Closed Special Sessions
The ESEE2026 programme contains 13 Closed Special Sessions (CSS) – sessions for which the format deviates from the traditional format of a series of presentations. The CSS include, for instance, roundtables, interactive discussions, … The CSS are part of the parallel sessions at ESEE2026, and for some participants need to register as they have limited capacity.
Below you can find information on all Closed Special Sessions in the ESEE2026 programme. More details are available via ConfTool.
CSS 1: A political economy discussion on Beyond GDP processes towards Sustainable Human Development
Wednesday July 1, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from University of Florence, Italy; University of Bordeaux, France; and Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
This session explores how sustainable transitions in ecological economics are driven not only by new indicators or models, but by shifts in perspectives and active engagement of stakeholders across society. This session discusses the insights of a new book based on the SPES project funded by Horizon Europe, which bridges the 2030 Agenda with the SHD paradigm and the integral ecology perspective to identify the pillars, driving actors, and triggering factors for sustainability transitions. The session weaves together theoretical frameworks for Sustainable Human Development (SHD), political-economy analysis of beyond-GDP uptake, citizen deliberations on sustainability, and stakeholder perspectives on energy transition. The session will illustrate how stakeholder interactions and collective reframing of well-being and value are central to ecological economics’ agenda of integrating ecological, social and economic systems. It contributes to ESEE 2026 by linking theory, measurement, policy and practice in a coherent arc focused on change through engagement.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 2: Co-creating narratives for post-growth scenarios
Wednesday July 1, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia; BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, Spain; Feminist Research Institute, UC Davis, California, USA; and University of Barcelona, Spain.
Dominant scenario frameworks for societal futures amidst environmental crises, such as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), entail profound risks of socio-technical feasibility and reliance on unproven technology, while largely omitting post-growth pathways which could reduce these risks. To address this critical gap, the Post-growth Modelling Community has initiated a co-creative process to develop post-growth narratives as a basis for including post-growth scenarios in high-level climate and biodiversity assessment reports (e.g. IPCC, IPBES). The session starts with a harmonised set of presentations that inter-compare four distinct post-growth narratives, organized along two main axes encompassing technology, consumption, equity, provisioning, international cooperation and governance. Crucially, the session offers a co-creative process inviting feedback and suggestions from both modellers and non-modellers in the ecological economics community, to ensure the robustness and inclusivity of these narratives and thus the representation of post-growth in policy processes and Model Intercomparison Projects.
Registrations in advance via this LINK.
CSS 3: Putting squared pegs into round holes: are ecological economic approaches fit for geological resource use
Wednesday July 1, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from University of Antwerp, Belgium; and Geological Survey of Belgium, Belgium.
Ecological Economics has developed sophisticated frameworks for managing natural capital within biophysical constraints. However, sustainability transitions increasingly depend on geological resources (lithium, geothermal energy, CO₂ storage) that operate under geophysical rather than biophysical rules. Applying established EE principles to geological contexts reveals systematic tensions: geological resources regenerate over millions of years while EE frameworks assume observable regeneration; viable extraction rates often exceed regeneration rates, forcing binary choices between no development or unsustainable extraction; and spatial fixity constrains allocation in ways mobile biological resources do not. This raises a critical question: do current EE frameworks adequately address resources outside biological regeneration timescales, or does the field require distinct approaches? This session brings together ecological economists to examine whether EE principles that support the sustainable development of biological systems can robustly accommodate geological realities, and what adaptations (if any) are necessary to guide the sustainability transitions that increasingly depend on geological resources.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 4: Ecological Economics in Practice: Designing Post-Growth Enterprises Across Sectors
has unfortunately been cancelled.
CSS 5: Ecological macroeconomic modelling: state of the art, research gaps and future perspectives
Thursday July 2, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from University of Barcelona, Spain; University of Valladolid, Spain; University of Pisa, Italy; and SINTEF, Norway.
This session will bring together research teams from different universities and research organizations that are developing ecological macroeconomic models. Although these teams work on similar topics, communication between teams is often limited because they are funded by different research projects and are based at different institutions. Therefore, the aim of this session is twofold: (1) to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between modelling teams and outline the state of the art on ecological macroeconomic modeling, and (2) to exchange with the broader ecological economics community to identify important knowledge and research gaps (e.g. the representation of post-growth scenarios or the lack of representation of the Global South). The first part of the session consists of short presentations on the main contributions of various ecological macroeconomic models from different institutions. The second part is a discussion between presenters and the audience to identify research gaps in this stream of work.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 6: Innovative research tools for ecological economics
Thursday July 2, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from Happonomy vzw, Belgium; VUB, Belgium and Ghent University, Belgium.
This co-creative session introduces a suite of innovative research tools advancing inquiry into sustainability, economic inequality, and long-term decision-making within ecological economics. Participants will engage interactively with quantitative, behavioral, and digital methodologies designed to generate actionable insights for research and policy.
The first tool—a quantitative simulation—models macroeconomic variables and sustainability dimensions, illustrated through a case on inequality in Belgium.
The second tool, a behavioral game called Pension Plan, explores how individuals balance personal financial decisions with societal sustainability goals under varying policy scenarios.
The third, its digital counterpart, enables large-scale comparative studies through online experimentation and real-time data analysis. Together, these tools bridge the gap between systems modeling and human behavior, fostering integrative approaches to economic and ecological resilience. The session also invites contributions from researchers and practitioners developing novel tools to enhance ecological-economic understanding and impact.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 7: Listening to the Land. Transformative Potential of Flat Relational Ontologies and Spirituality for Durable Ecologizing of the Economics
Thursday July 2, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany; UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI; Institut za filozofiju; The Hague, International Institute of Social Studies; and University of Ferrara.
The session builds on the project in progress entitled “LANDVOICE: Listening to the voice of the land: building resilience by learning from land-based ontologies in Europe” which aims at enhancing Europe’s economical, social and environmental resilience by exploring and reviving the continent’s Intangible Cultural Heritage rooted in relational ontologies of human–land connections. The project combines an extensive review of Indigenous land relations, decolonial and flat ontologies, and radical sustainability with participatory, co-creative case studies involving land-based communities. LANDVOICE aims at delivering policy-relevant insights on the role of European relational ontologies in satysfying basic social needs within planetary boundaries and demonstrates the transformative potential of Europe’s land-based cultural heritage for sustainability.
We encourage people working on spirituality, nature, land, or planning to join this session.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 8: Using Beyond GDP indicators to support policy implementation in the EU: learnings, challenges and future directions
Thursday July 2, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from Tampere University, Finland; and ZOE Institute for Future-fit Economies.
What are the current possibilities for advancing a Beyond GDP agenda in the EU? How can the use of indicators support shift the focus from GDP growth to sustainable and inclusive wellbeing? This Special Session focuses on answering these questions, through 1) presenting insights gained from a series of policy deep dive co-creative workshops with EU policymakers by MERGE (Measuring what matters: Policy pathways to sustainable and inclusive wellbeing) project and 2) discussing the cross-cutting learnings and challenges in a World Café, to jointly develop ways of utilizing/overcoming them. The discussion focuses on learnings identified by MERGE related to six key EU policy files: the post 2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, Competitiveness, Clean Industrial Deal, Social Europe, EU Semester and Intergenerational Fairness. The results of the World Café discussion will be published as a blog post, to which session participants are invited to be contributors, though we also welcome anonymous participation.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 9: Building bridges across disciplines: Ecological economics in action
Friday July 3, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp; Department of Economics, Ghent University; Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp; Department of Construction Engineering, University of Antwerp; and the Geological Survey of Belgium.
Given the complexity of challenges present-day societies face, no single discipline can deliver sustainable solutions on its own. There is a growing paradox; as each field becomes more nuanced, it also becomes more biased towards its own assumptions and risks falling into the trap of thinking “someone else will solve this problem”, consequently further fragmenting efforts in addressing existing and forthcoming issues. This interactive panel session creates a space for academics, activists and educators who work within or use the concepts of ecological economics within their ‘challenge’ to share experiences navigating this paradox of academic silos. In seeking “just judges” for sustainability decisions in turbulent times, we need both theoretical frameworks and practical wisdom for bridging disciplinary divides effectively. The session focuses explicitly on the process of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary collaboration, examining what succeeds, what fails, and why, rather than only reporting research outcomes.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 10: Beyond Crisis Management: Challenges and Opportunities for Ecological Economics and Policy in the Current Polycrisis
Friday July 3, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
In the context of an intensifying polycrisis, ecological economics faces a pressing question: how can we more effectively contribute to just and sustainable transformations? As ecological economists, we need to unlearn, reimagine and rebuild in our research, practice and collaboration.
This session hosted by ECONOPOL (Economics and Policy for Sustainability), an internationally leading research group at the University of Leeds, uses a fishbowl format to foster deep collective reflection addressing these needs. This session builds on an existing set of entry points developed within the ECONOPOL group across themes such as sustainable welfare, production-consumption transformations, land governance, finance, pedagogy and decolonisation. It further invites a shared, relational understanding of how different approaches interact, where gaps and tensions exist and where leverage lies. The outcome will be a co-created set of entry points, supporting participants in positioning their work and identifying opportunities for alignment and collaboration toward just and sustainable transformations.
Registrations in advance via this LINK.
CSS 11: From tensions to interested pluralism: engaging perspectives in sufficiency research
Friday July 3, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from the Social-Ecological Systems Institute, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany.
The plurality of sufficiency as an academic social-ecological concept has been pointed out by a variety of systematic reviews in the last decade. Building on these reviews, we conducted an online survey to explore the conceptual tensions within the sufficiency research community. A preliminary analysis reveals a diverse range of ‘sufficiency perspectives’, each forming clusters of concepts standing in potential conceptual conflict with each other. To facilitate a constructive dialogue among these diverse perspectives, this interactive session will be based on a structured fishbowl , inspired by the concept of “interested pluralism”. This approach aims to learn from different perspectives without dismissing or rejecting other perspectives outright. The first part of the fishbowl will focus on examining the specific characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of each sufficiency perspective. The second part will explore the emerging potential and limitations of the sufficiency field as a whole.
No advance registrations needed here.
CSS 12: Value pluralism, law and governance: how Institutions encode, filter, promote or suppress plural values in environmental decision-making
Friday July 3, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from University of Leeds, UK and Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico.
This Closed Special Session convenes researchers working on values through the intertwined lenses of law, governance, and ecological economics. We start from a simple observation: plural values (instrumental, intrinsic, and relational) exist in practice, yet institutional architectures often filter, translate, or suppress them in environmental decision-making. The session will examine where plural values enter (or fail to enter) legal and governance frameworks, focusing on law-making moments, institutional design (mandates, agencies, jurisdictions), and procedures (participation, consultation, impact assessment, adjudication). We will then explore how values are managed once “inside” the system, including interactions between legal hierarchies and valuation languages (economic, rights-based, cultural, relational), the role of informal practices and “in-between” spaces, and structural barriers such as rigid standards and investment regimes. The discussion will close with a collective reflection on what institutional settings could genuinely support value pluralism.
Registrations in advance via this LINK.
CSS 13: Values and Worldviews in Climate Models
Friday July 3, 13:30-15:00
Organisers from Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Models are more than numbers – they tell stories about the future. Climate simulation models play an important role in policy processes, particularly through their use in high-profile assessments such as those of the IPCC. These tools, known as integrated assessment models (IAMs), help structure policy discussions around mitigation pathways, costs, and trade-offs by translating the complex interactions between energy systems, land use, economy, and climate into quantitative scenarios. However, they are not neutral representations of reality: they embed explicit and implicit assumptions, values, and worldviews. As a result, IAMs both shape and are shaped by prevailing policy agendas and expectations of what is possible or desirable. We invite you to a hands-on workshop to explore and critically engage with the FRIDA model, a new global IAM for climate, developed by the Horizon Europe WorldTrans project. We will discuss how values, assumptions, and worldviews shape how the problem of climate change is represented in IAMs. After being introduced to the role of IAMs in climate governance, you will be able to explore the model yourself and provide feedback, which we will discuss together and can feed into our research. Please bring a laptop if you can.
No advance registrations needed here.