The Tranformation of Society´s Natural Relations

This project investigates how systemic change in society-environment-relations occurs and what processes shape the interaction between socio-economic activities and the natural environment, both historically and in the contemporary period. Emphasis will be put on the question how contemporary transformation processes in society`s natural relations are bound to past patterns of society-environment-relations and how this might influence future sustainability. The project will address these issues by describing the historical process of industrial transformation quantitatively in biophysical terms, as well as the concomitant changes in society`s environmental relations, for two specific cases: the United Kingdom (the pioneer of industrial transformation in the 18th and 19th Century) and the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy (one of the European late comers) respectively the succession countries Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. The project will create a multidimensional database on these two cases, containing their energy and material flows as well as their land-use and time-use patterns for the period from the late 18th to the late 20th century. Based on this database a comparative analysis of both these cases in the light of two different theoretical approaches will be done: (1) the historian R. P. Sieferle`s broader approach to industrial transformation as a socio-ecological transformation of society`s energy base moving away from land-based biomass towards fossil fuels (Sieferle 1982, 1997, 2001a), and (2) the physicist Robert U. Ayres` somewhat narrower but related attempt to explain long-term economic growth by a "growth engine" driven by energy inputs, namely "useful work" defined as the product of energy (exergy) inputs multiplied by a conversion efficiency (Ayres and Warr 2001; Ayres and Warr 2002a; Ayres and Warr 2002b). Both theories are "socio-ecological" in the sense that they base their explanation of socio- economic change on assumptions about the society-environment interaction, particularly on society`s metabolism and it`s relation to land use and work. This project will contribute to current discussions in the fields of environmental history, industrial ecology and ecological economics. It could be the starting point for a comparative data base on Europe`s environmental history by encouraging partner project in other European countries.

This project investigates how systemic change in society-environment-relations occurs and what processes shape the interaction between socio-economic activities and the natural environment, both historically and in the contemporary period. Emphasis will be put on the question how contemporary transformation processes in society`s natural relations are bound to past patterns of society-environment-relations and how this might influence future sustainability. The project will address these issues by describing the historical process of industrial transformation quantitatively in biophysical terms, as well as the concomitant changes in society`s environmental relations, for two specific cases: the United Kingdom (the pioneer of industrial transformation in the 18th and 19th Century) and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (one of the European late comers) respectively the succession countries Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. The project will create a multidimensional database on these two cases, containing their energy and material flows as well as their land-use and time-use patterns for the period from the late 18th to the late 20th century. Based on this database a comparative analysis of both these cases in the light of two different theoretical approaches will be done: (1) the historian R. P. Sieferle`s broader approach to industrial transformation as a socio-ecological transformation of society`s energy base moving away from land-based biomass towards fossil fuels (Sieferle 1982, 1997, 2001a), and (2) the physicist Robert U. Ayres` somewhat narrower but related attempt to explain long-term economic growth by a "growth engine" driven by energy inputs, namely "useful work" defined as the product of energy (exergy) inputs multiplied by a conversion efficiency (Ayres and Warr 2001; Ayres and Warr 2002a; Ayres and Warr 2002b). Both theories are "socio-ecological" in the sense that they base their explanation of socio- economic change on assumptions about the society-environment interaction, particularly on society`s metabolism and it`s relation to land use and work. This project will contribute to current discussions in the fields of environmental history, industrial ecology and ecological economics. It could be the starting point for a comparative data base on Europe`s environmental history by encouraging partner project in other European countries.