Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations - Addressing institutional dimensions of long-term and global resource use.

The research project analyses global resource use dynamics as a challenge for social-ecological transformations. It addresses institutional dimensions of long-term and global resource use dynamics to identify the drivers and the impact of exponential global resource growth referred to as the Great Acceleration. Its key aim is to comprehend current unsustainability across global and national scales for a better understanding of the societal and biophysical challenges of transformations towards sustainability. The project will (1) develop an integrative conceptual framework based on socio-metabolic research and regulation theory; (2) classify typical patterns of global resource use dynamics and link them to historical developments and institutional conditions; (3) study the US and China as two cases that are relevant for the great resource accelerations after World War II and after the 2000s, the latter taking place mainly in Asia/China; (4) identify alternative transformation paths by assessing barriers and options, constraints and leverage points for alternative resource trajectories. In methodological terms, we combine the biophysical dimensions of resource use analysed from the perspective of Social Ecology, in particular using the tool of economy-wide Material Flow Accounting (ew-MEFA), with Regulation Theory suitable for an analysis of certain historical phases and spatial differences of contemporary capitalism. In doing so, we build upon quantitative analysis on the biophysical dimensions of global and national resource use and link them to an institutional explanation strategy. Building on quantitative and qualitative methods, ew-MEFA will be combined with social science theory to better address the more concrete economic, technical, political, and cultural conditions involved. These conditions are embodied in institutional constellations and will enable an explanation of the different patterns and trajectories of resource use dynamics in spatial and temporal terms as well as an evaluation of the options to intervene or to shape transformation pathways. Drawing on document analysis and expert interviews, we will further study two cases, those of the US and China, which will allow us a better understanding of the two major phases of resource acceleration and its societal causes. The combination of ew-MEFA and Regulation Theory is highly innovative, since the project will contribute to a better understanding of global resource use dynamics in particular and social-ecological transformations in general. The project is located at the Institute of Social Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. The interdisciplinary research team, led by Christoph Görg, Professor at the Institute, is composed of specialists with complementary competences with respect to different disciplines, and methods