European Society for Ecological Economics ESEE
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ESEE is a non-profit, member-governed, organisation dedicated to advancing understanding of the relationships among ecological, social and economic systems for the mutual well-being of nature and people.
ESEE publishes a newsletter and books [in association with various publishers]; holds regional and international meetings; develops educational materials; and facilitates a voice for ecological economists in public forums.
Background
Ecological
Economics: Since the 1970s, researchers from various economic, social
and natural science domains have sought to formulate new approaches to
questions of economic development in response to environmental
challenges, increasingly framed as the problems of sustainable
development. This new perspective has become known, since the creation
of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) in 1987,
under the name Ecological Economics.
Ecological
Economics does not constitute a new single unified theory for or of
sustainable development. The emergence of this field of activity
signals, rather, the need for economic, social and natural science
analyses to be brought together in new perspectives, responding to the
concerns expressed worldwide for ecological, social, economic and
political dimensions of sustainability. It represents a new practice of
economics responding to a specific problem domain which may
legitimately be addressed in a variety of ways.
Ecological Economics thus envisages the use of analytical tools and
concepts coming from many different disciplines and fields of
experience. Among these, the results and techniques of neoclassical
economics can be appropriate if their conditions of applicability and
limits are made clear and they are placed in a wider framework of
interpretation. At the same time ecological economics insists that
economic science needs to open out to the insights and analytical
techniques that may be offered from other fields such as the life
sciences, the humanities and technology assessment.
The social dimension in Ecological Economics: Proponents of ecological
economics in the initial years have, sometimes, tended to neglect the
socio-cultural and political dimensions of economic development and
change, while focussing on the biophysical analyses of phenomena. The
starting point of the ESEE is recognition that economic activities are
embedded in and dependent upon the ecosphere. It is necessary, however,
to move beyond the simple recognition of biophysical limits to economic
growth, in order to explore how, in what ways, and to what degrees the
socioeconomic objectives traditionally associated with growth can be
reconciled with concerns for environmental quality and preoccupations
with social justice and variety of cultural forms.
ESEE: This is why the European Society for Ecological Economics insists
for its raison d'être on the infusion of the social dimension,
including cultural diversity and intergenerational preoccupations, into
all ecological-economic analyses. The Society has also, through this,
the ambition to promote an innovative research agenda in Europe and a
wide reflection that can help decision-makers and citizens in the
implementation of policies for sustainable development.
AIMS OF ESEE
The aims of the European Society for Ecological Economics are to:
- foster
transdisciplinary discourse and research among the social and natural
sciences regarding problems of nature and the environment;
- provide an European network for activities in ecological economics;
- produce
and disseminate information on policies for sustainability globally,
nationally, and locally through electronic, printed, oral and other
publication means;
- promote education, graduate research and research funding in ecological economics.
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