Dr Bettina Wittneben
bettina.wittneben [at] smithschool.ox.ac.uk
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Bettina B.F. Wittneben received her MBA (International Business) from the University of Alberta and the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Grenoble after having been a school teacher for science and languages for several years in Canada and Germany. In 2005, Bettina completed her PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge on institutional change in the transfer of climate-friendly technology. For this work she was awarded the Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Prize in the category of Management and Governance. Bettina has conducted studies for the UN climate treaty secretariat from 2000 until 2003. After consulting for the German and European governments as Senior Research Fellow at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment, and Energy from 2004 to 2006, she went on to become Assistant Professor for Business-Society Management at the Rotterdam School of Management. In 2007, she founded Erasmus University’s Sustainability and Climate Research Centre. Bettina now conducts research into international climate governance at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. She teaches at the Environmental Change Institute and is a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Her theoretical research interests include institutional change, new ways of organizing, and decision-making processes. Bettina is a German national and also speaks English, French, and Dutch. Bettina pursues three often intersecting lines of research. First, she contributes extensively to work in the area of climate governance and issues related to the carbon market. Second, Bettina contributes to the building of theory surrounding institutional change. She writes on the pace of change, institutional entrepreneurship, and the role of field-configuring events in bringing about structural change. Third, Bettina investigates issues of social equity, justice, and peace. In this line of work, Bettina looks at what it means to develop, grant, and legitimate the provision of human security within and across countries. Bettina’s work is inherently international and qualitative in nature. She usually investigates the evolution of organizational processes through an analysis of interviews, discourses (including newspapers and official documentation), and participant observation. She is also exploring video ethnography as a research method. Bettina is interested in uncovering the diverse perspectives and interests of multiple actors in the institutional field and has also produced a short film and written a theatre production on the differing viewpoints on climate change.
21 December 2009 Copenhagen Accord: the what, how, who and so what? The Copenhagen Accord is full of good intentions but almost entirely lacking in content
18 December 2009 Dr Wittneben analysis President Obama's Copenhagen speech
17 December 2009 Tuvalu and other countries facing oblitation because of climate change are refusing to be pushed aside at Copenhagen climate talks.
16 December 2009 Climate talks behind closed doors Dr Wittneben was among thousands denied access to the final days of climate talks in Copenhagen. She says the exclusion of civil society from the meeting reflects the sidelining of poor countries at the negotiations themselves. |
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Recent publications
Wittneben, B. (2009) Exxon is right: Let us re-examine our choice for a cap-and-trade system over a carbon tax. Energy Policy 37, 2462-2464.
Molisa, P. & Wittneben, B. (2008) Sustainable development, the Clean Development Mechanism and business accounting. In: Hansjuergens, B. & Antes, R. (eds.) Economics and Management of Climate Change: Risks, Mitigation and Adaptation. Berlin: Springer Verlag.