IFF Social Ecology e-Newsletter Nr. 8 – October 2004

+ Fall Semester 04/05:
– Course information online
+ Upcoming Events:
– Habilitation lecture by Dr. Fridolin Krausmann
– Forschungstag – Faculty research workshop
– ConAccount workshop at ETH Zurich
+ Department News
– 3 new PhDs and a new Social Ecology team member
+ Projects
– MATISSE
– Cooperation Austria – Czech Republic
– Sustainable Nicobars
+ Presentations at international conferences
– EUROSEAS Paris
+ Publications
– Special Issue „Land Use Policy“
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Fall Semester 04/05:

Course information online
This winter our institute is again offering a wide variety of courses in the field of social ecology.
Detailed information can be found on our website:
http://www.iff.ac.at/socec/lehre/lehre_aktuell.php
For further information please contact Nina Eisenmenger:
nina.eisenmenger [at] uni-klu.ac.at
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Upcoming Events:

Habilitation lecture by Dr. Fridolin Krausmann
The Department of Social Ecology cordially invites all to attend Dr. Fridolin Krausmann’s habilitation
lecture (in German), „Langfristige Veränderung im gesellschaftlichem Umgang mit Natur: Eine sozialökologische
Perspektive der, Agrarmodernisierung.“
When: Friday, 22.October 2004, 15.00h-16.30h
Where: IFF, Abteilung Soziale Ökologie, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Wien, 4.Stock, Seminar room 3
For further information please contact Gerda Hoschek:
gerda.hoschek [at] uni-klu.ac.at or 01/522 4000 401.

Forschungstag – Faculty research workshop
Although faculty-wide workshops are common at Anglo-Saxon universities, they are still quite unusual
in German-speaking academia. The Department of Social Ecology, however, will offer a faculty-wide
workshop for presenting research. The workshop will take place on November 8 at the University of
Klagenfurt. It will be continued the next day in a smaller setting with other faculties participating as
well, the specific focus then being on „Society – Nature – Sustainability.“

ConAccount workshop at ETH Zurich
The ConAccount network that IFF-Social Ecology co-founded in 1997 with seed money from the
European Union demonstrates its vitality: From October 10-12, material flow analysis experts will
convene in Zurich for their yearly research conference, organized this time by Susanne Kytzia from
ETH Zurich.
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Department News
3 new PhDs and a new Social Ecology team member

Our institute is increasingly populated by post-docs! We congratulate Clemens Mayerhofer-
Grünbühel, our most recent post-doc, for having finished his doctoral degree cum laude in cultural
anthropology and social ecology at the University of Vienna in August 2004.
One of the focal goals in our project „Southeast Asia in Transition“ was the support of scientific
capacity building in sustainability science in the SEA partner countries. In September 2004, two of our
collaborators from Laos, one of the poorest countries in the region, successfully finished their doctoral
degrees in human ecology at the University of Vienna, after having spent half a year working
intensively at our institute. Congratulations to Bounnam Pahoumthong and Sithong
Thongmanivong!
The ecologist Mag. Veronika Gaube, after almost a year of successful research collaboration,
formally became part of our research team in September 2004. She has become indispensable for
much of our core research and we warmly welcome Veronika to the Social Ecology team!

3 Doctoral defenses
Clemens Mayrhofer-Grünbühel: Defense 18.08.2004
Resource Use Systems and Rural Smallholders. An Analysis of Two Lao Communities
Bounnam Pahoumthong: Defense 27.08.2004
Integrated Assesment of Socio-economic and Environmental Transition of a Subsistence Society, in
Nalang, Lao PDR.
Sithong Thongmanivong: Defense 27.08.2004
Sustainable Use of Land and Natural Resources in Lao PDR. Material Energy Flow Accounting,
Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production
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Projects

MATISSE
It is a long way to go for a European WP6 „integrated project,“ but it seems we have arrived, and will
be core members of the MATISSE project („Methods and Tools for Integrated sustainability
Assessment“) led by Jan Rotmanns (ICIS, Nl) and Alex Haxeltine (Tyndall Centre, UK), under the
Research theme Global Change and Ecosystems. We expect to start working in February 2005, and
continue over the next three years.

Cooperation Austria – Czech Republic
The project „Comparative analysis of the long term development of land use and industrial metabolism
in Austria and the Czech Republic,“ funded by the programme „AKTION Österreich-Tschechien,“
allows us to further strengthen our cooperation with the Environment Center of Charles University in
Prague. Austria and the Czech Republic will serve as comparative case studies to analyse biophysical
aspects of socio-economic development during industrialization.

Sustainable Nicobars
The OeNB Jubiläumsfond this summer approved funding for a research project on the Nicobar
Islands: „Participatory Strategic Integrated Analysis of Alternative Development Scenarios“. The
project is designed with the objective of undertaking a stakeholder dialogue on alternate development
scenarios for the Nicobars, each of which would be scrutinized through an integrated assessment at a
later stage. The results will be fed back to the people and policymakers to aid in the making of sound
decisions concerning the archipelago’s future. The project falls within the research program „Transition
Studies – Science for Governance“ under the supervision of Dr. Heinz Schandl. The primary
researchers in the project are Dr. Simron Jit Singh and Dr. Clemens Grünbühel.
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Presentations at international conferences

EUROSEAS Paris
At the last EUROSEAS conference in Paris (1-4 Sept. 2004), Dr. Clemens Grünbühel and Dr. Simron
Jit Singh organised a panel titled „Biophysical and Socio-economic Transitions in Southeast Asia“. The
session tackled issues of resource use and resource management in Thailand and Laos. Case studies
were presented using different units of analysis (i.e., national, community and watershed levels) and
different aspects of socio-economic resource use. In conclusion, the session presented a
comprehensive overview of how to approach resource use issues and social conflicts over resources
from a systematic and analytical perspective, most of which were complementary rather than
contradictory. The panel participants plan to publish the contributions, including those of persons not
able to attend due to lack of funding, in a special issue of a scientific journal. The journal, however,
has yet to be identified. Dr. Singh and Dr. Grünbühel have agreed to act as editors for this common
publication.
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Publications

The Special Issue of „Land Use Policy“ on „Land Use and Sustainability Indicators“
was co-edited by Helmut Haberl and is now available.
Detailed information can be found on our website:
http://www.iff.ac.at/socec/index_en.php
For further information please contact Helmut Haberl:
helmut.haberl [at] uni-klu.ac.at
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