Benno Werlen

Benno Werlen, *October 10, 1952 in Münster, Valais, Switzerland, is a Swiss geographer who is known for his action-centred approach to human geography and his concept of a Geography of Everyday Regionalisations. He has been the founder und holder of the UNESCO Chair on Global Understanding for Sustainability at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, since 2018. Until 2018 he held the Chair for Social Geography at the same university. Werlen is a fellow of the World Academy of Art And Science––initiated by Albert Einstein––and the Max Weber Centre for Cultural and Social Studies (Erfurt), since 2019 an elected member of the Academia Europaea and from 2024 its chairperson for »Human Mobility, Governance, Environment and Space«.

He is also the founder and chair of the IGU Commission on »Global Understanding« , the initiator and executive director of the »2016 International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU)« including some 40 Regional Actions Centres, approved by the UNESCO General Conference, proclaimed by the three major science councils of the Human (CIPSH), Social (ISSC) and Natural Sciences (ICSU), and most recently the founder and chair of »The Jena Declaration on the Cultural and Regional Dimensions of Global Sustainability« (TDJ)«. As a »key thinker on space and place« (Sage 2011) he is researching for decades the socio-space relationships, entering presently in the new world historical age of globalisation.