Research in Progress

• Climate Politics: Research Project PCG - Interacting Actors in Polycentric Climate Governance (funded by the Heidelberg Center for the Environment): The goal of this project is to understand how transnational forums established in recent years to address climate change affect the discussion, selection, and convergence of climate change policies. To achieve this, we will examine the policy preferences and perceptions of different groups of actors (bureaucrats, civil society actors, and business actors) in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, determine the impact of cross-level learning on policy convergence, and examine the representation of included and excluded actors. Principal investigators: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rosa Lehmann (HCIAS), Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun (Institute of Political Science), Prof. Dr. Johannes Glückler (Institute of Geography), Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda (HCIAS); Project members: Alejandra Irigoyen Ríos (HCIAS) and Emiliano Levario Saad.

  • Current activities within the framework of this research project:

    • Workshop in Chile: “Políticas policéntricas de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático: Actores, interrelaciones, e impactos en América del Sur”, October 27 and 28, 2022, Location: Heidelberg Center para América Latina, Santiago de Chile.

• Energy Transition and Bioeconomy: At the core of this research focus is the assumption that technological innovations aimed at addressing climate change and other socio-ecological challenges cannot be considered separately from societal power relations and social inequalities. Therefore, the following questions are at the core of this research focus: 

  • To what extent do renewable energies or bio-based products and processes reproduce or deal with conflicts and inequalities? 

  • What practices, experiences, innovations (including social and grassroots innovations), and policies contribute to a just transition? Inequalities and conflicts are understood as being socio-ecological in nature and are examined in their material (socio-economic distribution of costs and benefits), political (participation), and discursive (narratives of actors) dimensions.  

  • Current activities within the framework of this research project:

    • Hybrid Workshop at FRIAS, Freiburg, Germany. June 2-3, 2022:  „Transnational dimensions of energy transitions: Politics and inequalities in and beyond Latin America and West Asia-North Africa (WANA)“;

    • Supervision dissertation Rafael Hernández Westpfahl: „Energía limpia? The (in)visibilisation of postcolonial dynamics and forced displacement in the context of 'green extractivsm'”;

    • Recent lectures and publications: “Conflictos socioambientales en América Latina: Energías renovables y el papel de la tierra”. Presentation given at the symposium “Access to Justice in Unequal Societies”, May 23-25, 2022, JLU Gießen.

    • Special Issue: “Bioeconomy Governance in the Global South: State of the Art and the Way Forward”, together with Daniela Kleinschmit, Freiburg University, Alexandru Giurca, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE), Fabricio Rodríguez, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute Freiburg, Hariati Sinaga, University of Jena, Institute of Sociology.