Eversberg, Dennis / Fritz, Martin (2022): Bioeconomy as a societal transformation: Mentalities, conflicts and social practices. In: Sustainable Production and Consumption, 30, 973-987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.01.021

Abstract

In this article, we argue that a comprehensive understanding of the kinds of societal change envisioned and contested in the bioeconomy debate requires broadening the view beyond policy debates and stakeholder positions. We use representative German survey data from 2018 to explore social conflicts and coalitions for and against bio-based, post-fossil transformations within the general population. Mapping different socio-ecological mentalities in a relational analysis, we find that tensions between growth- and sufficiency-oriented, high-tech-focused and techno-skeptical as well as between fossilist and post-fossil visions shape the current ‘socio-ecological space of possibilities’ for transformations in Germany.

Results show most of the population to broadly align along a continuum between ‘less is more’ views skeptical of both growth and technology and visions of ‘technoeconomic advance’ that favor both. In addition, a more openly conflictual confrontation surfaces between a ‘sufficient progress’ view that looks to reconcile sufficiency with democratically checked technology use and a ‘growth as usual’ imaginary openly opposed to any kind of post-fossil transformation. These tensions correlate with social inequalities: Women and the materially disadvantaged tend to favor ‘less is more’ views, men and the more affluent those of ‘technoeconomic advance’. Moreover, starkly contrasting patterns of environmentally relevant practices emerge along the growth and fossilism dimensions. We conclude that issues surrounding bio-based, post-fossil transformations are more contested among the population than in policy debates, entailing significant potential for social conflicts. The core challenge will be to establish ecologically sustainable and socially just transformation pathways in democratic and participatory ways.

Link to the article

“Scientific Coffee Human-Forest-Relationships”

17. November 2021
13-15 CET / 14-16 EEST

Lukas Fehr,Eberhard Karls University Tübingen:
“Narratives and interpretations of forests in the forestry and timber sector between recreation and wood production”

 Forests offer a variety of ways in which they can be used. Timber grows in them, they can be used for recreational activities, provide protection from avalanches, are home to many creatures or are used as CO2 sinks. These uses are difficult to separate from each other in the forest and overlap in many cases. In this session of „Scientific Coffee“ I will explore the different experiences in the forest of people working in the forestry and timber sector. Connected to these experiences are disputes between different interest groups such as visitors and forest workers. This involves narratives of what a forest is, how it should be used and by whom. This includes valuations of the demands of the population on the various forest functions of use, recreation and protection.

Participation via zoom

https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/66018542066
Meeting ID: 660 1854 2066 Passcode: 816180

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The “Scientific Coffee” sessions continue our cooperation and exchange on the relations between society, humans and forests that we started with the workshop “Contested Society-Nature-Relations. Forest related Emotions, Practices & Conflicts in Times of Societal Change” in May this year. They give room for open and relaxed discussions on current research subjects related to human and society relations to forests. The Scientific Coffee sessions take place as often as we find the time to organise another session – but at least one session per semester is planned.

If you are interested in contributing to the next “Scientific Coffee HFR”, please contact jana.holz@uni-jena.de with info on your subject (title and short abstract) and preferred Wednesday (13-15 CET / 14-16 EEST).

Lilian Pungas participates with Bianka Plüschke-Altof at the “Second Baltic Conference on the Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences” on 1-2 November, 2021 .

In the panel “4A Just post-Soviet environments” on 1st of November 2021 at 4.15pm, they present their joint book chapter “Same, same but different? The ‘right’ kind of gardening and the negotiation of neoliberal urban governance in the post-socialist city”. This is a chapter in the book “Contested urban green space and the question of socio-spatial justice in the city” (Eds. Helen Sooväli-Sepping and Bianka Plüschke-Altof) that will be published early 2022 by Springer.

Program and registration here

Jana Holz meets Jaana Laine (Helsinki University), Tuulikki Halla and Reetta Karhunkorva (both University of Eastern Finland) for a three-day interdisciplinary workshop at the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju.

As part of a research cooperation started in 2019 and following up on a joint online workshop on “Contested Society-Nature-Relations. Forest related Emotions, Practices & Conflicts in Times of Societal Change” in May 2021 as well as a series of Scientific Coffee Sessions started in September 2021, the workshop at deepened the discussion and exchange between ‘flumen’ and the research project ‘Human-Forest Relationship in Societal Change’.

With funding from the Finnish Institute in Germany as well as institutional support by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, a hybrid workshop format could be realized successfully.

Nine researchers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, University Helsinki, University of Eastern Finland and Jyväskylä University came together and discussed ongoing research and conceptual framework development on human-forest-relationship as well as social relationships with nature. The concepts are currently applied to qualitative case studies from various contexts such as the forest-based bioeconomy and sustainable business in Finland, forest professionals and forest owners in Finland, German bioenergy villages or the Spanish olive sector.

Ideas for further cooperation in the future go as far as a joint book project or an exhibition at Lusto Museum on society-nature relations and how to research those at the case of forests. Let’s see, what we are going to come up with next… The intensity of the exchange was accompanied by the lovely landscape of the Punkaharju region and lake Saimaa in Eastern Finland.

In their presentation “Forest for Sale!? Success’ of Extractivist Forestry in Estonia and Finland” they give insight into their research findings on “extractivist forestry” on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 in the first track (Global Extractivisms).

Conference: https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/exalt-2021/exalt-conference-2021

Programme: https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/exalt-2021/conference-program

Martin Fritz speaks about “Attitudes to sustainable welfare and eco-social policies in Europe”

On 21st of October 2021 at 1.00-2.30 pm

Take part online with the follwoing link:

Link: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/81948432468?pwd=TWg3K1c4WS9DWlZqTWdvS0kvWkR4QT09
ID riunione: 819 4843 2468
Passcode: 732991

On demand, Martin Fritz forwards his presentation in pdf. Please write to martin.fritz@uni-jena.de

Gebauer, Jana / Jorck, Gerrit von / Pungas, Lilian (2021): Degrowth enthusiasm and the transformation blues of the East: reflections on the integration of post-socialist Transformational Experiences into the Transformational Postgrowth Discourse [Degrowth-Enthusiasmus und der Transformations-Blues des Ostens: Überlegungen zur Integration postsozialistischer Transformationserfahrungen in den transformatorischen Postwachstumsdiskurs.] In: Thomas, Michael & Ulrich Busch (Ed.), Streitfall Ostdeutschland. Grenzen einer Transformationserzählung, [Abhandlungen der Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften, 72], Berlin: trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, 229-256.

In this chapter, the authors have elaborated the central findings of their examination of the transformation experiences of Central and Eastern Europe and present them on the basis of six theses. In their view, it is indispensable for the degrowth debate to take up these experiences. The article traces the connections between post-socialist transformation and the debates on degrowth. The reason for this is a rather marginal engagement of the degrowth debate with the experiences of post-socialist transformations of Central and Eastern Europe. The basis is above all a series of events with the title “Degrowth Enthusiasm and the Eastern Blues”, which the authors organized in the past years. The focus is on the following questions:

• What can we learn from the transformation processes that state-socialist societies underwent towards capitalist societies? 
• What experiences and practices before and after the upheavals can potential degrowth societies build on?
• To what extent can we take up the alternative system- as well as transformation experiences of the people in the “East” in order to use their potential in and for a social-ecological transformation?
  

Information on the book on the website of the publisher

More information on the book in a flyer

Lilian Pungas takes part in the online transdisciplinary EdiCitNet Summer School Programm that lasts for two weeks from 20 September to 1 October 2021. Topics are diverse, i.a. food production and nutrition in urban spaces. The Summer School is organised by the Edible Cities Network.

More information here.

Within the seminar series Seminarreihe LUCSUS at the Lund University (Sweden), Martin Fritz (flumen, University of Jena) and Max Koch (School of Social Work, University Lund) present their paper “Habitus and climate change: Exploring support and resistance to sustainable welfare and social–ecological transformations in Sweden.”

When? 30 September 2021 | 11:00 – 12:00 a.m.

How? Seminar language is Englisch and will take place online. Please, register here. You will then receive a confirmation email with a zoomlink to the seminar. More information here.

Abstract of the paper: We explore peoples’ dispositions and practices with regard to social–ecological transformations based on a sustainable welfare policy strategy in Sweden. We draw on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to highlight the relations between social positions, dispositions, and position-takings. Using data from an own survey, we identify habitus types and place these in the space of social positions. We apply principal component analysis to a large set of questions about social, ecological, and climate change related topics and identify eight underlying eco–social dispositions. These are used for cluster analyses that find typical constellations of eco–social dispositions within the Swedish population: variants of eco–social habitus. We find seven habitus types and describe their social characteristics, political preferences, and practices. Finally, the seven habitus are plotted onto the map of social positions, the Bourdieusian social space, highlighting their relations—proximities, tensions, and contestations—to each other. We find evidence that political struggles around social–ecological transformations reproduce existing social structures but are also connected to new “eco–social” divisions that appear between groups in similar positions. In the conclusion we discuss the implications for social–ecological transformations based on sustainable welfare. You can read the paper here

“Habitus and climate change: Exploring support and resistance to sustainable welfare and social–ecological transformations in Sweden”. A paper by Martin Fritz, Max Koch, Håkan Johansson, Kajsa Emilsson, Roger Hildingsson, Jamil Khan.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12887

Abstract: We explore peoples’ dispositions and practices with regard to social–ecological transformations based on a sustainable welfare policy strategy in Sweden. We draw on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to highlight the relations between social positions, dispositions, and position-takings. Using data from an own survey, we identify habitus types and place these in the space of social positions. We apply principal component analysis to a large set of questions about social, ecological, and climate change related topics and identify eight underlying eco–social dispositions. These are used for cluster analyses that find typical constellations of eco–social dispositions within the Swedish population: variants of eco–social habitus. We find seven habitus types and describe their social characteristics, political preferences, and practices. Finally, the seven habitus are plotted onto the map of social positions, the Bourdieusian social space, highlighting their relations—proximities, tensions, and contestations—to each other. We find evidence that political struggles around social–ecological transformations reproduce existing social structures but are also connected to new “eco–social” divisions that appear between groups in similar positions. In the conclusion we discuss the implications for social–ecological transformations based on sustainable welfare.