Speakers

OPENING SESSION
 

Hans Panhoff

As Borough Councillor for Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Hans Panhoff has been heading the areas of environment, infrastructure, green spaces and real estate services since 2011. Previously, he was an active member in a number of related working groups, such as urban planning, the river Spree, citizen engagement, democracy development and neighborhood management for the same district. A member of the party Alliance 90/ The Greens since 1996, Panhoff was elected into their Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Executive Committee in 2003. In addition to his political career, he worked in a range of Berlin- based companies and organizations, including his own business topomedia, focusing on urban transformation, where he implemented various exhibits, conferences and events on the issue. Hans Panhoff holds a degree in urban and regional planning from the Technical University Berlin.
 

Andreas Steinhauser

Andreas Steinhauser is a member of the Board of Directors of Holzmarkt eG. On the Holzmarkt we combine nature, economy and culture in our thoughts and considerations. We open and create space for creativity, to live and work. Where the scar between East and West is still visible, a vibrant urban quarter is to be created that connects Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Mitte. No wall, no fence will block the view on the Spree. The Holzmarkt will attract people from Berlin and the world, delight, inspire and bring them together.


Anneke von Raggamby

Anneke von Raggamby coordinates Ecologic Institute Berlin’s activities on European integration. She leads research and advisory projects on European environmental governance including impact assessment and evaluation, transition processes and sustainable development as well as behavioural aspects of environmental policy.
 

SESSION 1
 


Tessy Britton

Tessy is Director of Social Spaces, a social/civic designer, researcher and educationalist.

Tessy believes that new knowledge needs to be at the centre of more ambitious whole system re-design projects. Working in over 90 communities in the last 2 years to spread innovations from a rapidly growing network of ‘citizen designers’, has given Tessy a unique insight into the opportunities and challenges involved in moving away from the current dominant ways of effecting positive social change – through challenging and charity.   Sustainable long-term change will happen most effectively when citizens and government work better together – collaboratively and systematically - to co-produce society.

Tessy is editor of Hand Made – Portraits of Emergent New Community Culture. With the help of Laura Billings and Maurice Specht this initial book has grown into a large collaborative project called the Community Lover’s Guide to the Universe - with 60+ local editors who are researching and sharing innovative creative and collaborative local projects. The Community Lover's Guide To The Universe

 

Chiara Camponeschi

Chiara Camponeschi works at the intersection of interdisciplinary research, social innovation and urban sustainability. She holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science & Communications Studies and a Master in Environmental Studies from York University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Geography with a focus on participatory approaches to urban resilience to climate change. Chiara is passionate about the ‘creative citizen’ movement, and is committed to strengthening and supporting networks of grassroots social innovation worldwide. Originally from Rome, Italy she has been involved with creative communities in Europe and Canada for almost a decade.

Chiara’s commitment to social change is reflected in the broad range of activities she enjoys participating in. As an advocate for youth empowerment and intercultural dialogue, she has worked with international organizations ranging from the UN-level to the grassroots. Her experience includes organizing sustainable development initiatives, animating the web’s largest multilingual community for youth and coordinating the efforts of over 180 online volunteers coming from all corners of the world. She has spoken about the power of ‘social networks for social change’ at several high-level events such as the International Forum on Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the European Commission in Belgium, and has shared her insights about ‘enabling’ frameworks for participation at the inaugural SXSW Eco conference in Austin, Texas, as well as the White House GreenGov Symposium in Washington, DC.

 

Melanie Jaecques

Melanie Jaecques is a psychologist and working as campaign coordinator for EVA, the Belgian vegetarian organisation who invented the Thursday Veggieday. With this campaign meat reduction is brought to the main public on a very mainstream and positive way and it brings benefits for people's health and the health of our planet. 

In her presentation at the conference, Melanie will highlight the importance of meat reduction and the way each of us, individuals and institutions can make a change. She will also explain how the campaign was implemented in the city of Ghent, Belgium. 

 

SESSION 3
 


Derk Loorbach

Derk Loorbach is director of the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) and associate professor at the Faculty of Social Science, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Derk Loorbach was amongst the first researchers to develop the concept and approach of transition management.

The central theme in his research is the development of an integrated framework for structuring transition management activities and for organizing transition management processes. Transition management is a new governance-model based on complex systems’ thinking and is aimed at facilitating and directing processes of societal change in the direction of sustainability. The framework is developed in an iterative way; through constant interaction between theory development and practical application in diverse social settings.

He has been involved in numerous scientific and policy projects in different areas and is frequently invited for lectures and debates, both nationally and internationally to as far as Japan, Canada and Australia. Currently, the focus of his research is on urban transitions and the possibilities for urban transition management.


Stefanie Baasch

Works as a senior researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig. She graduated in public administration economy (Diploma 1996) and in social behaviour science and history (Master of Arts in 2004). From 1996 to 2001 she worked in Civil Service organisations, which obtains her a profound knowledge about decision processes in public authorities. In 2009 she released her PhD thesis in geography on urban security impacts in the context of megaevents. During the last ten years, she worked as an environmental and social psychologist in interdisciplinary research projects in the field of sustainability, climate change and city development. She is an expert in qualitative research.


Ines Omann

Ines Omann is an ecological economist and the Scientific Leader of the group on quality of life at SERI, Sustainable Europe Research Institute. Her focal points of research are sustainability science, participation, integrated sustainability assessment, scenario development, social dimension and quality of life. Ines holds a PhD from University of Graz, Austria.
 

Frank van Steenbergen

Frank van Steenbergen joined the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) in 2010. Most of his work at Drift relates to neighborhoods or districts in deprived urban areas. Recurrent themes in his work are social inequality, power relations, urban development, governance of (urban) marginality, participatory processes, civil society, social movements, self-organization, and citizenship and state relations. He is also actively involved in exploring innovative forms of (urban) governance. He obtained his Bachelor in Communication & Management (Hogeschool Utrecht) and his Master in Sociology (Universiteit van Amsterdam). During his studies he focused on (governmental) communication strategies, urban governance, and migration and diversity issues.


Katharina Umpfenbach

Katharina Umpfenbach is a political scientist by training and also holds an MSc. in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford. At Ecologic Institute, she has worked extensively on policy evaluation, impact assessment and transition processes, mainly in the field climate and energy policy. Another focus of her research work is resource efficiency.


Julia Wittmayer

Julia Wittmayer is a researcher at Drift focusing on urban transition initiatives at neighbourhood and city level. She holds a Master degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and her research interests include linking the ‘local’ to broader transition processes, the role of narratives and of (action) research in processes of transformative change.


Professor Anna Davies

Anna Davies is a professor at Trinity College Dublin at the Department of Geography. For the past twenty years she has been examining the manifold actors and institutions that shape environments and she is particularly interested in the ways in which the communities, public, private and civil society sectors interact in those shaping processes. Issues of environ­mental awareness, environmental action and community capacity building form the central building blocks of her research. Following completion of her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Anna conducted post-doctoral research on sustainable communities with the Committee for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies in Cambridge before lecturing in Kings College London and Trinity College Dublin. Anna’s current research involves working through participatory processes in order to create transition frameworks for more sustainable futures including the innovative work of grassroots sustainability enterprises.


Mads Uldall

Mads Uldall works at Copenhagen Municipality as the leader of an Integrated Urban Redevelopment Project in the suburb ‘Skt. Kjelds Kvarter’ in the Northern Copenhagen dealing with a variety of social, cultural and physical problems. Skt. Kjelds Kvarter is going to be Copenhagen’s first Climate Resilient neighborhood adapting to the increased and more intensive rainfall in Copenhagen due to global climate change. The Integrated Urban Redevelopment Project focuses on the active participation of citizens – the idea being that the citizens have the resources and knowledge required to realize a successful project. The aim is, among other issues, to maximize the ‘experienced value’ of the activities taking place as part of the redevelopment.

Mads has an educational background in Public Administration focusing on public-private partnerships, network theory and urban governance. Mads has previously held positions as urban planning consultant at Skaarup & Jespersen, head of the business department in the city of Roskilde and head of a major project dealing with the transformation of an old industrial site into a creative hub for music and entertainment (Musicon).


Carles Agustí i Hernàndez

Carles Agustí i Hernàndez holds a BA in Political Sciences with a specialization degree on International Affairs. He is currently the Commissioner for Citizens' Participation and Associations of the Barcelona City Council. At the same time he is professor at the University Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia), co-president of the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (OIDP), vice president of the Catalan Association of Communication and Political Strategy (ACCEP) and member of the Management Board at the Centre of Studies and Public Opinion of the Regional Government of Catalonia (CEO). Previously Charles Agustí has been the General Director of Inter-Departments Affairs at the Presidency Department of Regional Government of Catalonia.


Eva Maria Sköld

Eva Maria Sköld works for the commission that supports the Green parliamentarians in the Malmö city council, especially the two Mayors in the Malmö City board. In this function she is responsible for compiling information and documents, liaising with local media, writing articles and memorandums, and watching over the political development in different areas. In September, Eva Maria will move to Stockholm in order to work as a political advisor to Green parliamentarians in the Stockholm County Council. 

Besides her engagement in the commission, Eva Maria runs Evis Social Entrepreneurs who produce sustainable business models and implement them.  She holds a degree in political science and journalism and has more than 15 years of experience of involvement in various social issues.