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This conference offers the opportunity to engage into a critical evaluation of the present and future research agenda of Ecological Economics. Global environmental problems have risen to the top of the international political agenda and there is growing demand for analyses that help understanding inter-coupled social, technological and environmental systems and formulating urgent policy actions. The relevant systems are typically open, dynamic and often indeterminate in their behaviour. This introduces challenges concerning the quality of knowledge and the tools and methods suitable for understanding system changes. These problems are further compounded where governance interventions are framed differently under contending social values and interests and shaped by the exercise of cultural, political and economic power

Although it is generally accepted that natural and social systems are inter-coupled, both are mostly analyzed in terms of purely internal disciplinary models. Social systems are often studied in isolation from the surrounding environment, whereas for natural systems it is common that a large number of interconnections and variables is analysed, while the role of humans is described by a single actor model seeing people mainly as creators of disturbances. Ecological economics approaches to these challenges seek to overcome the theoretical and methodological barriers. This requires developing strategies for understanding and engaging with the complexity, interdependence and co-evolutionary dynamics of socio-ecological systems.