Towards Our Common Digital Future. Flagship Report.

In the report “Towards Our Common Digital Future”, the WBGU makes it clear that sustainability strategies and concepts need to be fundamentally further developed in the age of digitalization. Only if digital change and the Transformation towards Sustainability are synchronized can we succeed in advancing climate and Earth-system protection and in making social progress in human development. Without formative political action, digital change will further accelerate resource and energy consumption, and exacerbate damage to the environment and the climate. It is therefore an urgent political task to create the conditions needed to place digitalization at the service of sustainable development

Rethinking Land in the Anthropocene: from Separation to Integration

Nur wenn sich unser Umgang mit Land grundlegend ändert, können die Klimaschutzziele erreicht, der dramatische Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt abgewendet und das globale Ernährungssystem nachhaltig gestaltet werden. Der WBGU schlägt fünf exemplarische Mehrgewinnstrategien vor, um Konkurrenzen zwischen Nutzungsansprüchen zu überwinden. Diese sollten durch fünf Governance-Strategien vorangetrieben werden, darunter insbesondere die Setzung geeigneter Rahmenbedingungen, eine Neuorientierung der EUPolitik und die Errichtung von Gemeinschaften gleichgesinnter Staaten.Only if there is a fundamental change in the way we manage land can we reach the targets of climate-change mitigation, avert the dramatic loss of biodiversity and make the global food system sustainable. The WBGU proposes five multiple-benefit strategies illustrating ways of overcoming competition between rival claims to the use of land. These should be promoted by five governance strategies, especially by setting suitable framework conditions, reorienting EU policy and establishing alliances of like-minded states

Unsere gemeinsame digitale Zukunft

Das Gutachten „Unsere gemeinsame digitale Zukunft“ macht deutlich, dass Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien und -konzepte im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung grundlegend weiterentwickelt werden müssen. Nur wenn der digitale Wandel und die Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit konstruktiv verzahnt werden, kann es gelingen, Klima- und Erdsystemschutz sowie soziale Fortschritte menschlicher Entwicklung voranzubringen. Ohne aktive politische Gestaltung wird der digitale Wandel den Ressourcen- und Energieverbrauch sowie die Schädigung von Umwelt und Klima weiter beschleunigen. Daher ist es eine vordringliche politische Aufgabe, Bedingungen dafür zu schaffen, die Digitalisierung in den Dienst nachhaltiger Entwicklung zu stellen

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

Beeldskemas van tydsduur: die polisemiese aard van terwyl, onderwylen wyl

Hierdie artikel toon aan hoe die polisemiese aard van ‘n groep onderskikkers, nl. terwyl, onderwyl en wyl, in terme van drie onderliggende beeldskemas verklaar kan word en hoe betekenis uitbreidings in die vorm van betekenis kettings voorgestel kan word. Die ondersoek is in ooreenstemming met die aannames van die kognitiewe grammatika op gebruiksdata gebaseer. In die mees basiese betekenis druk die bysin wat deur terwyl ingelei word, die agtergrondom-standighede uit waarbinne ‘n voorgrondgebeurtenis plaasvind. Dit word verteenwoordig deurskema 1: ‘n gebeurtenis binne ‘n ander gebeurtenis. Wanneer die voorgrondgebeurtenis net solank duur soos die agtergrondgebeurtenis, kan skema 2 geabstraheer word: parallelle gebeurtenisse. Behalwe vir gelyke tydsduur, kom teenstelling en toegewing ook as meer abstrakte betekenisse in hierdie skema voor. Uit gevalle waar groepe in numeriese terme vergelyk word, word skema 3 geabstraheer: deel-geheel. By verdere betekenisuitbreidings gaan die geheelbeeld verlore en word ‘n los reeks gegewens weergegee. Onderwyl en wyl kan as gedeeltelike sinonieme van terwyl beskou word. Hulle gebruik is meerbeperk en hulle vertoon nie die mate van grammatikalisering wat vir terwyl waargeneem is nie. Abstract: This article shows how the polysemic nature af a group of subordinating conjunctions in Afrikaans, ‘terwyl', ‘onderwyl'and ‘wyl' (meaning nuances of ‘while'and ‘whilst') can be explained in terms of three underlying image schemas. The expansion of their meaning is depicted through chains of meaning. In accordance with the basic tenets of cognitive linguistics a usage-based approach is followed. In the most basic meaning the subordinate clause introduced by ‘terwyl' describes the background against which a foreground event takes place. This representation is shown in schema 1. The foreground event occurs within the time span of a background event. In schema 2 we depict simultaneous foreground and background events. In addition to events with equal time span, this schema also depicts contradiction and concession in the more abstract sense. In cases wheregroups are compared in numerical terms schema 3 can be used to express ‘part-of-whole'. Further augmentation of meaning causes loss of cohesion and a discontinuous series of events is listed. ‘Onderwyl' and ‘wyl'can be seen as partial synonyms of ‘terwyl'. Their use is less frequent andless grammaticalisation was observed than in the case of ‘terwyl'. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2007, 25(1): 57–7

Die kategorisering van onderskikkers: enkele kenmerke van ‘dat'-samestellings

This paper, entitled “On the categorisation of subordinating conjunctions: some characteristics of ‘dat' compounds”, describes the syntactic and semantic characteristics of a group of subordinating conjunctions in Afrikaans, i.e. the compound conjunctions with ‘dat' (‘that'). Most of these compounds contain a preposition as the leading element, e.g. ‘voordat' (‘before'), ‘nadat' (‘after'), ‘vandat' (‘from'), ‘totdat' (‘until'), ‘metdat' (‘with'), ‘omdat' (‘for'), ‘oordat' (‘over'), ‘deurdat' (‘through'), ‘indat' (‘in') and ‘opdat' (‘on'). A few are formed with adverbs, i.e. ‘eerdat' (‘ere'), ‘noudat' (‘now'), ‘sodat' (‘so') and ‘hoedat' (‘how'). In the framework of cognitive grammar, this work is corpus-based. The Internet provided 557 Afrikaans documents. A total of 9 177 uses of the conjunction ‘dat' and 1 909 uses of the ‘dat' compounds were found. Sixtythree examples from the corpus are cited. The subordinating conjunction ‘indat' appears six times in the corpus, but has as yet not been included in the Afrikaans dictionaries, proving the class of subordinating conjuctions to be an open class where members may be added. The greatest similarity is that all compound subordinating conjunctions with ‘dat' lead to the same sentential order. The ‘dat' group is, however, heterogeneous with respect to the type of subordination. Hypotactic binding was observed in the case of all the ‘dat' compounds, except ‘hoedat', while incorporation as a participant in the main clause was only found with ‘hoedat' and a few cases of ‘oordat'. A variety of meaning nuances can be expressed with these compounds. These range from a more or less literal meaning of the preposition or adverb through to causal relationships used for argumentation.Abstract In hierdie artikel word sintaktiese en semantiese kenmerke van 'n groep onderskikkers, nl. samestellings met ‘-dat' beskryf. Dit blyk dat die meeste van die samestellings 'n voorsetsel as vormelement bevat, nl. ‘voordat', ‘nadat', ‘vandat', ‘totdat', ‘metdat', ‘omdat', ‘oordat', ‘deurdat', ‘indat' en ‘opdat', terwyl sommige 'n bywoord bevat, nl. ‘eerdat', ‘noudat', ‘sodat' en ‘hoedat'. Die ondersoek is korpusgebaseerd in ooreenstemming met die aannames van die kognitiewe grammatika. Die korpus bestaan uit 557 Afrikaanse dokumente wat via die Internet verkry is. Altesaam 9 177 gevalle van ‘dat' en 1 909 gevalle van ‘dat'-samestellings kom in die korpus voor. Drie-en-sestig voorbeelde uit die korpus word in die teks aangehaal. Die onderskikker ‘indat' kom ses keer in die korpus voor, terwyl dit nog nie in woordeboeke opgeneem is nie. Dit bewys dat die onderskikkers 'n oop klas is waar nuwe lede bygevoeg kan word. Die grootste ooreenkoms in sintaktiese optrede is dat al die onderskikkers met ‘-dat' dieselfde sinsvolgordepatrone tot gevolg het. Die groep ‘dat'-samestellings is egter nie homogeen ten opsigte van die soort onderskikking nie. Daar kan twee subkategorieë op grond van die verskil tussen hipotaktiese verbinding en inlywing onderskei word. Hipotaktiese verbinding kom by al die ‘dat'-samestellings, behalwe ‘hoedat' voor, terwyl inlywing as sinsdeel by ‘hoedat' en enkele gebruike van ‘oordat' waargeneem is. By inlywing speel die semantiese struktuur van die hoofwerkwoord 'n rol. 'n Verskeidenheid betekenisnuanses kan deur verbindende ‘dat'-samestellings uitgedruk word. Dit strek van min of meer letterlike betekenisse van die betrokke voorsetsels en bywoorde tot by kousale verhoudings wat in argumentasie gebruik word.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2006, 24(1): 7–2