Annika Weber

She is currently doing an internship at the Ecocene Foundation as part of her master’s degree in Global Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg/FLACSO Argentina. Prior to that, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Management and Communication at the Karlshochschule International University (Germany). As part of these studies, she has already completed semesters abroad in Taiwan, Argentina and Thailand.

So far, she has gained experience in various internships in the fields of intercultural training, implementation of business strategies, organisation and implementation of sustainability camps for children in Cape Town, and as a nurse in hospitals. Above all, she is always interested in exchanges with other cultures, whether on private or business trips.

Interests: Socio-ecological transformation, social change, current issues in world politics as well as in the Southeast Asian region in particular and, intercultural training.

Emmanuel Luis Poretti

Co-Founder and President of the Ecocene Foundation

Formed in the field of Political Science and International Relationship, he has worked professionally in public and academic management; participating in the design, management and evaluation of public policies; and developing synergistic networks between Academy, Civil Society, State and Private Sector for the socio-ecological transformation towards sustainability.

Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the National University of Cuyo, Argentina, and Higher Diploma in Development, Public Policies and Regional Integration from FLACSO Argentina. 

Coordinator of the University Network for the Care of the Common Home (RUC). Executive Coordinator of the Higher Diploma in Integral Ecology. Member of the Universities Working Group of the Laudato Si ’Action Platform of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development and of Laudato si’ International Scholars Tertiary Education Network (LISTEN). 

Founder and Member of the Center for Studies and Development of Public Policies INTEGRAR, where he was Coordinator of the Laudato Si‘ Diploma. Coordinator of the Team “Land and Territories” within the CLACSO Working Group “The future of work and the care of the Common Home”.

Adrián E. Beling

Dr. Beling is Academic Director of two pioneering postgraduate programs: the Global Studies Programme at FLACSO Argentina (Latin-American Faculty of Social Sciences) and the Higher Diploma in Integral Ecology (https://www.ucsf.edu.ar/virtual/ecologia-integral/), jointly awarded by 42 member-universities of the University Network for the Care of the Common Home (RUC). Adrian holds a PhD in Sociology from the Humboldt University of Berlin and from the Alberto Hurtado University, in Chile, as well as an M.A. in Global Studies. Trained in Economics, Business Administration and Social Sciences in Argentina (National University of Cuyo and FLACSO), Germany (University of Freiburg), and India (Jawaharlal Nehru University), he is a lecturer and public speaker in diverse academic and non-academic contexts in different countries. In 2014 he co-founded the academic blog and journal Alternautas, devoted to making Latin-American socio-environmental thinking available to a non-Spanish speaking audience. Dr. Beling’s theoretical and empirical work explores both the conditions for a successful sustainability transition (“transition governance”) and how governance itself is transformed as a result of sustainability imperatives (“governance in transition”). He has published extensively on the Latin-American Buen vivir experiment. Adrian’s latest work focuses on the role of religion & church as a sustainability governance agent, and on the interface of politics and culture in sustainability governance theory.

Selected Publications

  • Beling, A. E., Cubillo-Guevara, A.P, Vanhulst, J., Hidalgo-Capitán, A.L. (2021). Buen vivir (good living): A “Glocal” genealogy of a Latin-American utopia. Latin American Perspectives, 48, no. 3: 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X211009242
  • Beling, A.E. & Vanhulst, J. (Eds.) (2019). Desarrollo non sancto. La religión como actor emergente en el debate global sobre el desarrollo sostenible. México: Siglo XXI Editores
  • Vanhulst, J., & Beling, A. E. (2019). “Post-Eurocentric Sutainability Governance. Lessons from the Latin-American Buen vivir experiment”, in A. Kalfagiani, D. Fuchs & A Hayden (Eds). Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance, London, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-138-04828-7
  • Cubillo-Guevara, A.P., Vanhulst, J., Hidalgo-Capitán, A.L. & Beling, A. E. (2018). Die lateinamerikanischen Diskurse zu Buen vivir: Entstehung, Institutionalisierung und Veränderung, Peripherie, Nr. 149, 8-28
  • Beling, Adrian E., Julien Vanhulst, Federico Demaria, Violeta Rabi, Ana Estefanía Carballo, and Jérôme Pelenc (2018). “Discursive Synergies for a ‘Great Transformation’ towards Sustainability: Pragmatic Contributions to a Necessary Dialogue between Human Development, Degrowth, and Buen Vivir.” Ecological Economics 144: 304–13.
  • Vanhulst, Julien ; Beling, Adrian (2017). Esquisse pour une généalogie glocal du Buen Vivir. Synergies Chili N°13, 15-25.
  • Vanhulst, J., & Beling, A. E. (2014). Buen vivir: Emergent discourse within or beyond sustainable development? Ecological Economics, 101, 54–63.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adrian-Beling

María Cristina Alé

Argentine, born in Mendoza and currently based in Berlin. She works internationally, regionally and nationally as a consultant, teacher, researcher and litigant.

She holds a law degree from the University of Mendoza, Argentina.  She received her Magister-Legum (LL.M) in Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law from the European University-Viadrina (Germany) and she is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany).

She is a member of the Editorial Committee of the legal journal „República y Derecho“ (RYD) of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina. 

She has specialized in Business and Human Rights, the Inter-American human rights system, Conflict Management and Transformation; the Defense and Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Social Organizations; Public interest litigation and Environmental Law.

She is a member of international research networks such as the Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) and the International Network on Climate Change, Energy and Human Rights (RICEDH).

She is external researcher in projects carried out in different universities in Argentina and Latin America. She has been a presenter and co-organizer of international conferences on topics in her area of expertise, and guest lecturer in various seminars and undergraduate and graduate courses.

Current Research Areas: Agri-Food System. Energy Transition. International and regional systems for the protection of human rights. Business and human rights. Economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. Public Interest oriented litigation.

Gabriel Agustín Sanchez Mendoza

He is co-founder and member of the board of directors of the “Fundación Ecoceno”.

He is a lawyer specialized in environmental law, graduated from the National University of Cuyo, Argentina; Graduated in „International Defense of Human Rights“. Zaragoza’s University; Graduated in „International Litigation“. UNCuyo; Master in Business Administration“. Rey Juan Carlos University and master’s degree in „High Business Excellence“. European Open Business School. Specialization in International Law. Rey Juan Carlos University.

He is a member of the International Network on Climate Change, Energy and Human Rights (RICEDH).

Rachel Elfant

Rachel received her M.Sc in Human Ecology – Culture, Power, and Sustainability from Lund University in 2018. She has experience as an organizer, presenter, and facilitator for climate, degrowth and integral ecology in both academic and non-academic environments. As the previous organizer for Chicago Area Peace Action, she guided student activists to create a coalition of organizations, companies and religious groups in support of the Green New Deal in Illinois. 

As a youth worker with kids children aged 7 – 15  in an immigrant community center, Rachel focused on empowerment through movement, conflict resolution, and self-study. Rachel is a former yoga teacher at the Cook County Jail utilizing meditation, breathwork, and the philosophy of yoga as a form of social activism within the American legal system. Rachel enjoys working specifically at the nexus of politics, society and environment in order to seek justice in both the collective and individual spheres.

Rachel currently works on the Healing Earth team at Loyola University Chicago, a open-access interdisciplinary online textbook combining science, ethics, spirituality and a call to action as it relates to environmental justice. She helps ensure that well-rounded perspectives are included in Healing Earth as it pertains to specific regions, communities, and spiritual paths around the world.

She also is the teaching assistant to the ongoing project within the Ecocene Foundation: Higher Education Course in Integral Ecology alongside Adrián and Emmanuel. 

Investieren in das Ökozän

Im Allgemeinen besteht die wichtigste beobachtbare Auswirkung der Strömungen der sozialen und ökologischen Verantwortung der Unternehmen und der so genannten „grünen Investitionen“ in der Entstehung einer neuen Dimension des Unternehmensimages, der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und des Marketings, ohne dass es zu einer wesentlichen Änderung der derzeitigen nicht-nachhaltigen Wachstums- und Entwicklungspfade der Unternehmen kommt („Green Washing“ und „Social Washing“). Die Rolle des ethisch-transformativen Unternehmens besteht darin, zur Entwicklung einer gemeinwohlorientierten Wirtschaft beizutragen, indem es die Schaffung sozialer Werte (nicht notwendigerweise kommerzieller) durch die produktiven Öffentlichkeiten unterstützt und erleichtert. Dieses Trainingsprogramm für transformative Investoren zeigt, wie ihre Fondsplatzierungen organisch mit den Werten und Zielen der gemeinsam produzierenden Gemeinschaften verbunden werden können, anstatt mechanisch und abstrakt auf die Logik der Kapitalakkumulation zu reagieren.

Dirección: Adrián E. Beling

Sozio-Ökologische-Legale Forschung

Dieses Programm, das in akademischer Zusammenarbeit mit der Katholischen Universität Santa Fe (UCSF), Argentinien, entwickelt wurde, widmet sich dem Studium von Rechtsfragen aus einem (sozio-)ökologischen Ansatz. Recht wird als ein menschliches Instrument verstanden, das darauf abzielt, die Koexistenz im gemeinsamen Haus aus einer ökologischen Perspektive zu regeln, die versucht, menschliche und nicht-menschliche Dimensionen (z.B. soziale und ökologische) zu artikulieren, die als voneinander abhängig im planetarischen Ökosystem verstanden werden. Die Einbürgerung der Dichotomie zwischen Natur und Gesellschaft, die den Menschen als Rechtssubjekt vom Nichtmenschen – der einer „äußeren“ Umwelt zugeordnet wird – trennt, zwingt uns immer noch häufig dazu, das Soziale und das Ökologische getrennt zu betrachten. Angesichts dieser Dichotomie wird das Konzept der integralen Ökologie als Begriff vorgeschlagen, um die Beziehungen der Interaktion zwischen allen Wesen – menschlichen und nicht-menschlichen -, die das globale Ökosystem bewohnen, als ein gemeinsames Haus wiederherzustellen.

Link externo: http://www.ucsf.edu.ar/investigacion-ecojuridica/
Dirección: Ana María Bonet

Menschenrechte und Wirtschaft: Beziehungen und Spannungen zwischen sozialen und ökologischen Rechten und der transnationalen Rechts- und Wirtschaftsordnung

Dieses Projekt greift die schwerwiegenden globalen Sozial- und Umweltkrisen auf, indem es die Kollision zwischen Menschenrechten und Wirtschaft durch eine kasuistische Analyse einiger dieser Krisen untersucht. Die Haupthypothese ist, dass die fragliche Kollision, die sich in solchen Verletzungen der sozialen und ökologischen Menschenrechte auf globaler Ebene widerspiegelt, einer tieferen Krise zugrunde liegt, einer strukturellen Krise des seit der Moderne vorgeschlagenen Modells der Sozialität. Ausgehend von einer kritischen Analyse dieses aktuellen Modells und von den ethischen Postulaten einer Sozialität der Gastfreundschaft schlägt die Forschung vor, einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung eines brüderlicheren und solidarischeren Rechts zu leisten, das mit einem entsprechenden Wirtschaftssystem verbunden werden kann und die Grundlage für eine wirksame Verwirklichung der Menschenrechte, insbesondere der sozialen und ökologischen Rechte, bildet.

Dirección: Ana María Bonet