Societal Metabolism

Mario Giampietro works on integrated assessment of sustainability. Using innovative concepts derived from Complex Systems Theory (multi-purpose grammars, impredicative loop analysis, Sudoku effects), he developed an innovative scientific approach - Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) - that can be used to integrate different narratives used in quantitative analysis:. This approach makes it possible to generate quantitative representations of the viability and desirability of the metabolic pattern of modern societies using simultaneously technical, economic, demographic, social and ecological variables defined on different hierarchical levels and scales.

Full CV of Mario Giampietro can be downloaded here

Jesús Ramos-Martín(Ph.D. Environmental Sciences (UAB, Spain); MSc Environmental Management (UAB, Spain); MA Environmental Politics (Keele, UK); MPhil Ecological Economics (Keele, UK) is an ecological economist with expertise in the field of economic development and evolution of human systems from a biophysical point of view, by applying concepts from energy analysis, thermodynamics and complex systems theory. He also has expertise in ecotourism, societal metabolism, integrated environmental assessment, and social multi-criteria evaluation. Currently he is assistant professor at the Department of Economics and Economic History and researcher at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Previous posts include consultant for the regional Government of Catalonia on energy issues, researcher at the Institute for Social Ecology (IFF-SOCEC) in Vienna, researcher at the Italian National Institute for Research on Food and Nutrition, and lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and FLACSO Ecuador. His research has strong links with Latin America, where he is part of the Organising Committee of the Biannual Iberoamerican Congress on Development and Environment, and Editor of the Iberoamerican Journal of Ecological Economics.

Gonzalo Gamboa Jiménez, MSc. Environmental Sciences (Ecological Economics) by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), currently finishing his PhD in Environmental Sciences. Previous work experiences include: Coordinator of the research project Experiences of local water management, Latinamerican Faculty of Social Sciences, Guatemala (2006); associated researcher at the UAB in the European projects MESSINA (coastal management) and MCDA-RES (renewable energy implementation).During the last years he has worked in the field of public policy and environmental management. Specifically, applying a combination of public participation and multi-criteria evaluation for public decision-making.

BA, MSc, MSc, PhD is an Ecological Economist and Political Theorist. She holds a three honours degrees and one degree by research, is a member of Pi Sigma Alpha and is listed in Who’s Who in the World. Her work focuses on the political economy of knowledge in international environmental governance, with concentrations in the areas of ecological political economy, green constitutional theory, institutional aspects of ecosystems services valuation, legitimacy of environmental policies; the role of science (and scientists) in sustainable development; and the role of time and tradition in processes and principles of ecological economic production. She is currently a Post-doctoral Researcher with the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Guest Researcher with the Department of Resource Economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a Lecturer in Ecological Economics at the Central European University, in Budapest. Most recently she has worked as a senior research with the Danish National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) at the University of Aarhus and as a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow and Senior Researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany.

Alevgul Sorman, an environmental engineer in disciple, is now working on “Social Metabolism” in the Integrated Assessment group with Mario Giampietro. Specifically she is focusing on improving quantitative and integrated analyses and representations in the field of science for governance and decision making with a special interest on the applications of the MuSIASEM Methodology (Multi Scale Integrated assessment for Societal and Ecosystem Analysis). Analysing Demographic Changes and Natural Resource Management in areas of Water (“Water Metabolism”) and Energy Throughput (Energy Flows and Metabolism) is her special area of focus with the application of the MuSIASEM methodology. She is currently working within the SMILE Project within the European Union 7th Framework Programme. She has completed her BSc in Environmental Engineering at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, TURKEY with a period spent abroad at Rice University – Houston, Texas, USA. She completed her masters in 2007, with an MSc degree in LUMES - Lund University International Master’s Programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science, Lund, SWEDEN.

Tarik Serrano Tovar [MSc Environmental Studies (UAB, Spain)] is working on the development of methods for the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism. He is particularly focused in the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and multi-scaling properties to the scientific representation proposed by MuSIASEM. He is also interested in the development of integrated analytical approaches to rural systems, energy systems and institutional networks. He has experience working on rural systems in developing countries (South India, Laos and Guatemala) and he has been recently working in projects concerning the analysis at different scales of developed countries in two EU projects.

Nancy Arizpe is a PhD student in Environmental Science, ICTA UAB. Her research focuses on the application of Multi-scale Integrated Assessment of Societal Metabolism in the agricultural sector. Her recent work consists of the application of the MuSIASEM in the soy expansion conflict in a local scale in Formosa, Argentina. The application includes the field work with a view of the post normal science where was developed participative process (participative mapping and participative video) and depth interviews/application of questionnaires to develop the methodology and apply in the decision making processes.

Arnim Scheidel is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain (ICTA-UAB). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biodiversity and Ecology (University of Graz, Austria) and a Master’s degree in Social Ecology and Human Ecology (IFF-Vienna, University of Klagenfurt, Austria). His has an interdisciplinary background in theory as well as practice. Field work experience includes plant diversity research in Costa Rica (Field station La Gamba) as well as participative art projects for intercultural communication in an aboriginal community, Alice Springs, Australia. His current research interests are within the field of Ecological Economics, Integrated Assessment and Rural Development. In particular he is keen to (i) understand patterns of societal metabolism of rural systems, (ii) to design integrated rural development- and rural poverty assessments for the field of science for governance, and (iii) to analyze the impacts of agricultural globalization on rural systems, with a special focus on the countries of the global South.

Giacomo D’Alisa is a Ph.d. student in ecological economics at the University of Foggia (Italy). He has a bachelors degree in International Economics and Market Value from the University Parthenope in Naples (Italy); high education course in Manager of Sustainable Development from enterprises consortium in Naples (Italy). His work focuses on water and waste resources after spending some years as an activist in Naples against the privatization of water and for a better management of waste in Campania Region (Italy). He takes part in groups exploring the idea of de-growth, i.e. a smooth socio-economic downscaling to a sustainable future.

Giuseppina Siciliano is a Ph.D. candidate in Analysis and Governance of Sustainable Development at the University of Venice. She graduated in Environmental Economics at the University of Siena in 2001. In 2003 she joined the National Research Council of Italy as researcher at the Centre for Erosion Studies, working on the Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) of sustainability in rural areas. In 2005 she completed the Master in Ecological Economics and Environmental Management at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In 2005-2006 she realized an internship at the ECOSUR in Chiapas, Mexico, working on the analysis of the consequences of land use changes on the process of deforestation in the Tulija’ valley.
Her current research focuses on the integrated analysis of sustainability in rural areas of China, using a combination of SMCE and Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM). The analysis of the socio-economic and ecological effects as well as trade-offs between the economic, environmental and social dimensions related to development policies interventions across scales represents her main research interest.