NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

Environmentally forced migration and drought in Mexico
Professor Úrsula Oswald Spring of the National University
of Mexico lectured on environmental and social problems
in Mexico that have added to the complexity of reasons for
international migration and, consequently, to the number
of illegal immigrants in the USA.
The erosion of social cohesion and networks related to migration,
the loss of livelihood, the illegal crossing with the
help of transnational criminal gangs, and the US policy of
deportation have created a situation of low intensity war.
Úrsula Oswald Spring concluded that cooperation instead
of repression, and development activities that improve
livelihood in remote rural areas, could avoid the rise of
criminal behaviour.
www.ied.ethz.ch
From outreach to partnership: Defining the role of universities
in achieving sustainability A workshop organised by the Alliance
for Global Sustainability and hosted by the Competence Center
Environment and Sustainability of the ETH Domain.
Problems of sustainability are complex, multi-disciplinary and
value-laden. Academic institutions are in a unique position to
assemble whatever expertise may be needed for understanding
such problems. Sustainability research should be directed
primarily towards finding solutions and bringing about change,
which requires conceptual advances in our understanding
of how environmental, technological and societal systems
interact. Adapting solutions to particular circumstances call
for collaboration between researchers and local actors.
At the workshop, participants from academia and non-academic
organisations discussed how universities and researchers
could improve their partnerships with non-academic stakeholders.
The participants found that for new knowledge to be
used effectively, it must be relevant to the problem in question,
and accessible and credible to the user. Ensuring this requires a
continuing dialogue between researchers and actors in society.
www.ags.ethz.ch/partnership
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Networking and communication
Conferences
Professor Úrsula Oswald Spring, National University of Mexico,
key speaker at a public lecture organised jointly with the IED