What future for socio-ecological transformation? Solutions, false solutions and alternatives.
The MAK’IT Institute for Advanced Studies is delighted to invite you to the seminar organized by Gabriela Merlinsky, current MAK’IT Fellow and Full Professor of Environmental Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires.
Abstract:
Over the last decade, debates on socio-ecological transformation have generated growing interest due to the collapse of agreements that enabled global governance, the increasing overlap of social, political, health, geopolitical, economic and ecological crises, and the emergence of Green New Deal (GND) proposals.
The major debate of our time concerns the meaning of the socioecological crisis and how to address it. The prevailing view focuses on ensuring that certain countries or regions have access to raw materials. In this context, decarbonizing the economy means decoupling economic growth from the use of resources and its environmental impact. However, it is far from clear how the necessary absolute reduction could be achieved within the economic growth paradigm.
Three important questions arise here. Firstly, the reductionist view that socio-ecological transformation is linked solely to the debate on energy transition must be challenged. Secondly, we need to question how the energy transition is being carried out, and who will bear the costs. Thirdly, considering the authoritarian solutions being proposed to address the global crisis, it is crucial to consider alternative scenarios.
This seminar aims to bring together existing research from Latin America and Europe to explore socio-ecological transformation scenarios that consider the complex social and political implications. Together, we will consider the social, economic and cultural changes for achieving a fair, pluralistic and democratic transformation in the relationship between nature and society.
Program
14:30 Welcome address by Laura Michel, Director of the Montpellier Advance Knowledge Institute on Transitions and Philippe Méral, Director of UMR SENS ( Institut de Recherche pour le Développement / Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement / Université Paul Valery)
14:40 Introduction by Gabriela Merlinsky, CURRENT Fellow at the Montpellier Advance Knowledge Institute on Transitions – MAK’IT
14:50 Energy, extractive frontiers and regulatory frameworks. Who set the rules and for whom?
Moderator: Verónica Mitroi, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD)
- Sébastien Velut, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Ecological modernization, territorialization and governance of the transition
- Mariana Walter, Institut Barcelona d´Estudis Internationals (IBEI)
Contesting extraction in Europe: challenging green growth and learning from the Global South
15:40 Comments : Florence Palpacuer, Université de Montpellier
16:05 Networking Break
16:20 Corporate transitions and green grabbing. Who pays the costs?
Moderator: Stephen Huard, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
- Ludivine Eloy, Centre national de recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Governing deforestation: digitalization, legality, and agribusiness in Bahia’s agricultural frontier (Brazil)
- Enrique Aliste, Institut d’études du développement de la Sorbonne (IEDES)
Patagonia as a global paradise of protecting nature: philanthropic actions and ecological neoliberal accumulation
17:10 Comments : Chloé Nicolas-Artero, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
17:35 Networking Break
17:50 False solutions and environmental injustices. What place for alternatives?
Moderator: Stefan Ortiz, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD)
- Christos Zografos, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Green sacrifice zones, or why a green new deal cannot ignore the cost shifts of just transitions
- Iokiñe Rodríguez Fernandez, University of East Anglia
Just transformations: grassroots struggles for sustainable futures
18:40 Comments : Gabriela Merlinsky, MAKIT, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (MAKIT, CONICET)
19:05 Discussion panel: concluding remarks
