Archive

A new publication by Susan Thieme, Marina Richter and Carole Ammann.

Thieme, Susan; Richter, Marina & Ammann, Carole (2022): Economic Rationalities and Notions of ‘Good Cure and Care’. In: Medical Anthropology, S. 1 - 14.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2022.2037082

Another project about Healthcare:

Healthcare unbound: A transnational perspective on the future of the world of work in health care

The mLAB, located at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern, is pleased to announce its third call for residencies in the form of transdisciplinary research collaborations between academia, research, (digital) media, and art. The residency aims to foster collaborations that experiment with new methodological approaches, forms of knowledge production, and science communication.

• TYPE: Transdisciplinary project development
• PERIOD: Sep 2022 – Apr 2023
• DURATION: 1 month, or 30 days spread over a longer period
• DEADLINE: April 14, 2022 (11 PM CET)
• BUDGET PER PROJECT: CHF 10 000
• NUMBER OF SELECTED PROJETCS: 2
• WHO: All disciplines–ranging from freelancers to students to professors. From anywhere
• PARTICIPANTS PER TEAM: 2-10 

Further projects related to health:

New Publications from Susan Thieme and Patricia Frey are available.

Thieme S. and P. Fry (2021): Transdisziplinarität praktisch erleben: Prinzipien für die geographische Hochschullehre. In Wintzer Jeannine, Ivo Moosig I. und Angelika Hof (eds.). Prinzipien, Strukturen und Praktiken geographischer Hochschullehre. Hamburg, UTB. S. 105-118.

Fry P. and S. Thieme (2021): ‘From the Sage on the Stage to the Guide on the Side’: Studierende als aktive Partner*innen für langfristigen Wissenserwerb. In Wintzer Jeannine, Ivo Moosig I. und Angelika Hof (eds.). Prinzipien, Strukturen und Praktiken geographischer Hochschullehre. Hamburg, UTB. S. 275-288.

The 4th Global Science Film Festival starts today. From 25 - 28 Novermber 2021 great films can be visited in the cinema REX and EthnoKino Bern. The whole program can be found at https://mlab.unibe.ch.

The Global Science Film Festival is a collaboration with our mLAB.

The films deal with current global challenges from different scientific disciplines.
 

As part of the Bern Human Geography Colloquium (BHK), Dr. Rama Mani (University of Oxford, Theatre of Transformation Academy) will present on the topic

Transforming Margins: from Health Systems to a Healthy Planetary Society

More information can be found in the link below. The workshop will be conducted in physical presence, there will be no online version or recordings.

Registrations for the workshop will be accepted until September 30, 2021 via email to melina.weiss@giub.unibe.ch. We will provide information about the workshop location at a later date.

Ausschnitt:

"Wir haben zwei Autos. Müssen zwei haben, so abgelegen wie wir sind. Es ist zwingend notwendig und wir brauchen sie täglich. Meistens sind beide fort, manchmal fahren wir drei bis vier mal ins Dorf runter, weil wir halt Kinder abholen müssen (oder) Kinder bringen für irgendwelche Hobbys, für den Kindergarten, für in die Schule am Mittag - weil es sonst nicht reicht, den Schulweg zu Fuss zu machen." Esther, 31 Jahre

Abstract:

Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and pathways of migrations vary, as do perceptions of migration. Political debates are often organised normatively: the debate on the sustainable develop- ment goals presents migration foremost as a development issue resulting from global inequalities. The problems faced by particular migrants, and what a more sustainable approach to migration would look like are, therefore, often lost in political debates. We aim to address those gaps: the article conceptualizes, based on established academic debates, how sustain- ability in migration can be addressed systematically, which aspects are important for a more sustainable migration process and which trade-offs and injustices exist from several perspectives. We create a conceptual framework of sustainability in migration processes, building on the concepts of inter- and intragenerational justice, commonly accepted as the core of the sustainability concept. We apply this conceptual framework to empirical findings on labour migration and multilocality in Kyrgyzstan. The case enables consideration of the nested system effects of scale and translocality. This research is novel because it bridges the divided literature on migration, justice and sustainability, integrates theoretical and empirical insights and provokes a debate on which kind of migration we want to achieve.

Troubling Institutions”, Berlin, 28./29.5.2021

“It depends from where someone is coming": Negotiations of Social Differences in a Swiss Hospital”

Within the last two decades, social differences within the Swiss health care sector have increased due to the specialisation of training, the differentiation and academisation of nursing, the feminisation of medicine, the entry of men into nursing professions, as well as the arrival of foreign trained nurses and physicians. In addition, a new generation is joining the health sector labour force, and this generation challenges taken-for-granted notions about health professions. Healthcare institutions, on the one hand profit from and depend on the diversity of their personnel. On the other hand, they need to ensure they are functioning well using processes we call homogenisation. In this presentation, we ask how these social differences intersect and how they are negotiated between and among nurses and physicians in the everyday working life within a hospital setting.

New Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of the network for transdisciplinary research (td-net)

In today’s world, we face many complex societal challenges. Research projects addressing these challenges often involve actors and stakeholders from different fields and disciplines bringing together their own perspectives or knowledge on a topic. Accordingly, collaborative transdisciplinary approaches are crucial for the success of a project. Students, researchers and practitioners from all backgrounds should have the opportunity to learn how to do research that helps to overcome societal challenges.

Digitalisation provides a unique leverage point to increase access and extending reach equitably across the higher education landscape globally. However, digital teaching material on transdisciplinary approaches has been scarce so far.

A partnership brought together the Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net, the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Swiss Universities of Basel, Bern and Geneva, Universities of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and Luzern, ETH Zurich, University for Teacher Education Zug, to produce a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The MOOC concept and its content are designed through intense co-production processes by experts of the above-mentioned institutes. The MOOC format combines simplicity and creativity to “tell an interesting story” and provoke conversation through social learning between and amongst learners and educators.

The course presents transdisciplinary research as a living experience. With a basis on sound theoretical and methodological background, five outstanding projects illustrate promising different ways of dealing with complex societal challenges. The projects address a) health care for mobile pastoralists, b) water scarcity in the Alps, c) coping with decline in a mountain village, d) labour migration, and e) governance of antimicrobial resistance.

Starting from these challenges, the course will take learners on a journey through the main phases and steps of transdisciplinary research projects. Some of the important questions along the trajectory are: 1) how are the project and its goals framed, 2) what actors are important and which should be involved, 3)  what forms of knowledge are important, 3) how can scientists from different disciplines and societal actors interact to co-produce relevant knowledge, 4) what ethical considerations arise regarding research partnerships, 5) in what ways do such projects have societal and scientific impact, 6) what are potential challenges and pitfalls, and 7) what could knowledge co-production mean for you, your work, your career?

The inscription for this free online course is open now. The course starts on 30th March 2020 and consists of six weeks totalling 30 hours’ workload for learners. Each week consists of a mix of formats, including videos, articles, discussions and quizzes. Students from all departments, professionals, and teachers, are the targeted participants. All material, except the interactive parts, will be available year-round and can be integrated in lectures, courses, and self-studies.

New Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of the network for transdisciplinary research (td-net)

In today’s world, we face many complex societal challenges. Research projects addressing these challenges often involve actors and stakeholders from different fields and disciplines bringing together their own perspectives or knowledge on a topic. Accordingly, collaborative transdisciplinary approaches are crucial for the success of a project. Students, researchers and practitioners from all backgrounds should have the opportunity to learn how to do research that helps to overcome societal challenges.

Digitalisation provides a unique leverage point to increase access and extending reach equitably across the higher education landscape globally. However, digital teaching material on transdisciplinary approaches has been scarce so far.

A partnership brought together the Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net, the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Swiss Universities of Basel, Bern and Geneva, Universities of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and Luzern, ETH Zurich, University for Teacher Education Zug, to produce a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The MOOC concept and its content are designed through intense co-production processes by experts of the above-mentioned institutes. The MOOC format combines simplicity and creativity to “tell an interesting story” and provoke conversation through social learning between and amongst learners and educators.

The course presents transdisciplinary research as a living experience. With a basis on sound theoretical and methodological background, five outstanding projects illustrate promising different ways of dealing with complex societal challenges. The projects address a) health care for mobile pastoralists, b) water scarcity in the Alps, c) coping with decline in a mountain village, d) labour migration, and e) governance of antimicrobial resistance.

Starting from these challenges, the course will take learners on a journey through the main phases and steps of transdisciplinary research projects. Some of the important questions along the trajectory are: 1) how are the project and its goals framed, 2) what actors are important and which should be involved, 3)  what forms of knowledge are important, 3) how can scientists from different disciplines and societal actors interact to co-produce relevant knowledge, 4) what ethical considerations arise regarding research partnerships, 5) in what ways do such projects have societal and scientific impact, 6) what are potential challenges and pitfalls, and 7) what could knowledge co-production mean for you, your work, your career?

The inscription for this free online course is open now. The course starts on 30th March 2020 and consists of six weeks totalling 30 hours’ workload for learners. Each week consists of a mix of formats, including videos, articles, discussions and quizzes. Students from all departments, professionals, and teachers, are the targeted participants. All material, except the interactive parts, will be available year-round and can be integrated in lectures, courses, and self-studies.

The autumn semester 2020 is drawing to a close and the associated lecture series 'Ecological Transformations in Eastern Europe' has ended. If you are interested or would like to reminisce about the great event, you are invited to visit the homepage. There you will find all the livestreams and information about the guest speakers and the organisers.

The series Kritische Landforschung (Critical Land Research) brings together contributions from geography, sociology, planning and political sciences that deal with rural spaces in the Global South and North, their transformations, representations and conflicts, and develop alternative political perspectives. The focus of the series is on critical approaches that question social relations from perspectives critical of power and capitalism, intersectional, (queer) feminist, decolonial, ecological or transnational. In particular, perspectives on the rural that have been marginalised in dominant discourses are given a forum here. The series publishes monographs and anthologies as well as specific studies and other publication formats. The contributions are aimed at both academics and activists.

The series is edited by Michael Mießner, Matthias Naumann, Martina Neuburger und Alexander Vorbrugg.

Abstract

In this article, we analyse two parallel processes taking place in the Swiss healthcare sector, namely differentiation and standardisation: On one hand, the health sector is increas- ingly characterised by differentiation that originates from the specialisation of training, the differentiation and aca- demisation of nursing, the feminisation of medicine, the migration of healthcare personnel, and the entry of men into nursing professions. In addition, a new generation join- ing the health sector labour force is challenging taken-for- granted notions about health professions. On the other hand, healthcare organisations such as hospitals need to ensure they are functioning well by increasingly relying on standardisation processes such as checklists, standardised protocols, or ethical guidelines. For this paper, we have con- ducted an institutional ethnography of a Swiss acute hos- pital by employing an intersectional analysis. Based on interviews and shadowing, we argue that the social differen- ces between and among nurses and physicians are con- stantly negotiated every day. We demonstrate that those differences lead to power imbalances along the intersec- tional axes of age, gender, place of education, and profes- sional position. Our findings have implications for general debates in health-related fields; for management and organ- izational studies more in general; and in particular for femin- ist labour geographies, as they place debates on work- relations, power, hierarchy, and intersectional social differen- ces into a specific organizational and spatial context.

Free trade agreements not only have an impact on the economy, but also on the environment and society. With the aim of making free trade agreements (FTAs) sustainable, geography students from the University of Berne are working on possible solutions for the FTAs between MERCOSUR and the EFTA states in the course "Applied Integrative Geography". The learning process and its results were recorded by the video group. Look at this, this is transdisciplinary teaching in action!

• Thieme, Susan; University of Bern, Switzerland; Fry, Patricia; Wissensmanagement GmbH and ETH Zurich
  "Transformative Learning by Doing: Insights from Teaching the Social Learning Video Method"
  Challenges addressed:  4 – Professional development for sustainability competences; 5 – Students as agents of change; 6 – Co-producing actionable knowledge with society

• Caviola, Hugo; University of Bern, CDE, Switzerland
  "The Language Compass: Language Reflection as Transformative Learning"
  Challenges addressed: 1 – Values in transformative teaching and research

In this solution room we will have two interventions, both focussing on transformative learning using distinct but nicely complementary tools. Susan Thieme and Patriciy Fry illustrate how the Social Learning Video method can be applied to bridge between actors from science and practice. Hugo Caviola in contrast uses language, more specifically the Language Compass, to make different disciplinary perspectives explicit. Bringing both interventions together, we want to explore how these two approaches can be related to each other, e.g. by pondering questions like what role plays language in videos, could videos help identifying and reflecting about language.

“Because people have to stay home and will be working less they won’t be able to afford their pension in the future. There will be payment gaps. Now the debate is on the interest rates, they are arguing whether people should retire at a later age, why because we are under a crisis and we are all in the same ship, says the authorities. But this is not true we might be at the same sea but not in the same ship. Some of us are journeying in a dingy boat, some in their ships, sailing boats, vessels and luxurious yachts, laborers are already drowning.” (May 17th 2020, Emine Sariaslan)

Mila Lager, has done an excellent transdisciplinary master thesis on permaculture at the Unit for Critical Sustainability Research at GIUB. Now she is giving a very interesting introductory course, which we can recommend without reservation to all committed students. For more information see the link below.

Geographies of waste and toxic pollution

Alexander Vorbrugg (University of Bern), Maaret Jokela-Pansini (University of Bern), Carlo Inverardi-Ferri (Queen Mary University of London)

Waste and toxic pollution are recurrently at the focus of academic interest and political controversies. Frameworks such as environmental justice and environmental racism, now fundamental both in political organizing and academic debates, emerged from movements against toxic waste dumps (Bullard 1990). In recent years, waste and toxicants have again become central concerns in the social sciences (Gabrys, 2011; Moore, 2012). Scholars have analysed dimensions of waste such as the emergence of particular material practices (Crang et al., 2013; Lepawsky & Mather, 2011), accumulation regimes (Inverardi-Ferri, 2018), and discourses (Pickren, 2014). They also used waste as a powerful device to bring to light alternative representations of value, labour, and development (Herod et al., 2014).

Research on toxic environments has examined the effects of toxicants on people’s health (Alaimo, 2010; Guthman and Mansfield, 2012), their mobilities (Davies, 2012), as well as the production and use of counter-expertise on toxicants (Boudia and Jas, 2014) and organised ways of resistance against pollution (Holifield et al., 2009). Scholars have called toxic pollution a form of slow violence (Nixon 2011) and argued that toxic sites are mostly located near low-income communities and disproportionally affect racialized and otherwise deprivileged social groups (Vasudevan 2019; Pulido 2017). In geography, there is a growing interest in people’s daily experiences and what living in toxic sites means to the residents (Balayannis, 2020; Tironi and Rodríguez-Giralt, 2017).

We invite theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that deal with issues of waste or toxicities or explore intersections between the two fields. Topics may include but are not limited to issues of toxicities/waste in relation to 

• circulation and flows of waste and toxic substances
• formal and informal waste economies and management
• elusiveness and representational challenges of toxic pollution
• labour, waste, and toxicants
• questions of scale in what is increasingly framed as a planetary problem
• activisms and questions of translocal/national responsibility
• everyday and embodied experiences with toxins/waste
• ecologies and landscapes
• methodological approaches

Please send your abstracts (up to 300 words) to alexander.vorbrugg@giub.unibe.ch, maaret.jokela@giub.unibe.ch and c.inverardi-ferri@qmul.ac.uk by 30th June 2020.

Feminist research practice in geography: Snapshots, reflections, concepts

The Feministische GeoRundmail is a quarterly electronic newsletter which has grown into a DIY feminist geography journal. It has been initiated as a forum for feminist geographers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and combines a theme issue format with general news and announcements around feminist geographies. Issues are sent out via an e-mail list (you can subscribe HERE) and available open-access on the AK Feministische Geographien WEBSITE.

For the summer issue 2020 (submission deadline August 15th), we invite short contributions around the topic of feminist research practice in geography. We are looking for interventions, reflection pieces, creative ways to communicate research experiences and conundrums, book reviews, calls for more attention to particular debates, concepts or problems – or any other format you may suggest. Creative writing and visualization are most welcome, but not mandatory.

What motivates us to compile this issue are the many and recurrent conversations on the beauty and rewards, but also the struggles and problems around conducting research in the social sciences. Again and again, these show the importance of upholding exchange on this fundamentally social and political practice. Creating platforms for such exchange is important not least since the stories surrounding the research process often remain invisible in academic texts. It is also important as many of the lively debates and elaborated contributions on questions of power, justice, responsibility, accountability and ethics in feminist geographies, postcolonial studies, participatory action research and other fields yet have to gain full influence on research practice.

Contributions to this issue address  the broader question of politics of field-work or personal snapshots orreflections. Topics may include

• Surprises in research and the potential of the unforeseen
• (Im)Possibilities of navigating risks and contingency   in the research process (e.g. with regard to corona)
• Risks for research participants and responsibilities
• Positionalities, participation and politics (e.g. who are the ones conducting research, who speaks, who is being represented and how?)
• Fieldwork and power (e.g. in studying powerful institutions or working with marginalized groups)
• Fundamental tensions and problems (e.g. what are the limits to (self-)reflexivity and individual coping strategies?)
• Emerging research styles and methods

The call is open for everyone and we encourage submissions by early career researchers and graduate students. We are happy to provide peer-feedback if asked for. There is no strict word limit, but we suggest 1,500 - 3000 words as a useful target for a standard contribution.

For further questions and indications of interest (till July 1st), please send an e-mail to the issue editors s.klosterkamp@uni-muenster.de and alexander.vorbrugg@giub.unibe.ch.

Conference contribution of Prof. Dr. Susan Thieme (GIUB) and Dr. Patricia Fry (Wissensmanagement Umwelt GmbH) at the symposium "Human Geographies: Bodies, Cultures, Societies" that is part of the Swiss Geoscience Meeting on 22/23 November 2019 in Fribourg.

Abstract

Our newly established mLab (medialab) at the Institute of Geography (Bern) is a platform where we explore jointly with students the potential of audio-visual research methodologies. The aim of our presentation is a critical reflection on our last semester first time run course on the social learning video method. Our presentation is based on a critical analysis of material 15 generated in the seminar: a content-based video-analysis of the entire course (video records of each meeting), written reflections of the students on the method with specific questions regarding the “visual”, and an in-depth evaluation of the course in exchange with all involved partners. The central idea of the social learning video method (Fry, 2017, 2018; Fry and Thieme 2019) is to address socially relevant problems and work out solutions together (co-production) with civil society, administration and the private sector. The purpose 20 of the SLV method is to map the different actors and to identify, visualize and make accessible their perspectives and their transformation knowledge. In the seminar the students went through a transdisciplinary work process and produced a social learning video on the topic "Access to and practices of mobility using the example of the Thun railway station". The production of the SLV initiated a very strong exchange between the students, the practice partners and the lecturers. The ongoing discussion of the aim of the video, the process of filming (what, whom, when), the discussion of raw material at 25 different stages of the seminar, and the production of the final video (what becomes part of the video and what to leave out) initiated a constant reflection of the process and adaptation whenever needed. One of the main challenges in the seminar was to keep a balance between the introduction to technical skills, a critical reflection on visual methodology and deepening other topical aspects (e.g. mobility, sustainability, transdisciplinary). For the students the biggest achievement was that the practice partners not only closely collaborated throughout the whole seminar but now 30 also use the 12 min video for further processes in their institutions.

Abstract

In this “positioning” we discuss current developments, possibilities and challenges around working with film in and for geography. We describe possibilities that certain conscious and collaborative ways of employing film offer: They point beyond film analysis and are more than a mere add-on to communicate research results, but rather can stimulate new forms of reflexivity and creativity along different steps of research and teaching processes. We further show how the emergence of new digital and physical platforms can enable and support exchange on film and other digital media, using the example of our new media laboratory (mLab) at the University of Bern.

For the first time, global politics and science meet on the cinema screen in Bern. The Global Science Film Festival presents feature films, documentaries and short films dealing with current global developments and problems. The festival, which took place for the first time in Zurich in 2017, will take place this year simultaneously in Zurich and Berne. There wait 18 films from all over the world to be discovered, addressing a wide range of different themes such as poaching, paramedics, marriage migration, forest fires and the role of women in science. 11 of the films are world or Swiss premieres.

The Global Science Film Festival will open on Thursday, 14 November 2019 at 7.45 pm. In cooperation with Ethno Kino, the new documentary film Eldorado by the renowned Swiss director Markus Imhoof will be shown. This opening event takes place in the Reitschule cinema. After all the screenings, the audience will be able to talk to filmmakers and scientists in moderated conversations. The award ceremony will take place on Sunday evening.

While Samer Angelone is leading the Zurich Festival, it will be organised in Berne by Prof. Dr. Susan Thieme together with the mLab team of the Geographic Institute of the University of Berne.

The film programme and discussions will take place mainly in English. Films with German subtitles are marked in the complete programme. The film programme including seasons, backgrounds and discussion guests will be continuously updated: www.sciencefilm.ch

Festival cinema

cineMovie 1 (Quinnie), Seilerstrasse 4, Berne

prices

Full price: CHF 10

Reduced*: CHF 7 

Festival pass: Full price CHF 30 / Reduced* CHF 25

Free admission for students of the University of Berne and young people up to 18 years of age when picking up their tickets up to 30 min. before the performance.

* KulturLegi / AHV+IV / Students

tickets

Online Reservation: www.quinnie.ch

On site or by telephone daily from 14.00 h: +41 31 386 17 17

Carole Ammann (GIUB), Marina Richter (Fachhochschule Westschweiz) und Susan Thieme (GIUB) at the workshop on  "The (contested) primacy of neoliberal thinking" their results of the research on work and social differences in the Swiss health sector.

Details of the workshop

8. The (contested) primacy of neoliberal thinking

Janina Kehr (Universität Bern)
Stefan Leins (Universität Konstanz)

30.09.2019, part 1: 14:00-15:30 p.m. / part 2: 16:00-17:30 p.m., Raum D434

Since the neoliberal turn in the 1970s, concepts of efficiency, productivity, competition, and individual merit have gained importance within and far beyond the realm of economic thought. This trend has been further accelerated by the financial crisis and national as well as supra-national interventions directed toward the implementation of austerity measures, the deregulation of labor markets, and the overall cutting of social welfare. Neoliberal economic thinking and its consequences have thus become an intrinsic part of the organization of everyday lives and the ways societies are conceived of. As a specific body of knowledge, neoliberal thinking has almost become a “natural” and thus non-negotiable way of seeing and understanding the world.

In this workshop, we wish to discuss papers that deal with empirical examples in which the imperative of neoliberal economic thought is shaping the ways our interlocutors think, speak, work, organize themselves and interpret the world around them. Contributions from the realm of the study of markets, healthcare, migration, welfare, the household or any other field are welcome. Conceptually, the workshop aims to draw upon inputs from feminist economic anthropology as well as from the history of knowledge and science. Combining these fields, we hope to develop an understanding of the contested primacy of neoliberal economic thought as a mode of governance that influences most spheres of social life, independent from whether they are perceived as “economic” or “non-economic” in the first place. We thereby wish to gain new empirical insights of how the primacy of neoliberal economic thought seeps into diverse life projects, social relations, and institutional settings. Also, we wish to interrogate how neoliberal knowledge and its consequences distinctly affect individuals and groups as well as their possibilities of negotiation taking into account inequalities along racial, gender, nationality and class lines.

Guest Lecturers:
Julia Pauli (Universität Hamburg):
Never enough. Neoliberal intimacies in Namibian middle class marriages

Veronika Siegl (Universität Bern):
Free to choose? The fragile truths of commercial surrogacy

Andri Tschudi (The Graduate Institute Geneva):
For-profit with a heart? Neoliberal reforms, charity and ethical business in private hospital care in South India

Carole Ammann (Universität Bern), Marina Richter (Fachhochschule Westschweiz) und Susan Thieme (Universität Bern):
“I am a physician, not a scribe” – Impacts of neoliberalism on nurses and physicians

Johannes Lenhard (Max Planck – Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change):
Champions that disrupt and scale – How VCs are trying to make the new economic world order (and are not always succeeding)

Agathe Mora (University of Sussex):
Rule of law on the dark side of neoliberal accountability in post-War Kosovo

Jon Schubert (Brunel University London):
The fantasy of neoliberal efficiency and frictionless imports in an oil-dependent economy

Discussant:
Stefan Leins (Universität Konstanz)

Abstract (in German only)

Eine disziplinär organisierte Wissenschaft kann auf die Probleme der globalen Armut, Ungleichheit, Gewalt, Ressourcendegradation und den damit verbunden komplexen und unvorhersehbaren Veränderungen der Mensch-Naturbeziehungen keine handlungsrelevanten Antworten geben. Die Geographie reagiert darauf mit der Integrativen Geographie. In deren Zentrum steht die inter- und transdisziplinäre Forschung zum Verständnis und der Veränderung gegenwärtiger Gesellschafts-Umweltbeziehungen. Neben der Physischen Geographie und der Humangeographie steht diese dritte Säule der Geographie konzeptionell, theoretisch und methodologisch jedoch am Anfang ihrer Entwicklung (Weichhart 2003). Mit diesem Beitrag wird erstens gefragt, welche Beiträge sich aus der Rückbesinnung auf die Anfänge der ganzheitlich und heute als transdisziplinär verfassten geographischen Humboldtschen Wissenschaftsmethode ergeben (Ette 2002). Zweitens wird aufgezeigt, wo der Humboldtsche Ansatz zu kurz greift und wie die aufgezeigten Lücken durch marxistisch orientierte Ansätze der kritischen Geographie angegangen werden können.

Dr. des. Vanessa Thompson, Dr. des. Alexander Vorbrugg

Abstract

Our presentation draws on and brings into conversation two rather different research projects and activist fields: One is concerned with the coloniality of policing and its intersectional implications in Germany, Switzerland and France, the other with the concurrence of open military confrontation and more drawn out, less spectacular forms of social, economic and political crisis and gendered violence in contemporary Ukraine. Rather than comparing forms of violence, we explore common ground by bringing together the conceptual, representational and political challenges in these projects. In both of them, we encounter forms of violence that often seem to remain strangely elusive for those who do not encounter or experience them directly, and sometimes difficult to communicate in political work. We reflect on different forms of elusiveness here, and elaborate on the ways in which activist projects address them as a representational and political challenge. We discuss different ways and means of addressing violence, and focus particularly on digital technologies and methods, intersectional forms of memory making and witnessing, and their potential to turn violence visible and to connect intersectional stories and struggles across time and space. Finally, we discuss in how far such struggles and analyses do and should reach beyond violence in order to not further naturalize it, and to work towards nonviolent possibilities and futures.

Keywords: racism, police violence, militarism, slow violence, representation, intersectional political strategies, nonviolence
Research Discipline: Gender Studies, Sociology, Human Geography
Research Theme: Political Violence, Symbolic and Epistemic Violence

• Vanessa E. Thompson is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Sociology at Goethe-University Frankfurt, and a visiting lecturer at GeStiK (Gender Studies) at the University of Cologne
• Alexander Vorbrugg is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern.

Contact: thompson@em.uni-frankfurt.de or alexander.vorbrugg@giub.unibe.ch

Foreword

People living in mountain areas have long used migration as a strategy to make optimal use of natural resources, ensure food security, strengthen their social and economic networks, and fulfil personal aspirations. Even today, migration continues to be an adaptive response to environmental, societal, economic and political pressure. Experience from around the world shows that labour migration can help to reduce poverty and diversify livelihoods in mountains and beyond, but its success is determined by several factors. Which member of the household is migrating and under what conditions, and how effective is the transfer, management and investment of remittances?

Across the globe, migration from rural mountain areas has reached such a scale that depopulation and the seasonal absence of people of working age are widespread. This can have far-reaching consequences for the lives of those who stay behind, for the social fabric of mountain communities, and for the management of mountain ecosystems. Understanding why people migrate as well as the social, economic and ecological consequences of their action is key to enhancing the benefits and addressing the downsides of migration in mountain areas.

This issue of the Sustainable Mountain Development Series focuses on the situation in rural areas, where about 70 percent of mountain people still live. It seeks to provide insights into the complex migration processes and the resulting opportunities and challenges for mountain communities and regions. It also presents a selection of good practices that contribute to sustainable development in rural mountain regions, either by reducing people’s distress at leaving the mountains or by facilitating positive outcomes of migration. The publication concludes with a set of policy messages that outline how migration can be integrated into policyand decision-making effectively, to promote the sustainable development of rural mountain areas.

We hope that with this publication we can contribute to strengthening the benefits and reducing the drawbacks of migration for rural mountain people.

The editors Felicitas Bachmann, Amina Maharjan, Susan Thieme, Renate Fleiner, Susanne Wymann von Dach

Also in this publication: Thieme, Susan and Asel Murzakulova (2019): Migration, multilocality and the question of return in Kyrgyzstan. In: Bachmann, F. et al. eds. Migration and Sustainable Mountain Development: Turning Challenges into Opportunities. Bern. CDE and Bern Open Publishing: 30-31.

Study of Marc Weisbrod and Jeffry Sachs: Sanctions of US on Venezuela caused + 40'000 deaths

Worried, as I suppose (hope) many of you are about the coup attempt in Venezuela, I came across the attached interesting scientific study about the death-toll of the sanctions imposed by the US on Venezuela. The study titled: “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela” was carried out by the CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH (CEPR). Co-authors are Mark Weisbrot and the well-known Jeffrey Sachs, also prominently advocating sustainable development. As the disrespect of international law and human rights has become an important new dimension of sustainability, I think this study allows to infer that sanctions are also a major threat to sustainability. We should consider this as an argument when referring to the difficulties South America is facing right now.

The authors’ main conclusion is:

“We find that the sanctions have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017–2018; and that these sanctions would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international conventions, to which the US is a signatory. They are also illegal under international law and treaties which the US has signed, and would appear to violate US law as well.”

Unfortunately, this important information doesn’t get any coverage in the mainstream media, so that the dissemination is up to us!

Master thesis of Mila Laager

The Bauernzeitung reported on the presentation of Mila Laager's master thesis on permaculture in Switzerland.

The film 'Velosituation in Bern' that has been produced by Julian Seiler and Florian Seifert has been selected for the 2nd Edition of the Urban Audiovisual Festival in Lisbon.
The film is a result of the  film course "Film and Geography" that run in the passed semester under the direction of Philipp Eyer. The festival will take place from 28 to 30 June 2019 and is organized by the sociology institutes of the Universities of Lisbon and Porto and the CICS.NOVA interdisciplinary center for social science.

Daniel Binswanger, «Republik»
Doris Fiala, Nationalrätin
Prof. Dr. Sitta von Reden, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Prof. Dr. Susan Thieme, Universität Bern
Prof. Dr. Andreas Victor Walser, Universität Zürich
Christian Wenaweser, Botschafter des Fürstentums Liechtenstein bei der UNO, New York

Organisation: Kommission UZH Interdisziplinär (UHZ-i)

Universität Zürich, Zentrum
Rämistrasse 69
Raum SOC-1-106
Montag, 20.05. 18.15 bis 20.00 Uhr
Entry Free

The specialisation of physicians but also of nurses is steadily increasing. What kind of tasks a person accomplishes within a hospital does not only depend on formal qualifications, but also on social categories such as gender, age, and migration as well as informal skills like work experience, language knowledge or one’s assertiveness.

Next dates: Februar, 27 13:30-14:30; March, 26 15:00-16:00; Mai, 8 13:30-14:30

More information on ILIAS: https://ilias.unibe.ch/goto_ilias3_unibe_crs_1328869.html

Excerpt of the article (in German only)

"Die Ökonomische Kommission für Lateinamerika und die Karibik (CEPAL) hat auf die in der Region seit 2016 steigende Staatsverschuldung hingewiesen. Die öffentliche Verschuldung auf der Regionalebene ist von 2016 bis 2018 von 29.6 auf 41 Prozent des Bruttoinlandproduktes (BIP) gestiegen. Diese Daten umfassen sowohl die internen wie auch externen Staatsschulden. In ihrem Rückblick auf die wirtschaftliche Situation im Jahr 2018 hebt die CEPAL hervor, dass Bolivien durch eine vergleichsweise niedrige Staatsverschuldung von lediglich 33 Prozent des BIP die positive Ausnahme darstellt - trotz massiver Investitionen in den Ausbau von Infrastruktur und Sozialleistungen. Mit 33 Prozent Staatsverschuldung liegt Bolivien nicht nur deutlich unter dem regionalen Durchschnitt, sondern rangiert auch deutlich unter dem Richtwert der Gemeinschaft Andiner Länder (CAN), welche eine maximale Staatsverschuldung von 50 Prozent empfehlen. Die deutlich angestiegene Gesamtverschuldung wird mit dem überproportionalen Anstieg der Staatsverschuldung der grossen Wirtschaftsmächte Brasilien und Argentinien erklärt: Deren Gesamtschulden beliefen sich 2018 auf 77 Prozent des BIP. Berücksichtigt man, dass in den Jahren 2015 und 2016 sowohl Dilma Rousseff als auch Christina Kirchner die Macht an die neuen, neoliberal orientierten Präsidenten abgeben mussten, ergibt sich eine interessante Schlussfolgerung: Die Daten bezeugen eindrücklich, dass die umverteilungsorientierte Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik von Bolivien viel besser zu einer nachhaltigen Wirtschaftspolitik passt, als die drastische neoliberale Austeritätspolitik, die in den Volkswirtschaften von Brasilien und Argentinien – vor allem zu Lasten der ärmeren Bevölkerungsteile - durchgezogen wird."

The UNESCO Chair "Natural and Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Mountain Development" promotes research and the exchange of experience in the field of nature conservation, renewable resources, protected area management, sustainable tourism, culture, traditions and regional development. The chair is run by the UNESCO World Heritage Site Management Centre Jungfrau-Aletsch (SAJA) together with the Institute of Geography (GIUB), the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern and the Research Centre for Spatial Development (CETRAD) in Nanyuki, Kenya. The activities focus on the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch and Mount Kenya World Heritage region and on a potential natural heritage or park area in Coyhaique, Chile.

Das Global Science Film Festival considers films in the following categories:

Feature-length Documentary & Fiction Film (50 minutes or more)

II. Short Film (documentary, fiction, animation and musical videos) (up to 50 minutes)

III. Scientists-as-Filmmakers (up to 30 minutes)

The submission deadline is 1rst of March 2019.

More details on the festival, the submission criteria and the Science Film Academy: https://www.sciencefilm.ch/

Sustainable Regional Development (KSL: 10908)

Migration and mobility is a key feature in the 21st century. Debates range from migration and innovation, to humanitarian crisis up to anti-immigrant sentiments. But, who is a migrant, why does migration matter, for whom and how; is there a difference between mobility and migration? This lecture takes a sustainability perspective and explores interlinkages between mobility, migration and sustainability by looking at questions of definitions and data sources in migration debates, social protection, decent work and labour migration, technology and migration infrastructures, citizenship and rights. We will critically discuss a wider range of conceptual debates, how they relate to empirical research as well as practical implications and policy debates and will broaden our understanding to what extent migration and sustainability are compatible and/or contradictory.

The lecture follows the model of “inverted classroom”. Students are requested to invest 40-60 min for preparatory work for each lecture. During the classroom we will discuss topics and your questions in greater depth. Students will have to actively contribute to the lectures with e.g. their questions, short presentations, moderations, peer feedbacks for students.

Examination:
Students will have to fulfill smaller tasks during the lectures.
NO grades are granted, only pass/fail.

Seminar "Nachhaltige Entwicklung" (KSL: 423800, in German only)

Das Seminar kombiniert die Themen Nachhaltige Entwicklung im Kontext von Mobilität (Bsp. Kanton Bern) und transdisziplinäre Methoden am Beispiel von Social Learning Videos (SLV).
Transdisziplinäre Forschung hat sich gesellschaftlich relevanter Probleme angenommen und erarbeitet Lösungen gemeinsam (Ko-produktion) mit der Zivilgesellschaft, Verwaltung und der Wirtschaft. Dazu wurden partizipative Methoden wie die Social Learning Video (SLV) Methode entwickelt. Grundgedanke ist die Unterscheidung zwischen System-, Ziel- und Transformationswissen und das nachhaltige Entwicklung nur durch konkretes Handlungs- respektive Transformationswissen möglich ist. Mit der SLV - Methode gelingt es bereits erfolgreiches Transformationswissen zu ermitteln und mit Hilfe von Videos in den Netzwerken der Zielgruppe weiter zu vermitteln.
Dem transdisziplinären Forschungsverständnis folgend, arbeiten die Studierenden von Beginn an eng mit dem Praxispartner zusammen und werden den Forschungsgegenstand gemeinsam formulieren.
Ergebnis des Seminars wird es sein, dass die Studierenden einen transdisziplinären Arbeitsprozess durchlaufen und dabei zum Thema „Zugang und Praktiken von Mobilität im Kanton Bern“ ein Social Learning Video produzieren, dieses dem Praxispartner präsentieren, gemeinsam diskutieren und diesen Prozess kritisch reflektieren.

Gesamtnote setzt sich aus einem Teil Einzelarbeit und einem Teil Gruppenarbeit zusammen.
Durchgängig aktive Mitarbeit und Engagement in der Zusammenarbeit mit dem Praxispartner sind Voraussetzung für das Gelingen des Seminars.