water from these activities will overtake the existing supply of renewable fresh water in Africa by 2019. He therefore argued that this type of production neglects the needs of smallholder farmers and alternative investment in small-scale irrigation which has much larger potential to generate benefits to local communities. Tony emphasized that it is of crucial importance to support the capacities of local people to express their requirements, to strengthening their negotiation power, and their capacities to define their own pathways for development and to resist unwanted investments.

Issues for discussion

After the presentations, a number of questions and issues for discussion were raised. One key issue for discussion was the role and potential of voluntary guidelines developed by FAO and others. One participant argued that such voluntary guidelines are problematic and far from sufficient in regulating negative consequences of land grabbing. Different positions were represented among the panelists; while Lennart argued that these guidelines definitely are not strong enough, he pointed out that more binding regulations has not yet been seen and that a pragmatic approach is to be preferred. Camila however argued that such guidelines will never be part of a solution.   

A pension fund representative criticized the debate for being one-sided and requested a discussion on if and how large-scale land investments can be fair and socially responsible. Lennart argued that the current debate on the need for agricultural investment in Africa has been used to justify land grabs and emphasized that there must be a differentiation between different types of investment; investment to support smallholder farmers is very different from the trend now seen and is less attractive for a financial investor since profit is limited. Tony emphasized that the type of investments that better could benefit poor smallholder farmers require the inclusion of local communities. It was also pointed out that there is a need better now the specific local conditions in order to make both responsible investments and to assess such investments.

Another issue for discussion was what can and should be done about land grabbing now, and by whom. The panelists agreed that interventions at various fronts are necessary. On the one hand, increased pressure and demands on government representatives and awareness-raising campaigns are necessary to fight the ignorance about what is going on and to pressure investors to take more social responsibility. On the other hand, strengthening local institutions and legal empowerment of the poor is needed to strengthen local capacities to negotiate and resist unwanted investments, and to identify alternative modes of development. On the research side, production of more and reliable data on ongoing investments is needed, and well as more research on the effects of land grabbing at local levels.

Other issues for discussion included which type of land ownership systems best can protect the rights of local land users, additional drivers for foreign land investments (including synthetic biology and biochar production, the risk that strong social and environmental protection in some countries can act as a driving force of less responsible investment in others, and the need to understand land grabbing in a broader context of increased commodification and financial speculation.

 

 

 

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The best way to save the rainforest?

12 June 2012

Torsten Krause and political scientist Tobias Dan Nielsen presented research about how a global environmental policy could influence local reality at  Lund Conference on Earth System Governance, April 18-20, 2012.

In recent years a plethora of projects have appeared to save the rainforest from destruction. It is possible to buy a section of forest or pay landowners a sum of money not to chop it down. But how effective are these methods in stopping global warming when the real villain of the piece is the Western world’s excessive consumption? Torsten Krause, a PhD Candidate at LUCSUS, has spent two years travelling to and from Ecuador to interview the population in various villages out in the rainforest to find out how these global environmental policies influence the local reality.

Full story at Lund university’s website »
 

 

 

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Seminar in the Swedish Parliament:
Fossil free energy economy - How can that happen?

4 June 2012

How can raw materials and residues from forests and fields be used in a smart way for materials, chemicals and energy? What are the social consequences of the transition to renewable raw materials? What do we need to know already now to make good decisions for the future?

The Swedish Parliamentary liaison group for research and future issues offered in collaboration with the Research Council Formas a lunch seminar May 30. Some thirty listeners got to enjoy some different researchers' perspectives on a future bio-based economy.

See Formas website for more information (in Swedish) »

 

 

 

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Bodil & Kim

 

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Did you know you can taste climate change?
5 minute micro-lectures by Kim Nicholas

24 May 2012

Kimberly Nicholas, assistant professor at LUCSUS, held micro-lectures in the city centre. Wine grapes are very sensitive to climate and the taste of wine reflects the climate where it was grown.  Kim discussed how climate change affects the wine.

Please, see the Festival’s website for more information and full programme »

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Forskare håller låda:
Mat, Bränsle 2050. Hur ska marken räcka till?

16 May 2012

I samband med Hållbarhetsfestivalen, Planet Lund, höll Sara Brogaard, LUCSUS,  Kerstin Baumanns och Stefan Ohlin, Naturgeografi och Ekosystemvetenskap, en mikro-föreläsning på trottoaren under lunchen.  De diskuterade tänkbara framtida förändringar i markanvändning samt riskerna med förändringarna.

Please, see the Festival’s website for more information and full programme »

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What is your water footprint?
5 minute micro-lecture in the city centre

15 May 2012

Weston Dripps, visiting professor at LUCSUS, held micro-lectures in the city centre. He introduced the concept of virtual water, and how our local everyday food choices actually might be impacting the water resources of other parts of the world.

Please, see the Festival’s website for more information and full programme »

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Lund

LUCSUS and LUMES students participate in Planet Lund,
Lund´s first Sustainability Festival, May 12-26, 2012

LUCSUS staff and LUMES students will participate in a wide range of activities;  lectures, “fika”, micro-lectures, seminars, workshops, city tours and .......

Please, see the Festival’s website for more information and full programme »

LUCSUS and LUMES activities are listed below.

Lecture
What is sustainability science? Local and global sustainability challenges
During this lecture you will be introduced to the notion of sustainability. You will also be provided with concrete examples of what research in sustainability science actually is. Learn about how our consumption is related to electronic waste in Pakistan, the reality of water and sanitation in India and some of the problems related to national parks in South Africa. The lecture is given by Stefan Anderberg, Sara Gabrielsson and Melissa Hansen, all from LUCSUS.
When: 2012-05-14, 19:00 - 20:30
Where: Domkyrkoforum

Micro-lectures
Meet researchers from LUCSUS who talk about some of today's major challenges such as food, fuel, water and climate change. The presentations are five minutes long and are held three times during lunch time (12:15, 12:30 and 12:45). Be part of the Lund University research linked to sustainable development in an easy and understandable way. Take the chance to ask questions afterwards.
What is your water footprint?
Weston Dripps
When: 2012-05-15, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45
Where: At the corner of Lilla Fiskaregatan/ Stortorget

Food and Fuel 2050, how will the food be sufficient?
Sara Brogaard and Kerstin Baumanns
When: 2012-05-16, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45
Where: At the corner of Lilla Fiskaregatan/ Stortorget

Tasting global warming:
How climate change affects the wine on your dinner table
Kimberly Nicholas
When: 2012-05-24, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45
Where: At the corner of Lilla Fiskaregatan/ Stortorget

Tasty coffee seminar
Learn how coffee is grown and produced and taste the flavours.
The Refika project is providing a coffee seminar. The project ReFika is run by two LUMES students and aims to show the importance of understanding where our food comes from. The seminar will include a lecture on coffee – growing methods, production, supply, certifications and will provide a look inside coffee farms in Costa Rica. Next, we will provide a cupping (coffee tasting) where people can taste and compare coffees from different regions and learn about the different characteristics and flavours. Lastly, we’ll finish with fika and discuss our favourites.
Please RSVP: refikacoffee@gmail.com
When: 2012-05-12, 17:00 - 18:30
Where: Domkyrkoforum

ReFika
Look for our fikavagn outside Domkyrkoforum during the day and find us in the lobby of Domkyrkoforum during Planet Lund seminars in the evening.
Our program aims to teach people about sustainable coffee through seminars, coffee tasting and by selling coffee (and fika) from our fikavagn. The founders of the project, Colin Hale and Mike Nelson, are Master’s students in the LUMES program. Through ReFika, we hope to forward some of our education and research to the public in a fun and interactive way.
When: 2012-05-14 - 2012-05-24, 17:00 - 19:00
Where: Domkyrkoforum

Workshop on Gardening
GreenStop vid Klangvägen
Come to this family friendly workshop for an introduction, in the open air, to how to grow food. We will focus on easily cultivated vegetables and seeds that are easy to plant for both small and large hands.
You will also get a seasonal calendar, the confidence to grow food in your own garden and of course a good mood. We will offer fika!
When: 2012-05-26, 11:00 - 14:00
Where: Klangvägen, Östra Torn

Workshop
Reduce, reuse, recycle… Rethink!
An enthusiastic and energetic group of Masters students from the LUMES programme, part of the global youth movement Generation Waking Up, will host some fun and interactive workshops about sustainability, consumption and production.
You will learn how your breakfast affects Ecuadorian farmers, take several trips around the world, and most importantly find out what YOU can do in your daily life to reduce your carbon footprint. Not everyone can not do everything, but we can all do something!
When: May 12, 19 and 26, 15:00-17:00
Where: Vattenhallen

Clothes swap
An eco-friendly and fun way to renew your closet is to swap clothes! During this clothesswap you will therefore have the opportunity to change your wardrobe without having a negative impact on the environment!
The rules are simple: For every piece of well-kept clothing that you hand in between 10:00 and 12:00 you will receive a ticket. With this ticket you can then come back between 13:00 and 17:00 to find another piece of clothing!
When: 2012-05-13, 10:00 - 17:00
Where: Domkyrkoforum

City Tour
City Walk on Sustainable Consumption
This interactive tour explores Lund’s shopping district from a non-traditional angle. We examine different aspects of our consumer society and globalization. We aim to raise awareness of the impacts of our decisions and actions, and how we can reduce negative impacts.  The tour is between 60 and 90 minutes.
When: May 14, 21 and 24, 13:00 - 14:30
Where: Tourist Office, Stortorget
 

 

 

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Eugene A. Rosa

 

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Camilla Toulmin

 

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Timmons Roberts

 

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John Dryzak

 

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Interviews with the keynote speakers
at the Lund Conference on Earth System Governance

Interview with Margaret C. Lee on the 21st Century Scramble for Africa

At the Lund Conference on Earth System Governance, Margaret C. Lee (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) gave a key-note presentation on “Africa's Land Grabs: Enhanced Development or Recolonising the Continent?” (video will be available shortly). In this interview she highlights some of the problematic issues of land grabbing.

You’ve written about “the 21st Century scramble for Africa.” What is that?
Well, the first scramble for Africa came after the Berlin conference in 1884, when European powers rushed to colonize the continent. Today, when countries like China are industrializing rapidly, there is a huge demand for African raw materials. China is building roads, hospitals and schools in exchange for access to minerals for, say, the next 25 years. Land grabbing is another issue. With the oil crisis in the mid-2000s and the increase in food prices, which was related, there was a new beginning for land grabbing. Now you had a situation where countries, especially in the Middle East, were worried about food supply and paranoid about water scarcity, so they started to buy up land in Africa – ironically with some of the money they made from higher oil prices. So countries like Saudi Arabia, Quatar and Bahrain are grabbing land in Africa. Then there are countries like Sweden, who grab land to produce biofuels.

Is “land grabbing” an appropriate term, or is there a more neutral alternative?
I just use land grabbing, because that’s what it is.

Do land grabbers buy the land or do they just drive people away?
Sometimes they just drive people away. In Ghana, it turned out, loggers had bought forest land from people that were illiterate; they came to them and said “just put your thumbprint on this document.” So people were driven away, and they rebelled. They eventually got their land back, but a lot of it had already been deforested. In most of Africa they have customary law, so farmers don’t technically own the land even if they have used it for a long time. Often the government owns all land. In that case, they just sell it; they’ll go in and actually displace people, usually to land that is not nearly as fertile. So the biggest land grabbers are African governments. With biofuels, companies come in and tell the local people how much money they’re going to make working on the new plantations. They promise that new technology will bring jobs and prosperity, but it usually doesn’t materialize. Usually they lease the land, with leases that from 33 to 99 years. They use satellites to identify what they call underutilized land, but there’s actually no such thing; it is left fallow. There’s a history of this from colonial times. During colonial rule, it was policy to pay taxes in the currency of the ruling nation, so this meant that Africans had to start working on plantations to make money: they had to pay to be colonized. This disrupted the whole agricultural system. Before then, it was practice to leave land fallow once in a while to let the earth replenish itself. Under colonial rule, Africans were forced to grow the same crop year after year, until the land was depleted. Africa used to be self-sufficient in agriculture, but that changed.

Are there any upsides to land grabbing?
Buyers of the land use more advanced technology, so they get higher yields. But the bottom line is that food production that used to be for consumption is now being exported, so there’s less food left.

Interview by Max Jerneck
PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, Lund University
max.jerneck@soc.lu.se

Interview with Eugene A. Rosa on Consumption and Population

23 April, 2012                                                                                              to top »

Eugene A. Rosa gave a keynote address on “Governance of What? Identifying the Drivers of Anthropogenic Pressures” at the Lund Conference on Earth System Governance. In this interview held at the conference, he speaks about the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, in particular population growth and consumption and the governance challenge to address them.

Eugene A. Rosa is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy in the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service, and Professor, and past chair, of Sociology, Faculty Associate in the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center, Affiliated Professor in the Program in Environmental Science, Affiliated Professor of Fine Arts, and Faculty Associate, Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO). He is simultaneously a Visiting Scholar in the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He serves on the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Standing Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change.

You’ve done a lot of research on the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions; what are they?
Population and consumption. There are differences in how you aggregate and disaggregate these factors. The age group 15 – 64 has bigger consumption, and therefore bigger impact than other groups. In our statistical analysis we found that there is one single variable that has a big impact on ecological footprint, threats to biodiversity and so forth, and that is the number of households. Every household is a locus of investment; every household needs its own appliances, so it is a locus of consumption, and hence environmental impact. Most new households tend to be in suburban areas, so you also have added transportation.

The trend in the West toward smaller households apparently has a negative impact. So people should get married and start a family when they’re twenty like they used to do?
Maybe people shouldn’t start a family at all, is the issue. But this is a big challenge because it interferes with people’s reproductive rights.

Is there an impact difference between private and public spending? The leftist party in Sweden argues that public consumption has a lower impact.
I haven’t studied it, but I can see how you could make that argument, because public spending tends to be on infrastructure. There needs to be more research on this. There are a whole lot of questions that aren’t answered. The matter of whether urban living has less of an impact is unclear, for example. In Urban areas, there are multiple units of housing and work, so you have less energy loss. On the other hand, you have to pump more waste away, so that takes a lot of energy. We have done research on it and gotten mixed results. It is not clear whether one is better than the other.

What’s the global situation?
Norman Meyer has written about “the new consumer.” He states that when average income in a country reaches above $2500 a year it represents a tipping point from survival consumption to discretionary consumption, so that means accelerated impacts. We have a suspicion that this is the case; we’re going to investigate it.

So what are potential solutions?
Fertility decline is a solution, but needless to say, its effects are delayed. Consumption reduction has to be part of it, but there is no magic bullet. The big red herring in this issue is the talk about energy efficiency because what happens is the rebound effect: you have better per unit-performance, but that only means that consumption is cheaper, so overall consumption goes up. We’ve seen this from country to country. What we need is structural change. Reducing the number of work hours, which is what many people want, is a potential solution.

Our economies are based on economic growth; what will happen if people work fewer hours?
What I think happened in France when they reduced the work week to 35 hours was that productivity actually went up. Certainly, the economy didn’t collapse.

If productivity went up, doesn’t that mean more production and more environmental impact?
There are questions like these all along the causal chain that need to be investigated.

What about switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, isn’t that a solution?
My friend Richard York wrote an article about this in Nature Climate Change titled “Do alternative energy sources displace fossil fuels?” and the answer is no. So there are no easy answers.

Interview by
Max Jerneck, PhD candidate,
Department of Sociology, Lund University
max.jerneck@soc.lu.se
 

Interview with Camilla Toulmin on
Vested Interest and the Need for Change

25 April, 2012                                                                                               to top »

Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, gave the closing keynote ‘Policy that works for a sustainable planet’ at the Lund Conference on Earth System Governance.

In your talk you mentioned the need to confront vested interests in the fossil fuel industry. What is the actual basis of their power? How does their economic power translate into political power?
They employ a lot of people and they generate a lot of tax revenue, so the government is responsive to their needs. The supermarket sector in Britain, for instance, has considerable political weight, because that’s where the day-to-day cost of living for people is manifested. The government has an interest in keeping food prices low. It wants cheap food, and cheap fuel.

The British government has broken the power of a fossil fuel industry before, in the 1980s when Thatcher closed the coal mines. How did that happen?
Well, Thatcher’s goal wasn’t to break the coal industry per se, but to break the power of unions.

Still, she succeeded in closing coal mines. How?
I think there was recognition that British coal mining wasn’t internationally competitive.

So how do we retrench fossil fuel industries that are competitive? Should we use the carrot or the stick?
We have to operate on different levels. On the level of ideas, we need to continue to stress the urgency of the problem, that fact that continued use of fossil fuels will lead to disaster.

Do you think that existing fossil fuel companies can be persuaded to switch to renewable energy, or do we need new companies?
There was a time when companies like BP and Shell invested in renewable energy. It was a small proportion – less than one percent – but significant. What we’re seeing now is that they are retreating into their core activities. We need to get more businesses to see that it is in their own interest to change for the future. The food and drinks industry recognizes this; they see that their own business is threatened by climate change. Unilever, Nestlé, even Coca Cola recognizes this. The insurance industry is very concerned, because the concept of risk is changing. What they’ve seen is that they’re losing money because they don’t know how to price insurance anymore. Before the climate summit in in Copenhagen in 2009, 20 CEOs of big companies in the UK actually urged Cameron to be ambitious. They want credible and stable long term rules, because they want to be able to calculate and make investments.

You ended your talk by stating “it’s the politics, stupid.” What did you mean by that?
We are still in a situation where the power of the old interests seems to weigh heavier than the interests of the future. We need to mobilize people to change this. But I think that it will take crises to soften up the support of these old interests. After Katrina was a good opportunity to promote action, but I think that it will take a number of catastrophes to force people to see things differently. I’d rather that wasn’t the case, but unfortunately I think that’s what it takes.

What are your expectations on Rio+20?
My moderate hope is that we’ll get some high level declaration about our collective need to build a more sustainable planet. It has to be universally applicable and address inequality; otherwise we’ll never get agreement.  We need to focus on development rather than just the limits of our planet. There social needs that have to be addressed. In the 2008-2009 food crisis there was a lot of talk about poverty and hunger; I think it’s equally important to address overconsumption and obesity. You should always look at the flipside. It is easy for us to talk about overpopulation in the developing world, while we should take a look at our own consumption patterns. We in the North have to be ready to change our own behavior.

Interview by Max Jerneck,
PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, Lund University
max.jerneck@soc.lu.se 

 

Interview with Timmons Roberts on Climate and Development Finance

23 April, 2012                                                                                               to top »

Timmons Roberts is Director of the Center for Environmental Studies and Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies. Timmons' interests in environmental science and policy are broad. His main current research concerns global inequality and climate change (in who is suffering most, who caused the problem, and who is taking action), and the role of foreign aid in addressing climate justice matters. Timmons Roberts is currently researching the UN scheme to channel funds from the global North to the global South to compensate vulnerable nations for climate change. This interview has been held at the Lund Conference on Earth System Governance where he gave a  keynote address. Conference website »

You’ve done a lot of work on climate finance; talk a little bit about the difficulties involved in that issue.
You need to keep account of both the contributors and the receivers of these funds. You have to figure out who should get money and who should pay, and how to transfer the funds. This is a huge managerial problem.

You found that only a small proportion of the money actually ends up where it is supposed to. What happens to it?
A lot of it gets spent on consultants and staff. A lot of it just disappears, and never gets to developing countries, because there is hardly any accountability. You have a lot of focus on the UN but most of the money is actually being transferred through the World Bank. Contributing nations want to control where the money is going, so they prefer to use bilateral agreements.

Why do they want control, to benefit their own national companies?
There’s some of that. Traditionally, there has been a lot of “tied aid”, which means that recipients can only use it to buy goods from the donor country. Now they have untied most of it because of international agreements. But when they untied the aid, a whole lot of people who used to be involved in aid dropped out.  It wasn’t interesting anymore. So it’s a double edged sword.

How do we improve the transfer system for climate compensation?
By handling as much as possible through the UN, because then we get a lot of participation from recipient countries. But the UN has been accused of inefficiency, so the best way would be to let an efficient agency handle it, but with UN oversight. The best way to raise money would be to tax international transactions, like airline levies, a Tobin tax, etc.;  keep it out of national treasuries so it won’t conflict with everything else governments have to spend money on.

Is there any progress in this direction?
No, I think we’re going in the other direction. I’m quite discouraged, actually. Large contributors are not committed to making this work; they want to keep control of their contributions.

How do we change this?
We need to put democratic pressure on them; we need to bring attention to those affected by climate change, who didn’t cause the problem but are suffering the consequences.  My very modest proposal at the end of my talk was to start tracking the money. If we’re going to have a fragmented system, we should, at least, keep track of the money to stop it from just disappearing into people’s pockets.  This could actually make a huge difference. There are aid projects where you give money to a schoolchild in Kenya, for example, and you get to see all the receipts of where it’s been spent. We could have the same thing for climate finance: photographs, GPS monitoring, NGOs to monitor the process and so on. We could encourage and even pay whistle blowers and watchdogs to keep track of it. This would also raise more money, because it would make people trust the system.  If people believe the money is going where it should be going, they’ll be more willing to contribute.

Do you have any expectations on RIO+20?
I’m not going; I looked at the program but decided not to go because it didn’t look like too much was going to come out of it. There was very little of substance, at least regarding climate change and the sustainability issues raised at the first conference 20 years ago, but I hope I’m wrong.

Interview by
Max Jerneck, PhD candidate
Department of Sociology, Lund University
max.jerneck@soc.lu.se 

 

Interview with John Dryzek on Deliberative Democracy

19 April, 2012                                                                                               to top »

John Dryzek is visiting Lund as one of the invited keynote speakers at Lund Conference on Earth System Governance. Conference website »

Political philosopher John Dryzek is best known for his work on deliberative democracy and environmental politics. Environmental problems are best addressed through democratic processes that allow dialogue between all affected parties on equal turns, he argues.

What do you see as the biggest obstacles to deliberative democracy?
First of all, there are people who think that existing forms of representative democracy work just fine, and that deliberative democracy is an attempt to undermine it. The more insidious barriers to deliberative democracy are the barriers to democracy of any sort, that is, organized and well-funded lobbies and bureaucracies. Entrenched powers.

What is the role of power in the issue of deliberative democracy?
Of course power is inescapable. The whole idea of deliberative democracy is to make power subject to deliberative influence. Power can be exercised in very raw terms, as when George W.  Bush withdrew from climate negotiations, and said “they’re not in our interest.” There are also more subtle forms of power, such as the United States claiming that it is unfair to have a climate treaty that does not include everyone; China for instance. Deliberation is often cover for material interests - this is not necessarily too bad, because even though it involves hypocrisy, if you use certain language for long enough, you might have to live up to it eventually. Maybe that is just a hope, but take the Helsinki accord for human rights; the Soviet Bloc signed on with no intention of living up to it, but human rights groups were formed in their own countries and eventually they had to take steps to live up to it.

If deliberative democracy undermines the power of policy elites, why do they allow deliberative forums?
Sometimes they use it to build support for their ideas, and to show their constituency that they care. I know of one politician who said she would use a deliberative forum to “build consensus” – but what if it builds disagreement instead? They usually don’t think it through. Then there are politicians who genuinely believe in deliberative democracy, but they tend to be ex-politicians. After a career in politics, they think “maybe there’s a better way.” They also don’t have a stake in the outcome.

What is your view on the current climate change negotiations, are they not deliberative enough?
Well, there is clearly a lot of talk going on, and some of it is even moderately deliberative. But a big problem is that different parts are not linked to each other. We have side events with business, for instance, and other side events with radical civil society forums, and then we have the official negotiations; but they do not communicate with each other. What the climate talks need is a reflexive capacity, some way to reform itself. A start would be for the Conference of the Parties to recognize that what they are doing is not ideal; the fact that every party can object to any issue is a recipe for impasse.

What do you think of the position of the US in the global climate negotiations?
I think that Obama’s heart is in the right place but that he is completely boxed in. There is no way that he can get any binding legislation through congress.

So, if we have to count the US out, where does that leave us?
Well, that means that the world has to move on without the US. I know that that is an extreme statement, because the US is clearly one of the biggest emitters.

What about China?
I think that China is much more promising than the US. They clearly recognize the problem and take it a lot more seriously than the US, where people still deny that it’s real. The Chinese realize that climate change will have catastrophic effects, and they also recognize economic opportunity, to develop new technologies like solar and so on. But they still cling to hardline notions of sovereignty, so they resist binding agreements.

Some environmentalists argue for a smaller negotiation regime, with only the most important countries involved, but you have claimed that that would reduce legitimacy. Is there a trade-off between legitimacy and effectiveness?
I think that legitimacy and effectiveness can be a trade-off, but the more complex an issue gets, the less of a trade-off it becomes. In order to solve the problem you need to bring different groups into the process to solve it; and that makes it more legitimate. I think that environmentalists who are only concerned with effectiveness are not concerned with democracy. Some would happily sacrifice democracy for effectiveness, but I think that that would make the process less effective, because there would be resistance.

Interview by
Max Jerneck, PhD candidate
Department of Sociology, Lund University
max.jerneck@soc.lu.se

 

 

 

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Shyddor

PhD Dissertation in Sustainability Science

Sara Gabrielsson
Uncertain futures - Adaptive capacities to climate variability and change in the Lake Viktoria Basin.

Sara Gabrielsson, LUCSUS will defend her thesis on Friday 4th of May.

The Lake Victoria basin (LVB) in East Africa can be considered a climate change hotspot because of its large rural population dependent on rain-fed farming. Drawing on extensive fieldwork (2007-2011) in rural communities along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania, I explore adaptive capacities to climate variability and change and discuss how they interrelate in situ. Using multiple methods, tools and techniques, including survey and rainfall data, individual and group interviews, interactive mapping of seasonal calendars and a multi-stakeholder workshop, I locate the place-based effects and responses to a number of converging climate induced stressors on smallholder farmers' wellbeing and natural resources. Research findings show that adaptive capacities to climate variability and change in the LVB are complex, dynamic and characterized by high location-specificity, thereby signifying the value of using an integrative and place-based approach to understand climate vulnerability. Specifically, the study demonstrates how increased unpredictability in rainfall causes chronic livelihood stress illustrated by recurring and worsening periods of food insecurity, growing cash dependency and heavy disease burdens. The study also reveals that food and income buffers increase when and where farmers, particularly women farmers, collectively respond to climate induced stressors through deliberate strategies rooted in a culture of saving and planning. Nevertheless, the study concludes that smallholders in the LVB are facing a highly uncertain future with discernible, yet differentiated adaptation deficits, due to chronic livelihood stress driven by unequal access to fundamental adaptive capacities such as land, health, cash and collective networks.

When: Friday May 4, 13:15

Where: Geocentrum I, Världen
             Sölvegatan 10, 1st floor

 

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International World Water Day 2012 in Lund
- Everything is connected

17 April, 2012

This was the theme when high school students from Polhemsskolan celebrated World Water Day in Lund. Sydvatten, Water Hall Science Centre and LUCSUS offered an afternoon of lectures and workshops with water as a common denominator.

International World Water Day was established by the UN in 1993 and held every year on 22 March to highlight the importance of water and to enhance the sustainable management of world water resources. The 2012 theme is "Sustainable water use for safer food production," with the aim of highlighting the link between access to water and food supplies.

The Programme
"The neighbor's shit in my drinking water"
A short lecture on the human impact on global water cycle.
Kenneth M Persson, professor of water resources engineering at Lund University and director of research at Sydvatten.

"Water is a dangerous poison"
A short lecture on the world's most important molecule.
Ulf Ellervik, Professor of Organic Chemistry at Lund University

"What does your lunch have to do with the lack of water in Spain?"
An introduction to the concept of virtual water, and how our local everyday food choices actually might be impacting the water resources of other parts of the world.
Workshop with Weston Dripps, Visiting Associate Professor at LUCSUS

How Big Is Your Water Footprint? (pdf)
Presentation by Weston Dripps

"Colorful clothes without toxic groundwater"
Swedish research for more efficient water treatment in the Indian textile factories.
Trade between countries - a lever for human rights and the environment.
Workshop with Mary Jonstrup, a PhD in biotechnology and Renee Andersson, ethical and environmental manager at the Indian.

Purification of water from the textile industry (pdf)
Presentation by Maria Jonstrup

Water Smart production? - A strategic issue for companies? (pdf)
Presentation by Renee Andersson

 

 

 

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vineyards2

Communicating Climate Change - Interview with Kimberly Nicholas “Insights from Winegrowing in Northern California”

17 April, 2012

Kimberly Nicholas, Associate Professor at LUCSUS was interviewed by Alissa Sasso a Princeton undergrad for her class on communicating climate change.

Listen to the interview »

 

 

 

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“Carbon Markets and the Fight Against Poverty: What Works?”

(17 April 2012)

Matt Evans, Managing Director of the nonprofit group Impact Carbon, gave a talk titled, "Carbon Markets and the Fight Against Poverty: What Works?" on Thursday, March 22. Matt discussed his work using carbon finance opportunities to bring clean energy and clean water technologies to households in least developed communities. Matt's talk was followed by a lively discussion with LUMES students about the role of the Clean Development Mechanism in promoting development, and the challenges and opportunities in working with local partners in building capacity and improving well-being in developing countries.

 

 

 

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LUCSUS gets support from Training Regions for research on
“Cities, Risk, and Disasters”

(7 Mar 2012)

Training Regions is a public-private partnership to promote safety, security and sustainability of cities and regions. It is a triple helix formation in which governmental authorities, private companies and universities collaborate for reaching the objectives of their respective sphere. Its focus is on Training, in its widest sense, including all types of activities (e.g. advice, education, training, exercises etc.) supporting the development of capacities of cities and regions to protect the well-being of their citizens and to maintain critical societal functions. This by ensuring effective and efficient flows of people, capital, goods and services, regardless of disturbance or disruption, now and in the future. Training Regions amd its Research Center at Lund University are supporting Christine’s research on “Cities, Risk, and Disasters”. The outcomes will be published in the Routledge Series on Critical Introduction to Urbanism and the City (to be published in 2013).

More info at
Training Regions »
Routledge Series »
Christine Wamsler »

 

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molly++

LUCSUS hosted the first annual Research Symposium on February 8.

(7 Mar 2012)

This all-day event brought together LUCSUS staff and LUMES students to share current research projects and brainstorm new ones in a creative and collaborative environment. In the morning, small groups of LUCSUS staff (faculty, postdocs, and PhD students) presented research ideas, ranging from an overview of current projects to a skit brainstorming new projects. In the afternoon, staff met with small groups of students to continue the brainstorming. The Symposium was a part of the Methods, Methodologies, and Tools for Sustainability course in the LUMES program, and served to demonstrate research in action from the early stages, as well as to promote connections between staff and students.

 

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Right Livelihood College Travel support 2011

(7 Mar 2012)

The recipients of the RLC Travel support 2011 for thesis students are:

  • Andrea Fiscal Woodhouse,
    for exploring art as a tool for social change in Colombia
  • Jiaxin Tan,
    for doing research on community-based biodiversity protection in China

 

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LUCSUS highlighted in Brussels Launch event

(28 Feb 2012)

Today I participated in the ESF-COST RESCUE Synthesis Report Launch Event detailed below and about which you can see more details in the attached Agenda. I happened to serve on one of the preparatory Working Groups. It was a high-level event, in the context of EC research agenda-setting, with a prestigious list of speakers, and intensive policy-wrangling going on. The audience of approximately 100 people involved in all levels of research policy, as well as a smaller number of journalists, from all over Europe, were addressed by the Director of Horizon 2020 ("FP8"), the Chief Executive of ESF, the Head of Science Operations for COST, the Director of JRC, and the Team Leader on global environmental change in UNESCO's DG for Social and Human Sciences, about this important initiative to bring urgency into addressing global change in research funding. This audience got to hear about LUCSUS.

To make a long story short, each of the speakers had to be extremely selective in choosing their statements for the brief time they were allotted in the tight program. You can imagine how happy, proud and satisfied I was to see that one of the speakers, the new Director of the EC's Joint Research Centre, who was also Chair of RESCUE, had a full slide on LUCSUS, as a "best practice" example "that demonstrates one of the initiatives to change the research paradigm to integrate knowledge and build capacity in problem-solving. A widespread adoption of such approaches is needed for the RESCUE Vision." (You can find it on page 38 of the Synthesis Report, in connection with its highly restrained list of only six Recommendations.

LUCSUS, in other words, is at the "cutting edge" of European higher education and research on global change. You already knew this, of course, but I thought it would be good to provide a bit of intelligence on how that reputation is spreading.

Carry on!
Richard Langlais, Lecturer, Human Ecology Division, Lund University

 

 

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Jonathan Franzen -Freedom

 

Ian McEwan - Solar

 

Mike Hulme - Why we disagree

 

lena2

Sustainability researchers look to fiction

(28 Feb 2012)

In order to achieve a more sustainable society we need not only knowledge of engineering and social sciences, but also visions of a different future. This is why Lucsus, Lund University’s Centre for Sustainability Research, is now taking a step into the field of the humanities.

“We must adapt our world view to the changes that are to come so that we can become players and not victims. In this regard, religion and entertainment play important roles in influencing the way people think.”

So said Lucsus director Lennart Olsson at an international workshop on comparative literature and climate change. The connection may seem tenuous, but there is in fact a large amount of fiction that addresses the threat of climate change for the world we are used to. Some are science fiction, others are ‘eco-thrillers’ that describe economic and political conflicts, yet others give apocalyptic visions of the disintegration of civilisation.

“However, there are also books where climate change is taken as such a self-evident phenomenon that it no longer needs to form the main theme”, says Lena Christensen, comparative literature researcher at Lucsus.

Some examples are Jonathan Franzen’s acclaimed novel Freedom and Ian McEwan’s Solar, where the main characters fight for threatened bird species and new solar technology.

A third well-known author, Margaret Atwood, has recently contributed to an anthology of short stories about our altered future.

“The fact of being able to put together an anthology is another sign that a new literary theme has developed”, says Lena Christensen.
She holds a postdoctoral fellowship at Lucsus, funded by the Swedish Research Council. She thinks the link between sustainability research and the humanities, especially comparative literature, is natural. Authors have always taken an interest in the problems facing society and individuals, and depicted different ways of reacting to threats and conflicts.

In conjunction with the workshop, Lucsus put on some other events: a doctoral course in humanities perspectives on climate change and two meetings with the renowned climate and culture researcher Mike Hulme from England.

“We wanted to give our international guests – both lecturers and doctoral students – as much opportunity as possible to meet one another. We also wanted to regard the events as a kick-off for Lucsus’s work in the field of humanities”, says Lena Christensen.

Ingela Björk
 

 

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New research project at LUCSUS:
“Distributed Urban Risk Governance: Increasing Societies’ Adaptive Capacities to Climate Change”

(28 Feb 2012)

FORMAS research project 2012-2017

Climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable urban development, placing many cities at risk. The extent of the changing climatic conditions is reducing the capacity of urban institutions and associated social security and governance systems to deal with climatic extremes and variability - and Sweden is no exception to this. New approaches for urban climate change adaptation are urgently needed.

Whilst substantial research exists on institutional capacities for adaptation, there is a near absence of research on adaptation capacities of citizens - individuals and households. Against this background, Christine’s research project aims at generating knowledge on the role and potential of a (more) distributed risk governance system, where institutional and people´s local capacities and strategies for climate change adaptation can support and complement each other. On this basis, the following research questions will be answered: What are the differences in current municipal strategies for climate change adaptation? Do these mechanisms actively involve different stakeholders and citizens at risk? Do they take account of local capacities? What kind of adaptation capacities (and safety attitudes) do individuals and households have, or could develop? Are they influenced by their life form (e.g. type of building)? What can and want citizens contribute to prevent and reduce potential disaster impacts? And how could citizens and their capacities be better supported and new capacities be incentivised?

The research focuses on Sweden. It will be carried out in close cooperation with different municipalities and strongly involve citizens living in areas vulnerable to climate variability and change. In addition, adaptation strategies from other countries will be analysed in order to identify lessons that could be applicable to the Swedish context. The final results will be disseminated in the form of concrete guides on climate change adaptation for municipalities and the general public, a book, a journal special issue, and academic articles.

 

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Turkish investment in water power led to environmental destruction

(28 Feb 2012)

Small-scale projects with renewable energy: how can that go wrong? Mine Islar is among the first group of doctoral students in sustainability science. Her research shows that the expansion of hydroelectric power in Turkey has led to environmental destruction and caused thousands of farmers to be driven from their land.

Turkey is a high energy consumer and the State cannot afford to invest in the development of renewable energy. In 2003 the Turkish hydroelectric power sector was opened up to private entrepreneurs, but development did not really take off until 2009. Then the World Bank began, to the delight of the Turkish Government, to portion out money to small energy companies that wanted to develop hydroelectricity in Turkey. The country would finally get environmentally friendly energy without the Government having to pay for its development.

“The problem was that it all happened much too quickly and consideration was not given to the farmers who live by the rivers and are dependent on the water for their crops”, says Mine Islar. Expansion at record speed has led to widespread environmental destruction and shortages of water for the farmers and their fields.

The World Bank chose to only lend money to small companies because it had had bad experiences, for example in Bolivia, where large multinational companies bought up the country’s water rights. The problem with the small companies, according to Mine Islar, was a lack of quality control – the water power did not turn out to be as clean and environmentally friendly as had been intended.
“There are so many parties involved, so sometimes a single river has been split between some 20 companies, both domestic and foreign”, explains Mine Islar.

As the expansion continues, protests against the new water policy have increased. Farmers are organising themselves, marches are being held and building work disrupted, all with the aim of stopping the development.
Until now, Mine Islar’s research has focused on defining the problem: why has the development of small-scale renewable energy failed to succeed, despite good intentions?

 “One problem is the economic system – the neoliberal market”, says Mine Islar. “Those companies that borrow money have to get started quickly in order to be able to start paying back their loans. Therefore the development has happened far too rapidly and without popular support. The requirement to make a profit has also meant that the quality control of the small companies has not been careful enough.”

Mine Islar will devote the remainder of her doctoral studies to different solutions; looking at what can be done to rectify the current situation so that all parties are satisfied.

“Our supervisors have expressly asked that we not only identify the problem areas, but also identify possible solutions for sustainable development”, says Mine Islar.

Ulrika Oredsson
 

 

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SESYNC

LUCSUS is engaged in new major US Research Centre –
the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC).

(24 Feb 2012)

SESYNC is the fourth and the largest of the synthesis centers initiated and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is a research center dedicated to creating synthetic, actionable science related to the structure, functioning, and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. The center is hosted by the University of Maryland in Annapolis with a national mandate to initiate and support syntheses at the interface of social and natural sciences.

The External Advisory Board, chaired by Lennart Olsson (LUCSUS), is comprised of policymakers, scholars and experienced leaders representing the broad range of disciplines needed to provide guidance and oversight for SESYNC.
Their homepage: www.sesync.org

 

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UN University Tokyo

LUCSUS links with University of Tokyo and United Nations University

(24 Feb 2012)

Since 2009, LUCSUS has collaborated with University of Tokyo’s Graduate Programme on Sustainability Science (GPSS). Now LUCSUS is invited to participate in the United Nations University (UNU) and The University of Tokyo international Seminar for Developing Research Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Africa 1-3 March 2012. The seminar is organized by the UNU Program on Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (ESDA).

Lennart Olsson and Vasna Ramasar from LUCSUS have been invited to provide key inputs to the seminar.

More information:
http://unu.edu/news/2011/10/higher-education-holds-the-key-to-sustainable-development-in-africa.html  
 

 

 

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Leuphana University

LUCSUS links with Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

(24 Feb 2012)

Leuphana University recently created a new faculty, the Sustainability Faculty, an initiative bringing together the natural sciences with the humanities including about 25 professors from the following disciplines: Chemistry, Computer Science, Communications, Management, Ecology, Philosophy, Planning, Politics, Psychology, Law, Engineering and Economics. Lennart Olsson (LUCSUS) is one of the external faculty members.

More information: www.leuphana.de/en/faculty-sustainability.html

The Leuphana Sustainability Summit, a major European event linking science and policy, is  29 February – 3 March 2012. At the conference, leading researchers, in sustainability and high-level decision-makers will meet in a transdisciplinary setting with a goal of creating new insights to help move sustainability forward.

More information: www.leuphana.de/fakultaet-nachhaltigkeit/aktuell/leuphana-sustainability-summit.html
 

 

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Flooding

LUCSUS participates in IPCC 5th Assessment Report

(24 Feb 2012)

The ongoing 5th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a new chapter in Working Group II on Climate Change Impacts on Livelihoods and Poverty (Chapter 13). One of the Coordinating Lead Authors (CLA) is Lennart Olsson; Anna Kaijser is appointed Chapter Scientist. The Assessment started in January 2011 and will deliver its final report in Spring 2014.

More information: https://ipcc-wg2.gov
 

 

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Planet under Pressure

LUCSUS participates in the Planet Under Pressure (PuP) conference,
London 26-29 March

(24 Feb 2012)

The PuP conference is one of the most important events regarding research on global sustainability. Not only is it the first joint conference of the five global research programmes:
IGBP,  International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, http://www.igbp.net/
IHDP,  International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, http://www.ihdp.unu.edu/
Diversitas, An International Programme of Biodiversity Science, http://www.diversitas-international.org/
WCRP, World Climate Research Programme, http://www.wcrp-climate.org/
ESSP, Earth System Science Partnership http://www.essp.org/
It is also the founding moment of the new global architecture called FutureEarth (www.icsu.org/future-earth). In addition to several presentations from LUCSUS, Vasna Ramasar is convening a session on environmental migration.

More information at: www.planetunderpressure2012.net 
 

 

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Turaj Faran

PhD thesis in Economic History

(28 Jan 2012)

Our colleague Turaj Faran will present his PhD thesis in Economic History on Saturday 28 January.

Title: The Industrialization Process in the Chinese Mirror, Continuity and change in transition from collective agriculture to market economy in China.

China’s impressive economic performance in the last three decades is generally interpreted as the consequence of the market-friendly reforms initiated by Chinese leaders after Mao. His thesis, in contrast, argues for continuity between the socialist period and the post-reform era in China’s economic course. Chinese socialism, he argues, should best be understood as a strategy of industrialization which, in the absence of a modern agricultural sector, had to proceed with more stringent institutional arrangements.

Tim WrightTuraj will will present and defend his thesis in a dialogue with Professor Tim Wright from The University of Sheffield, School of East Asian Studies. Professor Wright is a renowned scholar on the political economy and development of China, both before the 1949 revolution and in the contemporary period. One of his special interest is the Chinese coal industry.

Time: Saturday 28 January at 10.00
Place: Holger Crafoord Centre, Tycho Brahes väg 1, Lund
 

 

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Christine Wamsler

 A new Assistant Professor in Sustainability Science

(1 Dec 2011)

Christine Wamsler welcome to LUCSUS!

Christine is coming from Lund University Centre for Risk Analysis and Management (LUCRAM). Her specific field of interest is sustainable urban development and housing with focus on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Read more about Christine »

 

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Karin Steen

A PhD Dissertation in Sustainability Science

(30 Sep 2011)

Karin Steen presented her PhD thesis “Time to farm”, September 30, 2011

Time to farmGlobal demand for food is expected to rise in future. At the same time the natural potential for food production is high in many areas in Sub-Saharan Africa where the production now is low.

There are several aspects of the ’African food crisis’. First, there is the acute aspect of starvation in parts of East Africa right now. Second, there is an on-going discussion since long on problems within food production in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The causes to the crisis in African food production have been studied in different ways. There has been a focus on economic causes such as access to markets, political, such as policy issues and questions of distribution, and technological causes, such as farming techniques and the use of fertilizers. These have been the most common ways to study the food crisis. However, she studies social causes and in particular gender organisation of food production. Irrespective of the validity of these other explanations, her research investigates to what extent the gendered organisation of food production in subsistence farming affects food production, and in extension food security.

Read more at Lund university webpage »

Aficaafricaafrica

 

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Three Postgraduate positions in Sustainability Science

(1 Sep 2011)

We wish Sandra Valencia, Molly MacGregor and Henner Busch welcome to LUCSUS and LUCID research school.

sandra valenciaSandra Valencia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Southern Polytechnic State University in the USA and a Master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Sandra has worked for the past three and a half years on climate change adaptation in the Latin American and Caribbean region at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. Before the IDB, Sandra worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a research scientist for the Micro-pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) project, which consists of the collection and analysis of atmospheric data used to understand the effects of human activities and natural phenomena in the changes of the planet’s environment. Sandra’s main research interests include climate change adaptation, vulnerability, water resources management and urban planning in developing countries.

molly macgregorMolly MacGregor has a Master’s degree in Global Studies from the University of Gothenburg. She defended her thesis “Food and Uncertainty: Exploring food security resilience in the Kyrgyz Republic” in 2010. Since then Molly has been working with various projects through the School of Global Studies including collaboration with the MISTRA Urban Futures and the European Network for Centres of Excellence for Animal Welfare. Molly’s research interests include food security, resilience, urban studies, political ecology, and land use transitions in the context of global environmental change.

henner buschHenner Busch has a background in Governmental Studies (Erfurt, Germany) and holds a MSC in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science (LUMES) from Lund University. He graduated in 2010 with a thesis on the motivation of municipal key-actors to support the introduction of renewable energies. After graduation he has been working at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering in Potsdam-Bornim, Germany. His main areas of research interest are: Local responses to climate change, Renewable Energies, System Theory.

 

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U21 Workshop in LundU21 Workshop in LundU21 Workshop in Lund

The Workshop on Urban Water Governance (Theme 7)
Organized by LUCSUS and Pufendorf Institute, Lund, Sweden

(30 Aug 2011)

The first workshop of the 7th theme of the U21 Water Futures for Sustainable Cities (WFSC) project was held on 29-30 August in Lund, Sweden.

In exchanging their understanding of the complex water issues in cities around the world, the participants of the workshop came up with five cross-cutting themes to better analyze water governance issues. The themes include

  1. use of science
  2. scale and level
  3. justice and fairness 
  4. institutional arrangements
  5. problem framing

The themes will be the bases of upcoming position paper as a point of departure for developing methodological approaches and analytical frameworks in order to identify new and improved modes of urban water governance.

In addition, the steering committee was appointed by the participants, and the possibility of gathering different empirical cases under a edited volume was discussed.

Summary report from the workshop (pdf) »

More information on the Urban Water Governance project is available at:
http://www.universitas21.com/event/details/6/water-governance-workshop

Contact
Maryam Nastar, maryam.nastar(at)lucsus.lu.se

 

 

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Three new assistant professors at LUCSUS

(1 Aug 2010)

LUCSUS has hired three assistant professors. Two of them, Barry and Sara, are well known to LUCSUS partners and friends, but Kimberly Nicholas will be a new acquaintance for us in Lund. We all look forward to September when they will start their new positions!

Barry NessBarry Ness

December 2008, Barry defended his thesis “Sustainability of the Swedish sugar sector. Assessment tool development and case study appraisal.”
He was the first to receive a doctoral degree in sustainability science.

He also holds a Master’s degree from Lund in environmental studies and sustainability science (LUMES) and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Minnesota.

His research interests are diverse but focus significantly on understanding the variety of tools that exist for sustainability assessment, conceptualizing complex problems of sustainability based on scale and cross-scale interactions, and quantitative environmental and sustainability assessment. The majority of Barry’s recent research has focused on the assessment of industrial agricultural systems for food bioenergy along with other past research concentrating on municipal solid waste treatment and waste water purification systems. Barry was born and raised in the United States, but has lived in Southern Sweden for the past decade

Barry has been and will continue teaching at the LUMES programme, His main responsibilities has been in the courses “Sustainability Science”, “Methodology, Methods and Tools” and “Energy” and as supervisor and opponent for the master theses.

Sara BrogaardSara Brogaard

Sara has a PhD in Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis. She completed her thesis “Recent changes in land use and productivity in
Agro-Pastoral Inner Mongolia” in 2003. After finalising her PhD she was a postdoc at McGill University, Canada funded by FORMAS.

Her research work has primarily been dealing with semi-arid environments, foremost focusing on the northern parts of China where land use/land cover change and climate variability and change have been main themes. Other aspects are management changes in relation to agricultural policy changes. Applied methods include remote sensing based primary production modeling, interviews with farmers and policy makers and analysis of agro-environmental statistics. Ongoing work deals with sustainability assessments of land use polices taking into account tradeoffs between economic, ecological and social sustainability as well as vulnerability and adaptation in the Lace Victoria Basin through a SIDA financed project.  She has also been working as a User Liaison Officer (responsible for user contacts) in the EU FP 6 project SEAMLESS. This project developed a computerized and integrated framework to make ex-ante assessments of alternative agricultural and environmental policies

Sara has a vast experience from teaching at different master programmes, in the LUMES programme, the Asia programme, LUMID programme (Lund University International Master in Development and Management) and LUMAGIS (Lund University Master’s program in Geographical Information Systems).

Kim NicholasKimberly Nicholas

Kim received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in January 2009  The thesis title was Global change in local places: Climate change and the future of high-quality winegrowing in Napa and Sonoma, California.

For more than a year she has then been the McKeehan Fellow in Horticulture and Agronomy at the University of California at Davis. Her research focuses on the ecological impacts of climate change, particularly as it relates to issues such as food security, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity, and the role of human management in shaping and responding to ecosystems and climate. Her current research aims to understand the effects of climate change on agriculture, particularly in the vulnerable wine industry. She has integrating climate and crop models at broad spatial scales and conducted both an ecological field campaign and interviews with growers to bring our understanding of the impact of climate change on agriculture from regional scales to the level of individual ranches where management decisions are made.