Anke Schaffartzik

Her background is in social ecology and ecological economics, with a focus on social metabolism — that is, on the resource flows (extraction, imports, and exports) and stocks required to reproduce a society. Much of her research has focused on the role of trade in international material (and other) inequalities. She is particularly interested in how societal organization, such as the prevailing economic system, shapes resource flows and vice versa. For her, this type of knowledge is an important precursor to understanding how we can organize better societies that not only have less impact on the environment but are also more equal and conducive to a good life for all.

She teaches classes related to the concept and methods of social metabolism, ecological (macro)economics, environmental justice, and environmental sociology, as well as quantitative research methods ("working with numbers").

Her passion on the side is language and the many ways in which communication shapes thinking — and, in turn, our understanding of the world around us (in the vein of, for example, ecocriticism).