Institute for Social Ecology

The neutrality of this article or section is disputed. A reason can be found on the discussion page  in the section " Possible hidden commissioned work ". You can get more information here .

The Institute for Social Ecology (SEC) is an institute of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, in the Department of Economic and Social Sciences. The main research interests are current and historical interactions between social and natural systems (societal metabolism) in the context of globalization, global change and sustainable development .

History and organization

The institute emerged from a working group of what was then IFF (formerly the Inter- University Research Institute for Distance Learning , today: Faculty for Interdisciplinary Research and Further Education ) and was founded by Marina Fischer-Kowalski . Since 2003 it has belonged to the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt . In 2007 it was expanded to include the Center for Environmental History, which is managed by Verena Winiwarter .

On March 1, 2018, the SEC was integrated into the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna . The institute was assigned to the Department of Economics and Social Sciences. A move to the Türkenschanze location is planned for the near future. The previously offered Master’s degree in Social and Human Ecology should not be continued.

research

The interdisciplinary team of scientists deals with the following topics, among others:

• Social metabolism
• Land use and colonization
• Historical sustainability research
• Sustainability Transitions
• Integrated socio-ecological modeling

The methodological basis for the topics mentioned is the concept of social metabolism and that of the colonization of nature. The development of further concepts as well as indicators for researching the biophysical aspects of social systems is a central concern of the interdisciplinary team of scientists and is connected with the involvement in numerous national and international research projects:

• In the course of the DESIRE (Development of a System of Indicators for a Resource efficient Europe) project funded by the EU Commission , a set of resource efficiency indicators is being developed and implemented in order to monitor the European development in the direction of resource efficiency both from the perspective of production and as well as consumption

• The five-year project Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture investigates socio-ecological transitions in agricultural systems since the 18th century. The following universities, among others, are involved in this basic research project: University of Pablo de Olavide , Universidad Nacional de Colombia , University of Barcelona .

• The aim of the project WWWforEurope - Towards a New Growth Path: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe is to determine the necessity, feasibility and scope of a socio-ecological transition and to provide the necessary analytical basis, as well as the political instruments and institutional innovations which are necessary to put Europe on a new development path.

• Changes in different land use systems are extensively investigated in the Global Land Project (GLP), a research initiative of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change .

Cooperation partners of the institute's above-mentioned and past research projects include the following organizations: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development , European Union, the European Commission, World Resources Institute , WWF Austria, Federal Environment Agency (Austria) , Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economy , Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management , Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF).

A list of the most important current research projects can be found on the Alpen-Adria-Campus website.

See also

• Socio-ecological research
• Sustainable development

Web links

• Homepage of the Institute for Social Ecology
• former homepage of the Institute for Social Ecology at the University of Klagenfurt
• IFF Social Ecology Working Papers
• Data download

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Social ecology topics
2. ↑ On the history of the Institute for Social Ecology
3. ^ Center for Environmental History
4. ↑ BOKU development plan 2018
5. ^ Theoretical basis and subject areas, homepage of the Institute for Social Ecology
6. ^ Societal metabolism and colonization of nature. An attempt in social ecology. Gordon & Breach, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 90-5708-018-4
7. ↑ Menschik-Bendele Jutta: Creating knowledge: Research at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, facultas, 2010, p. 123
8. ↑ Research projects Institute for Social Ecology, Homepage Alpen-Adria-Campus
9. ↑ Development of a System of Indicators for a Resource Efficient Europe, project homepage
10. ↑ Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture, project homepage ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ WWWforEurope - Towards a New Growth Path: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe, project description pdf
12. ↑ Global Land Project, project homepage ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Current research projects, homepage Institute for Social Ecology