The Ecosystem Services Research Group at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Ökoinstitut e.V., Berlin Office, jointly organise an International Workshop on “Beyond Efficiency – Exploring the Political and Institutional Dimensions of Market-based Instruments for Ecosystem Services”.
The workshop takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 13-14 March 2012, at the Protestant House of Education (Evangelische Bildungsstätte), Isle of Schwanenwerder, Berlin, Germany.
We invite abstracts for papers that discuss market-based policy instruments in environmental governance and, more specifically, in the provision of ecosystem services. Papers should pay special attention to:
-* (A) the discourse on and politics of market-based instruments (MBIs) for ecosystem services,
-* (B) polycentric or multi-level governance contexts of MBIs, and/or
-* (C) their performance and assessment.
The starting point for discussion is that, while MBIs feature prominently in national and international policy discourses, the debate tends to be narrowed down on their economic aspects, in particular on their cost-effectiveness or efficiency. Our objective is to broaden the debate by specifically exploring the political and institutional dimensions linked with MBIs for ecosystem services in order to generate new insights into their design and performance within and beyond the realms of cost-effectiveness and efficiency.
The workshop focuses on MBIs that govern management strategies (for example, natural resource management and multifunctional agriculture) and processes (for example, climate change) affecting the provision of ecosystem services. In geographic terms, the focus is on Europe, but references to MBIs designed for or implemented in other cultural landscapes of the world are also welcome. Empirical case studies are as welcome as theoretical and conceptual reflections from the perspectives of political science, sociology, institutional economics, environmental economics, political economy or other strands of social science.
The extended Call for Papers can be found here: http://www.ecosystemservices.de/files/cfp-beyond-efficiency
Please send an abstract of about 400 words to Christian Schleyer (schleyer@bbaw.de) or Franziska Wolff (f.wolff@oeko.de) by 16 September 2011.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by 15 October 2011. Final papers are due by 15 February 2012.
