Bogota Summer School

PLUS International Summer School 2023

Just Socio-Ecological Transitions: Foundations, Cases, and Policy Design,

Bogotá, Colombia, July 10-15, 2023

The PLUS 2023 International Summer School will bring together 13 professors from universities in Latin America, Europe and the United States who will share their expertise on the origin and trajectory of “just transitions”, discuss their potential in the Andean countries, and guide our students in applying this concept to formulate policy recommendations.

In the first module of the school, we will examine how the term has been interpreted by international bodies, trade unions, development banks and governments around the world. In the first module, professors Nora Rathzel (Umea University, Sweden), Stefan Wahlen (JLU Giessen), Dimitris Stevis (Colorado State University) and Raphael Heffron (University of West Indies) will trace the evolution idea of just transitions and its uses around the world. This module will be streamed to the PLUS partner universities in Germany, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, from Monday 10 to Thursday 13 July 2013, from 14:00 to 17:00 (CEST).

In the second module, a Latin American team of scholars will analyse just transitions in relation to environmental problems and conflicts specific to Andean countries. The team includes: professors Alix Gomez, Carolina Sánchez and Amaya Querejazu (Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia), professors Maria Cecilia Roa, Diana Ojeda and Mauricio Madrigal (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and professors Carlos Larrea and Massimo de Marchi (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador). This module will be taught from Monday 10 to Thursday 13 July 2013, from 17:00 to 20:00 (COL). 

The third module is a hands-on workshop in which students will analyse an environmental problem or conflict of their choice from the perspective of just transitions and will make public policy recommendations guided by this concept. This workshop will be facilitated by Professor Jairo Santander Abril and will run from 8:00 to 13:00 on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 July (COL). The summer school is coordinated by professor Gonzalo A Vargas (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia).

Altogether, the school comprises 34 hours of lectures and workshops, which will be attended by students of the three PLUS Latin American partner institutions. It will also be open to practitioners and students from other local universities. Students from PLUS partner institutions in Europe and Africa will be able to watch online the lectures in the first module.