CAPAZ Academic Director at ZEF colloquium

Website ZEF

CAPAZ Academic Director and Professor of Peace Studies at Justus Liebig University Giessen, Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters will join the ZEF (Centre for Development Research) Colloquium Series as the guest expert on Thursday, September 3, 2020, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (German time).

Prof. Dr. Peters’ lecture goes by the title: “I can’t live with or without you: Consequences of an ecological transformation on natural resource-dependent societies in the Global South”, and will address current issues, exacerbated by COVID-19 dynamics, of climate change, socio-ecological transformation, and income generation, in Latin America and the Global South.

Those interested can follow Professor Peters’ presentation via the Zoom link (Meeting-ID: 926 7430 3172 Password: 540852)
The ZEF Centre (Centre for Development Research), which focuses on development-related issues, is attached to the University of Bonn, Germany. It has departments for inter- and transdisciplinary research on economic and technological change; cultural and political change; and ecological and natural resource management, with a focus on emerging economies and global issues.

Summary:

Corona is a turning point. A way back to normality is impossible or leads into new crises and dead ends. Actually, even within the political mainstream the importance of a socio-ecological transformation gains importance. The EU supports a European Green Deal and the OECD wants to “Build back better”. There is no doubt, that we need an ecological transformation in order to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. However, the current crisis also highlights the possible problems of a rapid energy transformation for societies that depend on the extraction and exportation of fossil energy. Whereas Covid-19 is pretty much “degrowth by disaster” the pandemic highlights the huge challenges of a socio-ecological transformation for large parts of the Global South. These societies are faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, they are especially affected by the negative consequences of climate change, and on the other hand, they also might be negatively affected by the implications of a global socio-ecological transformation. The talk discusses this dilemma based on a case study of the oil-based rentier society of Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina and asks for a possible solution.

For more information see the ZEF Web page

(NWText: Claudia Maya, based on ZEF information. English version: Tiziana Laudato)