From 17th until 20th of May, the Center for Research on Environmental and Energy Challenges (CBWEE) hosted a group of scholars from the USA, UK, Australia and Poland in Konin, a brown coal mining town soon facing the complete closure of local brown coal mines. The meeting was organized as part of a research project led by Jeffrey Jacquet and Max Woodworth from the Ohio State University, USA, called RCN: Coordinating Global Coal Transitions Research. The goal of the project is to provide a platform for knowledge exchange between scholars in social sciences studying coal regions undergoing green transition. We also had a pleasure to host: Vickie Zhang (National University, Singapore); Julia Haggerty (Montana State University); Tom Measham (Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies, Australia); Sarah Knuth (Durham University, UK); Karen Rignall (University of Kentucky); Sanya Carley (Indiana University), Piotr Matczak (Adam Mickiewicz University), Przemysław Pluciński (Adam Mickiewicz Univesity) and Kosma Lechowicz (Upsala University), Andrzej W. Nowak (Adam Mickiewicz University), Jan Frankowski (IFiS PAN/IBS).
We would like to extend special thanks to Mariusz Harmasz from the Association Wielkopolskie Forum Inicjatyw Kulturalnych FRONTAR for organizing a wonderful day at the mining sites and opening many doors to our guests, to the Regional Museum in Konin for being lovely and generous hosts of our 1-day conference and to Agata Kuźmińska from the Regional Development Agency in Konin for an exciting lecture about the Just Transition Plan for Konin. We would also like to thank our students Hubert Tubacki and Weronika Piotrowska for the invaluable organizational help.
