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Simone Gingrich, Markus Gradwohl: "Transition österreichischer Agrarsysteme im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert "

Moderation: Fridolin Krausmann, IFF-Soziale Ökologie und Zentrum für Umweltgeschichte

Der Prozess der Industrialisierung löste im Mitteleuropa des 19. und 20. Jahrhundert eine Transformation aus, die mit einer fundamentalen Veränderung der Landwirtschaft und der Wechselwirkung von Gesellschaft und natürlicher Umwelt verbunden war.

Dieser Vortrag beschreibt die unterschiedlichen Entwicklungspfade von zwei nur 30 Kilometer auseinander liegenden Gebieten in Oberösterreich über einen Zeitraum von 140 Jahren. Das besondere Interesse dabei gilt den Wechselwirkungen der landwirtschaftlichen Produktionssysteme mit ihrer Umwelt und speziell den Biomasse- und Energieflüssen, aber auch der Produktivität, Demographie, Mechanisierung und der Funktion der Viehwirtschaft.

Die Forschungsergebnisse sind das Produkt zweier Diplomarbeiten, die an der Universität Wien, Institut für Anthropologie, und an der IFF, Abteilung Soziale Ökologie, entstanden.

http://www.anthropology.at/
http://www.iff.ac.at/socec/

S. Gingrich und M. Gradwohl haben uns aufgrund mehrerer Interessensbekundungen nach dem Vortrag ihre Präsentation zur Verfügung gestellt. Mit ihrem Einverständnis können wir Ihnen die Präsentation zum Download anbieten:

http://www.iff.ac.at/umweltgeschichte/files/transition.ppt (Powerpoint-Präsentation ppt; ACHTUNG! ca. 6MB)

Ort: IFF, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Wien, Seminarraum 3, 4. Stock
Zeit: Freitag, 12. November 2004, 17:00-19:00

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Prof. Richard Hoffmann: "Footprint metaphor and metabolic realities: Environmental impacts of
medieval urbanism"

The rise of the cities in the later Middle Ages is one of the most profound social and economic
changes characterising this period. While research on the these topics abounds, the environmental
impact of cities during the Middle Ages is yet poorly understood. This lecture aims at discussing
the metabolic relations between cities and their hinterlands. It will also discuss if and how
environmental indicators developed for industrial cases can be used to interpret historical cities.

Richard Hoffmann is a Professor of History at York University, Toronto, Canada. He teaches medieval
and early modern economic, social, and environmental history and is one of the world's leading
experts on medieval fish and fisheries.

http://www.yorku.ca/uhistory/faculty/cv/hoffmann.htm

Place: IFF, Schottenfeldgasse 29/6, A-1070 Wien, Seminarraum 6
Time: Montag, 28. Juni 2004, 17:00-19:00

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"Woodlands - Cultural Heritage". International Conference on Forest and Woodland History (May, 3-5, 2004)

Forests and other wooded land cover about 1000 million ha in Europe and are therefore a characteristic element of the natural landscape. Forests and other woodland create multiple benefits for economic welfare, biological diversity, water balance and offer environmental, protective, social and recreational services to the rural as well as to the urbanised society. Therefore the sustainable management of forests is the key pillar in the sustainable development of rural areas. In that way the social, cultural and environmental values of sustainable forest management to society gain increasingly importance in international forest policy.
The social and cultural dimensions of sustainable forest management are reflected in landscapes, historical sites and monuments, artistic, traditional or linguistic knowledge, values, experiences and traditional practices related to forests and uses of wood, non-wood goods and services. The history of the occidental civilization would be unthinkable without the multiple benefits forests offered to the society. This holds true for the material (wood in architecture) and the non-material (well being, health) social and cultural (music, poetry, art) aspects and benefits of forests.
Social and cultural values change over time as societies develop. However there is a loss of past knowledge of how these forests were used and managed in a sustainable way. It was recently realised that the break with the past must be bridged in order to secure the future of the still existing European woodlands. The multi-disciplinary research into the role of the social and cultural aspects of sustainable forest management in the overall goal of sustainable development gain increasingly importance worldwide. This has recently been expressed by the Vienna Declaration and Vienna Resolutions adopted at the Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe and signed by 40 European Countries and the European Community (Vienna, 28-30 April 2003).
Because the outcome of the 4th Ministerial Conference will shape the further work on the protection and sustainable management of forests in Europe there is a need to provide society with the historical information about land use, social perceptions and changing attitudes to trees and woodland, origin of modern forestry in the context of social and economic pressure and the historical knowledge with regard to woodland conservation and restoration. The goal of the planned international conference on the cultural heritage of woodland is to contribute to the ongoing discussion dealing with social spiritual and cultural values of forests and to provide basic information related to these values.

Website:http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/iufronet/d6/wu60700/woodlands2004-contents.htm
Contact: Dr. Elisabeth Johann, elis.johann@utanet.at

Place: Hosted by the "Bundesamt und Forschungszentrum für Wald" and the IUFRO headquarter in Mariabrunn, Hauptstrasse 7, 1140 Vienna, Austria
Time: May, 3-5, 2004

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"How European Thought Influenced Property Rights on Forests and the Environment. A multi-national perspective"

Lecture by Dr. Minoti Chakravarty Kaul

Much of what we first begin to comprehend about European thought on issues of property rights is revealed through the manner in which forest and wasteland tracts were settled in countries like India, Australia, Kenya, British Columbia, Burma and Thailand in the nineteenth century. Again there were differences in countries which were to be settled by European immigrants and those which were to be only kept as satellites of an European coutry.

Issues of property rights then were linked to the underlying philsophical principles on which European countries were governed. Thus it is that as jurisprudence as a discipline took root in academic curricula in major Universities; simultaneously there also emerged a demand to apply the new science of law to the emerging systems of governance in Europe and their overseas territories. Emergence of new technologies of natural resource exploitation made a great demand on settlement of rights. Forests and rights to them were therefore central as communication by sea and railway both required timber.

Therefore there came about a change in the rights to forests, even in those regimes which belonged to royalty and the limitation of rights surfaced in most of the countries of Europe. A very large part of this was due to the resurgence of thoughts on collective property rights initiated by the German Historical School and then propagated by the famous professor of jurisprudence - Sir Henry Sumner Maine in Oxford.

The ramifications of such thought were bound to create debate and to spill over into policy situations both in European countries and in the training of officials who took over the role of extending modern governance overseas in the colonies.

At one level we can illustrate the above by examining the Great European Discourse on property rights and their impact in Europe itself. Thus it is that the German Historical School, Von Savigny in particular had an overarching impact in the evolution of jurisprudence related to property rights both in Europe and in their overseas possessions. Emile de Lavaleye in Belgium, Fustel de Coulnages in France and Carlo Cattaneo in Italy all contributed to this discourse. At another level as in India we can trace this through the role that Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian School along with David Ricardo and T. Malthus played on the training of early Colonial administrators like G.W. Traill who was an Orkney landowner and who settled the Kumaon hill region, G.C. Beadon who settled the adjoining tract of forested Himalayas in Punjab and B.H. Baden Powell. The first Inspector Generals of Forests were Germans. We also see that philosophical ideas emanating from Europe were reversed by these very administrators at the ground level.

Minoti Chakravarty Kaul is an Independent Researcher, Retired Professor from the Department of Economics, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, India and recently Visiting Fellow at the Workshop in Political Theory, Bloomington, Indiana University, USA
http://www.lsrcollege.org/
http://www.indiana.edu/~workshop/

Place: IFF, Schottenfeldg. 29, 1070 Wien, Seminarraum 3, 4. Stock
Time: 29. April 2004, 17.00 - 19.00

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