Analyzing a transition to a sustainability-oriented science system in Germany

Abstract

The Multi-Level Perspective has successfully been applied to the analysis of complex sector transitions in the energy, the health or the food production sector. Is this framework also helpful to understand and give prescriptive advice for sustainability transformations within a national science system? Based on a comprehensive study of the diffusion of transdisciplinary sustainability research in Germany, this article analyzes the institutional dimension of a changing science-society relation in the German science system. It uses the Multi-Level Perspective as a fruitful heuristic in order to identify potential pathways for a broader diffusion of transdisciplinary sustainability science. The importance of niche coalitions of frontrunner universities and research institutes are highlighted.

From Knowledge Co-production to Transdisciplinary Research: Lessons from the Quest to Produce Socially Robust Knowledge

“…In Germany, the sustainability flagship research program, called socio-ecological research, of the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) was installed in 1999 and runs to this day with an annual budget of approximately EUR 10 million. More recently, transdisciplinarity has served as the strategic profile of an entire university (Leuphana-Lueneburg) and also gave rise to new inter-university consortia (Schneidewind and Augenstein 2012). One of the most important resources for discussing and presenting research on transdisciplinarity is the journal GAIA, which was launched in 1992 by Swiss and German universities (Winiwarter 2012).…”

Approaches for Transitions Towards Sustainable Development: Status Quo and Challenges

“…However, it has great potential to be employed in studying sustainability transitions in contemporary or future contexts, e.g. electricity systems (Foxon et al, 2010;Yuan et al, 2012), science systems (Schneidewind and Augenstein, 2012), and transport systems (Geels, 2012). For instance, Yuan et al (2012) adopted the MLP framework to investigate the low-carbon transition of the electric power sector in China, and proposed various transition pathways and policy suggestions.…”

Household-level transition methodology towards sustainable material footprints

“…Existing infrastructure and prevailing services determine a basic level of resource use that exceeds sustainability limits even among minimum income receivers in an industrialized country such as Finland (Hirvilammi et al, 2013). Systemic changes call for alterations in the overall configuration of these systems, including technology, policy, markets, infrastructure, cultural meaning and scientific knowledge, in addition to consumer practices and how they are carried out (Geels, 2011;Schneidewind and Augenstein, 2012). As Liedtke et al (2013) and Schroeder (2010) point out, research and innovations on sustainability need dynamic links between micro-level implementations and macro-level strategies, and vice versa.…”