Change from Within: Exploring Transformative Literacy in Public Administrations to Foster Sustainability Transitions

Abstract

Public administrations are designed towards efficient and effective problem solving. A division of work along the various issues of public policy-making is constitutive for most administrations. With the recent demands to develop comprehensive transformative environmental policies, new tasks and requirements arise, both for individual officers as well as administrative organizations. Two central questions emerge in this context: How do officers and public policy administrations cope with transformation processes and what competencies are needed for shaping transformations? Based on a comprehensive literature review on policies for transformation, organizational learning, and education for sustainable development, we present a concept for transformative literacy. We explored how this concept resonates with officers from the Ministry for the Environment and from the Environmental Protection Agency in Germany. To this end, we conducted 17 qualitative interviews with officers from various departments and levels of hierarchy. The analysis reveals four different types of actors with distinct perspectives regarding their own role and theories of societal and political change. We conclude that a collaborative mode among these types of actors to address the challenges of shaping transformations to sustainability can mobilize additional capacities by making use of their complementary skills and resources. The article suggests that this should be reflected in organizational reforms and in training programs for political administration.

At the intersection of mind and climate change: integrating inner dimensions of climate change into policymaking and practice

“…This is in stark contrast to the idea that "a core goal of public policy should be to facilitate the development of institutions that bring out the best in humans", as stated by Elinor Ostrom when she received her Nobel Prize in Economics (Ostrom, 2009). To address related gaps, we thus need structures and practices that can protect risk-takers and support personal development (Sharma 2017), together with a new way to structure and run organisations, and collaborate and question every aspect of policy and project management (Jacob et al 2021;Laloux 2014). 6 Importantly, our results show that moving from a vicious to a virtuous cycle requires us to question the very foundations of our self-view, society and current policy approaches to sustainability if we want to move towards a more conscious and caring society (Feola et al 2021;Marion Suiseeya et al 2021;Wamsler et al 2021).…”

Humanistic Spirit Training of Medical Students Based on Multisource Medical Data Fusion

“…The cultivation of the humanistic spirit of medical students is directly related to the cultivation of the comprehensive quality of medical talents. The shaping of the humanistic spirit of medical students is directly related to the improvement of the doctor-patient relationship and the transformation of the medical model [9]. The medical profession is a profession that combines theory and practice very closely.…”

Understanding why civil servants are reluctant to carry out transition tasks

“…For instance, whereas civil servants must be free to act on their expertise (discretionary tradition), they also need to obey hierarchy and politics (constitutional tradition). Jacob et al (2021) show a similar discrepancy when interviewing 17 civil servants of two German ministries between internal views on transformations and the required competencies to execute these plans. Based on a systematic review of the transition literature, Braams et al (2021) assessed the executability of a clustering of five main transition tasks against the normative arguments from the PA traditions that legitimize government action.…”