“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.

More information on Special Issue on Promises of growth and sustainability in the bioeconomy of the Journal for Sustainable Consumption and Production

In current debates about the future of modern societies, one concept is increasingly marshalled as providing an answer to multiple challenges: the bioeconomy. The dominant narrative makes the claim that shifting to a bioeconomy based on the flow of renewable energies and biological resources societies can achieve both: ‘green’ economic growth and a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and resources, thus building a sustainable future. 

The aim of this Special Issue is to shed light on the nexus of sustainability, technology and growth within the bioeconomy from multidisciplinary, critical and constructive perspectives. We invite empirical and/or conceptual contributions addressing but not limited to the following questions: 

• Can growth-based economies really be made sustainable by just basing them on biogenic instead of fossil materials and resources? 
• Do the bioeconomy and the innovations of modern biotechnology enable a decoupling of environmental throughput from GDP? 
• Would the transformation of modern societies towards post-fossil, bio-based economic activities need to involve an overcoming of unlimited economic growth? 
• What would political processes and bioeconomy implementation strategies have to look like in order to transform the economy in a democratic and participatory way?

The above mentioned Special Issue is a cooperation between Forschungszentrum Juelich as a topical editor (Sandra Venghaus) and the Junior Research Group flumen as guest editors (Dr. Dennis Eversberg, Dr. Martin Fritz, Lilian Pungas).

We would like to invite you to submit papers (various formats possible such as research and review articles, short communications). 

The deadline is June 30, 2021. 

Papers will be peer-reviewed and the aim is to have final papers accepted and sent to production by 30th November 2021, which should mean the special issue can be finalised by the end of the year/early 2022. All information you need as an author with this journal you can find here. 

Do not hesitate to write to us if you have any further questions. Also, we would be very grateful if you shared the call with any colleagues that might be interested.

Dr. Dennis Eversberg      dennis.eversberg@uni-jena.de

Dr. Martin Fritz                martin.fritz@uni-jena.de

Lilian Pungas                  lilian.pungas@uni-jena.de