2023 PLUS Summer Schools: visiting students during a campus tour. Photo: Roger Rossi.
The Summer School on Socio-ecological Transitions: Foundations, Cases and Policy Design was held from the 10th to the 15th of July in Bogotá, Colombia. The School comprised 37 hours of classes, workshops and panels, and was taught by an international team of 17 professors and researchers: Pia Bombardella (North-West University, South Africa); Alix Bibiana Gómez (Universidad de Antioquia); Raphael Heffron (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, France); Carlos Larrea (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador); Mauricio Madrigal Pérez (Universidad de los Andes); Sabil Mandala (Universidade Pedagogica de Maputo, Mozambique); Massimo de Marchi (University of Padua, Italy); Esther Nkhukhu-Orlando (University of Botswana, Botswana); Diana Ojeda Ojeda (Universidad de los Andes); Amaya Querejazu Escobari (Universidad de Antioquia); Nora Räthzel (Umeå University, Sweden); María Cecilia Roa (Universidad de los Andes); Carolina Sánchez Zapata (Universidad de Antioquia); Jairo Santander Abril (Universidad de los Andes); Dimitris Stevis (Colorado State University, USA); Stefan Wahlen (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany); and Gonzalo Vargas (Universidad de los Andes), who also was the School’s academic coordinator. Thirteen students from Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar (Quito, Ecuador), seven students from the Universidad de Antioquia, six from the Universidad de los Andes and two Colombian professionals participated in the School. The School addressed different socio-ecological transitions and presented multiple views on the meaning of a Just Transition. Students had the opportunity to discuss, compare and apply this concept to formulate policy recommendations. The School was organized by the Interdisciplinary Centre of Development Studies (Universidad de los Andes) in collaboration with Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, the Universidad de Antioquia’s Faculty of Law, and with the support of the University of Giessen (Germany) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).