Marina Fischer-Kowalski (born 1946) is an Austrian sociologist and social ecologist and a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of the

University of Klagenfurt The University of Klagenfurt (german: Universität Klagenfurt or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the state of Carinthia. It has it ...

, currently teaching at the

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, or simply BOKU (derived from its German name, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, ), founded in 1872, is an education and research centre for renewable resources in Vienna, Austria. BOK ...

, the University of Klagenfurt and the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...

. She is known for founding the Vienna School of Social Ecology and for her pioneering work on the widely used metric for material and energy flows to complement economic accounting. Fischer-Kowalski works on socio-environmental change, sustainable development and the

Anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commissio ...

Education

Fischer-Kowalski was born 1946 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as the daughter of the political activist Ruth von Mayenburg and the politician and writer Ernst Fischer. She received her PhD in sociology at the University of Vienna in 1971 and a postgraduate degree in social sciences from the

Institute for Advanced Studies The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

in 1973. In 1985, Fischer-Kowalski was awarded the habilitation in sociology at the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The univers ...

Career

Fischer-Kowalski was assistant professor in sociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna (1972-84) and Austrian delegate to and consultant of

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

in Paris, working on

comparative studies Cross-cultural studies, sometimes called holocultural studies or comparative studies, is a specialization in anthropology and sister sciences such as sociology, psychology, economics, political science that uses field data from many societies th ...

between countries for quality of life,

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...

and

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...

. In 1986, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities (IFF), later a faculty of the University of Klagenfurt, called her to found an Institute for Social Ecology, which she directed from 1987 until 2014. Fischer-Kowalski taught as a visiting professor at the University Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2003), Yale University, USA (2002), Roskilde University, Denmark (1997), at Griffith University, Australia (1996) and the London School of Economics (1992). Currently she is senior researcher at the Institute for Social Ecology, University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. Throughout her career, Fischer-Kowalski has been combining a scientific agenda with civil activity. She engaged in the Austrian student movement in the 1960s towards university reform, the Czech liberation movement in 1968 and 1989, parental self-organization of child care institutions and free schools in Vienna and acted as chair of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

Austria 1994-2000. She was a founding member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel which Ernst v. Weizsäcker initiated to combat the global overuse of natural resources. Currently, she is engaged in bringing about a sustainability transition on the island of Samothrace, Greece.Fischer-Kowalski, M., Xenidis, L., Singh, Simron J., and Pallua, I. (2011): Transforming the Greek Island of Samothraki into a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. An Experience in Transdisciplinarity. In: GAIA 20(3), pp. 181-190. http://www.oekom.de/fileadmin/zeitschriften/gaia_leseproben/GAIA_2011_3_FischerKowalski.pdf

Scientific contribution

Fischer-Kowalski's research interests cut across various disciplines (among them Sociology, Economics, Biology, Energetics, History), where she is seeking for

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

insights and solutions in team collaborations. She has contributed to the interlinkage of long term

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and

environmental change Environmental change is a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes. Environmental changes include various factors, such as natural disasters, human interferences, or animal in ...

;

material Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geolo ...

and energy flow analysis and

resource efficiency Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the ...

;Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., Weizsäcker, E. U. v., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Kemp, R., Romero L., Paty, and Siriban-Manalang, Anna, B. (2011): Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. socio-ecological regime transitions; energy, society and labor and transdisciplinary approaches to socio-ecological sustainability transitions.Fischer-Kowalski, M., Xenidis, L., Singh, Simron J., and Pallua, I. (2011): Transforming the Greek Island of Samothraki into a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. An Experience in Transdisciplinarity. In: GAIA 20(3), pp. 181-190. http://www.oekom.de/fileadmin/zeitschriften/gaia_leseproben/GAIA_2011_3_FischerKowalski.pdf Her main achievements consist in establishing theoretical foundations and a core set of empirical work in the field of Social Ecology on the one hand and developing internationally accepted methodological standards and standardized data bases for

and energy flow accounting (within the European Union and Japan, and recently on a global level).Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., Weizsäcker, E. U. v., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Kemp, R., Romero L., Paty, and Siriban-Manalang, Anna, B. (2011): Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. These data serve as a biophysical complement to economic accounting.

Memberships, honors and awards

Fischer-Kowalski is member of the Austrian and the

International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national soci ...

and has been deputy chair of its Research Committee Society and Environment (1998-2002). She was among the founding members of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (of which she has been president 2007-2009). She is member of and has been president of the

International Society for Ecological Economics The International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) was founded in 1989, based heavily on the work of Herman Daly to promote ecological economics and assist ecological economists and related societies. In 1996, the Right Livelihood Aw ...

(2013-2018). She acted as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) (2002-2010). Fischer-Kowalski received the Austrian State Award for Arts and Sciences, First Class (2015), the Austrian Ministry of Science Award for transdisciplinary sustainability research (2016) and became Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Samothrace, Greece, for scientific support to its sustainability pathway (2012). The University of Klagenfurt awarded her its Ring of Honour (2017). In 2017, she received the Society Prize of the '' International Society for Industrial Ecology'' for outstanding contributions to the field. Fischer-Kowalski serves as associate editor of ''The Anthropocene Review (Sage)'', the ''Journal for BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality (Elsevier)'' and ''Ecology, Economy and Society'', the Journal of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (Elsevier)''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer-Kowalski, Marina Scientists from Vienna Austrian women sociologists Austrian sociologists University of Graz alumni University of Vienna alumni Academic staff of the University of Klagenfurt 1946 births Living people