Jena, Thuringia, Germany
Benno Werlem, born 10th October 1952 in Münster/VS (Switzerland), holds the UNESCO Chair on Global Understanding for Sustainability, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. He is a fellow of the World Academy of Art & Sciences and the Max Weber Center for Cultural and Social Studies, the Section Chair for 'Human Mobility, Environment, Space and Sustainability' of the Academia Europaea -The Academy of Europe, chair of the IGU Commission on Global Understanding (since 2016), is the initiator and chair of The Jena Declaration on the Cultural and Regional Dimension of Global Sustainability’ endorsed by many of the leading organizations in the field, founder and executive director of the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) including more than 30 Regional Actions Centers, approved by the UNESCO General Conference, proclaimed by the three major science councils of the Human, Social and Natural sciences. From 2008-2015 he served as a panel member for the European Research Council for ‘Environment and Society’ for Advanced Grants. In 2016 Werlen was awarded the Lauréat d’honneur of the International Geographical Union, the highest scientific honorary prize awarded by the IGU, for his lifelong contributions to geographical science, as an internationally recognized scholar, and for opening up new paths of scientific cooperation at the highest level. Until 2018 he was the Chair for Social Geography at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Werlen holds degrees from the Faculties of the Humanities, and Natural Sciences. He worked at the Universities of Kiel, Fribourg, Zurich, Salzburg, Geneva, Nijmegen, and the ETH Zurich. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge (King’s College & Sidney Sussex College), the London School of Economics, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a ‘key thinker on space and place’ (Sage 2011), he published widely on society-space relations under globalized conditions. He served as a panel member for the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the field of Social and Human Sciences (2008-12), as Chair of the IGU Commission ‘Cultural Approach in Geography’ (2004-16). He has published 16 books and more than 200 papers in scientific journals and books and has given over 200 keynote presentations at universities across five continents in the fields of geography, sociology, economics, political sciences, philosophy, history, cultural anthropology, and linguistics, and organized more than 70 scientific conferences and conference sessions on all continents.
The Human Mobility, Governance, Environment and Space section is concerned with inter-disciplinary and internationally-comparative studies of the cultural, economic, political, social, and spatial characteristics of human societies. It focuses particularly on the interpersonal and spatial relationships between individuals, communities and organisations as members and constitutive parts of these societies. Section members include anthropologists, demographers, geographers, political scientists, sociologists, and spatial economists.
Frontiers in Sustainability Aligned with UN Sustainability Development Goals, this journal explores innovations in how we produce and consume products, empowering scientists to be more involved in the sustainability discussion. Sustainable Consumption explores research on systemic approaches for sustainable consumption, leading to change in the physical infrastructures and the societal organizations shaping social norms for consumption levels and patterns.
The purpose of this collection is to highlight novel advancements in the region and showcase academic excellence of European researchers in the Sustainability field, especially following the EU's commitment to becoming the first climate-neutral continent in 2050.
Frontiers is the 3rd most-cited and 6th largest research publisher and open science platform. Our research journals are community-driven and peer-reviewed by editorial boards of over 202,000 top researchers. Featuring pioneering technology, artificial intelligence, and rigorous quality standards, our research articles have been viewed more than 1.9 billion times, reflecting the power of open research. Frontiers in Earth Science is an open-access journal that aims to bring together and publish on a single platform the best research dedicated to our planet.
The Jena Declaration (TJD) is based on the outcomes of a conference on the "Cultural and Regional Dimensions of Global Sustainability" (October 21–22, 2020), organized in partnership with the Canadian and German Commissions for UNESCO, the International Council for Philosophy and the Human Sciences, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the World Academy of Art & Science, The Club of Rome, the Academia Europaea. The Jena Declaration is now a consortium of partners, which includes UNESCO Chairs, relevant international organisations and academies of sciences, arts organisations and networks, business companies, civil societies movements, and many individuals changemakers too. We support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which is why we are assembling a large number and variety of signatories to The Jena Declaration. As we grow, we work with NGOs, schools, and others to encourage communities and governments to actively change in favor of sustainability.
“Apheleia” denotes in ancient Greece the spirit of simplicity. It is the guiding principle for APHELEIA, the Humanities European Association for Culturally Integrated Landscape Management. We aim at structuring strategies fostering an integrated, culturally embedded landscape management at a local base, to reach global sustainability. The program includes academia, but most of all everyday agents as key partners. Cultural Landscape in its manifolds expressions across the globe, understood as the result from past human actions confronted with specific local natural conditions, climate impacts etc., is our paradigm for future bottom-up sustainability policies.
The World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) was founded in 1960 by eminent intellectuals including Albert Einstein; Robert Oppenheimer, Father of Manhattan Project; Bertrand Russell, Joseph Needham, co-Founder of UNESCO; Lord Boyd Orr, first Director General of FAO; Brock Chisholm, first Director General of WHO and many others. The Academy serves as a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars dedicated to addressing the pressing challenges confronting humanity today. WAAS Fellows come from diverse cultures, nationalities, intellectual disciplines and professions, chosen for eminence in the natural, technological and social sciences; the arts and humanities; different professions and fields of public service. The focus of WAAS from the beginning has been to address global social challenges. Its founding motive comes from the knowledge that academic knowledge cannot be separated or divorced from the social responsibility of how the knowledge is used. Our motto: Leadership in thought that leads to action