Objective: The objectives of GLOBIS are to synthesize from the scholarly debate in different disciplines, a theoretical foundation for reconciling the three global processes: globalization, development and sustainable development. Our ontological assumption is that globalization is an ongoing and in principle benign process, but a process that needs to be promoted and adjusted in relation to sustainable development. Development as a concrete and institutionalized process also needs to be carefully aligned with sustainability. Based on this comprehensive understanding we will analyze how the global flows of financial capital, people, goods and ideas are promoted, restricted and regulated through a number of important policy areas, such as: trade, agriculture and food, energy, transport, technology and innovation, and tourism, in order to identify the existing tensions in globalization, recognizing the trade-offs involved, and thus pointing to possible areas of reform in current policy practices and global institutions. GLOBIS will serve to inform European policy processes on how to reconcile globalization and sustainable development in order to promote ambition of EU to become the leading force in the world towards sustainability. This will be pursued through a number of thematic studies of important policy areas. The project will engage stakeholders from different sectors of EU and beyond in dialogues on concrete policy dilemmas.
Before humankind discovered oil, coal, natural gas and uranium and learnt how to put them to use, biomass covered all of the respective needs. Since time immemorial, it has provided food, feed and fodder, fuel, construction materials, and the raw materialsfor textiles as well as medicinal drugs. Until the mechanisation and motorisation of farming subsequent to the Industrial Revolution, agricultural biomass production was based on regional, largely closed, food and energy cycles. The energy needed for this production (fodder for working animals and food for the human workforce) came from within the agricultural sector itself. As technology progressed in the 20th century, it significantly changed the way in which biomass is produced and used (cue: specialisation, increasing global division of labour and trade). Fossil fuels made the motorisation of agriculture and the energy-intensive production of fertilisers and pesticides possible.
Malaysia is not only economically a leading country in Southeast Asia but also has an influential role concerning nature conservation in the region and world-wide. Processes of globalization (i.e. tourism, world economy, climatic change, cultural change etc.), however, change the context of nature conservation and the conditions under which the administration of National Parks has to operate. The research project sees National Park as arenas, where different and changing groups (i.e. foreign and domestic tourists, park administrators, local people etc.) meet and interact. Depending on the nature of these interactions, people (and institutions) can either benefit or they are faced with problems and constraints, especially if there are different notions about nature, conservation and what should or should not be done in National Parks. The proposed research project focuses on the following questions: - What are the concepts of nature and conservation of the different actors, groups and institutions that are interacting in the context of national parks? - What are the effects of the globalized paradigm of conservation on a local, regional and national level? - Is there a conflict of interest between tourism, the local use of environment and conservation needs? An important issue in the research project is to combine perspectives of outsiders (i.e. foreign tourists, visitors, researchers) with the one of insiders (i.e. domestic tourists, institutions, researchers). Therefore, a close collaboration with Malaysian institutions is planned. The project wants to contribute to a better understanding of notions about nature and its conservation in a rapidly changing globalizing world.