Transforming universities:Mobilizing research and education for sustainability transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The dominant model of universities, especially in the social sciences, is often based upon academic disciplines, objectivity, and a linear knowledge-transfer model. It facilitates competition between academics, educating students for specific professions from an objective, descriptive, and neutral position. This paper argues that this institutional model of universities is inadequate to contribute effectively to societal transitions towards just and sustainable futures. Taking the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), the Netherlands, as an example, this paper illustrates the problems with the dominant (twentieth century) model of universities in the social sciences and explores what strategies universities can develop to transform. It introduces the notions of transformative research and transformative education: transdisciplinary, collaborative, and action-oriented academic work that explicitly aims to support societal transitions. It presents the design impact transition (DIT) platform as an ‘institutional experiment’ at the EUR and a concerted and strategic effort that lays bare current lock-ins of the dominant university model and the kind of institutional work needed to transform universities.</p

Introduction::Action Research, Policy and Politics

The underpinning rationale of this special issue is that the societal challenges we are facing require fundamental, long-term societal transformations that need to be co-produced by all relevant stakeholders

Monitoring on-going vision development in system change programmes

Visions are considered to be of vital importance for programmes aimed at sustainable systems change. Vision development is a programme management instrument, a programme output, and at the heart of programme learning processes. This article addresses the question what constitutes an appropriate monitoring strategy for vision development activities within system change programmes. Based on action research and literature review on monitoring, evaluation and vision development a monitoring framework is proposed. It is suggested to monitor the programme vision against project visions, societal visions and a set of basic criteria. The monitoring activities themselves are context-sensitive and frequently renegotiated between monitors, programme managers and other stakeholders. The framework is illustrated with a national systems change programme on sustainable agriculture in the Netherlands. </jats:p

Transition Management, Action Research and Actor Roles: Understanding local sustainability transitions

This thesis is about the local scale of urban neighbourhoods, towns and cities and its interaction with global problems and sustainability questions. At this scale, we most notably interact with these problems and thereby question current role understandings, actor relations and activities that come with them. One of these role understandings is that of the researcher: what are suitable approaches and methods for studying and supporting sustainability transitions at that local scale. Set in the context of a Dutch neighbourhood (Rotterdam-Carnisse) and the issues it is facing as well as based on transition thinking and inspired by action-oriented research, this thesis addresses the following question: __How can we increase our understanding of sustainability transitions and their governance at the local scale, the changing role of actors therein, and in particular, the role of research and researchers?__. The main contributions can be summarized as follows: 1) It contributes to sustainability transition research by clarifying the concept of actor roles in local sustainability transitions; 2) It contextualise transition management as a governance approach for the local context as well as for addressing socio-economic dynamics, and 3) contributes to the development of action-oriented and transformative research approaches in sustainability transition research

Pluralising the European energy landscape: Collective renewable energy prosumers and the EU's clean energy vision

To fulfil the European Union's (EU) goal of providing ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans', a transformative shift from centralised, fossil-fuel based systems to decentralised systems based on renewable energy sources (RES) is envisaged. Keen to lead the clean energy transition while embedding technological innovation and elements of justice and equitability into the envisioned ‘Energy Union’, EU Member States need their citizens on board as active participants. Prosumerism or self-consumption is an important part of this citizen involvement. While the new EU regulatory framework for energy now recognises civic-inspired prosumer initiatives such as energy communities, little is known about the full range and diversity of collective actors in renewable energy self-consumption as well as how they engage with the changing energy system. This paper presents an exploratory categorisation of the different collective social actors that produce and consume energy from renewable sources, referred to as ‘collective RES prosumers’, aiming to clarify their participation in the energy landscape. We find six categories with different engagement and needs, which we relate to the EU's current framing of collective energy actors. We recommend fine-tuning policies to the different actors to support a true-to-vision transposition of the recently completed Clean Energy Package (CEP).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Culture for sale? ‘Traditional’ Practices, Institutions and Values as Commodity in Nature-based Tourism

Projekt prekogranične zaštite i razvoja Maloti Drakensberg između Južne Afrike i Lesota je prekogranična inicijativa za očuvanje okoliša koja istodobno ima za cilj očuvanje biološke raznolikosti i poticanje gospodarskog razvoja lokalnog stanovništva. To će se postići putem turističke djelatnosti utemeljene na prirodi. Ona će, kako tvrdimo, isticati određene običaje, institucije i vrijednosti lokalnog stanovništva, a zanemarivati druge, time ih ponovno osmišljavajući kao dio ‘tradicijske kulture’ u kontekstu očuvanja. Prikazujući dvije studije primjera također tvrdimo da turizam u prirodi relativizira i komercijalizira ove elemente načina života označavajući ih kao ‘tradicionalne’, podređujući ih time ekonomskim i ekološkim interesima.The Maloti Drakenberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project between South Africa and Lesotho is a transfrontier conservation initiative that simultaneously aims at conserving biodiversity and fostering the economic development of the local population. This is to be attained via nature-based tourism activities. These, I argue, highlight certain practices, institutions and values of the local population while neglecting others, thereby reinventing them as part of a ‘traditional culture’ in the conservation context. Illustrated by two case studies I also argue that nature-based tourism reifies and commoditizes these elements of lifestyles by labeling them ‘traditional’, making them serve economic or environmental interests

Culture for sale? ‘Traditional’ Practices, Institutions and Values as Commodity in Nature-based Tourism

Projekt prekogranične zaštite i razvoja Maloti Drakensberg između Južne Afrike i Lesota je prekogranična inicijativa za očuvanje okoliša koja istodobno ima za cilj očuvanje biološke raznolikosti i poticanje gospodarskog razvoja lokalnog stanovništva. To će se postići putem turističke djelatnosti utemeljene na prirodi. Ona će, kako tvrdimo, isticati određene običaje, institucije i vrijednosti lokalnog stanovništva, a zanemarivati druge, time ih ponovno osmišljavajući kao dio ‘tradicijske kulture’ u kontekstu očuvanja. Prikazujući dvije studije primjera također tvrdimo da turizam u prirodi relativizira i komercijalizira ove elemente načina života označavajući ih kao ‘tradicionalne’, podređujući ih time ekonomskim i ekološkim interesima.The Maloti Drakenberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project between South Africa and Lesotho is a transfrontier conservation initiative that simultaneously aims at conserving biodiversity and fostering the economic development of the local population. This is to be attained via nature-based tourism activities. These, I argue, highlight certain practices, institutions and values of the local population while neglecting others, thereby reinventing them as part of a ‘traditional culture’ in the conservation context. Illustrated by two case studies I also argue that nature-based tourism reifies and commoditizes these elements of lifestyles by labeling them ‘traditional’, making them serve economic or environmental interests

Detecting Social Innovation agency:Methodological reflections on units of analysis in dispersed transformation processes

Considering that it is important for the social innovation research field to confront its methodological challenges, this contribution addresses the challenge of choosing appropriate units of analysis. In processes of transformative social innovation, the agency is distributed and therefore fundamentally difficult to detect and ascribe. This contribution addresses the challenge to develop methodologies that are consistent with this relational ontology, critically evaluating the three main unit of analysis choices that guided an international comparison of 20 transnational SI networks and their local manifestations. Methodological lessons are drawn on the actors that SI can be ascribed to, on the transnational agency through which it spreads and on the relevant transformation contexts involved. This provides SI research with methodological tools to handle the elusiveness of SI agency, a methodological challenge that becomes particularly pressing in attempts towards systematic comparison of cases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Transition versus transformation: What's the difference?

‘Transition’ and ‘transformation’ have become buzzwords in political and scientific discourses. They signal the need for large-scale changes to achieve a sustainable society. We compare how they are applied and interpreted in scientific literatures to explore whether they are distinct concepts and provide complementary insights. Transition and transformation are not mutually exclusive; they provide nuanced perspectives on how to describe, interpret and support desirable radical and non-linear societal change. Their differences may partially result from their etymological origins, but they largely stem from the different research communities concerned with either transition or transformation. Our review shows how the respective approaches and perspectives on understanding and interpreting system change can enrich each other