An Introduction to Social Metabolism and its Operational Tool- Material and Energy Flow Analysis

1

Simron Jit Singh

Institute of Social Ecology

Alpen-Adria University, Austria

The political ecology of indicators

An introduction to social metabolism and its

operational tool - Material & Energy Flow Analysis

Source: Steffen et al. 2011

In the last 200 years, humanity has

transitioned into a new geological era—

termed the Anthropocene

— defined by an accelerating

departure from stable environmental

conditions of the past 12,000

years into a new, unknown state of

Earth.

2

The science of indicators

The term “indicator” is derived from the Latin verb indicare meaning to disclose or point out, to announce or make publicly known, toestimate or put a price on. The three main functions of indicators are simplification, quantification and communication.

In order to evaluate progress towards sustainability, the need for indicators and indicator systems was adopted as Agenda 21 at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio.

In the years that followed, significant scientific research was directed towards developing sustainability indicators. Where we are, where are we going, and where do we want to go – monitor the trends and directionality.

The development of Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting (MFA) was one of the prominent attempts in the development of an environmental indicator system.

Environmental satellite accounts linked to the national accounts covering inter alia “the stocks and use of the main natural resources, flows of materials and emissions” became part of the EU agenda in 1999 (Eurostat 2001:9).

However, the science of material and energy flow accounting is older than this; a pioneering work in this direction was done by Abel Wolman, whoundertook a case study of a model U.S. city of a million inhabitants in 1965.

In 1969, Robert Ayres and Allen Kneese presented a study - which in the 1990s was carried out as material flow analysis of national economies - for the United States between 1963 and 1965.

Since, a number of MFAs have been carried out for both industrial, transition and low-income economies (for an intellectual history of MFA, Fischer-Kowalski 1998, Fischer-Kowalski & Hüttler 1999; a more recent review in Singh & Eisenmenger 2011).

MEFA as an indicator system

3

However, there are some painful facts…

No one indicator or indicator system can provide you with all the information to the problems of the world; the choice of indicator will depend on your scientific enquiry

Indicators can tell you “how” things are (including past trends and future probabilities), but not “why” things are the way they are;

Therefore, taking a system dynamics perspective and integration of disciplinary knowledge (particularly from the social sciences) not only gives flesh to the numbers (rich narratives) but also allows to understand structures and processes that cause certain problems (disparities in wealth and health, conflicts, climate change, etc.)

The development of economy-wide Material (& Energy) Flow Accounting (MEFA) was one of the prominent attempts in the development of an environmental indicator system. It allows to:

- analyse the quantity and quality of resources extracted from nature and their passing through processing, transport, final consumption and disposal

- understand the spatial dimension of material flows (where extraction, production, consumption and disposal takes place in the economicprocess)

- interpret the impact of these flows within the framework of sustainability science and ecological economics

- relate these flows to ecological distributional conflicts and reveal embedded power relations (political ecology)

4

Problem shifting via international division of labor

Raw material --> semi-/products -->

use disposal

Valueadded

Mass

Developed countriesdeveloping

Mat

eria

l Mon e y

100%

0%

Why analyze material and energy flows?

Materials and energy are biophysical categories necessary for human survival and reproduction

They are finite both in terms of availability and productivity

Patterns of material and energy use (in both quantitative and qualitative terms) affect the future survival of humans and other species

The world is presently experiencing an unprecedented environment crisis due to the ways we consume our resources (materials, energy, land) causing sustainability problems on the input side (scarcity) and the output side (pollution)

This also has social consequences in terms of resource distributional conflicts and environmental justice

5

Environmental problems are a consequence of the way humans

interact with their natural environment

Undertaking a MEFA entails a number of painful decisions, as analytical categories come in conflict with ontological ones

Problem 1:

How to conceptualise society-nature interactions?

6

“Society as hybrid between material

and symbolic worlds”culturalsphere

of causationna

tura

lsph

ere

of c

ausa

tion

Adapted from:

Fischer-Kowalski & Weisz, 1999


and symbolic worlds”

7

metabolism

Material world

Adapted from:


labour/technology



communication,

Adapted from:


metabolism

natu

rals

pher

eof

cau

satio

n culturalsphereof causation

Material worldHuman Society

labour/technology Shared meaning &

understanding



8

“Society’s metabolism” means…

…that societies organize (similar to organisms) material and energy flows with their natural environment;

…they extract primary resources and use them for food, machines, buildings, infrastructure, heating and many other products and finally return them, with more or less delay, in the form of wastes and emissions to their environments.

The Two Types of Metabolism

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Theory of sociometabolic regimes

The theory of sociometabolic regimes (Sieferle 2001) claims that,

in world history, at whatever point in time and irrespective of

biogeographical conditions, certain modes of human

production and subsistence share certain fundamental systemic

characteristics, derived from the way they utilize and thereby

modify nature.

Key constraint: energy system (sources of energy and main

technologies of energy conversion).

Slide courtesy: Fischer-Kowalski and colleagues

Sociometabolic regimes can be characterized by ...

1. a metabolic profile, that is a certain structure and level of energy and

materials use (range per capita of human population)

2. secured by certain infrastructures and a range of technologies, as well

as

3. certain economic and governance structures.

4. A certain pattern of demographic reproduction, human life time and

labor structure, and

5. a certain pattern of environmental impact: land-use, resource

exploitation, pollution and impact on the biological evolution

6. Key regulatory positive and negative feedbacks between the socio-

economic system and its natural environment that mould and

constrain the reproduction of the socioecological regime.


10

Historical sociometabolic regimes

Agrarian regime:

1. Solar energy, resource base flow of biomass.

2. infrastructures decentralized. key technology: use of land through agriculture;

3. subsistence economies & market; if more complex, strong hierarchical differentiation;

4. tendency of population growth and increasing workload;

5. potentially sustainable, but soil erosion, wildlife / habitat reduction;

6. distinct limits for physical growth (low energy density);

Industrial regime:

1. Fossil fuel based; exploitation of large stocks;

2. centralized infrastructures, industrial technologies;

3. capitalism and functional differentiation;

4. thrifty reproduction, prolonged socialization, somewhat lesser workload;

5. large-scale pollution (air, water and soil), alteration of atmospheric composition, depletion of mineral resources, biodiversity reduction;

6. abolishment of limits to physical growth; decoupling of land and energy and labour;


Energy consumption in human history

150

40Min103,5

400

70Max20

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Human metabolism Hunter & Gatherer Agrarian societies Industrial societies

GJ p

er

cap

ita a

nd

year

Max

Min

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Operationalising Social Metabolism

Stocks

EconomicProcessing

DEDPO

Imports Exports

Immigrants Emigrants

Air,

WaterWater

Vapour

Domestic environment

Stocks

EconomicProcessing

DEDPO

Imports Exports


Air,

WaterWater

Vapour

Problem 1: What belongs to society and what belongs to nature?

Labour as a determining factor

� Humans (what about seasonal migration, tourists)

� Livestock

� Infrastructure and artefacts (buildings, streets, dams,

electricity grids, etc.)

The only exception is agricultural fields, even though they

are reproduced by human labour!!

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Stocks

EconomicProcessing

DEDPO

Imports Exports


Air,

WaterWater

Vapour

Problem 2: How to define a social system’s domestic territory to differentiate between

domestic flows and imports?

Legitimate right

� To exploit the resources within a territory, either

through traditional or legal control

� Where existing political and governing institutions

have the ability to set and sanction standards of social

behaviour within that territory

The difficult of a strict systems boundary, particularly in

local rural systems where there are overlaps in land

use with neighbours

Stocks

EconomicProcessing

DEDPO

Imports Exports


Air,

WaterWater

Vapour

Problem 3: How to account for externalities or hidden flows?

Flows are accounted for as ‘weight at border’

� All materials that are economically valued are considered

as ‘direct’ inputs, but not, for e.g. earth removed for

construction or used in ploughing, or dredging.

� What about the ‘hidden flows’ or ‘ecological rucksacks’

that occur during extraction, processing or disposal of

resources where these activities take place?

� For e.g. a ton of aluminum requires 9 tons of raw

materials, 3 tons of water and 200 GJ of energy!

� How to account for these externalities?

Total Material Flow (TMR); Raw Material Equivalent (RME); a

political issue!!

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Inclusiveness or exclusiveness of material flows

If all materials, then water and air make up to 85-90% of the total?

Most studies would not lump water, air and other materials (biomass, fuels, minerals) so as not to drown economically valued materials in water and air; so they are kept separate for their sheer amount, as and also supposedly low impact of their use (toxicity);

But this is now changing with studies quantifying the use of water and its ecological and social impacts, including severe conflicts over its access;

Studies on water footprint of products, embodied water, debating on what should be produced where depending on water situation, etc.

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MFA: Conceptual and Methodological options

Frame of reference / unit of analysis: (a) seen from a social science perspective, the unit of analysis could be the socioeconomic system,treating it like an organism or sophisticated machine, or (b) the ecosystem, seen from a natural science perspective, with mutual feedback loops.

Reference system: Global, national, regional (city or watershed or village), functional (firm, household, economic sector), temporal (various modes of subsistence, social formations, historical systems)

Flows under consideration: total turnover of materials, energy or both; one may select certain flows of materials or chemical substances (inputs or outputs) for reasons of availability in the reference ecosystem, or to look at the rates of consumption.

Map of materials of particular interest for accounting

Source: Steurer 1996

Related policy response:

Small volume with high impact:

policy directed on pollution

control, bans, substitutions, etc.

Medium volume focuses on

policy at reducing materials and

energy intensity or production,

minimization of wastes and

emissions, closing loops

through recycling

High volume flows, policy

objectives will be concerned

with depletion of natural

resources, disruption of habitats

during extractions.

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Some theoretical and empiricalapplications of MEFA

Social metabolism and its operational tool, MEFA, have contributed theoretically, conceptually, and empirically to a number of discourses within sustainability:

- mapping characteristic metabolic profile (lifestyles) of social and production systems across the world;

- provide empirical evidence on ecological unequal exchange - distributional (equity) issues;

- allows to understand the determinants of social conflicts;

- provide insights into historical and ongoing transitions through an empirical examination of coupled energy, material, land, labour and knowledge systems to reveal inherent power relations and how these are reproduced over time;

- provide evidence in support for a sustainability transition and the challenges it entails, the urgent need for new global resource use policies (UNEP resource use panel);

- provide linkages between social metabolism and environmental impacts such as on biodiversity, climate, ecosystem services, etc.;

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1. Characteristic metabolic profilesfor some countries

Composition of materials input (DMC)

material input EU15 (tonnes, in %)

Biomass

construction minerals

industr.minerals

fossil fuels

total: 17 tonnes/cap*y

source: EUROSTAT 2003

17

Composition of DPO: Wastes and emissions(outflows)

D PO t o air ( C O2 )

D PO t o air*

D PO t o land ( wast e)

D PO t o land ( d issipat ive use)

D PO t o wat er

Source: WRI et al., 2000; own calculations

unweighted means of DPO per capita forA, G, J, NL, US; metric tons

DPO total: 16 tons per capita

Patterns of material use: DMC per capita

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Ch

ile

Fin

lan

d

Ne

the

rla

nd

s

Jap

an

La

o P

DR

Öst

err

eic

h 1

830

Öst

err

eic

h 2

000

EU

15

Eg

ypt

RS

A

Ca

na

da

Ind

ia

[t/c

ap

]

Biomass Construction minerals Industrial minerals + ores Fossil fuels Minerals

Source: Schaffertzik et al. 2006

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Patterns of material use: DMC per area

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Ch

ile

Fin

lan

d

Ne

the

rla

nds

Jap

an

La

o P

DR

Öst

err

eic

h 1

83

0

Öst

err

eic

h 2

00

0

EU

15

Eg

ypt

RS

A

Ca

na

da

Ind

ia

[t/h

a]



Patterns of material use: DMC per GDP

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Ch

ile

Fin

lan

d

Ne

the

rla

nd

s

Jap

an

La

o P

DR

Öst

err

eic

h 1

83

0

Öst

err

eic

h 2

00

0

EU

15

Eg

ypt

RS

A

Ca

na

da

Ind

ia

[t/m

io$

GD

P]



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Domestic Material Consumption / cap in EU Countries, 2000

Source: Weisz et al. 2006

2. Socio-metabolic transitions

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Socio-metabolic transitions

1. Socio-metabolic transition is not the same as a linear incremental path, but rather a (possibly) chaotic and dynamic “jump” from one state to the other driven by new opportunities or the exhaustion of old ones

2. core process of a socio-ecological transition: change in source of energy, in energy density, in energy cost, in available energy amounts

Transitions between the grand socio-metabolicregimes of human history

?Hunters and Gatherers

Agrariansocieties

Industrial societiescoal | oil

Socio-metabolic regimes

Sustainablesociety?

Source: Sieferle et al. 2006, modified

NeolithicRevolution

industrialrevolution

SustainabilityTransition?

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Systemic links between materials, energy, demography, labour time and income:

A few empirical examples

the energy transition 1700-2000: from biomass to fossil fuels

Share of energysources in primary

energy consumption(DEC)

United Kingdom

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Biomass

Coal

OIL/Gas/Nuclear

Source: Social Ecology Data Base

biomass

coal

Oil / gas / nuc

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the energy transition 1700-2000 - latecomers

Share of energy sources in primary energy consumption

(DEC)

United Kingdom

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Biomass

Coal

OIL/Gas/Nuclear

Austria

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Biomass

Coal

OIL/Gas/Nuclear

Japan

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1830 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Biomass

Coal

OIL/Gas/Nuclear

Source: Social Ecology Data Base

Japan

AustriaUK

Increasing population (density) 1600-2000

Population density (UK incl. Ireland) (cap/km2)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

UK &

Ireland

Japan

Austria

Source: Maddison 2002, Social Ecology DB

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Reduction of agricultural population, and gain in income1600-2000

Share of agricultural population

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

GDP per capita [1990US$]

0

5.000

10.000

15.000

20.000

25.000

1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

Source: Maddison 2002, Social Ecology DB

Global commercial energy supply 1900-2005

-

100

200

300

400

500

19

00

19

05

19

10

19

15

19

20

19

25

19

30

19

35

19

40

19

45

19

50

19

55

19

60

19

65

19

70

19

75

19

80

19

85

19

90

19

95

20

00

20

05

[EJ

]

Hydro/Nuclear/Geoth.

Natural Gas

Oil

Coal

Biofuels

Source: Krausmann et al. 2009

0

20

40

60

1900

1905

1910

1915

1920

1925

1930

1935

1940

1945

1950

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

[bil

lio

n t

on

s]

Construction minerals

Ores and industrial minerals

Fossil energy carriers

Biomass

Global materials extraction and use 1900 to 2005:

explosion from 8 to 59 billion tons annually

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Global metabolic rates and growth in income:long-term decoupling process

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1900

1905

1910

1915

1920

1925

1930

1935

1940

1945

1950

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

Meta

bolic rate

[t/cap/y

r]

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Incom

e [in

tl. Dollars

/cap/y

r]Construction minerals

Ores and industrialmineralsFossil energy carriers

Biomass

Income

USA: Transition in energy and material use, 1850 - 2000

Energy

consumption

Material

consumption

Source: Gierlinger 2010

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India: Transition in energy and material use, 1960 - 2006

-

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1961

1966

1971

1976

1981

1986

1991

1996

2001

2006

[Gt/yr

]

Natural gas

Oil

Coal

Energy consumption

-

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

1961

1966

1971

1976

1981

1986

1991

1996

2001

2006

[Gt/

yr]

Construction minerals

Ores and non metallic minerals

Fossil fuels

Biomass

Material consumption

Source: Singh et. al. submitted

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Metabolic rates of the agrarian and industrial regimetransition = explosion

Agrarian Industrial Factor

Energy use (DEC) per capita [GJ/cap] 40-70 150-400 3-5

Material use (DMC) per capita [t/cap] 3-6 15-25 3-5

Population density [cap/km²] <40 < 400 3-10

Agricultural population [%] >80% <10% 0.1

Energy use (DEC) per area [GJ/ha] <30 < 600 10-30

Material use (DMC) per area [t/ha] <2 < 50 10-30

Biomass (share of DEC) [%] >95 10-30 0.1-0.3

Source: Krausmann et al. 2008

3. Dematerialization or shifting environmentalburdens from north to south

(ecological unequal exchange)

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� Meadows et al. (1972) argued that economic growth would

have to be stalled in order to remain within the earth’s

carrying capacity

� As opposed to Meadows, Ayres and Kneese’s solution was

more subtle and acceptable to economists…it was not

economic growth that mattered but the growth in the material

throughput of human societies that was significant.

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Unequal distribution of global resources (for the year 2000)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

S hare o f popu la tion S ha re o f te rrito ry S ha re o f G D P

D - Ld - owD - Ld - nwD - H dI - Ld - owI - Ld - nwI - H d


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4. Relating materialand energy flows

with conflicts

Environmental conflicts

• Conflictual Political Ecology is a research tradition that focuses on issues of management of natural resources and the environment, often with “conflict” as the point of departure; deals with ecological distributionalconflicts;

• Ecological unequal exchange looks at the resource flows between north and south in historical and contemporary context within the framework of political economy (power and economic relations dominate trade)

Studies in conflictual Political Ecology began in the 1980s with geographers studying rural areas on the changing relations between social structures and the use of environment taking into accountdifferences in class, caste, income, power, gender, labour and knowledge;

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Conflictual Political Ecology

• For instances, explanations of land erosion in the mountain regions by peasants was explained by the fact that they are forced to farm mountain slopes because the fertile valley land is appropriated by large landholdings

• Or, in other cases, because of state policies, peasants are caught up in a “scissors crisis” of low agricultural prices, which forces them to shorten fallow periods and intensify production; increased soil erosion and land degradation

• In other cases, communal system of collectively fallowed lands break down because of the pressure from population growth or market, leading to overgrazing; degradation of land (supports the ‘tragedy of the commons’)

Conflictual Political Ecology

• Other examples may not include the market or take place in fictitious markets; thus, potential conflicts may arise due to inequalities in per capita exosomatic energy consumption and in the use of the Earth’s recycling capacity of carbon dioxide emissions;

• Or, the territorial asymmetries between sulphur dioxide emissions and the burdens of acid rain;

• Or, the intergenerational inequalities between the enjoyment of nuclear energy (or emissions of carbon dioxide), and burdens of radioactive wastes and global warming;

• Classical economists disguise these ecological distributional conflicts by terms such as “externalities” and “market failures” while political ecologists or ecological economists call these “cost-shifting successes” in space and time;

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Name Definition

Environmental racism Dumping of toxic waste in locations inhabited byArfrican Americans, Latinos, Native Americans

Toxic imperialism Dumping of toxic wastes in poor countries

Ecological unequalexchange

Importing products from poor regions orcountries at prices which do not take intoaccount of exhaustion or of local externalities

Ecological debt Claiming damages from rich countries on account of past excessive emissions orplundering natural resources

Transboundary pollution Applied to Sulphur dioxide emissions crossingover from Europe and causing acid rain

Biopiracy The appropriation of genetic resources withoutadequate payment or recognition of IPR

Types of Ecological Distributional Conflicts

Guha & Martinez Alier 1997,

Martinez-Alier 2002

Name Definition

Ecological Footprint Ecological impact of regions or large cities on the outside space

Omnivorous vs. Ecosystem people

Contrast between people living on their ownresources and those living on the resources of others / territories

Indigenousenvironmentalism

Use of territorial rights and ethnic resistanceagainst external use of resources of regulation

Social ecofeminism The environmental activism of womenmotivated by their social situation

Environmentalism of thepoor

Social conflicts with an ecological conflict of thepoor against the rich

Types of Ecological Distributional Conflicts

Guha & Martinez Alier 1997,

Martinez-Alier 2002

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Reported tree plantation conflict cases world-

wide (excluding Indonesia and Malaysia,

until November 2009)

• Cities require large inputs of material and energy resources, but they have very littleproductive land of their own; theydepend on hinterlands (national or international) for their supply of materials and energy for theirmetabolism (infrastructure, food, products) as well as wastedisposal; corporations and enterprises organise thisproduction – supply – disposalchain for the city at profitable rates, while ignoring proper compensation and externalities of the hinterland populations…

E.g. Barcelona produces 800 t of waste each day, dumped in ruralsites, leading to conflicts

Metabolism of cities and conflicts

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The conflicts in Catalan can beseen as a problem of energy metabolism whereenergy production takesplace in rural hinterlands(nuclear, wind); while citydwellers enjoy most of theenergy supply, and capitalists make high gainsin this production – supplychain, the low economiccompensation as well as externalities are borne bythe rural populations;

Energy metabolism of Catalan

Monetary and physical trade balance in Equador

Source: Vallejo (2010)

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Resource extraction and conflicts in Equador

Source: Vallejo (2010)

The “power”of indicators

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Indicator development is a political process

Which indicators to create, and which numbers goes into an indicator, and remains outside, what is the systems boundary – is a political process and has embedded power relations;

The science of indicators can be highly useful for activist agenda; to reveal existing inequalities and imbalances between those privileged and those marginalised

Indicators may serve as evidence in court, seek new state regulations, or in getting mass public support

Synergism between ecological economics and political ecology; mutually complementary

How do these national and global processes

affect the sustainabilityof local systems?

37

Thank you for beingsilent!

An Introduction to Social Metabolism and its Operational Tool- Material and Energy Flow Analysis

Education

Transcript of An Introduction to Social Metabolism and its Operational Tool- Material and Energy Flow Analysis