Sustainability science and implementing the sustainable development goals

Saito, Osamu; Managi, Shunsuke; Kanie, Norichika; Kauffman, Joanne; Takeuchi, Kazuhiko

doi:10.1007/s11625-017-0486-5

Cited by 57 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Few studies, however, have explicitly discussed the mechanisms by which sustainability is secured in reframing and devising creative solutions obtained from procedures proposed in the general literature of creative problem solving (CPS) or insight problem solving (IPS). This is problematic because, in general, procedures for creativity or insight can produce creative solutions that are beneficial for the present rather than the future generation, especially considering the tradeoffs between present and future generations [41][42][43][44], since the present generation must share the burden when implementing a solution. This provides strong evidence that taking the future generation's perspective is a promising strategy for sustainable problem-solving or sustainable insight problem-solving.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Nakagawa

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human societies face various unsustainability problems, often characterized as “wicked” in the sense that they have no single definitive formulation. Thus, the role of creativity or insight in solving such problems has attracted a lot of attention from scholars. Therefore, this study investigated how an emerging methodology, Future Design (and its unique intervention of asking problem solvers to take a future generation’s perspective), can facilitate insight problem solving (IPS) and the generation of sustainable solutions. In a municipality in Japan, nine officers from a bureau responsible for water supply management participated in a series of seven Future Design workshops. In two groups, these officers created visions of water supply management 30 years into the future, taking the perspective of a future generation working in the same municipality. On the basis of in-depth transcription analyses of these workshops, we obtained a hypothetical framework demonstrating that four factors mediate the influence of perspective taking on IPS: (a) Discounting the present generation’s cost, (b) contrasting the future with the present, (c) deconstructing hierarchy, and (d) intellectual joy. While the first three mediators (a, b, and c) were considered to be contributors to the problem reframing and IPS via constraint relaxation, the fourth (d) was considered to do so via positive interpretation. Further, the reason why taking a future generation’s perspective is likely to lead to sustainable solutions, useful for the future—rather than the present—generation, is also discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Nakagawa

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This builds on previous studies which have analysed the ways countries pursue the SDGs (Cameron et al, 2016), the overall role of sustainability sciences in the implementation of the SDGs (e.g. Saito et al, 2017) or the role of sustainability indicators (Lehtonen, Sébastien, Bauler 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Assessing research trends related to Sustainable Development Goals: local and global issues

Salvia

Filho

Brandli

et al. 2019

Journal of Cleaner Production

443

204

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the United Nations in September 2015 comprise 17 goals and 169 targets aimed at integrating matters related to sustainable development into the overall economic, environmental and social frameworks of countries. Whereas the SDGs have a global dimension, their action implementation depends on the level of priority different countries give to them, and on how sustainability issues compete with a country´s main problems. The aim of this paper was to identify the main Sustainable Development Goals approached by experts from different geographic regions, according to their experience and research area, and to discuss the relation between these goals and the main local issues and challenges of each region. The methodology starts with snowball sampling to collect information from experts from all geographic regions, through contact networks of universities in different countries. With the information about the goals researched by the participating experts, an analysis of the relation between the study focus and the geographical regions of origin was conducted. A total of 266 specialists from North America, Latin America/Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania participated in the survey. Based on the sample used, it can be said that there is a relation between the local problems or challenges observed in some regions and the main areas of interest of the surveyed experts, with a general emphasis on the study of goals 4, 11 and 13. Based on the data gathered, the paper presents a set of examples of positive and negative situations in the various regions, and considers the extent to which some Sustainable Development Goals are being pursued by research on a worldwide basis.

show abstract

“…More than ever higher education institutions and their stakeholders, that is, students, staff, scholars, administration and management, research communities, alumni, businesses, social movements, consumer organizations, governments and professional associations (Jongbloed et al 2008) need to rethink the notion of HEfSD in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are both an approach to sustainable development and a tool for addressing global problems in a collaborative (United Nations 2015;Saito et al 2017; Kanie and Biermann 2017;Yonehara et al 2017) and interconnected (O'Byrne et al 2015) manner. Aligning HEfSD agendas with the SDGs will hopefully provide more guidance for relevant HEfSD policy, curriculum and practice in the future (Siraj-Blatchford and Pramling-Samuelsson 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher education for sustainable development: actioning the global goals in policy, curriculum and practice

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Higher education for sustainable development (HEfSD) is being significantly shaped by the global sustainability agenda. Many higher education institutions, responsible for equipping the next generation of sustainability leaders with knowledge and essential skills, proactively try to action the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in HEfSD policy, curriculum and practice through scattered and isolated initiatives. Yet, these attempts are not strategically supported by a governing approach to HEfSD or coordinated effectively to tackle social and environmental sustainability. These predicaments not only widen the gap between HEfSD policy, curriculum and practice but also exacerbate the complexities between human and environmental interactions compromising overall sustainability. However, these efforts represent a potential for actioning the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on a qualitative research strategy, theory building methodology and various methodological techniques (surveys, policy and literature review, group and individual interviews), this research suggests that the advancement of HEfSD in policy, curriculum and practice depends largely on a better understanding of existing gaps, target areas, commonalities and differences across regional HEfSD agendas. This will hopefully provide higher education institutions and their stakeholders across regions with some conceptual and practical tools to consider strategically how HEfSD can successfully be integrated into policy, curriculum and practice in alignment with SDGs and with the overall mandate of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development.

show abstract

Sustainability science and implementing the sustainable development goals

Cited by 57 publications

References 11 publications

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Taking a Future Generation’s Perspective as a Facilitator of Insight Problem-Solving: Sustainable Water Supply Management

Assessing research trends related to Sustainable Development Goals: local and global issues

Higher education for sustainable development: actioning the global goals in policy, curriculum and practice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About