What happens when global and national sustainable development policies are managed in different local conditions? What agency and tools do municipalities and small local communities have in order to manage transition challenges and societal risks? These were questions on the agenda at a symposium organised by the Centre for Research on Sustainable Societal Transformation (CRS).

– This year’s CRS symposium was about how to handle big issues in a small context, says Moa Tunström, senior lecturer in human geography and director of CRS. Big issues of sustainability, justice, gender equality and risk manifest differently in the local context. 

The role of civil society in a democracy 

Keynote speaker was Susanne Wallman Lundåsen, docent in political science at Linköping University. She spoke about the role of civil society in building sustainable local communities and about resilience and resistance to change.

Research on justice in connection with disasters and sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in a world where climate change and social inequalities create new challenges. Mathilde de Goër de Herve, a researcher at the Center for Societal Risk Research, CSR, has explored these critical areas through her work, contributing new knowledge on how crisis management can support a fairer and more sustainable development.

Mathilde's academic journey began in 2012 with studies in economics at Université Lumière Lyon II in France. She came to karlstad university, Kau, during her bachelor (as an exchange student). Her interest in global issues and disaster risks led her to further her education in sustainable territorial development through an international master’s degree.

Choral singing is a geographically widespread phenomenon in Sweden. Despite this, it has received relatively limited attention in research. Until now. Per Göransson, who recently completed his PhD in Human Geography at Karlstad University, has done research on the subject.

Choirs have been a popular cultural activity for a long time in Sweden. The phenomenon of choral singing is particularly interesting since an estimated 600,000 people (6 percent of the Swedish population) are choir members. Choirs are found both in small villages and in cities, which makes choral singing a geographically widespread phenomenon in Sweden. Per Göransson has focused on the geography of choirs in Sweden.

How will our actions today affect future generations? What would the effect be if we looked not just 50 or 100, but millions of years ahead? And what role does history play in creating a sustainable future? Researchers and practitioners from different subjects and fields of practice gathered at Karlstad University for a 2-day conference to discuss and consider sustainability from different perspectives and in really long-term trajectories.

Time is an important aspect in order to understand what makes societies sustainable as well as unsustainable. During the conference The Temporality of Sustainability, a wide range of issues related to sustainability were discussed, from the challenges of green transition in industry to social sustainability in terms of free-time activities on equal terms. From the individual’s actions in relation to climate change in the present, to how long geological processes can be detected in the landscape.

Avit Bhowmik, Assistant Professor in Risk and Environmental Studies, who is going to attend COP28 in Dubai, which starts today, reflects on the SB meeting in Bonn.

The annual Conference of Parties (COP) 28 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will be hosted by Dubai is knocking at the door. Almost everyone who keeps an eye on climate change policy at the global level is by now familiar with COPs. It’s held every November or December and on a different continent each year.

Cows grazing on a green field under a blue sky. Healthy pigs rooting around in the mud. Chickens in the springtime sunshine. We are surrounded by romanticised images and stories of animals raised for food. But it is both difficult and complicated to ensure ethical animal husbandry within the financial and practical confines of reality. In her doctoral thesis, “How do animals become food? A critical study of ethical animal production in Swedish organic organizations”, Josefin Velander shows us the flipside and how the consumption of animals is not just about individual choice, but very much also a social and political issue.

Swedish meat consumption has long been at record levels, although it has been declining for the past five years. Animals raised for food production are often invisible in the discussions about the consumption of meat and animals. The focus is on what, but rarely who, is eaten. Since very few people have daily contact with the animals that are made into food, the general public’s perception is crafted by special interest and industry groups. That enables the power structure in which humans are entitled to eat animals.