GECHS

Volume III in the Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace is now out in Turkish and Spanish editions. In this reference book on global security thinking, 92 authors from five continents and many disciplines, from science and practice, assess the global reconceptualization of security triggered by the end of the Cold War, globalization and manifold impacts of global environmental change in the early 21st century.

The book addresses the theoretical, philosophical, ethical and religious and spatial context of security and discusses the relationship between security, peace, development and environment. Furthermore, the book reviews the reconceptualization of security in philosophy, international law, economics and political science, the political, military, economic, social and environmental security dimension and the adaptation of the institutional security concepts of the UN, EU and NATO. The book also analyzes the reconceptualization of regional security and alternative security futures and draws conclusions for future research and action.

This book contains revised papers from three workshops at ISA ( Montreal), IPRA ( Sopron) and the Fourth Pan European Conference on International Relations (The Hague) and additional commissioned papers. Here, you can read more about the Spanish edition, and the Turkish edition.

The book “Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures”, written by GECHS Associate Robin Leichenko and GECHS Chair Karen O’Brien, has been selected to receive the 2008 AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography. The book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the twenty-first century, namely global environmental change and globalization. In the book, Leichenko and O’Brien present a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between these two processes, and they illustrate, through case studies, how these interactions create situations of “double exposure.” Drawing upon prominent recent and current environmental events – Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, recurring droughts in India, and the melting of the Arctic sea ice – the case studies each demonstrate a different pathway of interaction between globalization and environmental change. The double exposure framework not only sheds light on the challenges raised by these processes, but also possibilities for using the interactions to generate positive opportunities for action.

Read more about the book here.

The Bergen summer research school this year gives the course Framing Climate Change: Ethics, Vulnerability and the Poor. The course explores and critically analyses the ways in which emergent discourses around climate change, adaptation and mitigation are being framed by dominant actors.It presents a dialogue between poverty and development studies and an understanding of environmental challenges and climate change from the perspective of their human dimensions. This dialogue includes attending to critical ethical perspectives in all of these fields.The course thus aims to introduce a more comprehensive understanding of how climate change is linked to social and economic development pathways, and including the ways that individuals and communities perceive themselves in relation to one another and the world around them.

Course leaders are Asuncion Lera St.Clair, Department of Sociology, University of Bergen and (from January 1, 2009) Scientific Director of the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), and Karen O’Brien, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project.

Invited course leaders are Simon Caney, Professor in Political Theory, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK, Michael Thompson, Institute Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria; and Fellow, James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, Said Business School, Oxford University, and Coleen Vogel, Chair of Sustainability, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (pending confirmation).

Full information can be found at the Bergen summer research school website.

As a result of a collaborative effort by the Southern African Vulnerability Initiative and the Southern African Savannas Network (ICSU/EU-sponsored), a set of articles integrating findings from research efforts regarding the sustainability of southern African savannas are now out in the journal Environmental Science and Policy. The articles are available electronically from the journal website and will be published in the paper version of the journal later this year. The articles seek to identify main threats and opportunities to sustainability, link sustainability and vulnerability in the region, and exemplify how these interlinkages play out on the ground. GECHS associate Siri Eriksen is the lead author of two articles and co-author of two articles, while GECHS chair Karen O’Brien is the lead author of one of the five articles.