Sorry for cross posting! Please forward this announcement to all potential candidates at your university or institution! Thank you! Important: Submission Deadline: 15th October 2007 (send to: hdgec.school@xxxxxxxxxxxx) Call for Application to Marie Curie training course organised by Environmental Policy Research Centre of the Freie Universität Berlin Successful applicants will receive a contribution for their travel costs, including accommodation. 2008 Training Course on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change - Participation in Earth System Governance February 18th - 27th, 2008, Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin (Together with Berlin Conference "Long-Term Policies: Governing Social-Ecological Change" Feb 22ndbine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -23rd, 2008) Further information will be posted on www.fu-berlin.de/ffu/hdgec-school. Summary: "Participation in Earth Systems Governance" is the second in a series of four Marie Curie training courses dedicated to the emerging field of earth system governance. Participation is the inclusion of non-state actors in political decision-making and implementation. While it is widely acknowledged that governments alone are not able to meet the challenges of global environmental change, it has to be carefully analysed in how far participative approaches are a legitimate and effective alternative for traditional forms of decision-making. The emerging theme of earth system governance comprises the actors and institutions from the local to the global level to achieve a sustainable development. It is about the institutional requirements for ensuring the basic functions of the system earth in the long term. The series of courses aims to train and educate advanced doctoral students and young researchers about the latest theoretical developments and empirical and practical implications from the field. It also provides the opportunity for participants to present the results of relevant research. It finally aims at establishing a network of young researchers and developing a research agenda for the future. The training course will be held back to back with the 2008 Berlin Conference on Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, which this year has as its main theme, "Long Term Policies - Governing Social Ecological Change." Theme: Earth system governance is understood as the sum of the formal and informal rule systems and actor-networks at all levels of human society (from local to global) that are set up to influence the co-evolution of human and natural systems in a way that guarantees the sustainable development of human society. The analysis of actors and institutions that contribute to the long term ensuring of basic societal and natural functions includes the hundreds of international regimes and organisations, nation states etc... It addresses their political and legal foundations and their effectiveness and legitimacy and it comprises economic, political, legal and sociological aspects. Research on earth system governance thus requires the bridging of disciplinary boundaries and research areas. A key concern of earth system governance is the negotiation at the interface of public decision-making and societal influence, between state and civil society, marking the boundaries between government and governance. The challenges of the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change cannot be met by intergovernmental diplomatic conferences and treaties only, but requires involvement of all parts of society. Yet, how to organize the involvement of stakeholders in global and national decision-making, and what difference it makes for problem solving, is still a question insufficiently understood in the social sciences. Not at least, this includes the problem of finding new ways of ensuring legitimacy and accountability of actors beyond the confines of the nation state and beyond purely governmental activity. Participative approaches are needed, not only in Global Environmental Governance, to ensure equitable problem defining and solving, and to include all affected actors into the public decision-making process. This may guarantee wide acceptance and effective implementation, but, participation and effectiveness may occasionally stand in a conflicting relationship to each other, especially when efforts are made to include all concerned actors; often the results of decision making are least common denominators. Hence, long-term policies in particular may be more unlikely and effective governance more difficult to achieve if actors are involved who have strong interests in maintaining the status quo. Key questions are: - (How) does participation enhance problem defining/ formation and solving in earth system governance? What patterns of participation are observed, what are preconditions for participation and what impacts does participation have? - What are new problems - e.g. lack of legitimacy, green wash, capture, corruption - and how to overcome these problems? These questions are tackled in different disciplines of social science - international relations, political science and law. This training course brings together the different perspectives on participation in earth system governance - the empirical observations, the research questions and the analytical and methodical approaches. The training course addresses the above questions in the following areas: - Participation at the international level - Participation at the national (and sub national) level - Enabling participation of non-state actors in earth system governance - Blind spots of participation: corruption - Participation and long-term policies Structure of the training course: The training course offers thematic lectures from internationally renowned experts, forums for discussion of research results with the participating faculty, empirical and case study oriented modules, presentations from practitioners, a simulation exercise, and occasions for networking. The training course will run over seven days. The first two days will be introduction days during which overarching and more theoretical aspects of the topic will be taught. The remaining days will be seminar days during which empirical or practical lectures focused on one particular theme will be held. One day will be reserved for a simulation exercise. Furthermore, the participants will have the opportunity to take part in the 2008 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change on the topic of Long term Policies - Governing Socio-Economic Change. The Conferences on Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change series started in 2001 in Berlin, the conferences are mid-size annual events of about 200 international participants and internationally renowned speakers selected through rigorous international peer reviews. The conferences target all social scientists working on the human dimensions of global environmental change. Each conference has a specific theme around which panel discussions and plenary meetings converge. Themes are selected with a view to bringing new and emerging topics to the European and global debate. For further information visit: www.fu-berlin.de/ffu/akumwelt/bc2008. Participants: This training course is uniquely designed for advanced doctoral students, and young post-docs at early stages in their careers in social and legal science. Participants should be involved in some form of research project (doctoral research, individual research project or part of project) on a closely related area to the theme of the training course or have a similar research background and a strong academic interest. Beyond the interest for the issues of the training course, we expect the participants to have a profound methodological knowledge in relevant approaches to analysing participation in earth system governance (e.g. case studies and large n-studies, typological approaches and formal models). Training course participants are expected to submit a paper on their research linked to the broader context of earth system governance and participation, which will then be presented and discussed with faculty members during the training course. In addition to the training course, a participation and presentation at the Berlin Conference is possible. Note that all submissions for paper presentations to the Berlin Conference must make it through a rigorous independent peer review. Faculty: Faculty will include Katrin Ankele, Sigrid Boysen, Tanja Brühl, Harald Fuhr, Markus Lederer, Dirk Messner, Miranda Schreurs, Bernd Siebenhühner, Detlef Sprinz and Michael Zürn (t.b.c.). Host and Venue: The training course is hosted by Environmental Policy Research Centre of the Freie Universität Berlin and will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin. The series of training courses on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change are organised biannually in rotation with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, IVM. Application process and further information: Scholars, who are interested in participation, are invited to write a letter of motivation (max. one page) and provide an outline of ongoing research activities including methodological abilities (max. three pages). The letter of motivation and the outline paper should show the individual academic (and/or practical) qualification and a clearly visible research interest in the trainings course theme. Further, the participants should submit a course/ research paper (15-20 pages) for the training course four weeks prior to the training course. The paper can be a detailed research exposée of the ongoing project or a research paper. Submissions should be sent by email before October 15, 2007 to: hdgec.school@xxxxxxxxxxxx The applications will be reviewed by academic standards and a coverage of the issues of the training course. The decisions on acceptance will be posted by Nov 15. Important dates: Application submission deadline: 15th October, 2007 Notification of acceptance: 15th November, 2007 Training course paper due: 21st January, 2008 Further information will be posted on www.fu-berlin.de/ffu/hdgec-school.