Oksana Udovyk "Crisis or opportunity? An investigation of responses to sustainability challenges in Ukraine"

DATE: Thursday, January 21, 2016 TIME: 3:30 PM VENUE: 2-06 PEMBINA HALL, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

6 January 2016

After several decades of environmental policy and governance development at the international level (including at the UN), more than 60 percent of ecological life-support systems are declining worldwide, biodiversity loss continues unabated, global consumption of energy and materials keeps rising, CO2 concentrations have surpassed 400 ppm, and costs of inaction with regard to climate change and biodiversity loss are rising. Humanity is moving faster and further away from sustainability than ever before, even as "green," "ecological," and "sustainable" have become ubiquitous notions in our daily life. Where are we going to find alternatives? Surprisingly enough, at this time of crisis, we can look at the sustainability alternatives proposed by people at the grassroots in Ukraine today. Although their numbers are marginal, they may yet prove capable of providing creative and up-to-date IT options for a transition to low-consumption and throughput society and economy.

Oksana Udovyk received her BA in environmental sciences at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy National University of Ukraine, her MA in sustainable development at Linkoping University, Sweden, and her PhD in environmental governance from Sodertorn University, Sweden (2014). She is currently involved in research on the Global Post-2015 UN agenda and grassroots innovations in Ukraine and Canada. She has worked with sustainability and international-relations issues in academia, with NGOs, international organizations, and companies in Ukraine, Thailand, Italy, Sweden, Portugal, China, Greece, Spain, and Canada. Her research interests are sustainable development, human development and the Post-2015 UN agenda, third-sector and alternative/transition economy policies.

DATE: Thursday, January 21, 2016

TIME: 3:30 PM

VENUE: 2-06 PEMBINA HALL, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA