In search of a sustainable society - perspectives from sociometabolic research’ by Juudit Ottelin

In this seminar, Assoc. Prof. Juudit Ottelin will provide insights on the contributions of sociometabolic research for sustainability science and policy advise. To this regard, she will first make a case for system perspectives. She will explain the concept of "rebound effects" and how their occurrence at different levels of society have so far hampered the effectiveness of environmental policies. She will then discuss the challenges that current living standards in Nordic countries raise. Finally, she will touch upon the opportunities and challenges of limits to consumption, e.g., through degrowth, and conclude by making a case for a shift from welfare states towards eco-states. The presentation will be followed by a discussion on the challenges that we academics meet in our different sustainability-related disciplines (e.g., political ecology, environmental governance, development studies, social metabolism, ecological economics,...) when it comes to articulate them for policy advise. Juudit Ottelin is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim). She currently works on the following themes: circular economy, carbon sequestration and storage, and consumption behavior and environmental footprints in the context of the built environment.