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Lorenzo Fioramonti

Founding Director, Institute for Sustainability, University of Surrey

Lorenzo Fioramonti is Full Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), where he directs the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (www.governanceinnovation.org). He is also Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Investment of the University of Heidelberg and at the Hertie School of Governance (Germany) and Associate Fellow at the United Nations University. Lorenzo is the first and only Jean Monnet Chair in Africa, a prestigious recognition awarded by the European Commission to distinguished academics, and also holds the UNESCO-UNU Chair in Regional Integration, Migration and Free Movement of People.

Since March 2018 he has been an MP in the Italian parliament and served as Minister of Education, University and Research in late 2019 before resigning.

In 2012, he received the UP Exceptional Young Researcher Award and in 2014 he became the first president of the European Union Studies Association of Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of over 60 scientific articles and 8 books. His most recent books are Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth (MacMillan 2017, http://panmacmillan.co.za/catalogue/wellbeing-economy/) and The World After GDP: Economics, Politics and International Relations in the Post-Growth Era (Polity Books 2017, http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509511341). Lorenzo’s research interests range from alternative economic paradigms to the governance of the commons, global political innovations and new forms of supranational regionalism. His opinion pieces have been published, among others, by The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, TruthOut, Die Presse, Das Parlament, Der Freitag, The Mail&Guardian and www.opendemocracy.net. He has a monthly column in Business Day, South Africa’s foremost daily financial newspaper. He is the author of two film documentaries, The Age of Adaptation (http://globalreboot.org/videos/) and Presi per il PIL (in Italian, http://www.presiperilpil.org/ilfilm.html). He blogs at www.lorenzofioramonti.org and he is a sought-after public speaker on issues regarding new economic paradigms, rethinking development and responsible business. His work is endorsed by acclaimed authors such as Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett, Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Susan George, Richard Heinberg, Johan Galtung and leading economists like Robert Costanza, Enrico Giovannini and Tim Jackson. He is the founder of the Action Research Network for a Wellbeing Economy in Africa (WE-Africa, www.we-africa.org) and a member of the Alliance for Sustainability and Prosperity (www.asap4all.org).

Experience

  • –present
    Full Professor of Political Economy, University of Pretoria

Education

  • 2004 
    University of Siena/EUI, Ph.D Political Science