Anke Schaffartzik, MESPOM professor, has a background in social ecology and ecological economics, with a focus on social metabolism, that is, on the forms of resource use (extraction, imports, exports, stocks) required to reproduce a society. Much of her research has been on the role of trade in international material (and other) inequalities. Her interest revolves around how societal organization, e.g., the prevailing economic system, shapes resources use and vice versa.