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- Gabriela Weber de Morais
Gabriela Weber de Morais
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Gabriela Weber de Morais about her participation in the 10th biennal conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics, Lille, France, 18 – 21 June 2013
Between the 17th and the 21st of June, I attended the 10th biennal Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) in Lille, France. The central theme of the conference this year was Ecological Economics and institutional dynamics. Ecological Economics focuses on the interactions between ecological and economic systems whereas institutional dynamics (in this case) refers to the formal and informal rules shaping such interactions.
The conference programme started with a policy-science pre-conference event at the European Parliament in Brussels, which is located 30 min away by train from Lille. The aim of this meeting was to discuss whether the main messages of Ecological Economics find an echo in the environmental policy making process at the EU‐level. Even though my research project focuses on developing countries, it is related to policy making. Thus I found useful to see the way such a science-policy interaction takes place and what kind of issues are raised. I also benefited from the conference opening plenary which took place later at the same day in Lille. The keynote speech was given by Prof. Dr. Daniel Bromley, an important scholar coming from the field of institutional economics. Being institutional analysis the theoretical framework of my PhD project, it was important for me to attend this session and take notes for future reference.
The following day was a long one. The first plenary session started early morning. The parallel session named “Biodiversity: instruments and policies” in which I was going to present my paper was scheduled for the very end of the afternoon after the poster session. In spite of the hot weather, fellow researchers bore with us and stayed until 18:30, when we closed the session. Since we were five panelists to present our papers in 1.5 hour, we had to make our presentations in 10 min each to allow time for questions. Even though it is usually hard to keep short when talking about our PhD projects, I believe it is a good training to be asked to be concise. I was glad that I managed to finish my presentation on time without rushing. By now, I can also notice some patterns of questions about my project emerging after I give presentations. This experience is also helping me to become more objective when answering them.
After finishing my presentation, I left the conference venue at the university campus to attend the conference dinner in town. It was held at the impressive building of the Lille Chamber of Commerce. This informal occasion was a nice opportunity to get to know other PhD students working with similar topics and further exchange ideas with them. My plan for the rest of the conference was to attend sessions where scholars, which I frequently read papers from, presented their research. I found this strategy beneficial to: get updated about their current research interests, and obtain insights for my proposed discussions for the master students of the ISATEC Programme (http://www.isatec.uni-bremen.de/en/isatec). They would be attending a course on ecological economics held by my supervisor and I in the following week.
To sum up the major benefits of the conference were: to learn about the research interests being currently pursued by the members of the European Society of Ecological Economics; catch up with researchers I had the opportunity to meet during the 8th edition of the conference in 2009; and meet new PhD students working with similar topics. Furthermore I came back to Bremen with several ideas to share with the ISATEC students. I hope I can keep following the research being undertaken by the members of society as now I joined it as PhD student member. Last but not least, I would like to thank MARUM and its Graduate School (GLOMAR), which I belong to, for the financial support which made this rewarding experience possible.
The conference programme started with a policy-science pre-conference event at the European Parliament in Brussels, which is located 30 min away by train from Lille. The aim of this meeting was to discuss whether the main messages of Ecological Economics find an echo in the environmental policy making process at the EU‐level. Even though my research project focuses on developing countries, it is related to policy making. Thus I found useful to see the way such a science-policy interaction takes place and what kind of issues are raised. I also benefited from the conference opening plenary which took place later at the same day in Lille. The keynote speech was given by Prof. Dr. Daniel Bromley, an important scholar coming from the field of institutional economics. Being institutional analysis the theoretical framework of my PhD project, it was important for me to attend this session and take notes for future reference.
The following day was a long one. The first plenary session started early morning. The parallel session named “Biodiversity: instruments and policies” in which I was going to present my paper was scheduled for the very end of the afternoon after the poster session. In spite of the hot weather, fellow researchers bore with us and stayed until 18:30, when we closed the session. Since we were five panelists to present our papers in 1.5 hour, we had to make our presentations in 10 min each to allow time for questions. Even though it is usually hard to keep short when talking about our PhD projects, I believe it is a good training to be asked to be concise. I was glad that I managed to finish my presentation on time without rushing. By now, I can also notice some patterns of questions about my project emerging after I give presentations. This experience is also helping me to become more objective when answering them.
After finishing my presentation, I left the conference venue at the university campus to attend the conference dinner in town. It was held at the impressive building of the Lille Chamber of Commerce. This informal occasion was a nice opportunity to get to know other PhD students working with similar topics and further exchange ideas with them. My plan for the rest of the conference was to attend sessions where scholars, which I frequently read papers from, presented their research. I found this strategy beneficial to: get updated about their current research interests, and obtain insights for my proposed discussions for the master students of the ISATEC Programme (http://www.isatec.uni-bremen.de/en/isatec). They would be attending a course on ecological economics held by my supervisor and I in the following week.
To sum up the major benefits of the conference were: to learn about the research interests being currently pursued by the members of the European Society of Ecological Economics; catch up with researchers I had the opportunity to meet during the 8th edition of the conference in 2009; and meet new PhD students working with similar topics. Furthermore I came back to Bremen with several ideas to share with the ISATEC students. I hope I can keep following the research being undertaken by the members of society as now I joined it as PhD student member. Last but not least, I would like to thank MARUM and its Graduate School (GLOMAR), which I belong to, for the financial support which made this rewarding experience possible.
