The oikos electorate has left no doubt: the (brief) era of male dominance is over and a female President will succeed Dawid Wroblewski! Also in this issue, find out about this year's very successful oikos Model WTO, whose organiser Fred Bärtl we dedicate this month's 30 seconds with... Moreover, we shall not refrain from providing you with some background information on our newest chapters, spanning three continents and oikos St. Gallen's recent TV performance. oikos Graz is celebrating its 10 years anniversary this month, oikos Tubingen has started an interesting lecture series and Happiness and New Business Models are the themes of two upcoming Academic events to be held in Switzerland this month.
oikos Students
oikos International Presidential Elections
This year’s elections for the seat of the oikos International president proved to be most competitive in oikos history. All three candidates were well known in the oikos community for involvement in flagship projects organized by their respective Chapters. Fred took the lead in organizing oikos Model WTO for the second time; you’ll find more information about him below. Neringa, currently acting as oikos Maastricht Vice-President, developed ECO MAP – raising awareness for sustainable and environment-friendly shops, restaurants and further spots in Maastricht. Lenka, the current president of oikos Prague, was strongly involved in organizing the Spring Meeting 2011 hosted by her Chapter.
In the end, Lenka Parkanova won the hearts and minds of oikees around the world, receiving 12 out of 20 chapter votes (6 chapters abstained). Lenka will join the oikos office in St Gallen already this year and will take over the presidential seat after Dawid Wroblewski to guide oikos Chapters in 2013.
oikos Model WTO 2012 concluded 72 students from all over the world gathered in St. Gallen and WTO Headquarters in Geneva, simulating trade negotiations around the topic of “Regional & Sustainable Trade” and exchanging views with high-level trade policy experts. Read more for further information and the head organiser’s wrap-up and check out our picture gallery on facebook!
Network Expansion – 3 new chapters across 3 continents The end of April saw a milestone event in the history of the development of the oikos network. We have launched three new chapters, strengthening the oikos presence at Universities in Eastern India, Eastern Germany and the US Eastcoast. We are delighted to welcome oikos Jamshedpur, oikos Leipzig and oikos Penn as official members of the ever growing international oikos family!
oikos&Pizza participants on Swiss National TV
The latest edition of oikos&Pizza on the theme of 'Generation Y' attracted much interest from Swiss TV Programme 10vor10, a popular evening show on Swiss national TV channel SF. You can check out the interviews with oikos St.Gallen members and invited speaker Miriam Hauser on the SF website.
Lecture series in Tübingen This year oikos Tübingen organises a lecture series on the topic of ‘Thinking ahead society - Challenges of social sustainability’. The series was kicked off on 26 April with an introductory lecture by Prof. Rademacher and is intended to examine topics of social sustainability from different angles. The program can be viewed on oikos Tübingen’s facebook page.
oikos Academic
oikos International Economics Academy
Do not miss the deadline for the upcoming oikos Young Scholars Economics Academy on Dynamics of Migration, which we will run this August 19-24 – submit your application by 15 May.
Can well-being become the objective Function of Business? oikos Alumnus Michael Pirson (Fordham University, NY) and the Humanistic Management Network are organizing an event on “Happiness and Profit” on June 12 at the University of St. Gallen. Participants and speakers will examine, wether business can become an agent of societal well-being and features experts from Academia ( e.g. Prof. Dr. Bruno Frey, University of Zurich); Policy (e.g. Nic Marks, New Economics Foundation) and representatives of leading businesses that already work to increase societal well-being, such as Peter Braun, CEO of Weleda AG.
New Business Models for Developing Markets?
We are looking forward to welcome Prof. Jonathan Doh on 14 May at the Hub Zurich for the event: 'Corporate-NGO Collaboration: Creating New Business Models for Developing Markets?'. Jonathan Doh is Professor of International Business Business and founding Director of the Center for Global Leadership at Villanova School of Business (USA). The event is open, but registration is recommended as space is limited.
30 seconds with...
Frederic Bärtl, Head of the oikos Model WTO, University of St. Gallen
As head of the oikos Model WTO , I am with oikos for 2 years trying to establish a tighter cooperation between trade & sustainability. My team and I took over the project in 2010, reformed the project idea and tried to raise awareness in the sphere of sustainable trade policy. As a Master student in economics, I quickly realised the lack of economic policy in the curriculum. Here is where the oikos Model WTO comes into play. We try to raise students’ awareness for international trade, show them how instruments like “rules of origin” or “Process and Production Methods” could be used in the promotion of sustainable trade. The Idea is to make students understand that the WTO could take care of much more than pure trade issues. Hence it is time to adjust the 20st century legal framework to the 21st century, namely: development & environment.
In this project, I see so much more than a trade simulation and we want to step away from a pure “learners” approach and actively influence the trade agenda by cooperating with the ICTSD to establish an oikos students platform for current trade issues on sustainability, more digestible, informative, innovative and a potential figurehead in the oikos academia economics section.
Outlook:
11 May 2012: oikos Graz 10-year anniversary event
Workshops with several guests working to improve the world.
14 May 2012 -Corporate-NGO Collaboration: Creating New Business Models for Developing Markets?
Join us and Professor Jonathan Doh at The Hub Zurich
15 May 2012 - Application Deadline: oikos Economics Academy
Join us in August in Geneva to discuss Dynamics of Migration with first class faculty in a stimulating setting.
28 June 2012: oikos Faculty Symposium Our professional development workshops led by leading researchers in their fields will be held during this year's GRONEN Conference at Euromed Management School in Marseille, Southern France.
26-31 August 2012: oikos Entrepreneurship Academy On "Collaborative Entrepreneurship and Innovation"
26-31 August 2012: oikos Organisation Academy
On "Social Innovation and Organizational Impact"
19-20 November 2012: Save the Date for the oikos FutureLab
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Meet oikos...
oikos PhD Fellow Johannes Schwarzer will be joining the Media Team of the Model UNFCCC, a CEMS Climate Change Strategy Role-Play, held in Barcelona from 15 - 19 May 2012.
oikos International Presidential Elections 
