09sustainable Development
09sustainable Development
09sustainable Development
IN-DEPTH MODULE 4
Teaching material
Sustainable Development
• Sustainable Development (SD), globalization, global change
• The role of science in SD
• Educational content – thematic links between different
subjects/disciplines to SD
• Values and scientific understanding
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Sustainable Development – Definition
1990s
Ø Euphoria/optimism after end of Cold War
Ø Start of a broad perception of global crises as well as Earth as one system Þ
development of a (new) «global» consciousness
Ø A new world vision emerges: Environment and Development problems are
interlinked (Environment and Development): Development debate and
Environment debate are united
At the core of SD lies a global, societal, democratic search, learning, and shaping process.
In a process like this there is not only one Sustainable Development, but a number of possible
paths towards SD. These must be continuously assessed, negotiated, and adjusted to achieve
the desired impact.
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The UN Sustainable Development Goals
approved on 25.9.2015 by the 193 UN member states
Source: 9 dimensions of planetary boundaries according to Rockström et al. 2009, 12 dimensions of social boundaries according to 10
Raworth 2017, based on government priorities at Rio+20 and later UN Conferences.
Sustainable Development
Related debates
Globalization:
e.g. discussions on sustainable and non-sustainable effects of globalization
Global change:
e.g. discussions on the causes and drivers of global change, as well as ways of
steering global change through sustainable development.
Sustainable Development:
e.g. discussions on limiting risks and making use of opportunities that emerge
from globalization and global change.
The term «globalization» is used in particular in the social, economic, human, and cultural
sciences in the analysis of transnational processes of increasing…
Ø … spread of technologies, innovations, regulations, etc.,
Ø … interdependence in business, society, culture, and politics,
Ø … mobility of goods, services, and people.
In this view, globalization occurs in a spatial distribution and network of relationships, and in
the acceleration of various trends and processes in different social dimensions, which
transcend national regulations (trans-nationalization) and can be observed in several regions
or worldwide.
Dimensions of trends/processes: technological dimension, economic dimension, social
dimension, cultural dimension, environmental dimension, political dimension, spatial
dimension, etc.
Þ A key characteristic: the various trends/processes in the different dimensions interact and
only constitute globalization through these interactions.
The term «global change» is used, in particular, in the environmental and natural sciences in
the analysis of global environmental changes (e.g. climate change, decrease in biodiversity,
desertification/soil degradation, ocean pollution, fresh water scarcity) and major drivers of
environmental change (e.g. population growth, urbanization, use of fossil fuels).
From this point of view, global change consists mainly of global environmental changes and
the major drivers of change. Global change is often also seen as the result of globalization
processes.
In the study of global change, a system-dynamic view of the individual changes as well as the
interaction of different change processes with global change drivers is often adopted.
The Ecological Footprint und the Human Development Index are indicators for the
sustainability of global development:
A significant reduction in global energy and resource use can only be achieved in industrialized
countries. This reduction is imperative to maintain the ecosystem functions for humanity for the
generations to come.
Switzerland
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_welfare_and_ecological_footprint_sustainability.jpg 15
Transformation
So far, we have not succeeded in overcoming the global problems we face. This means that a
“business as usual” approach as well as limiting ourselves to minor adaptations or slight
behavioural changes will not lead to SD.
This is why the scientific advisory board of the German Advisory Council on Global Change
(WBGU), for example, is proposing a “social contract” for a “great transformation” to tackle
global megatrends such as climate change, our inability to reduce poverty, increasing drinking
water scarcity, etc.
WBGU 2011a & b; Guidelines: Integrating SD into higher education, Graphics: K Herweg 16
Sustainable Development
What role can science play?
Often, research results indicate massive global problems up ahead. What do we as scientists do with these
findings? Do we leave it entirely to policymakers and other actors to interpret our findings and work out
solutions? Or do we take on more responsibility ourselves?
Guidelines: Integrating SD into higher education, Cartoon: K Herweg 17
Research for Sustainable Development
An opportunity for science
Social
injustice Inter- und
and conflicts intragenerational
justice
Overall, complex phenomena can only be explained through a multitude of biophysical, socio-
cultural, and economic processes which influence each other and whose interlinkages and
dynamics are intensified by increasing globalization.
Guidelines: Integrating SD into higher education, Graphic: K Herweg 18
Research for Sustainable Development
Complex Society–Environment interrelations
Society
Environment
Economy
Guiding questions:
Ø What thematic areas offer your discipline relevant anchoring points?
Ø What are your topics of research (actual and possible)?
Ø Are there further SD-relevant topics that could be interesting for your discipline but are not contained
in either of the two models?
Ø What dimensions of SD (environmental, sociocultural, economic) do your topics take into account?
Ø Which actors and other scientific disciplines would be interesting partners for collaboration?
Ø Is there a relation to practice and if so, what does it consist of?
Exercise – Handout
Source: 9 Dimensions of planetary boundaries according to Rockström et al. 2009, 12 dimensions of social boundaries 22
according to Raworth 2017, based on government priorities at Rio+20 and later UN Conferences.
The UN SDGs
Exercise – handout
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce income inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting
developments in renewable energy
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests,
combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all
and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable
development
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ 23
Values and scientific understanding
A challenge for science
Graphic: K Herweg 24
Forms of knowledge relevant to SD
Systems knowledge
Understanding how the Target knowledge
environment, economy, and Basis for decision-making;
society function developing and negotiating
goals and visions for a
sustainable development
SD
Transformation knowledge
Implementing visions:
Technologies, measures, rules,
impact monitoring, cultural
practices, etc. that support a
sustainable development
Based on ProClim/CASS 1997, Pohl & Hirsch Hadorn 2007 Graphics: K Herweg 25
Educational content
Examples: Links between scientific disciplines and SD
Systems knowledge
• Systems understanding: Environment, Society, Economy
• Global change, climate, impact of climate change
• Ecosystems, functions, conditions for plant growth, biodiversity, nutrient and pollutant cycles
• Variability, vulnerability, resilience of ecological systems
• Raw materials, deposits, material properties
• Degradation and sustainable use of renewable resources
• Contaminated-site clean-up, storage of nuclear waste
• Use of renewable energies, technologies, biotechnology
• Mathematical methods, quantitative analysis, statistics, stochastics, developing SD models, data evaluation
and processing
• Political processes, links between political parties and organizations
• Formal and informal institutions, tools, and processes of political opinion formation
• Rights and laws related to SD-relevant areas
• Instruments for political influence
• Relationship between individual/society – the state and how it is changing in the course of globalization
• Social ecological systems, human–nature interface
• ...
These examples are based on the contributions of various authors of the Guidelines: «Integrating Sustainable Development into higher education»
and on answers by students to the BScMiSD exam question: «what contributions could your major make to Sustainable Development?».
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Educational content
Examples: Links between scientific disciplines and SD
Systems knowledge
• Historical understanding of the transformation of traditional societies and their relationship to nature
• Diverse social and power structures, cultures (values, norms, religion)
• Different values
• Ethnic and political causes of resource conflict
• Forms and sources of social inequality, causes of poverty
• Language as a heritage of cultural history; sociolinguistic research (e.g. on justice)
• Use of language and linguistic structures in international negotiations
• Rhetoric und linguistic logic; discourse analysis to understand power structures
• Theatre performances (e.g. of debates); different forms of alienation from and communication about SD
• Understanding, treatment of complex topics
• Media usage, media reception, dissemination of important information, advertising, behavioural patterns
• Human action, behaviour, cognition of the environment, society, economy, decision-making
• Health, prevention, well-being, the role of sports and physical activity
• Human and animal health
• Medicinal plants
• Personality psychology, crime, and violence
• Ways of functioning of various economic systems, economic paradigms, economic models
• Econometrics
• Influence of growth-based economy and global trade on SD and global disparities
• Post-growth economy
• Externalities
• Risk minimization vs profit maximization, money-free societies
• Corporate structures, entrepreneurial motivations, business models of cost transparency, potential for savings
• ...
These examples are based on the contributions of various authors of the Guidelines: «Integrating Sustainable Development into higher education»
and on answers by students to the BScMiSD exam question: «what contributions could your major make to Sustainable Development?».
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Educational content
Examples: Links between scientific disciplines and SD
Target knowledge
• Value of nature conservation
• Quantifiable guidelines and values, mathematical calculation of planetary boundaries, resource efficiency
• Transfer of principles of the functioning of nature to other sustainability dimensions
• Political visions, state forms, government systems, legal liabilities – role model, best practices
• Model «social contracts», sustainability-oriented legislation, and institutions
• Visions based on knowledge of historically sustainable and non-sustainable developments
• Alternative processes or goal-setting for Sustainable Development, development scenarios
• Spatial planning
• Ethics, values, and justice
• Description of cultural sustainability, scenarios, and potential worlds
• Variety of SD understandings, different level of importance of SD in different societies
• Visions, parameters, and indicators for justice, equality, redistribution
• Social standards of a globalized society, solidarity societies
• Promotion of language as a part of cultural identity
• Reduction of discrimination on the basis of language, visions on equality of all languages and dialects
• Global access to open data for all population strata
• Educational goals, goals for psychological health and satisfaction of needs
• Supra-individual parameters for well-being, context-specific indicators of a «good life» and social welfare
• Sustainable tourism, recreation, nature experiences, recovery/relaxation, socio-cultural sustainability
• Models, values, and economic systems that contribute to reducing disparities and inequalities of distribution
• Alternative business models
• Sustainable entrepreneurial visions, responsibility of multinational companies, internalization of costs
• Key figures (economic efficiency, environmental protection, emission rates, social compatibility), stress limits of the ecosystem
and society
• Change in consumption patterns
• ...
These examples are based on the contributions of various authors of the Guidelines: «Integrating Sustainable Development into higher education»
and on answers by students to the BScMiSD exam question: «what contributions could your major make to Sustainable Development?».
28
Educational content
Examples: Links between scientific disciplines and SD
Transformation knowledge
• Scientific monitoring systems
• Compilation of environmental, social, and economic indicators in the assessment of SD
• Development of appropriate monitoring methods, standards
• Development of interpretation and assessment procedures
• Modelling (climate, energy, consumption, transport, infrastructure, population etc.), simulation models, efficient algorithms,
creating scenarios
• Forecasts on the progress of SD, predictions, dynamic modelling of trends, stability calculations, and modelling of measures
against natural catastrophes, etc.
• Analyses with local-specific SD indicators and indigenous methods
• Verification of achievement: environmental compatibility, social compatibility, profitability
• Resource efficiency, sustainable technologies
• Optimization of plant production, e.g. Development of properties to increase resistance to climate change and environmental
changes
• Resource protection, remediation of contaminated soils through phytoremediation, regeneration of plant communities and
animal species, water protection
• Rocks as energy carriers, availability of non-renewable natural resources
• SD-relevant technology development, technologies for use of alternative energies, solar, wind, geothermal energy, etc.
• Low-cost/high-tech solutions, use of environmentally friendly materials
• Development of participatory processes, consensus/negotiation solutions, coalitions, and majority formation
• Taxation systems (energy, labour), monetary evaluation of ecosystem services, certifications
• Historical SD considerations as an educational contribution
• Mediation of values, ethics; Potential of spirituality for SD
• Social learning processes, awareness-raising, environmental awareness, value change, incentive systems
• Migration & Integration (e.g. through sports)
• Sufficient lifestyles and consumption patterns (reduced resource consumption)
• ...
These examples are based on the contributions of various authors of the Guidelines: «Integrating Sustainable Development into higher education»
and on answers by students to the BScMiSD exam question: «what contributions could your major make to Sustainable Development?».
29
Educational content
Examples: Links between scientific disciplines and SD
Transformation knowledge
• Language education for broad population sectors worldwide, strengthen educational foundations in the global South, from
primary school to the publication level of researchers
• «Agreed language», i.e. agreed-upon terminology as the basis for successful negotiations, understanding, teamwork
• Communication, negotiation, argumentation, presentation, vocal training, comprehensible transmission of complex
connections
• Theatre and music stages as experimental arenas; promoting the knowledge base, participation and voice in SD
• Literature and media as transmitters of knowledge and as activation instruments, SD as utopias, fictional literature
• Poetry as a creative school of thought connecting people
• Development of new communication channels, use, and valuation of new media
• Filtering and dissemination of information, knowledge processing, informatics, and communication
• Improved science communication (in particular, improved access to knowledge in the global South)
• Communications technology, access to comprehensible information, North-South networks, communications strategies
• Training in solution-oriented inter- and transdisciplinarity
• Motivation of individuals and society to commitment to SD, acceptance for the lowering of living standards in industrialized
countries
• Strengthening the One-Health concept (combined human and animal health) in areas with mobile and sedentary populations
• Migration and integration (e.g. through sports)
• Alternative economic systems, legal regulations, steering fees, market regulation, incentive systems
• Environmental, social, and economic innovations with the potential of promoting SD
• Employment models with fair wages and working conditions, entrepreneurial alternatives, sustainable business processes
• Adaptive management, change management, personnel management, leadership styles
• Implementation of prevention/«polluter pays» principles
• Sustainable event management, sport tourism
• ...
These examples are based on the contributions of various authors of the Guidelines: «Integrating Sustainable Development into higher education»
and on answers by students to the BScMiSD exam question: «what contributions could your major make to Sustainable Development?».
30
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