Bioeconomy and Social Inequalities

Transnational Entanglements and Interdependencies in the Bioenergy Sector

The junior research group “Bioeconomy and Inequalities” is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and based at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena in Germany. The group aims to provide analyses of the social inequalities connected to the expanding bioenergy sector – a core field of the emerging bioeconomy.

Taking into account emergent changes in labour relations, knowledge production and technology, as well as political decision-making and commercial structures in the transnational bioenergy sector, the project focuses on a number of case studies. It includes case studies that look at developments in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia and Germany and are linked with an analysis of the entanglements and interdependences between South America, South-East Asia and Western Europe. Key dimensions of social inequality such as gender, class, and ethnicity are systematically integrated into the research perspective.

Project Director: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Maria Backhouse

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the funding programme "Bioeconomy as Societal Change 4+1".