Project acronym ACCLAIM
Project Aerosols effects on convective clouds and climate
Researcher (PI) Philip Stier
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Clouds play a key role in the climate system. Small anthropogenic perturbations of the cloud system potentially have large radiative effects. Aerosols perturb the global radiation budget directly, by scattering and absorption, as well as indirectly, by the modification of cloud properties and occurrence. The applicability of traditional conceptual models of indirect aerosol effects to convective clouds is disputed as cloud dynamics complicates the picture.
Strong evidence for numerous aerosol effects on convection has been established in individual disciplines: through remote sensing and in-situ observations as well as by cloud resolving and global modelling. However, a coherent scientific view of the effects of aerosols on convection has yet to be established.
The primary objective of ACCLAIM is to recast the effects of aerosols on convective clouds as basis for improved global estimates of anthropogenic climate effects. Specific objectives include: i) to unravel the governing principles of aerosol effects on convective clouds; ii) provide quantitative constraints on satellite-retrieved relationships between convective clouds and aerosols; and ultimately iii) to enable global climate models to represent the full range of anthropogenic climate perturbations and quantify the climate response to aerosol effects on convective clouds.
I have developed the research strategy of ACCLAIM to overcome disciplinary barriers in this frontier research area and seek five years of funding to establish an interdisciplinary, physics focused, research group consisting of two PostDocs, two PhD students and myself. ACCLAIM will be centred around global aerosol-convection climate modelling studies, complemented by research constraining aerosol-convection interactions through remote sensing and a process focused research strand, advancing fundamental understanding and global model parameterisations through high resolution aerosol-cloud modelling in synergy with in-situ observations.
Summary
Clouds play a key role in the climate system. Small anthropogenic perturbations of the cloud system potentially have large radiative effects. Aerosols perturb the global radiation budget directly, by scattering and absorption, as well as indirectly, by the modification of cloud properties and occurrence. The applicability of traditional conceptual models of indirect aerosol effects to convective clouds is disputed as cloud dynamics complicates the picture.
Strong evidence for numerous aerosol effects on convection has been established in individual disciplines: through remote sensing and in-situ observations as well as by cloud resolving and global modelling. However, a coherent scientific view of the effects of aerosols on convection has yet to be established.
The primary objective of ACCLAIM is to recast the effects of aerosols on convective clouds as basis for improved global estimates of anthropogenic climate effects. Specific objectives include: i) to unravel the governing principles of aerosol effects on convective clouds; ii) provide quantitative constraints on satellite-retrieved relationships between convective clouds and aerosols; and ultimately iii) to enable global climate models to represent the full range of anthropogenic climate perturbations and quantify the climate response to aerosol effects on convective clouds.
I have developed the research strategy of ACCLAIM to overcome disciplinary barriers in this frontier research area and seek five years of funding to establish an interdisciplinary, physics focused, research group consisting of two PostDocs, two PhD students and myself. ACCLAIM will be centred around global aerosol-convection climate modelling studies, complemented by research constraining aerosol-convection interactions through remote sensing and a process focused research strand, advancing fundamental understanding and global model parameterisations through high resolution aerosol-cloud modelling in synergy with in-situ observations.
Max ERC Funding
1 429 243 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2017-02-28
Project acronym aidsocpro
Project Aiding Social Protection: the political economy of externally financing social policy in developing countries
Researcher (PI) Andrew Martin Fischer
Host Institution (HI) ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2014-STG
Summary This research proposal explores the political economy of international development assistance (aid) directed towards social expenditures, examined through the lens of a particular financial quandary that has been ignored in the literature despite having important economic and political repercussions. The quandary is that aid cannot be directly spent on expenditures denominated in domestic currency. Instead, aid needs to be first converted into domestic currency whereas the foreign exchange provided is used for other purposes, resulting in a process prone to complex politics regarding domestic monetary policy and spending commitments.
The implications require a serious rethink of many of the accepted premises in the political economy of aid and related literatures.
It is urgent to engage in this rethinking given tensions between two dynamics in the current global political economy: a tightening financial cycle facing developing countries versus an increasing emphasis in international development agendas of directing aid towards social expenditures. The financial quandary might exacerbate these tensions, restricting recipient government policy space despite donor commitments of respecting national ownership.
The proposed research examines these implications through the emerging social protection agenda among donors, which serves as an ideal policy case given that social protection expenditures are almost entirely based on domestic currency. This will be researched through a mixed-method comparative case study of six developing countries, combining quantitative analysis of balance of payments and financing constraints with qualitative process tracing based on elite interviews and documentary research. The objective is to re-orient our thinking on these issues for a deeper appreciation of the systemic political and economic challenges facing global redistribution towards poorer countries, particularly with respect to the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals.
Summary
This research proposal explores the political economy of international development assistance (aid) directed towards social expenditures, examined through the lens of a particular financial quandary that has been ignored in the literature despite having important economic and political repercussions. The quandary is that aid cannot be directly spent on expenditures denominated in domestic currency. Instead, aid needs to be first converted into domestic currency whereas the foreign exchange provided is used for other purposes, resulting in a process prone to complex politics regarding domestic monetary policy and spending commitments.
The implications require a serious rethink of many of the accepted premises in the political economy of aid and related literatures.
It is urgent to engage in this rethinking given tensions between two dynamics in the current global political economy: a tightening financial cycle facing developing countries versus an increasing emphasis in international development agendas of directing aid towards social expenditures. The financial quandary might exacerbate these tensions, restricting recipient government policy space despite donor commitments of respecting national ownership.
The proposed research examines these implications through the emerging social protection agenda among donors, which serves as an ideal policy case given that social protection expenditures are almost entirely based on domestic currency. This will be researched through a mixed-method comparative case study of six developing countries, combining quantitative analysis of balance of payments and financing constraints with qualitative process tracing based on elite interviews and documentary research. The objective is to re-orient our thinking on these issues for a deeper appreciation of the systemic political and economic challenges facing global redistribution towards poorer countries, particularly with respect to the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals.
Max ERC Funding
1 459 529 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30
Project acronym AIDSRIGHTS
Project "Rights, Responsibilities, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Global Impact on Moral and Political Subjectivity"
Researcher (PI) Jarrett Zigon
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary "This project will undertake a transnational, multi-sited ethnographic study of moral and political subjectivity in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs from the perspective of socio-cultural anthropology. The main research question is: what kinds of politico-moral persons are constituted in institutional contexts that combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to health, and how these kinds of subjectivities relate to local, national, and global forms of the politico-moral represented in health policies? In particular, this research will be carried out in Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali), South Africa (Western Cape), USA (New York City), and various locations throughout Eastern Europe in HIV/AIDS programs and institutions that increasingly combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to treatment and prevention. This project is the first anthropological research on health governance done on a global scale. Until now most anthropological studies have focused on one health program in one location without simultaneously studying similar processes in comparable contexts in other parts of the world. In contrast, this project will take a global perspective on the relationship between health issues, morality, and governance by doing transnational multi-sited research. This project will significantly contribute to the current anthropological focus on bio-citizenship and push it in new directions, resulting in a new anthropological theory of global bio-political governance and global politico-moral subjectivities. This theory will describe and explain recent transnational processes of shaping particular kinds of politico-moral subjectivities through health initiatives. By doing research in comparable world areas this project will significantly contribute to the development of a theory of politico-moral governance with global reach."
Summary
"This project will undertake a transnational, multi-sited ethnographic study of moral and political subjectivity in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs from the perspective of socio-cultural anthropology. The main research question is: what kinds of politico-moral persons are constituted in institutional contexts that combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to health, and how these kinds of subjectivities relate to local, national, and global forms of the politico-moral represented in health policies? In particular, this research will be carried out in Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali), South Africa (Western Cape), USA (New York City), and various locations throughout Eastern Europe in HIV/AIDS programs and institutions that increasingly combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to treatment and prevention. This project is the first anthropological research on health governance done on a global scale. Until now most anthropological studies have focused on one health program in one location without simultaneously studying similar processes in comparable contexts in other parts of the world. In contrast, this project will take a global perspective on the relationship between health issues, morality, and governance by doing transnational multi-sited research. This project will significantly contribute to the current anthropological focus on bio-citizenship and push it in new directions, resulting in a new anthropological theory of global bio-political governance and global politico-moral subjectivities. This theory will describe and explain recent transnational processes of shaping particular kinds of politico-moral subjectivities through health initiatives. By doing research in comparable world areas this project will significantly contribute to the development of a theory of politico-moral governance with global reach."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 370 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym AISMA
Project An anthropological investigation of muscular politics in South Asia
Researcher (PI) Lucia Michelutti
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary Over the past decade, the media, international organisations, as well as policy-making bodies have voiced increasing concern about a growing overlap between the criminal and political spheres in South Asia. Many 'criminal politicians' are accused not simply of embezzlement, but of burglary, kidnapping and murder, so that the observed political landscape emerges not only as a 'corrupt', but also a highly violent sphere. This project is a collaborative and cross-national ethnographic study of the criminalisation of politics in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bringing together local-level investigation, surveys and historical analysis, the project will produce comprehensive political ethnographies in sixteen sites across the subcontinent, providing empirical material and theoretical directives for further charting of the virtually unexplored terrain of extra-legal muscular politics in the region. Central to the proposed programme of research are the following interrelated objectives: 1) To further develop the method of collaborative political ethnography by designing, collecting and producing case studies which will allow us to write thematically across sites; 2) To generate policy relevant research in the fields of security, conflict, democracy and development; 3) To produce capability by forging an international network of scholars on issues related to democratisation, violence, crime and support the work and careers of the project's 4 Post-docs. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of democracy and muscular politics in the global South. All members of the research team have expertise in ethnographic research in the difficult spheres of criminal politics, informal economies, and political violence and are hence well and sometimes uniquely equipped to pursue this challenging research thematic.
Summary
Over the past decade, the media, international organisations, as well as policy-making bodies have voiced increasing concern about a growing overlap between the criminal and political spheres in South Asia. Many 'criminal politicians' are accused not simply of embezzlement, but of burglary, kidnapping and murder, so that the observed political landscape emerges not only as a 'corrupt', but also a highly violent sphere. This project is a collaborative and cross-national ethnographic study of the criminalisation of politics in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bringing together local-level investigation, surveys and historical analysis, the project will produce comprehensive political ethnographies in sixteen sites across the subcontinent, providing empirical material and theoretical directives for further charting of the virtually unexplored terrain of extra-legal muscular politics in the region. Central to the proposed programme of research are the following interrelated objectives: 1) To further develop the method of collaborative political ethnography by designing, collecting and producing case studies which will allow us to write thematically across sites; 2) To generate policy relevant research in the fields of security, conflict, democracy and development; 3) To produce capability by forging an international network of scholars on issues related to democratisation, violence, crime and support the work and careers of the project's 4 Post-docs. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of democracy and muscular politics in the global South. All members of the research team have expertise in ethnographic research in the difficult spheres of criminal politics, informal economies, and political violence and are hence well and sometimes uniquely equipped to pursue this challenging research thematic.
Max ERC Funding
1 200 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29
Project acronym ALKENoNE
Project Algal Lipids: the Key to Earth Now and aNcient Earth
Researcher (PI) Jaime Lynn Toney
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Alkenones are algal lipids that have been used for decades to reconstruct quantitative past sea surface temperature. Although alkenones are being discovered in an increasing number of lake sites worldwide, only two terrestrial temperature records have been reconstructed so far. The development of this research field is limited by the lack of interdisciplinary research that combines modern biological and ecological algal research with the organic geochemical techniques needed to develop a quantitative biomarker (or molecular fossil) for past lake temperatures. More research is needed for alkenones to become a widely used tool for reconstructing past terrestrial temperature change. The early career Principal Investigator has discovered a new lake alkenone-producing species of haptophyte algae that produces alkenones in high abundances both in the environment and in laboratory cultures. This makes the new species an ideal organism for developing a culture-based temperature calibration and exploring other potential environmental controls. In this project, alkenone production will be manipulated, and monitored using state-of-the-art photobioreactors with real-time detectors for cell density, light, and temperature. The latest algal culture and isolation techniques that are used in microalgal biofuel development will be applied to developing the lake temperature proxy. The objectives will be achieved through the analysis of 90 new Canadian lakes to develop a core-top temperature calibration across a large latitudinal and temperature gradient (Δ latitude = 5°, Δ spring surface temperature = 9°C). The results will be used to assess how regional palaeo-temperature (Uk37), palaeo-moisture (δDwax) and palaeo-evaporation (δDalgal) respond during times of past global warmth (e.g., Medieval Warm Period, 900-1200 AD) to find an accurate analogue for assessing future drought risk in the interior of Canada.
Summary
Alkenones are algal lipids that have been used for decades to reconstruct quantitative past sea surface temperature. Although alkenones are being discovered in an increasing number of lake sites worldwide, only two terrestrial temperature records have been reconstructed so far. The development of this research field is limited by the lack of interdisciplinary research that combines modern biological and ecological algal research with the organic geochemical techniques needed to develop a quantitative biomarker (or molecular fossil) for past lake temperatures. More research is needed for alkenones to become a widely used tool for reconstructing past terrestrial temperature change. The early career Principal Investigator has discovered a new lake alkenone-producing species of haptophyte algae that produces alkenones in high abundances both in the environment and in laboratory cultures. This makes the new species an ideal organism for developing a culture-based temperature calibration and exploring other potential environmental controls. In this project, alkenone production will be manipulated, and monitored using state-of-the-art photobioreactors with real-time detectors for cell density, light, and temperature. The latest algal culture and isolation techniques that are used in microalgal biofuel development will be applied to developing the lake temperature proxy. The objectives will be achieved through the analysis of 90 new Canadian lakes to develop a core-top temperature calibration across a large latitudinal and temperature gradient (Δ latitude = 5°, Δ spring surface temperature = 9°C). The results will be used to assess how regional palaeo-temperature (Uk37), palaeo-moisture (δDwax) and palaeo-evaporation (δDalgal) respond during times of past global warmth (e.g., Medieval Warm Period, 900-1200 AD) to find an accurate analogue for assessing future drought risk in the interior of Canada.
Max ERC Funding
940 883 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31
Project acronym AMOPROX
Project Quantifying Aerobic Methane Oxidation in the Ocean: Calibration and palaeo application of a novel proxy
Researcher (PI) Helen Marie Talbot
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary Methane, a key greenhouse gas, is cycled by microorganisms via two pathways, aerobically and anaerobically. Research on the
marine methane cycle has mainly concentrated on anaerobic processes. Recent biomarker work has provided compelling
evidence that aerobic methane oxidation (AMO) can play a more significant role in cycling methane emitted from sediments than
previously considered. AMO, however, is not well studied requiring novel proxies that can be applied to the sedimentary record. A
group of complex lipids biosynthesised by aerobic methanotrophs known as aminobacteriohopanepolyols represent an ideal target
for developing such poxies. Recently BHPs have been identified in a wide range of modern and recent environments including a
continuous record from the Congo deep sea fan spanning the last 1.2 million years.
In this integrated study, the regulation and expression of BHP will be investigated and calibrated against environmental variables
including temperature, pH, salinity and, most importantly, methane concentrations. The work program has three complementary
strands. (1) Pure culture and sedimentary microcosm experiments providing an approximation to natural conditions. (2) Calibration
of BHP signatures in natural marine settings (e.g. cold seeps, mud volcanoes, pockmarks) against measured methane gradients.
(3) Application of this novel approach to the marine sedimentary record to approximate methane fluxes in the past, explore the age
and bathymetric limits of this novel molecular proxy, and identify and potentially 14C date palaeo-pockmarks structures. Crucial to
the success is also the refinement of the analytical protocols to improve both accuracy and sensitivity, using a more sensitive
analytical instrument (triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer).
Summary
Methane, a key greenhouse gas, is cycled by microorganisms via two pathways, aerobically and anaerobically. Research on the
marine methane cycle has mainly concentrated on anaerobic processes. Recent biomarker work has provided compelling
evidence that aerobic methane oxidation (AMO) can play a more significant role in cycling methane emitted from sediments than
previously considered. AMO, however, is not well studied requiring novel proxies that can be applied to the sedimentary record. A
group of complex lipids biosynthesised by aerobic methanotrophs known as aminobacteriohopanepolyols represent an ideal target
for developing such poxies. Recently BHPs have been identified in a wide range of modern and recent environments including a
continuous record from the Congo deep sea fan spanning the last 1.2 million years.
In this integrated study, the regulation and expression of BHP will be investigated and calibrated against environmental variables
including temperature, pH, salinity and, most importantly, methane concentrations. The work program has three complementary
strands. (1) Pure culture and sedimentary microcosm experiments providing an approximation to natural conditions. (2) Calibration
of BHP signatures in natural marine settings (e.g. cold seeps, mud volcanoes, pockmarks) against measured methane gradients.
(3) Application of this novel approach to the marine sedimentary record to approximate methane fluxes in the past, explore the age
and bathymetric limits of this novel molecular proxy, and identify and potentially 14C date palaeo-pockmarks structures. Crucial to
the success is also the refinement of the analytical protocols to improve both accuracy and sensitivity, using a more sensitive
analytical instrument (triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer).
Max ERC Funding
1 496 392 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2016-04-30
Project acronym BBSG
Project Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts: 'Transitional Justice' and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts
Researcher (PI) Sarah Lynn Wastell (Born Haller)
Host Institution (HI) GOLDSMITHS' COLLEGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2009-StG
Summary The proposed research entails an ethnographic study of two contemporary cases of post-conflict reconciliation: one, the Bosnian case, where international intervention ended conflict in a stalemate and went on to instigate a decade-long process of transition; and the other, the Spanish case, where a nationally-contrived pact of silence introduced an overnight transition after Franco's death a pact now being broken nearly seventy years after the country's civil war concluded. Both societies witnessed massive violations of international humanitarian law. Both societies are presently exhuming, identifying and re-burying their dead. But their trajectories of transitional justice could not have been more different. This project will investigate how Law shapes cultural memories of wartime atrocity in these contrasting scenarios. How do criminal prosecutions, constitutional reforms, and international rights mechanisms, provide or obfuscate the scales into which histories of violent conflict are framed? Does the systematic re-structuring of legislative and judicial infrastructure stifle recognition of past abuses or does it create the conditions through which such pasts can be confronted? How does Law shape or inflect the cultural politics of memory and memorialisation? And most importantly, how should legal activity be weighted, prioritised and sequenced with other, extra-legal components of peace-building initiatives? The ultimate goal of this project will be to mobilise the findings from the two field-sites to suggest a more nuanced assessment of Law s place in transitional justice. Arguing that disparate historical, cultural and legal contexts require equally distinct approaches towards social healing, the research aims to produce a Post-Conflict Action Framework an architecture of questions and concerns, which, once answered, would point towards context-specific designs for transitional justice programmes in the future.
Summary
The proposed research entails an ethnographic study of two contemporary cases of post-conflict reconciliation: one, the Bosnian case, where international intervention ended conflict in a stalemate and went on to instigate a decade-long process of transition; and the other, the Spanish case, where a nationally-contrived pact of silence introduced an overnight transition after Franco's death a pact now being broken nearly seventy years after the country's civil war concluded. Both societies witnessed massive violations of international humanitarian law. Both societies are presently exhuming, identifying and re-burying their dead. But their trajectories of transitional justice could not have been more different. This project will investigate how Law shapes cultural memories of wartime atrocity in these contrasting scenarios. How do criminal prosecutions, constitutional reforms, and international rights mechanisms, provide or obfuscate the scales into which histories of violent conflict are framed? Does the systematic re-structuring of legislative and judicial infrastructure stifle recognition of past abuses or does it create the conditions through which such pasts can be confronted? How does Law shape or inflect the cultural politics of memory and memorialisation? And most importantly, how should legal activity be weighted, prioritised and sequenced with other, extra-legal components of peace-building initiatives? The ultimate goal of this project will be to mobilise the findings from the two field-sites to suggest a more nuanced assessment of Law s place in transitional justice. Arguing that disparate historical, cultural and legal contexts require equally distinct approaches towards social healing, the research aims to produce a Post-Conflict Action Framework an architecture of questions and concerns, which, once answered, would point towards context-specific designs for transitional justice programmes in the future.
Max ERC Funding
1 420 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31
Project acronym BEAUTY
Project Towards a comparative sociology of beauty The transnational modelling industry and the social shaping of beauty standards in six European countries
Researcher (PI) Giselinde Maniouschka Marije Kuipers
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2009-StG
Summary This project studies how beauty standards - perceptions of physical beauty in women and men - are socially shaped. It will focus on the transnational modelling industry, an institution centrally concerned with the production and dissemination of beauty standards. The project aims to develop a comparative sociology of beauty. By comparing beauty standards both within and across nations, it will identify central mechanisms and institutions through which such standards are developed and disseminated. In 4 subprojects this study investigates 1. How standards of female and male beauty are perceived, shaped, and disseminated by professionals in the transnational modelling field; 2. How female and male models perceive, represent and embody beauty standards in their work; 3. How female and male beauty has been portrayed by models in mainstream and high fashion magazines from 1980 till 2010; 4. How people of different backgrounds perceive female and male beauty, and how their beauty standards are related to the images disseminated in modelling. Each project will be done in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the UK. This project is innovative in several ways. It is the first comprehensive study of the social shaping of beauty standards. The 4 subprojects will result in an extensive account of production, products, and reception of a contested cultural industry. Moreover, this project draws together in novel ways theories about media, cultural production and taste formation; gender and the body; and globalization. The project will make a major contribution to the study of globalization: it studies a transnational cultural industry, and its comparative and longitudinal design allows us to gauge the impact of globalization in different contexts. Finally, the project is innovative in its comparative, multi-method research design, in which the subprojects will follow the entire process of production and consumption in a transnational field.
Summary
This project studies how beauty standards - perceptions of physical beauty in women and men - are socially shaped. It will focus on the transnational modelling industry, an institution centrally concerned with the production and dissemination of beauty standards. The project aims to develop a comparative sociology of beauty. By comparing beauty standards both within and across nations, it will identify central mechanisms and institutions through which such standards are developed and disseminated. In 4 subprojects this study investigates 1. How standards of female and male beauty are perceived, shaped, and disseminated by professionals in the transnational modelling field; 2. How female and male models perceive, represent and embody beauty standards in their work; 3. How female and male beauty has been portrayed by models in mainstream and high fashion magazines from 1980 till 2010; 4. How people of different backgrounds perceive female and male beauty, and how their beauty standards are related to the images disseminated in modelling. Each project will be done in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the UK. This project is innovative in several ways. It is the first comprehensive study of the social shaping of beauty standards. The 4 subprojects will result in an extensive account of production, products, and reception of a contested cultural industry. Moreover, this project draws together in novel ways theories about media, cultural production and taste formation; gender and the body; and globalization. The project will make a major contribution to the study of globalization: it studies a transnational cultural industry, and its comparative and longitudinal design allows us to gauge the impact of globalization in different contexts. Finally, the project is innovative in its comparative, multi-method research design, in which the subprojects will follow the entire process of production and consumption in a transnational field.
Max ERC Funding
1 202 611 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-08-31
Project acronym BENELEX
Project Benefit-sharing for an equitable transition to the green economy - the role of law
Researcher (PI) Elisa Morgera
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary Can benefit-sharing address the equity deficit within the green economy? This project aims to investigate benefit-sharing as an under-theorised and little-implemented regulatory approach to the equity concerns (disregard for the special circumstances of developing countries and of indigenous peoples and local communities) in transitioning to the green economy.
Although benefit-sharing is increasingly deployed in a variety of international environmental agreements and also in human rights and corporate accountability instruments, no comprehensive account exists of its conceptual and practical relevance to equitably address global environmental challenges. This project will be the first systematic evaluation of the conceptualisations and operationalisations of benefit-sharing as a tool for equitable change through the allocation among different stakeholders of economic and also socio-cultural and environmental advantages arising from natural resource use.
The project will combine a comparative study of international law with empirical legal research, and include an inter-disciplinary study integrating political sociology in a legal enquiry on the role of “biocultural community protocols” that articulate and implement benefit-sharing at the intersection of international, transnational, national and indigenous communities’ customary law (global environmental law).
The project aims to: 1. develop a comprehensive understanding of benefit-sharing in international law; 2. clarify whether and how benefit-sharing supports equity and the protection of human rights across key sectors of international environmental regulation (biodiversity, climate change, oceans, food and agriculture) that are seen as inter-related in the transition to the green economy; 3. understand the development of benefit-sharing in the context of global environmental law; and
4. clarify the role of transnational legal advisors (NGOs and bilateral cooperation partners) in the green economy.
Summary
Can benefit-sharing address the equity deficit within the green economy? This project aims to investigate benefit-sharing as an under-theorised and little-implemented regulatory approach to the equity concerns (disregard for the special circumstances of developing countries and of indigenous peoples and local communities) in transitioning to the green economy.
Although benefit-sharing is increasingly deployed in a variety of international environmental agreements and also in human rights and corporate accountability instruments, no comprehensive account exists of its conceptual and practical relevance to equitably address global environmental challenges. This project will be the first systematic evaluation of the conceptualisations and operationalisations of benefit-sharing as a tool for equitable change through the allocation among different stakeholders of economic and also socio-cultural and environmental advantages arising from natural resource use.
The project will combine a comparative study of international law with empirical legal research, and include an inter-disciplinary study integrating political sociology in a legal enquiry on the role of “biocultural community protocols” that articulate and implement benefit-sharing at the intersection of international, transnational, national and indigenous communities’ customary law (global environmental law).
The project aims to: 1. develop a comprehensive understanding of benefit-sharing in international law; 2. clarify whether and how benefit-sharing supports equity and the protection of human rights across key sectors of international environmental regulation (biodiversity, climate change, oceans, food and agriculture) that are seen as inter-related in the transition to the green economy; 3. understand the development of benefit-sharing in the context of global environmental law; and
4. clarify the role of transnational legal advisors (NGOs and bilateral cooperation partners) in the green economy.
Max ERC Funding
1 481 708 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31
Project acronym Bionetworking
Project Bionetworking in Asia – A social science approach to international collaboration, informal exchanges, and responsible innovation in the life sciences
Researcher (PI) Margaret Elizabeth Sleeboom-Faulkner
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary Bio-medical innovation makes a substantial contribution to Western societies and economies. But leading research organisations in the West are increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted beyond the West. Such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices in Asian countries. These only partly justified uncertainties are augmented by unfamiliar conditions. This study examines how to create responsible innovation in the life sciences by looking for ways to overcome existing obstacles to safe, just and ethical international science collaborations.
Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients and supported by Asian language expertise, biology background, and experience with science and technology policy-making, we examine the roles of regional differences and inequalities in the networks used for patient recruitment and international research agreements. Profit-motivated networks in the life sciences also occur underground and at an informal, unregulated level, which we call bionetworking. Bionetworking is a social entrepreneurial activity involving biomedical research, healthcare and patient networks that are maintained by taking advantage of regionally differences in levels of science and technology, healthcare, education and regulatory regimes.
Using novel social-science methods, the project studies two main themes. Theme 1 examines patient recruitment networks for experimental stem cell therapies and cooperation between research and health institutions involving exchanges of patients against other resources. Theme 2 maps and analyses exchanges of biomaterials of human derivation, and forms of ‘ownership’ rights, benefits and burdens associated with their donation, possession, maintenance, and application. Integral analysis of the project nodes incorporates an analysis of public health policy and patient preference in relation to Responsible innovation, Good governance and Global assemblages.
Summary
Bio-medical innovation makes a substantial contribution to Western societies and economies. But leading research organisations in the West are increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted beyond the West. Such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices in Asian countries. These only partly justified uncertainties are augmented by unfamiliar conditions. This study examines how to create responsible innovation in the life sciences by looking for ways to overcome existing obstacles to safe, just and ethical international science collaborations.
Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients and supported by Asian language expertise, biology background, and experience with science and technology policy-making, we examine the roles of regional differences and inequalities in the networks used for patient recruitment and international research agreements. Profit-motivated networks in the life sciences also occur underground and at an informal, unregulated level, which we call bionetworking. Bionetworking is a social entrepreneurial activity involving biomedical research, healthcare and patient networks that are maintained by taking advantage of regionally differences in levels of science and technology, healthcare, education and regulatory regimes.
Using novel social-science methods, the project studies two main themes. Theme 1 examines patient recruitment networks for experimental stem cell therapies and cooperation between research and health institutions involving exchanges of patients against other resources. Theme 2 maps and analyses exchanges of biomaterials of human derivation, and forms of ‘ownership’ rights, benefits and burdens associated with their donation, possession, maintenance, and application. Integral analysis of the project nodes incorporates an analysis of public health policy and patient preference in relation to Responsible innovation, Good governance and Global assemblages.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 711 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
