Martin Fritz und Matthias Schmelzer sprechen auf der Konferenz „Bioeconomy Policies, Actors, and Transformations: Achievements, Challenges, and Recommendations“ an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin vom 22.-23. Februar

Mentalities in the bioeconomy as a social-ecological transformation: Historical and sociological perspectives

In our presentation we show how a comprehensive understanding of the transformations envisioned and contested in the bioeconomy debate can be achieved by broadening the view beyond policy debates and stakeholder positions. We focus on the views and social-ecological mentalities that are present within the general population towards different aspects of the transition from a fossil economy towards a post-fossil bioeconomy. While existing mentalities are historically shaped by the extensive use of fossil resources, exerting dominance over nature and modes of living relying on the ever-increasing use of existing fossil stocks of resources and energies, the intensifying climate crisis has made many people more and more aware that transforming society is necessary. Yet there are different ideas how this transformation should take place and some even doubt that a transformation is desirable at all – the stances towards bio-economic change in the general population are diverse and go beyond the usual divide between green growth and postgrowth/sufficiency that dominates the political debate.
Starting from a historical discussion of the making of existing fossil mentalities, we use data from our representative multi-mode survey conducted in Germany 2021/22 that gathered information about respondent’s social and ecological attitudes, preferences and values, their stances towards the bioeconomy as well as social status and position to explore social conflicts and coalitions for and against the bioeconomy as a social-ecological transformation. Applying factor and cluster analysis we identify social-ecological mentalities in Germany and locate them in a ‘bioeconomic option space’ (Hausknost et al 2017) constructed from the views of the general population instead from the concepts discussed among stakeholders and experts. The results show that issues around the bioeconomy as a social-ecological transformation are more contested among the population than in policy debates. As this entails significant potential for social conflicts, it will be important to establish ecologically sustainable and socially just transformation pathways in democratic and participatory ways.

„Greening Bourdieu“ – Martin Fritz und Dennis Eversberg sprechen auf der Konferenz „Climate Change and Social Sciences“ an der Freien Universität Berlin, vom 2.-4. Februar

Greening Bourdieu. How eco-social mentalities help to understand social and political conflicts over climate change.

An important aspect in understanding the political and social configurations of the current societal conflicts over climate change are the mentalities that exist among the general population. For example, the growth paradigm is deeply engrained in the ways many people think about how to organize our economy and society. Human-nature-relations are often shaped by domination and control. There are people who are uninterested in social and ecological issues, and others are mainly concerned about themselves and their private issues. While such dispositions make it hard to find political solutions for climate change that are supported by a majority, there is also ecological and caring thinking, mentalities that emerge from recognizing the dependence of society from nature and the relatedness of all beings. These could provide a fertile ground for co-creating the highly demanded social-ecological transformation. All such different mentalities feed into social conflicts, tensions, cleavages and commonalities between classes and into political struggles as they are strongly shaped by social experiences and social positions.
This paper seeks to provide an holistic understanding of societal conflicts over climate change and contribute to the conference theoretically and empirically. Combining Bourdieu’s relational sociology with the theory of society-nature relations, we identify eco-social mentalities and investigate how they are connected to social inequalities and socio-cultural differences. We use data from a representative multi-mode survey conducted in Germany 2021/22 that gathered information about respondent’s social and ecological attitudes, preferences and values, their social status and position. Applying dimension reduction methods such as factor-, correspondence- and cluster analysis the eco-social mentalities that currently exist in Germany are discovered and plotted in the space of social positions. The result is a complex picture of the eco-social landscape of Germany where the links between mentalities, social inequalities and social differences appear. The picture also reveals four dimensions of political and social conflict over the questions whether and how a social-ecological transformation should take place in Germany.

Vortrag von Lilian Pungas zu „Sozial-ökologische Mentalitäten in der Semisubsistenzlandwirtschaft in Estland“ im Rahmen des Kolloquiums von flumen am Donnerstag, 15.12.22, 10-12 Uhr

Am Donnerstag, dem 15.12.22, findet von 10 bis 12 Uhr der Vortrag von unserer Kollegin Lilian Pungas zu „Sozial-ökologische Mentalitäten in der Semisubsistenzlandwirtschaft in Estland“ im Rahmen des Kolloquiums von flumen statt. Lilians Vortrag wird in Präsenz in den Büroräume von flumen im 15. OG des JenTower gehalten.

Online-Vortrag von Natalia Mamonova zu „Food sovereignty and solidarity initiatives in Ukraine during the war“ im Rahmen des Kolloquiums von flumen am Donnerstag, 10.11.22, 10-12 Uhr

Am Donnerstag, dem 10.11.22, findet von 10 bis 12 Uhr der Online-Vortrag von Natalia Mamonova zu „Food sovereignty and solidarity initiatives in Ukraine during the war“ im Rahmen des Kolloquiums von flumen statt.

Die Zugangsdaten lauten:

https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/68793042158

Meeting-ID: 687 9304 2158
Password: 459766

Lilian Pungas spricht auf dem internationalen Workshop „Crisis, climate and challenges & opportunities of urban agriculture“ am 19. Oktober 2022

Lilian Pungas spricht auf dem internationalen Workshop „Crisis, climate and challenges & opportunities of urban agriculture“ am 19. Oktober 2022, den sie zusammen mit ihrem zweiten Doktorvater Dr. Oane Visser am ISS in Den Haag im Rahmen ihres Doppel-Doktoratsstudiums mitorganisiert. Sie wird ihre neuesten Forschungsergebnisse und Analysen zu Food Democracy am Beispiel der ostestnischen Datschen vorstellen. Vor dem Hintergrund des Krieges in der Ukraine, der sich verschärfenden Inflation in Estland und der politischen Spannungen zwischen ethnischen Esten und Russen sind demokratische Entscheidungsprozesse in lokalen Lebensmittelsystemen wichtiger denn je. Vor diesem Hintergrund der zahlreichen Krisen untersucht Lilian, was einen guten „Food Citizen“ in einer postsozialistischen städtischen Peripherie ausmacht.

Mehr Informationen zum Event gibt es hier: https://www.iss.nl/en/events/crisis-climate-and-challenges-opportunities-urban-agriculture-2022-10-19