Today's world is characterised by systemic sustainability challenges that could endanger the fate of humanity. Understanding non-state actors’ role and their interconnections with state actors at multiple levels of governance is key in shaping future developments in the field of managing global social challenges. Dr. Agni Kalfagianni appointed to the Chair Management of International Social Challenges at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) on September 1, will develop this field by examining in detail questions of non-state actors’ power, their democratic legitimacy and accountability, and the nature and politics of justice in global sustainability governance.
To advance her research agenda, Agni Kalfagianni has been recently awarded an NWO grant to analyse, together with her team, the role of philanthropic foundations as agents of transformation and justice in the global governance of sustainable development. Her ambition is to work collaboratively with her colleagues within EUR and her multiple networks in Europe and internationally. In Erasmus, Agni Kalfagianni will also bring her critical global governance perspective to her teaching at the Bachelor and Master levels in the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB).
Agni Kalfagianni says, “My vision for the future is to place questions of sustainability, power, and justice centrally both in the academic and public debate. I also aspire to enable the actors involved in governance processes to reflect on their own positions around these issues and the associated implications for achieving sustainability and transforming governance.”
Arwin van Buuren, chair Department of Public Administration and Sociology: “We are very pleased with her outspoken profile on sustainability as an international social challenge. This fits very well in our programme Management of International Social Challenges (MISOC). Agni pays attention to highly relevant issues like (the politics of) planetary justice and the role and legitimacy of private regulation and governance. She fits perfectly in our ESSB strategy to boost our research and education around sustainability.”
About Agni Kalfagianni
Dr. Agni Kalfagianni is currently an Associate Professor of Transnational Sustainability Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. She specializes in the effectiveness, legitimacy, and ethical and justice considerations of private and transnational forms of governance in the sustainability domain. She got her BA in Environmental Science (Aegean, Greece), her MA in Environmental Economics (York, UK) and her PhD in Political Science (Twente, NL). She played an important role in the prestigious Earth System Governance project and acquired research funding from both European and national funding institutions.
The Chair is based at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She will conduct her recently NWO Open Competition granted research project ‘Beyond Giving: Philanthropic Foundations as Agents of Justice in Global Sustainability Governance?’ at the same department.
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Marjolein Kooistra, communications ESSB, kooistra@essb.eur.nl