Reallabore als Lernplattform von Wissenschaft und Praxis für einen nachhaltigen Konsum

Im sensiblen Bereich des persönlichen Konsums kann eine Nachhaltigkeitstransformation nicht von oben verordnet werden, sondern muss von unten entwickelt werden. Durch systematische Beobachtung einschlägiger Initiativen können wir von ihnen lernen. Die Zusammenarbeit von Praxis und Wissenschaft ist daher vielversprechend. Ein Ort, an dem eine solche Zusammenarbeit stattfinden kann, sind die sogenannten Reallabore. Neben dem Nutzen für die Praxis (Ideen für nachhaltigen Konsum) und die Wissenschaft (Wissen für eine Nachhaltigkeitstransformation) wird auch ein Nutzen für die Bildung, ein gesellschaftlicher Lernprozess für alle Beteiligten, gesucht. Die Akademien sind aufgerufen, dieses neuartige Forschungsinstrument gezielt zu unterstützen und zur Qualitätssicherung beizutragen.Cite as: Stauffacher, Michael (2023): Reallabore als Lernplattform von Wissenschaft und Praxis für einen nachhaltigen Konsum?, in: Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften: Wege zu einem nachhaltigen Konsum | Vers une consommation durable, (Swiss Academies Communications, 18, 5), S. 126-130. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.817892

Wirksame Energiesparinterventionen durch Zusammenarbeit von Städten und Forschung : Erkenntnisse aus dem Forschungsprojekt "Förderung von energiesparendem Verhalten in Städten" des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms NFP 71

Broschüre mit Erkenntnissen aus dem NFP71 Projekt Förderung von energiesparendem Verhalten in Städte

Analytic and Dynamic Approach to Collaboration: A Transdisciplinary Case Study on Sustainable Landscape Development in a Swiss Prealpine Region

The involvement of stakeholders and the public in societal decision processes has lately received increased attention. We suggest that appropriate and tailored techniques should be selected and integrated to provide the prerequisites for inclusive involvement depending on the issue, type, goals and phase of the decision process in question, i.e. an analytic, systematic and dynamic approach to collaboration. In a transdisciplinary case study design we integrate diverse analytical methods whereby a process of mutual learning between science and people from outside academia is strived for. Our framework for collaboration is illustrated by a case study on sustainable landscape development in the Swiss prealpine region of Appenzell Ausserrhode

The Process Matters: Fairness in Repository Siting For Nuclear Waste

Siting contested infrastructure such as repositories for nuclear waste very often faces strong local resistance. One major reason for this opposition may arise because siting processes do not appropriately consider fairness issues such as transparency, the availability of options, or the sufficient involvement of concerned and affected people. The aim of this study was to analyze people's concerns related to justice in siting nuclear waste. Besides procedural aspects, both distributive justice and outcome valence are considered important and therefore the "total fairness model” by Törnblom and Vermunt (Soc Justice Res 12:39-64, 1999) was used as a framework. In three quasi-experimental studies (N 1=53; N 2=56; N 3=83) applying conjoint analysis, respondents ranked 11 vignettes with the three attributes procedural justice, distributional justice, and outcome valence. Each vignette represents a realistic scenario of a site selection process for the disposal of nuclear waste in Switzerland. All the three studies yield a consistent result: vignettes representing a situation with a fair process are top-ranked by respondents; situations with negative outcome valence are ranked lowest; distributive issues turned out to be of minor importance. We conclude that procedural fairness should be given more attention in any kind of contested infrastructure siting and that real-world examples like the one discussed here can inform justice researc

Landscape multifunctionality: a powerful concept to identify effects of environmental change

The interdisciplinary concept of landscape multifunctionality provides a suitable platform to combine or disentangle effects of multiple environmental stressors acting on the landscape. The concept allows mapping of trade-offs, synergies, and priority conflicts between individual landscape functions, thus providing easily accessible, hands-on means to communicate findings of environmental research to decision makers and society. This rapid communication provides an overview of current developments and potential future research avenues in landscape multifunctionalit

What constitutes agency? : determinants of actors’ influence on formal institutions in Swiss waste management

Institutional change is crucial for the transitions of socio-technical systems. This study addresses why some actors have strong agency by uncovering the determinants of their influence on formal institutions. We focused on a recent and major policy process in Swiss waste management as the empirical case. We carried out content analysis of consultation documents, expert surveys, online questionnaire and social network analysis. The resulting data were then analysed with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions associated with large influence. Results suggest that only several actors have a major influence on the policy output. Possessing material or non-material resources is found to be necessary yet not sufficient, as actors need to exhibit high activity and embeddedness in social networks or articulate a discourse rich in various concepts. By elucidating the configuration of endowments critical for actors’ influence on formal institutions, this study yields novel insights into the ingredients of strong agency. The analytical approach we present can be applied to various settings and thus can be pursued for a systematic analysis on the determinants of actors’ influence and how it varies with political or organizational context

Vulnerability to food insecurity in a Telecoupled World: insights from Vanuatu

Food insecurity is a pressing problem in many regions across the world. Drivers of food insecurity are becoming increasingly embedded in sociocultural and economic processes that transcendent multiple spatial and temporal scales. This is due to the increasingly globalized interconnections of places and people. Understanding this complexity is essential to devise locally relevant and effective adaptation strategies to tackle existing vulnerabilities causing food insecurity. This article analytically addresses the complexity in cross-scale dynamics by combining a case study from northern Vanuatu with a conceptual analysis of the broader socioeconomic dynamics within the telecoupling framework. Our aim is to identify drivers of vulnerability that span multiple temporal and spatial scales and contribute to food insecurity in a given location while exploring the relevance and applicability of the framework for the holistic assessment of vulnerability to food insecurity. The transdisciplinary approach used in this work involved local community members and local agriculture extension officers at all stages of the study process. For this, we used complementary research methods, such as workshops, participant observations, and in-depth interviews. The results showed that potential vulnerability to food insecurity in northern Vanuatu is likely to be related to individual choices aimed at maximizing income, enabled by economic development and driven by socio-cultural changes. These choices and their consequences are perceived in many cases to be responsible for lower subsistence food production and the overuse of natural food resources. However, economic changes in particular can also enable additional livelihoods that complement existing (subsistence-based) strategies, leading to a reduction in one-sided dependencies and thus to an overall increase in the resilience of local livelihoods. We find the telecoupling approach to be a useful tool to holistically capture a local vulnerability context. However, we also encountered challenges in describing telecouplings that operate over longer time scales

A heuristic for conceptualizing and uncovering the determinants of agency in socio-technical transitions

There has been a growing interest in transition studies on the role of agency in bringing about disruptive change. Previous studies have examined how actors perform institutional work to create legitimacy and transform institutions. In doing so, they have provided insights into specific practices and strategies that actors follow. This paper seeks to complement existing studies by elucidating the foundations of agency that transforms institutions through institutional work. Drawing on institutional sociology and organizational studies, resources, discourses and networks of actors are identified as key elements enabling institutional work practices. The agency of each actor is conceived of as dependent on the configurations it possesses with respect to these elements. A heuristic is presented that helps to determine the configurations associated with a strong agency in empirical settings and use Swiss waste management as an illustrative case example. The heuristic enables a systematic analysis of agency across different organizational fields

Exploring societal preferences for energy sufficiency measures in Switzerland

Many countries are facing a challenging transition towards more sustainable energy systems, which produce more renewables and consume less energy. The latter goal can only be achieved through a combination of efficiency measures and changes in people’s lifestyles and routine behaviours (i.e. sufficiency). While research has shown that acceptance of technical efficiency is relatively high, there is a lack of research on societal preferences for sufficiency measures. However, this is an important prerequisite for designing successful interventions to change behaviour. This paper analyses societal preferences for different energy-related behaviours in Switzerland. We use an online choice-based conjoint analysis (N=150) to examine preferences for behaviours with high technical potentials for energy demand reduction in the following domains: mobility, heating and food. Each domain comprises different attributes across three levels of sufficiency. Respondents were confronted with trade-off situations evoked through different fictional lifestyles that comprised different combinations of attribute levels. Through a series of trade-off decisions, participants were asked to choose their preferred lifestyle. The results revealed that a vegetarian diet was considered the most critical issue that respondents were unwilling to trade off, followed by distance to workplace and means of transportation. The highest willingness to trade off was found for adjustments in room temperature, holiday travel behaviours, and living space. Participants’ preferences for the most energy-sufficient lifestyles were rather low. However, the study showed that there were lifestyles with substantive energy-saving potentials that were well accepted among respondents. Our study results suggest that the success of energy-sufficiency interventions might depend strongly on the targeted behaviour. We speculate that they may face strong resistance (e.g., vegetarian diet). Thus, it seems promising to promote well-balanced lifestyles, rather than extremely energy-sufficient lifestyles, as potential role models for sufficiency

From environmental information systems to social networks: fostering co-operation in the ETH-UNS Case Study for sustainable regional development

Abstract The ETH-UNS Case Study is part of the master program in Environmental Sciences. It is a hybrid combining teaching, research, and application. Joint problem solving between science and society is a major principle of our work. In our view, such approaches are a prerequisite in developing strategies towards a sustainable society. However, this requires improved organization of knowledge, co-operation of work and communication among all people involved. Co-operation and communication is needed at least (a) within and between the different study teams, (b) between the study teams and local agents and (c) among local agents with a view to sustain local social networks. Since its beginning in 1994, the ETH-UNS Case Study has used a broad set of IT-tools to support co-ordination, communication and co-operation of work. Starting form a incomplete peer-to-peer system, we advanced to a centralized file sharing system, and are now embarking into an integrated, dynamic network approach. A new web-based information system, named «living document», will be updated and supplemented continuously. The «living document» will support group work, communication among participants from inside and outside university and co-ordination of activities