3. Friends
Seri and ... (News about co-operation and partnerships)

4. Selected publications
Book reviews and announcements from SERI members and related writers and publishers

5. Links + Other: News about other activities, hints and advice on dates, workshops etc.

Contents

1. SERI-News
General news from SERI and SERI members

SERI member page updated

The web-pages introducing the SERI members have been updated recently.

To get the latest information on the people behind SERI please visit:
www.seri.at/people/members.

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Daniel Mittler takes part in a new working group on globalisation and
ecology

attac and BUND - FoE Germany are starting a working group on globalisation
and ecology to signal that environmental limits need to be a more important
part in the globalisation debate in Germany.
The first meeting of the working group took place in Frankfurt on May 9th and started with an introductory talk by SERI member Daniel Mittler.

For further information please mail your request to:
[email protected].

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News on Jürgen Schäfer

Jürgen Schäfer joined the AIRP-project team at the Wuppertal Institute in
May. He will support Raimund Bleischwitz and Philipp Schepelmann as a
scientific assistant.

Contact: [email protected]

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Axel Nordmann finished his studies and does trend-research at Deutsche Post

Axel finished his studies in economics in Bamberg in late February. His
diploma thesis on "The economic logic of material flow economics" can be
downloaded here (in German only).
Until the end of the year he is doing an internship at Deutsche Post World
Net in Bonn, where he is involved in the development of trend- and
future-research tools for the "future world-wide logistician NR. 1". For
futher information on the range of services of Deutsche Post World Net see
www.deutsche-post.de.

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2. Project-Overview
News from our projects, our other work and new research fields

EU Project « AIRP-SD » presents first milestone

Four months after starting our AIRP-SD project on "Stimulation of
innovation in Research, Technological development and Demonstration
processes for a radical improvement in the sustainability of
production-consumption systems", we have published our first milestone
report, containing summaries on
- the identification of sustainability-oriented RTD programmes, actors and
innovations,
- the analysis of what sustainable development implies for RTD processes, in
terms of special qualities, capacities and challenges and
- development of a first-version evaluation methodology.

We have established a board of stakeholders, comprising members from
following categories: science, SME, industry, government, international
organisations, trade unions, NGOs, European Parliament, agriculture and consumer groups.
The first Milestone Report has additionally been put on the proejct own website (www.airp-sd.net) in order to make it available to the general public. We invite everybody interested in the field to review it and comment on it by filling out the enclosed questionnaire on that website.

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Feasibility study on "employment and environment" in Austria

The final report of our feasibility study on "employment and environment" for Austria - developed jointly with iff Social Ecology - is now available (in German with english Summary). It contains an overview of earlier studies, a review of the data situation as well as first statements on the policy relevance of the topic as well as possible instruments for policies for employment AND environment. Besides a desk study, 7 extensive interviews have been conducted with stakeholders from administration as well as NGOs.

See www.seri.at/a-und-oe or contact Fritz Hinterberger

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SERI presents an overview on "Eco-efficient Services"

The topic of the month June on the website www.nachhaltigkeit.at will be
"Eco-efficient Services" ("Ökoeffiziente Dienstleistungen"). The website will feature background information on the topic together with collection of links an literature. Furthermore it will contain short comments by actors of this scene an the "Head of the month" which will be Sepp Eisenriegler of the RUSZ (www.rusz.at).

Please visit the website www.nachhaltigkeit.at to find out more.
The new topic will be online with the beginning of June.

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3. Friends
Seri and ... (News about co-operation and partnerships)

Sustainable Development between Throughput and Symbolism.
(Nachhaltige Entwicklung zwischen Durchsatz und Symbolik - N E D S)

Visions of the Ecological Construction of Ecological Reality in European
Regions.

"Sustainable Development between Throughput and Symbolism" is a collaboration of social and natural scientists (e.g. economists, geographers, biologists, sociologists) from the Hamburg University for Economics and Politics (HWP), the University of Hamburg, the Sustainable Europe Research Institute and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy.

The project contributes to a sustainable resource management. Toward this
goal, we analyse the material and symbolic content of different manifestations of sustainability discourses at the regional level. The analysis of discursive patterns should provide insight into selected, excluded and especially into the diversity of possible pathways to a resource saving pattern of economic development.

For further information please click www.NEDS-Projekt.de or contact Fred
Luks at [email protected].

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Systemic Roadmaps for Sustainable Development

Together with the Factor 10 Institute and the Club of Rome, Brussels-EU
Chapter, SERI launches a proposal for an integrated project for the 6th
framework programme of the European Union.

Research topics comprise:

See www.seri.at/roadmaps for details. If you are interested in co-operating with this initiative, please contact Fritz Hinterberger.

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4. Selected publications
Book reviews and announcements from SERI members and related writers and publishers

Friedrich Hinterberger and Tanja Sinozic:

"Micro, meso and macro economics of dematerialisation"

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of AURÖ, Berlin, 3.5.2002

Abstract
The concept of dematerialisation was developed in the early 1990s for bridging environmental and economic aspects in a debate that was still facing conflicting views on the major societal policy goals. While on the policy level the triple bottom line approach has become a standard objective of SD, a coherent framework for analysis is still missing in the realm of economic theory. The public as well as academic researchers use common, standardised economic indicators (GDP and employment) as indications for economic and societal development.
The question posed here is how the concept of dematerialisation can be
injected into standard micro and macroeconomic theory and thereby applied in various stages of economic research. As EU and other countries engage in
data collection for this purpose, empirical work and policy evaluation will be the next possible step. The paper gives an overview of recent work on the
economics of dematerialisation and provides motivation for future research.

You can download the paper here

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Daniel Mittler:

"So lasst und denn ein Rettungsboot bauen"

This article explores the Lifeboat action that BUND and Friends of the Earth International organised at the climate talks (www.dasrettungsboot.de) and argues that it shows that peaceful protest can make itself heard in today's media-driven world. It also explores to what extent the action was a typical action of the so called "anti globalisation movement"

Published in: Forschungsjournal, Neue Soziale Bewegungen, Jahrgang 15, Heft 1, p. 57-61.

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Daniel Mittler:

"Globale Regeln für Global Players"

This article summarises the argument for a global convention on corporate
accountability, one of Friends of the Earth International's main demands for
the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It argues that since Rio
corporations have been given many rights under international law and that they time has come to balance these rights with responsibilities.
For a longer English paper on the same topic see www.foei.org/wssd.

Published in: Politische Ökologie, Heft 76, 04/2002.

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5. Links + Other
News about other activities, hints and advice on dates, workshops etc.

Call for Papers on the Futures of Ethical Corporations

A special edition of Futures;
Journal of policy, planning and futures studies
Guest editors: Jane Collier and Ted Fuller

The purpose of this special edition of Futures is to provide a thorough examination of the histories, trends, trajectories and 'futures' of ethical
corporations. Authors are invited to submit articles (6,000-8,000 words) that explore alternative futures for 'ethical corporations'. In the process of such exploration, the very meaning of the words "ethical corporation" now and in future should be challenged, deconstructed, (re)defined, debated etc. In doing so, knowledge can be created, for example about; false assumptions, unwanted consequences of desired actions, present hegemonies, the limitations of ideal types, inherent values, etc.

Articles will be subject to academic referee and selected on the quality of
the contribution to knowledge in this important area.

Deadline for completed papers is October 31st 2002

Further information from here or email [email protected]

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News on O 2 France - French consulting for sustainable development and design

O 2s ambition is to help to implement a sustainable management approach to integrate environmental, social and economic aspects into the life cycle of products and services, from the design phase onwards.

O 2 France has launched it's English version of the website. It's online now and can be viewed at: www.o2france.com/uk/intro/accueil.htm.

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Send your message to Johannesburg

Friends of the Earth International will install a major art installations at the Johannesburg Earth Summit this August.

You can send your message to Johannesburg and therefore participate in this
installation at www.rio-plus-10.org.

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SERI-Infomail 03/2002
Distributed by Jürgen Schäfer
Managing Editor, SERI-InfoMail
All Rights Reserved.
© SERI 2002 (Vienna / Essen)