In the run-up to the conference, we talked to Fariborz Zelli, scientific chair at the 2016 Nairobi Conference and professor at the Department of Political Science at Lund University – co-host of the 2017 Lund Conference on Earth System Governance.
He shared his views on what makes this year’s conference special, the role of the conferences for the Earth System Governance network and some of the things he is looking forward to in the conference programme.
Lund University’s Department of Political Science fuses traditional roots with cutting-edge research and education. One of the central research areas of the Department is environmental governance, with the Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG) at its core. The EPRG was founded in the late 1990s and today comprises over 15 senior researchers and PhD students whose research focuses on chief challenges of global and domestic environmental politics. In addition, many scholars from other research groups at the department, e.g on development studies and gender research, work on major questions of sustainability development. Based on this diversity and strong engagement, researchers from the Department of Political Science have provided ground-breaking research and innovative teaching on key challenges and timely debates, including equity and fairness, democratic legitimacy, accountability and polycentricity of environmental governance.
The department’s environmental governance experts are employed in various multi-disciplinary research networks, teaching and communicative efforts throughout and beyond Lund University. This includes strong ties with the Earth System Governance project and its Lund-based international project office, e.g. with Earth System Governance Project chair Frank Biermann joining the department as a visiting researcher and Karin Bäckstrand and Fariborz Zelli chairing former Earth System Governance Conferences in Lund 2012 and Nairobi 2016.
In light of this longstanding collaboration and focus on environmental governance themes, Lund University’s Department of Political Science is proud to be host of the 2017 Earth System Governance. At this year’s conference, a series of colleagues from the department will present their important work in panels and semi-plenaries. Earth System Governance Lead Faculty member Annica Kronsell will introduce the Earth System Governance Teaching Initiative and co-organizes a whole day side-event on innovative teaching methods.
Photo: Johan Persson
Video: Balthazar Mandahl Forsberg