About Project VE²NEX

Project VE²NEX aims to map the vulnerability of different economic systems as they transition into a non-fossil future. To achieve this goal, the project uses economic modelling (Input-Output Analysis and the Computable General Equilibrium – CGE – Model) and examines historical events of key-resource depletion. The result will be a multifaceted indicator of vulnerability which can then be employed in creating policies.

The main author and principal investigator of the project is Christian Kerschner from the Department. Several other members of the Department are among the project co-authors and co-organizers. For more information about the project, click HERE.

Kuishuang Feng

Kuishuang Feng is an associate research professor at the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. His expertise is in spatial economic modelling and related environmental topics. He has extensive experience in designing regional, national, and global economic models expanded to also include environmental parameters. His many articles on economic-ecological modelling have appeared in highly regarded scientific journals such as Nature Climate Change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Environmental Change, and Environmental Science & Technology. The results of his research have been widely cited and have gained attention in the media, including the BBC, CBS, Reuters, Science Magazine, Smithsonian, Los Angeles Times and the Guardian. He has received funding from numerous national and international agencies such NASA, the European Commission, the World Bank, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Energy Foundation Beijing Office. He is the editor and a member of the editorial board of several international peer-reviewed journals.

Stefania Barca

Stefania Barca is a senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra in Portugal. She earned her Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Bari in 1997, and she holds the title of Associate Professor in Modern History and in Economic History awarded by the Ministry of Education in Italy. She has served as Vice-President of the Scientific Board at the University of Coimbra, Co-Director of the doctoral program Democracy in the 21st Century (2012-15), and Coordinator of the research group Social Policies, Labor and Inequalities (2010-14). Currently, she coordinates a graduate seminar on Ecological Crisis and Democracy, and lectures in Political Ecology at the Centre for Social Studies in Coimbra.

She was a Visiting Scholar in the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University (2005-2006), a ‘Ciriacy Wantrup’ Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California at Berkley (2006-2008), and a Guest Researcher at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University (2015-2016). From 2011 to 2013 she served as Vice-President of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), and currently she is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Environmental History. She has also been a member of the Supervisory Board of the EU Council ‘Marie Curie’ ITN ‘Entitle’ - the European Network of Political Ecology, and she served as Chair of the Organizing Committee of the international conference Undisciplined Environments (Stockholm, March 2016).

She has published articles in national and international journals in the areas of Economic History, Environmental History, Ecological Economics, and Political Ecology, and is the author of two books and co-author of a textbook on environmental history. Her book Enclosing Water: Nature and Political Economy in a Mediterranean Valley (Cambridge, UK: White Horse Press 2010) was awarded the Turku Book Prize in 2011. Her current research interests cover the environmental impact of industry in the Anthropocene, the relationship between labor and the environment, environmental justice, degrowth and commoning.

Christina Prell

Christina Prell’s research focuses on the intersection of social networks and the environment. On a local and regional scale, her work considers the role of social networks in shaping and/or diffusing views, values, and/or cultural beliefs about the environment and natural resource management. On a global scale, she looks at how the structure of global trade networks drive and/or co-evolve with a number of environmental inequalities, especially the differences among various countries in the degree of pollution, as embodied in trade. In this type of research, she collaborates with the Input-Output Model team at the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. Currently, she deals with the long-term perspective on these network processes and environmental outputs, with special attention to how the network indicators and outputs co-evolve.

She has published articles in sociology journals such as Social Forces and Journal of Mathematical Sociology, and she has also published two books on social networks and network analysis – a single-author publication Social Network Analysis: History, Theory, and Methodology (Sage), and, with Orjan Bodin, a co-edited volume Social Networks and Natural Resource Management (Cambridge University Press). She has taught graduate courses in Social Network Analysis, Research Methods, and Coupled Human-Natural Systems. On the undergraduate level, she has taught a variety of courses on social perspectives pertaining to the environment and/or socio-ecological systems.

Iñaki Arto

Iñaki Arto is a research fellow at B3 – Basque Centre for Climate Change. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics (Environmental Economics), a MSc in Engineering (Environmental Technology and Management), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (International Economics and Development).

He has worked in various research positions in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2010-2013) and at the University of the Basque Country (2001-2010). His research focuses on ecological and environmental modelling (Integrated Assessment, Computable General Equilibrium, Dynamic Econometric Input-Output), input-output analysis, and social metabolism. He has contributed to several books and published articles in international journals such as Ecological Economics, Environmental Science & Technology, and Journal of Industrial Ecology. He has also participated in several publicly funded research projects (such as EXIOMOD, WIOD, FLAGSHIP, COMPLEX, and DECCMA).

Tiziano Gomiero

Tiziano Gomiero focuses primarily on integrated analysis of agricultural systems, rural development, organic farming, biodiversity, and environmental protection. He has worked in these areas on many international projects in Europe and Asia. He holds an MSc in the Natural Sciences from the University of Padova in Italy, and an MSc in Ecological Economics and Environmental Management and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.

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