Schivatcheva, Radostina | Bulgaria

Radostina Schivatcheva

Radostina Schivatcheva is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the Department of Political Science at the Free University Berlin. She holds University qualifications in both the social and environmental sciences from Bulgaria, Canada and most recently from the University of Cambridge, UK. In the period 2015-2016 she twice held a DAAD junior research scholarship for socio-ecological research at the urban-environment interface of St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of the University Alliance for Sustainability's affiliation with the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Passionate about finding development solutions which are environmentally sustainable and fairer to the people, Ms. Schivatcheva’s research explores the multi-level nexus of integrated development and conservation from a political ecology perspective. An active eco-humanist advocate, Ms. Schivatcheva's contribution was deemed twice as meriting an award by Kings College London: in July 2015 she was awarded the Global Experience Award for her contribution to the sustainable development issues of the developing world.  In June 2016 her voluntary contribution to community development was acknowledged by the Kings College London Award.


Project at IAS-STS: Towards sustainable communities – adaptation and innovation for low carbon energy transition

Conceiving of the pan-European policy network N2000 as a heuristic model of interest intermediation, the study compares the implementation and development of synergies between community-centered environmental conservation approaches and green energy sustainable development strategies. Public participation, especially at the sites of implementation of these pan-European goals, is essential for addressing the issues of social justice in finding successfully working synergies. Accordingly, the analysis advances the argument that not only the formal institutions should be studied, but also the heretofore unrecognized relationships between the broad European environmental governance policies and the creative agency of local actors in one highly contested multi-stakeholder context.

Consequently, the underlying key policy issue is approaching the low-carbon energy transition as a socio-political process, wherein the focus is placed on the local communities, as active innovators and green entrepreneurs, rather than as passive recipients of policies ‘from above’. Thus, the study analyses the capacity for social adaptation and innovation, concomitant with the broad socio-economic and socio-political changes, which the inter-linked challenges of low-carbon energy transition and sustainable resource management and conservation entail.

 

Selected Publications

Schivatcheva, R. 2016, ‘European conservation legislation -policies and politics in transition’, In the Conference Proceedings of the University Alliance for Sustainability, Berlin, April, 2016.

Schivatcheva, R. 2015, ‘Public politics - the role of environmental NGOs and civil society organizations in finding synergies between clean energy and conservation‘, Submitted to the Journal ‘Economic Alternatives’.

Schivatcheva, R. 2015, ‘Low-Carbon energy transition in a multi-level setting – a comparison of the belief frameworks of Bulgaria, Germany and the UK‘, Submitted to the Journal ‘Economic Alternatives’.

Schivatcheva, R. 2015, ‘Fair Trade – insights from Africa and the UK’, Ideas on Europe, University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES)

Schivatcheva, R. 2014, ‘The great leap forward – China and the land grabs in Ukraine and Bulgaria’, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, workshop proceedings, http://kapacc.blog.rosalux.de/files/2014/03/LandGrabs_TinaSchiv_Conf.pdf