Philipp Mack

Philipp completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geography at the University of Innsbruck with a specialisation in development and natural hazard research. After a semester abroad at the Universidade de São Paulo, his work focussed on the causes and impacts of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. After working and researching in Brazil, he completed his master thesis on the social implications of environmental and post-frontier governance measures in the southwestern Pará region from a perspective of Political Ecology.
Currently he is doing his PhD in the project C2 (Local biodiversity knowledge and forest conservation practices) of the DFG funded Research Training Group ConFoBi (Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-Use Landscapes of Central Europe). Due to the focus on integrative geography, Philipp is especially interested in the transdisciplinary character of ConFoBi and hopes to be able to contribute to it. In his doctoral thesis, he investigates the influence of current climate change-related challenges such as drought and bark beetle outbreaks on the implementation of biodiversity conservation measures in managed forests. Based on an analysis of newspaper articles and parliamentary debates, the public and political discourse will be analysed. In a second step, the discourse analysis will be supplemented by a perspective on implementation practices of forest biodiversity conservation. For this purpose, interviews with forestry practitioners will be conducted. In order to facilitate an interdisciplinary exchange, the focus will be on the district manager of the ConFoBi plots.

Research interests

• Discourse analysis
• Forest biodiversity conservation
• Interdisciplinarity
• Society-Nature relations
• Political Ecology
  
  

Education

• Since 2019: PhD at the University of Freiburg within the RTG Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-use Landscapes of Central Europe (ConFoBi ) (https://confobi.uni-freiburg.de/en)– Project C2
• 2015-2019: M.Sc. Geography: Global Change – regional sustainability, University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Thesis: Environmental- and Post-Frontier Governance in Southwest Pará. Local Implications from a perspective of Political Ecology.

• 2012-2015: B.Sc. Geography, University of Innsbruck in Austria.

„Possibilities of Global Environmental Governance to regulate environmental problems of global scale. The example of the BR-163 highway Cuiabá – Santarém (Brazil)“.

• 2014: International Relations, semester abroad at University of São Paulo in Brazil.

Working Experience

2016-2019: Part time consultant for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH - project „Amazonfund for Forest Conservation and Climate“ in Brazil.
 

Publications

• Mack, P., Kremer, J. & Kleinschmit, D. (2023). Forest dieback reframed and revisited? Forests (re)negotiated in the German media between forestry and nature conservation. Forest Policy and Economics, 147, 102883. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102883
• Klingler, M., & Mack, P. (2020). Post-frontier governance up in smoke? Free-for-all frontier imaginations encourage illegal deforestation and appropriation of public lands in the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Land Use Science, DOI: 10.1080/1747423X.2020.1739765
• Klingler, M. & Mack, P. (2020): Novo progresso: a persistência do mito da terra livre na (pós)fronteira. In: Coy, M.; Barrozo, J.C.; de Souza, E.A. (Hrsg.): Estratégias de expansão do agronegócio em Mato Grosso. Os eixos da BR-163 e da BR-158 em perspectiva comparativa. Brasília, Editora IABS: 109-136.
• Mack, P.; Paul, S.; Coy, M. (2017): Alternativen für Amazonien? Erfahrungen des agroforstwirtschaftlichen RECA-Projekts in Rondôndia. In: Innsbrucker Geographische Gesellschaft (Ed.). Innsbrucker Geographische Berichte 2016-2017. Innsbruck. S. 53-72. (online available: https://www.uibk.ac.at/geographie/igg/berichte/2017/pdf/12_reca.pdf; last checked on 14.12.2017)

• Allerberger, F.; Emrich, L.; Heuser, J.; Mack, P.; Weimar, J. & Weiß, M. (2021): Zur gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung der Wissenschaft. Die Sicht der studentischen "Initiative für Nachhaltige Universität Innsbruck". In: Dickel, M. & Böhmer, H.J. (Hg.): Die Verantwortung der Geographie. Orientierung für eine reflexive Forschung. Bielefeld, transcript Verlag: 149-172.