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Risks and Chances of Global Change in NW-Argentina

Socio-Economic Dynamics – Adaptation Strategies – Regional Sustainability

[2011 – 2013]

Northwest-Argentina is, due to its physiographical settings and specific historical development, a strongly heterogeneous and fragmented region. In the context of Global Change, new and manifold political, social as well as ecological risks arise. The resulting contradictory results are being analysed to identify chances and potentials for sustainable regional development. Continue reading “Risks and Chances of Global Change in NW-Argentina”

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MOOC Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate

On January 12, 2015 the online course, MOOC Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate (with contributions by me as well) went online.

This MOOC enhances knowledge and skills for tackling complex issues such as resilience and transformation, sustainable development, ecosystem management, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and how they can be operationalized. Continue reading “MOOC Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate”

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1st Austrian Conference on International Resource Fairness

“Towards International Resource Fairness – Theories, Conflicts and Policies”

International researchers and practitioners met at the the kick-off event of the transdisciplinary Network “Faire Ressourcenversorgung” (“fair provision of resources”) held from 4-6 December 2014 in Vienna.

Natural resources have become a key issue in international politics. Competition for access to and control of natural resources has intensified, and so have conflicts over the distribution of benefits as well as over negative environmental and social impacts of exploration and production. In this context, the question arises of how to conceptualize “resource fairness”, i.e. how access to, distribution and use of natural resources can be organized in a way that takes into account the legitimate interests of all actors and institutions involved. In this context, far-reaching questions emerge with regard to the current modes of production and living.

For a more detailed review (in German) click here.

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The Risk of Inclusion

Socio-ecological conflicts and environmental justice viewed from the Chaco Occidental, a soy frontier of globalisation

[10/2012 – 06/2017]

The cultivation, commodification and distribution of soy have, particularly in Latin America, undergone enormous growth and internationalisation processes. Driven by its high lucrativeness new territories for GM soybean monocultures are explored. Here, the example of the Chaco Occidental, a traditionally peripheral region with high deficits in terms of economic and infrastructure is presented. Due to globalisation processes and favoured by climate change, significant structure and power shifts are observed at the new frontier of globalisation, leading to socio-ecological conflicts among old and new regional actors as well as varying interests groups. Continue reading “The Risk of Inclusion”

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New Book

Coverabbildung
Coverabbildung Robert Hafner
handlung | macht | raum
Urbane Materialsammler-Kooperativen und ihre Livelihoods-Strategien in Buenos Aires

Reihe: Investigaciones. Forschungen zu Lateinamerika Bd. 19, 2014, 240 S., 29.90 EUR, br.,
ISBN 978-3-643-50582-8

In Buenos Aires fallen täglich mehr als 5000 Tonnen Müll an. Materialsammler, jene, die ihren Lebensunterhalt mit dem Abfall der Gesellschaft verdienen, stehen zehn Jahre nach der Wirtschaftskrise in Argentinien im Fokus dieses Buches. Auf dem Weg zur Formalisierung und im Spannungsfeld zwischen Sichtbarkeit und Unsichtbarkeit werden Livelihoods-Strategien von vier Kooperativen in Buenos Aires gegenübergestellt: Es zeigt sich eine Bandbreite an unterschiedlichen Zugängen räumlicher Praktiken, Handlungs- und Machtverständnissen, dargelegt durch eine neue, eine Perspektive von Innen.

English Abstract

Buenos Aires accounts for approximately 5000 tons of waste per day. Waste pickers basing their livelihoods on society’s waste have been invisible until the economic crisis in 2001 in Argentina. Only due to the rapid increase of this informal and marginalised group and their appearance in public space, their existence has been noticed. Ten years later, on their way from informality to formality, four different livelihood-strategies of waste picker cooperatives are analysed and compared. Spatial practices, organisation structures and ideologies are as much at the core of interest as actions, interactions and power relationships among actors in social space.