🗓️ Session 2: No on-site class — decentralized working week

Author
Affiliation

Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch

EUF and JKU

Published

23 09 2026

Modified

16 09 2026

Abstract

There is no on-site class this week. Instead, use this decentralized working week to lay the groundwork for the country-analysis project you will pursue over the semester. Two things need to happen:

  • Form your groups and settle on a country group. Talk to each other, team up, and start thinking about which group of countries you want to work on.
  • Choose and read one entry text into Ecological Economics. Each text opens the field from a different angle. We will discuss them together next week, so come prepared.

Group formation and country selection

Get together with your fellow students and form your project groups yourselves. Start discussing which country group you would like to analyse — this early conversation is what the week is for.

You can organise this among yourselves, and you are welcome to use the Group Formation tool in our Moodle room (17919) to find and join a group.

ImportantDeadline: groups fixed by the third week

Your groups must be fixed by the third week (30.09.). The groups entered in the Moodle Group Formation tool at that point are final, and every group must be registered there — a group that is not in the Moodle tool does not count. Please make sure your whole group is entered before we meet again.

Foundational readings: entry texts into Ecological Economics

Take the time this week to read one entry text into Ecological Economics. Each text opens the field from a different angle, and we will discuss all of them together next week — so come prepared to report on yours.

We use the Moodle tool to allocate the text. You can sign up for the text of your choice there. Note that the resulting ‘text groups’ are not the same as your country-analysis project groups.

The texts are:

  • Text 1 (Reading group 1): Common and Stagl (2005) — Ecological Economics: An Introduction.
  • Text 2 (Reading group 2): Spash (2018) — Social Ecological Economics.
  • Text 3 (Reading group 3): Martínez-Alier and Muradian (2015) — Taking Stock: The Keystones of Ecological Economics.

Note that the PDFs available via Moodle only contain the excerpts you are expected to read - no need to reed the full books 😉

You may read and discuss the text within your group, but you do not have to — reading it individually is perfectly fine.

Prepare this general question

For the discussion, come ready to answer — in one sentence:

In one sentence, what was the most surprising or challenging idea your text presented?

Guiding questions for the texts

Use the following guiding questions to focus your reading. They are organised around three themes; for each theme, compare what your text argues with the contrasting position.

What does need change?

  • Text 1 (Common and Stagl 2005): Your text talks about making the economy “sustainable” — what specific changes does that imply?
  • Text 2 (Spash 2018): Your text calls for “radical transformation” — what does that mean concretely, versus what Common & Stagl suggest?
  • Text 3 (Martínez-Alier and Muradian 2015): Your text traces the field back to thinkers like Georgescu-Roegen and Daly - in these two conceptions, what is the core problem for a sustainable economy?

How should the environment be measured?

  • Text 1 (Common and Stagl 2005): Your text is more open to multiple methods — where does monetary valuation fit appropriately?
  • Text 2 (Spash 2018): Your text critiques putting monetary values on ecosystem services. What’s wrong with calculating “the value of nature”?
  • Text 3 (Martínez-Alier and Muradian 2015): Your text argues that values are “incommensurable.” How does your text argue for this and what does this mean for how we measure environmental impacts?

Who is in power to shape environmental policy?

  • Text 1 (Common and Stagl 2005): Your text is more about analytical frameworks. Do these frameworks have politics hidden in them?
  • Text 2 (Spash 2018): Your text emphasises corporations, technology lock-in, and imperial modes of living. How visible is this in mainstream environmental policy?
  • Text 3 (Martínez-Alier and Muradian 2015): Your text discusses commons, property rights, and institutions. What role do these play in determining who controls natural resources?
TipConnect it to your project

For every one of these questions, also ask yourself: What, if anything, do you take from this for your country analysis?

References

Common, M. S. and Stagl, S. (2005) Ecological economics: An introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martínez-Alier, J. and Muradian, R. (2015) “Taking stock: The keystones of ecological economics,” in J. Martínez-Alier and R. Muradian (eds.). Handbook of ecological economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 1–25.
Spash, C. L. (2018) “Social ecological economics,” in C. L. Spash (ed.). Routledge handbook of ecological economics: Nature and society. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 1–16.