When Experts Feel Threatened - Strategies of Depoliticization in Participatory River Restoration Projects

This paper explores how experts involved in river management projects in Switzerland consider public participation. It reflects on the consequences that these considerations have on the potential for participation to become a political space. Public participation has become a standard practice in river management at the European level since the 1990s. In Switzerland, the federal government incentivises public participation in river-work projects through guidelines and additional subsidies for projects planned in a participatory way, with the goal of avoiding costly conflicts. Based on an analysis of expert discourses, we examine how experts activate three different arguments to depoliticise participation: that participation should be implemented to ensure acceptance of the project; that the exclusion of some actors is justified based on assumptions about the type of knowledge required for participation; and that disagreement should not be expressed within participatory processes but through representative politics. We conclude that the consistent motivation of experts to depoliticise also indicates a potential for participation to become political, which is worth exploring with new perspectives for engaging the public

Stakeholder dialogue for sustainability : the challenge of thinking between boxes

Between November 2014 and May 2015 saguf board members participated in the Stakeholder Dialogue for Sustainability initiated by the Swiss Federal Council (Bundesrat). The goal of this consultation process was to inform and jointly advance the elaboration of the Federal Council’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2016-2019 (Swiss Federal Council 2016) that was adopted in January 2016. This contribution presents and discusses the Stakeholder Dialogue from saguf’s point of view. Its aim is to reflect on this experience and on the question of how an academic society dedicated to strengthening environmental research and education as a cornerstone for sustainability can contribute to processes such as the federal Stakeholder Dialogue. We argue that one central contribution is to make the case for an integrative approach to tackling sustainable development issues. This contribution presents and discusses the Stakeholder Dialogue from saguf's point of view. Its aim is to reflect on this experience and on the question of how an academic society dedicated to strengthening environmental research and education as a cornerstone for sustainability can contribute to processes such as the federal Stakeholder Dialogue. We argue that one central contribution is to make the case for an integrative approach to tackling sustainable development issues

Community gardens as a response to the contradictions of sustainable urban policy: Insights from the Swiss cities of Zurich and Lausanne

In this paper we explore how policy discourses on urban sustainability impact the governing of urban food gardening in favoring community gardens. Our main hypothesis is that community gardens better accommodate the tensions created by the discourses of the compact and green city compared to other types of food gardening, especially allotment gardens. In the context of the Swiss cities of Lausanne and Zurich, analysis of policy documents confirms this hypothesis by identifying four frames that orient policies toward favoring community gardening: (i) Adapting green space planning to densification favors community gardening with their modest, flexible and multifunctional design, (ii) Revaluating the role of urban food gardening in urban sustainability represents community gardening as a new multifunctional benchmark, (iii) Reorganizing urban food gardening fosters diversity in gardening opportunities which in turn supports a variety of forms of community gardening, (iv) Justifying urban food gardening through public values and needs supports community gardening with their cost-efficient green space management, lower land management and more active citizen participation. In this vein, urban policymakers continually turn to community gardens as a strategic urban planning tool that gives urban green space greater legitimacy in the wake of the densifying city. Overall, urban food gardens continue to be negotiated between space-related marginalization and socio-political significance serving different needs to urban citizens. This results in the need of a more sophisticated planning approach considering different types of urban gardens related to their location in the built city, associated functions, and user groups

Transversalizando la transdisciplina en la enseñanza y la investigación. Consultoría Universidad de Talca Informe de actividades de los Servicios 1 y 2

El presente informe resume los aprendizajes clave y proporciona recomendaciones basadas en la consultoría científica orientada a la formación en investigación y enseñanza transdisciplinarias de miembros de la comunidad universitaria de la Universidad de Talca. Dicha consultoría fue desarrollado por el Transdisciplinarity Lab (Departamento de Ciencias de los Sistemas Ambientales, DUSYS-TdLab por su sigla en inglés) de la ETH Zúrich (Suiza) a petición del Vicerrectorado de Investigación e Innovación de la Universidad de Talca, con el fin de apoyar la integración de la investigación y la enseñanza interdisciplinarias y transdisciplinarias en la universidad. Los dos servicios de consultoría se implementaron entre agosto de 2022 y agosto de 2023. El objetivo de este informe es proporcionar un breve resumen de los servicios prestados, destacar las lecciones identificados durante la implementación del servicio 2, y proporcionar recomendaciones para apoyar la futura implementación de la investigación y la enseñanza interdisciplinarias y transdisciplinarias en la Universidad de Talca

Building pathways between transdisciplinarity and transformation: Lessons from practice

The notion of “transformation” has moved from academic discussion and is now part of the discourse of public and private organizations. Here, we offer a systematic examination of how combining transformation and transdisciplinary approaches can support the transformation to sustainability. In recent years, the notion of “transformation” has moved from academia to the strategic agendas of public and private organizations. Within this discourse, both transdisciplinarity and co-production are often mentioned as means to enable transformation, particularly in debates about risks and opportunities in transformative science and problem-solving. However, there has been little systematic examination of the potential in combining these approaches to contribute more effectively in the transformation to sustainability. Building on an autoethnographic analysis of two projects in transformation and transdisciplinarity, we identify pathways to strengthen collaboration between these approaches: 1. moving from transdisciplinarity “for” transformation to transdisciplinarity “as” transformation and 2. identifying concrete spaces for conceptual and methodological cross-fertilization between these approaches. We discuss the challenges and elaborate recommendations for these pathways and conclude by offering a few insights on how communities can together foster effective sustainability solutions to societal challenges

Public perception of geothermal energy at the local level in the UK

Successful development of a new renewable energy technology does not only rely on the success of pilot projects but also to a significant extent on the development of an adequate public engagement strategy. To be able to develop such a strategy a good understanding is required of the public perception of the new technology. Geothermal energy is still an emerging technology in the UK; in the absence of public debate on this topic, media reporting provides a suitable proxy for its public perception. Therefore, this study has gauged the public perception of geothermal energy in the UK by evaluating local news articles from 1980 to 2018. A coding scheme was developed to derive the main themes and to identify both the perceived advantages and hurdles for geothermal development. We focussed on local newspapers to be able to compare public perception in different regions in the UK. Results show a mainly positive perception of geothermal energy in all geographical regions across the UK. Only few articles mention risks, induced seismicity and environmental pollution. In contrast, advantages and positive aspects of geothermal energy, such as its carbon neutral footprint, the enormous amount of available geothermal heat and the potential contribution of geothermal development to the revival of local economies, are much more frequently mentioned. Perceived hurdles that are mostly described in the articles are: (1) the absence of geothermal legislation and subsidies in the UK; (2) the lack of available funding; and finally (3) technological and geological challenges or uncertainties. Finally, we show that geothermal energy is most often related to electricity generation and granite resources, while the only successful deep geothermal site in the UK is a direct-use heating scheme exploiting a sedimentary aquifer

How previous experiences shape actors' current perspectives in integrated natural resource management

Previous experiences play a multifaceted role in shaping current perspectives in integrated natural resource management. We used qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey to study the similarities and differences in terms of the links between the diverse actors' previous experiences and their current perspectives on the various issues to be resolved in a real-world integrated watershed management project.We found that the quantity and quality of experiences in past projects including water management, participation and politics are dissimilarly linked to the information, mental models and beliefs of perspectives regarding present issues. More experienced actors generally have broader perspectives than less experienced actors. Less experienced actors are particularly curious about approaches to water management.Actors with more experience in water management are more focused on ecological issues due to positive experience. Actors with more experience in participation are more sceptical about constructive solutions due to negative experience. Actors with more experience in politics emphasise the importance of agriculture and learning processes due to positive or negative experience. Actors with more negative experience in water management, participation and politics can nevertheless be motivated for participatory processes and integrated natural resource management.We conclude that previous experiences are critical factors that should be considered when designing participatory processes in integrated natural resource management. It could be valuable to include mixed compositions of actors with different types of previous experiences and different aspects of current perspectives to benefit from their complementary strengths

Innovations for the sustainability transformation: Conceptual cornerstones of the saguf working group INSIST

How can we understand, analyze and design innovations for the sustainability transformation? The newly formed saguf working group INSIST explores the links between sustainability, innovation and transformation in theoretical, empirical and practical respects. The focus is to move away from a technicist framework of ecological modernization to a more reflexive and inclusive concept of transformative innovation