The article “Rural bioeconomies in Europe: Socio-ecological conflicts, marginalized people and practices” was written by flumen-researchers Jana Holz, Philip Koch, Lilian Pungas and Dennis Eversberg in collaboration with the scientists Jonathan Friedrich and Jana Zscheischler from the ZALF (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research) and published in GAIA. GAIA is a transdisciplinary journal that publishes on ecological perspectives for science and society.

Abstract: 

Bioeconomy policies claim to contribute to socio-ecological transformations and decreasing rural-urban inequalities. Based on examples of four bioeconomies in rural Europe, we argue that contrary to these claims, such policies to date have not de-escalated existing social conflicts but instead have often further contributed to polarization tendencies. To live up to those proclaimed goals, bioeconomy research and policy need to deprioritize economic growth and turn to more comprehensive considerations of socio-ecological contexts and the integration of the local population and alternative practices.

To the Article

The article “How the Bioeconomy Attempts to be Sustainable – A Discussion Using the Example of European Bioeconomy Policy and Finnish Forestry” (original in German) by Jana Holz and Philip Koch is part of the anthology “Dilemmas of Sustainability” edited by Henkel et al. (2023).

To the article

The Working Paper No. 215/2023 from the Institute for International Political Economy Berlin at the Berlin School of Economics and Law was authored by Lilian Pungas in collaboration with Jana Gebauer and Gerrit von Jorck.

Abstract

This paper traces the links between post-socialist transformations and the degrowth movement. Based on a series of workshops entitled “Degrowth Enthusiasm and the Eastern Blues” that we organised in recent years, this paper focuses on the following questions: what can we learn from the state-socialist societies’ transformation processes into capitalist societies? What experiences and practices before and after these transformations can potential degrowth societies build on? To what extent can people’s experiences with an alternative system and its transformation contribute to unfolding their potential in a social-ecological transformation and to overcoming ‘change fatigue’? We present key findings from our workshops, which we combined with our own empirical evidence from Estonia and a theoretical examination of (post-)socialist economics to form six theses that we consider essential for a decolonial degrowth debate.

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Journalist Florian Zinner takes a detailed and low-level look at flumen’s research on mentalities and the social-ecological transformation in issue #91 of MDR’s Climate Update, Friday, June 2, 2023.

You can find the full article in German here.

On 22.06.2023 Martin Fritz will give a talk at the colloquium on the history of science at the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus of the University of Jena entitled “A cartography of the social-ecological transformation in Germany: Exploring interconnections between classes, mentalities and practices”. The results of the relational analyses of the survey data of flumen will be presented and discussed with the participants.

On 05/31/2023, Martin Fritz and Linda von Faber presented flumen’s research at the Catholic Student Community in Erfurt. They gave a lecture on “Inequalities in the context of energy crisis and socio-ecological transformation” and afterwards discussed with the students about mentalities, ways of living and possibilities to cope with the double challenge of increasing inequalities and ecological crises.

Abstract

Forests are a crucial and contested part of nature. Their management is at the center of policies and conflicts around global sustainability aspirations and potential futures. Human attitudes and practices play major role in these policies and conflicts. This article focuses on the meanings humans attach to forests. These meanings act as drivers influencing activities and decision-making from forest use to governance, and escalation of forest conflicts.

This article sets out 1) to establish and develop the concept of the human-forest relationship (HFR) in order to elaborate on people’s forest-related meanings, and 2) to discuss the potentials of the HFR concept for forest policy and research with a focus on forest conflicts and potential futures.

The HFR concept depicts a reciprocal relationship between humans and forests that is formed as a result of personal experiences, life histories, as well as cultural and societal backgrounds and environmental settings. HFR possesses the future dimension, as the forest-related meanings may be reflected in the expectations that humans connect to the future state of forests. As forests differ from other natural environments ecologically, culturally, politically, and socially, the HFR concept contributes in identifying, describing and analyzing these forest- specific meanings influencing forest policy and management.

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“Von Yuppies, Ökos, Egos und dem kleinen Mann” is the title of Malene Gürgen’s interview with the two Flumen scientists Jana Holz and Martin Fritz for the taz. In it, the two talked about “how money, education and environmental awareness are connected” and “which clichés are true and which are not”.

The interview has been published in the weekly wochentaz and online here.

Additional Article

On the same topic Malene Gürgen also published the article “Alles eine Frage der Mentalität” (“It’s all a matter of mentality”) in the taz-newsletter.

Read this article here.

Invitation

We cordially invite you to the first Sociological Forest Symposium on 01.12.2023, 9:30 to 17:00, at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. With this symposium we would like to encourage a low-threshold exchange of sociologists and sociologically researching social scientists working in the field of forests and forestry. Among other things, but not exclusively, the focus will be on questions of forest-based bioeconomy, care, forest use and exploitation, relevant actors and institutions as well as questions of socio-ecological sustainability.

The focus of the event is on networking, exploring different methodological and theoretical perspectives and a specific sociological view on forests.

Two formats of contributions are planned:

a) the classic lecture format (15min + 10 min discussion) and

b) a pitch format (max. 3min pP, preferably with 1-2 slides, a flipchart or poster), in which you can present your research questions or project ideas.

Refreshments will be provided. The flumen project will provide the catering as well as the premises. Travel and possible accommodation costs have to be paid by yourself at this first meeting.

Please send us your registration (title, short abstract, proposed contribution and format or participation without own contribution) by 15.09.2023 (ronja.schroeder@uni-oldenburg.de).

We look forward to your feedback!

The Orga-Team

Jana Holz (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Sociology, flumen),

Ronja Mikoleit (Social Change Unit of the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg),

Anna Saave (Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics, BioMaterialities) and

Ronja Schröder (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Institute of Social Sciences, Social Theory Group)

Büttner, Melissa (2023)

Abstract

This paper draws on the concept of socio-ecological mentalities (Eversberg 2020) and uses the data set of the survey “Environmental Consciousness in Germany 2018”
to develop a typology of mentalities towards every day mobility and sustainability. Applying factor and clusteranalysis, eight different mentalities were extracted sho- wing that automobility is in the very center of a conflict revolving around a possible transformation of the mobility sector. To illustrate these finding and to highlight the relationships between the clusters, these mentalities were grouped in two camps: One the one hand there are four persistent car-centred attitudes which are (1) the anti-eco- logical car-enthusiasm, (2) the expansionist multioptionalism, (3) the conservative automobilism and a (4) pseudo-affirmative growth affinity. On the other hand, there is a camp that covers car-sceptical and progressive attitudes consisting of (5) the pragmatic preference for public transport, (6) the discontented forced automobility, the (7) mobility minimalism and (8) the progressive bicycle enthusiasm. Both camps cover each approximately half of the sample. This constellation of very different, even strongly opposing mentalities indicates that every day mobility and its possible future transformation is a highly polarized field of conflict with a strong discontent about regulations of the automobile system. The last section of the paper then applies the concept of fossil mentalities (Büttner/Schmelzer 2021) to discuss in how far these ty- pes of attitudes are based on ideas and notions of mobility that only evolved through the mass usage of fossil fuels. Using the relational approach of socio-ecological men- talities thereby proved to be a useful framework to highlight opportunities as well as hurdles towards a socio-ecological transformation.

To the Working Paper No 7