The roles of academia in Regional Sustainability Initiatives

Sustainability initiatives at the regional level play an increasingly important role in the implementation of the principles of Sustainable Development (SD) around the world. These activities successfully combine a wider ‘systems’ perspective with the benefits of the more ‘humane approach of the sub-national scale.’ The potential for academic institutions to play an important role in the success of these initiatives is significant, yet institutions of higher education need encouragement. This article outlines the most important factors which determine the roles of academic institutions in RSIs based on both a review of the literature and research findings from two questionnaires directed to people active in RSIs and higher educational institutions (HEIs). Results confirm the existence of widespread faculty interest in engaging in work within RSIs and also highlight the most important barriers to engagement.     

Biomass energy experiments in rural India: Insights from learning-based development approaches and lessons for Strategic Niche Management

This paper investigates the suitability and limitations of the Strategic Niche Management framework in the context of emerging economies of South and East Asia. We explore several learning-based approaches to development projects that are part of the academic and practitioner field of development studies. The approaches show similarities with SNM but they reflect the developing-country context within which they were framed, and are also more geared towards local community development and capacity building. We apply these approaches to four biomass energy projects in rural India to identify determinants of success and failure. We then discuss how these findings compare with the insights that an SNM analysis would have offered. We arrive at the following conclusions. First, the great strengths of SNM are its explicit conceptualisation of environmental sustainability and its endogenous treatment of the larger context. Second, the learning-based development approaches hone in on the complexities of local management and stakeholder organisation. Third, they also bring out the great importance of local institutions such as traditional status and power differences. Fourth, we conclude that SNM holds considerable promise for application in a developing Asian context, but that its usefulness and relevance in that setting could be enhanced by incorporating these additional issues.     

Uncertainty-based quantitative assessment of sustainability for higher education institutions

Evaluation of sustainability in various facets of life is gaining increasing importance. Traditionally, different multi-criteria decision-making methods have been used for sustainability assessment. “Sustainability” can be a qualitative concept, and as such several researchers have attempted fuzzy logic for the quantitative assessment of sustainability. This paper outlines a new evaluation model based on fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making. The model is tested for sustainability assessment of higher education institutions (HEIs). It is based on a driving force–pressure–state–exposure–effect–action (DPSEEA) framework and is called uncertainty-based DPSEEA-Sustainability index Model (uD-SiM). The uD-SiM is a causality-based model in which the sustainability index is an outcome of nonlinear impacts of sustainability indicators in different stages of DPSEEA. The percent contribution of driving forces on the sustainability index of HEI is investigated using sensitivity analysis. The study reveals that education in sustainability and global and local research trends are the major driving forces for achieving sustainability in HEI, followed by financial and economic growth rate, social equity, energy requirements rate, and institutional enhancement, in descending order. The results of uD-SiM were found to be more realistic and rational than our earlier proposed approach, D-SiM.     

The authority of science in sustainability governance: A structured comparison of six science institutions engaged with the Sustainable Development Goals

Over the past decades, numerous science institutions have evolved around issues of global sustainability, aiming to inform and shape societal transformations towards sustainability. While these science-based initiatives seem to take on an ever growing active role in governance for sustainable development, the question arises how they can claim any political authority in the first place. We present here a structured comparison of six international science-based initiatives, all engaged in governance processes related to the recently established Sustainable Development Goals. We focus on the material and rhetorical strategies employed by these science institutions to acquire authority by fostering perceptions of salience, credibility and legitimacy among governance actors. We distinguish three modes of scientific authority: an assessment-oriented mode that combines a strategy of salience through integration, with credibility by formal mechanisms of review, and legitimacy through representation; an advice-oriented mode, which appeals to salience through the promise of independent and timely science advice, to credibility through the credentials of the scientists involved, and to legitimacy through formal recognition by governance actors; and a solution-oriented mode, with science institutions claiming relevance based on the promise to contribute to solutions for global sustainability, while credibility is sought by invoking support of the scientific community, and legitimacy through a strategy of participation. Based on this analysis, we provide a framework for reflection on the claims and strategies of science-based initiatives, and their role and responsibility in governance for sustainable development.This article is part of a special issue on solution-oriented GEAs.     

Sustainability in Mexican Higher Education: towards a new academic and professional culture

This article focuses on institutions of higher education and the introduction of sustainability in the curricula of these institutions. It states that a very important part of developing new curricula is the focus on a new academic and professional culture. The key argument is as follows. Normally institutions of higher education build upon the training that students received in previous phases of education. That is why institutions of higher education can focus on education in highly specific and specialized knowledge and skills. Education for sustainability, however, cannot follow this ‘normal’ pathway because much of what students learned in their previous education does not fit into the paradigm of sustainability. That is why sustainability education should include a partial ‘re-education’ and ‘re-programming’ of students. The article presents a framework for such a new academic and professional culture focussing on sustainability. It shows how this framework is developed within the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco (UAM-A) in Mexico. The article also shows how the development of this framework is embedded in various initiatives on a national and international level. First of all the framework is developed as part of the design and implementation of an environmental plan for the whole university. The making of this plan is encouraged by the Mexican National Association of Universities and Higher Educations Institutions. Since the year 2002 this Association stimulates all major universities in Mexico to develop and implement such an environmental plan. These activities on their turn fit very well into the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” that started in January 2005. Finally the article presents the first promising results of the new course “The environmental challenges” that is based on many elements of the framework. It was started in 2005 in the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of UAM-Azcapotzalco, Mexico.     

可持续城市研究进展及其对国土空间规划的启示

可持续城市是很多学科和领域关注的焦点。智能化和网络社会的演进促进了技术与可持续发展的关系研究,可持续城市研究亟需创新理论和方法。国内学界对可持续城市的前沿关注不够,结合国土空间规划的反思和探讨欠缺。因此,借助CiteSpace软件对国内外可持续城市研究进行系统评述,分析其演进脉络和研究热点,并探讨其对国土空间规划的启示。可持续城市研究主要经历了萌芽、兴起、增长、扩散四个阶段。可持续城市应当以自然、社会和技术三者的协调发展为核心。可持续城市的国际研究主要集中在气候变化、城市治理和智慧城市三个方面,并由“可持续”向“可持续智能”转变,大数据辅助城市规划成为趋势,社区多元主体共治逐渐增强。新可持续智能城市研究框架与国土空间规划的结合将是未来研究的关键。中国需要加强可持续智能城市的研究和实践,提出科学的可持续智能城市评价指标体系,结合国情重视城乡共治,并将这些理念渗透在国土空间规划中。     

Making science relevant to environmental policy

Implementation of current environmental and natural resource policy has created an era of regulatory discontent, and has prompted calls for new approaches to management that can achieve both long-term ecological sustainability and improved policy performance. These new approaches, such as ecosystem management, emphasize the importance of holistic and integrated science, meaningful public involvement to reflect changing societal goals and objectives, collaborative decisionmaking, and flexible and adaptable institutions. Implementing such approaches will require significant institutional change in all institutions, including the institution of science. Attributes of the scientific culture — including adherence to the myth of objective, value-free science, preference for technical solutions as first-order solutions, and advancement of the scientific method and scientific rationality as preferred logic — have often worked to separate scientists from citizens and science from the policymaking process. They have also fostered undemocratic processes and results. Changes in the institution and culture of science, including embracing more holistic and integrated scientific processes, creating a more civic science, and rethinking the role of scientific advocacy in the policy process, will be required to move toward democratic as well as ecological sustainability.     

Envisioning the future and learning from the past: Adapting to a changing environment in northern Mali

In West Africa, rural livelihoods depending on natural resources develop coping and adapting strategies to face climate variability or change and economic or political changes. The former Lake Faguibine in northern Mali has experienced drastic ecological, social, and economic changes. Forests have emerged on the former lake and have become important for local livelihoods. This paper analyses the coping and adapting strategies of forest- and livestock-based livelihoods facing ecological changes. Results from field research at different levels indicate that most local strategies are based on diversification including migration within the livestock production system or in complement to it, with differences according to gender, age, and ethnicity. Political discourses, cultural identities, and past experiences influence and shape adaptation strategies at the local level. The sustainability of the observed strategies depends on the access to natural resources and the sustainable management of these resources, which in turn depends on institutions at local and national levels. Many local strategies are reactive to external events but would need strategic support from higher levels to move from coping to adapting. Examples are the development of institutions and technical actions for natural resource management, as well as development actions supporting local strategies and sustainable investments. Researchers, practitioners and development planners will need simple methods and tools for understanding and analysing local adaptation perceptions and actions to achieve an effective support of sustainable and gender-equitable local adaptation and to avoid mismatches between strategies proposed by local and by sub national and national actors.     

Going beyond the rhetoric: system-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies

In October 2008, the 5th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) international conference was held in Barcelona, Spain. It dealt with the need to rethink how our higher educational institutions are facing sustainability. This special issue has been primarily derived from contributions to that conference. This issue builds upon related academic international publications, which have analysed how to use the critical position of universities to accelerate their pace of working to help to make the transition to truly SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES!This issue focus is on the ‘softer’ issues, such as changes in values, attitudes, motivations, as well as in curricula, societal interactions and assessments of the impacts of research. Insights derived from the interplay of the ‘softer’ issues with the ‘harder’ issues are empowering academic leaders to effectively use leverage points to make changes in operations, courses, curricula, and research. Those changes are being designed to help their students and faculty build resilient and sustainable societies within the context of climate change, the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The overall systems approach presented by Stephens and Graham provides a structured framework to systematize change for sustainability in higher education, by stressing on the one hand the need for “learning to learn” and on the other hand by integrating leadership and cultural aspects. The “niche” level they propose for innovative interactions between practitioners such as EMSU is exemplary developed by all of the other documents in this special issue. To highlight some of the key elements of the articles in this issue, there are proposals for new educational methods based in sustainability science, a set of inspirational criteria for SD research activities, new course ranking and assessment methods and results of psychological studies that provide evidence that participatory approaches are the most effective way to change values within university members in order to facilitate the development and sharing of new sustainability norms.     

国内外脆弱性研究进展评述研究

脆弱性问题研究已成为环境可持续发展科学的重要组成部分。通过对国内外相关文献研究发现:脆弱性问题已从局限于地学、环境科学的单一领域逐步拓展到人类社会发展的多个层面;脆弱性问题理论体系的构建对于其评价运用手段的建设至关重要,它不仅从研究方向上打破了原有的思维与行为模式,在具体操作手段上提供了多学科的研究背景和研究思路。同时,通过对比和文献分析研究发现,国内外研究存在深度与广度上的差异。同时具备以下共同点:一是在脆弱性理论与区域发展实践结合的过程中,拓展性的理论体系构建提供了研究方法的多种选择,二是在具体问题的研究中,研究视野不断丰富,多学科的综合研究开始出现。     

论农村人居环境整治与乡村振兴

21世纪以来,中国乡村社会经济发展与基础设施建设取得明显成效,但城乡发展不平衡、乡村发展不充分的问题仍较突出。特别是与乡村生活密切相关的人居环境仍为乡村发展的短板。2018年初,国家出台了《农村人居环境整治三年行动方案》,以着力改善农村人居环境,建设美丽宜居乡村,助力乡村振兴战略。本文解析了农村人居环境及其整治的概念与内涵,阐释了农村人居环境整治与乡村振兴的相互作用机理,剖析了农村人居环境整治的运行模式,梳理了整治成效的评价方法与结果,并展望了农村人居环境整治研究的重点领域。农村人居环境科学在过去十余年取得了快速发展,在基本理论、演化机理、质量评价、调控策略等方面有明显进展。但是,当前研究对于实践的指导性和支撑性仍存在明显不足,地方具体整治工作仍存在一些认识上或实践上的误区。面向乡村振兴战略需求,新时期的农村人居环境整治在认识和实践方面要形成“八项共识”。在研究层面,应强化乡村地理学与工程技术科学、城乡规划学、管理学、社会学等的交叉与融合,着力形成集理论研究、技术研发、机制剖析、成效评估、模式优化等于一体的系统性研究体系,可更好地支撑农村人居环境整治,实现乡村地域功能显化和价值提升,进而有效助力乡村振兴。     

中国乡村旅游研究历程与新时代发展趋向

通过系统的文献梳理,回顾总结了中国乡村旅游的研究历程,将其划分为初级化应用研究（1992—2005年）、多元化拓展研究（2006—2015年）和融合性深化研究（2016年至今）三个阶段,分析了各阶段的时代背景和研究价值取向,借助CiteSpace知识图谱分析,揭示了研究主题的变化过程与研究特征。结合新时代乡村振兴战略和旅游发展需求,阐述乡村旅游的基本特性,构建了新时代乡村旅游的研究框架,提出了主要科学问题,并对乡村旅游的研究趋向及其学术创新进行了展望。强调乡村性和游憩性构成了乡村旅游的基本特性。应围绕新时代的国家战略及高质量发展要求,紧跟国际学术前沿,立足于中国乡村旅游研究的本土实践,将产业、生态、文化、治理、生活作为核心要素,构建“五位一体”的乡村旅游研究基本框架;聚焦乡村地域系统及其复杂性、关键性旅游科学问题,加强研究平台与专业人才建设,综合集成多学科理论和技术方法,强化数据驱动与科技赋能,深入揭示乡村旅游推动乡村振兴的过程、格局、机制和规律,探索中国特色的乡村旅游振兴发展模式与路径;不断推动理论研究深化、实践应用创新和乡村旅游学发展,提高乡村旅游学术水平、创新能力、服务价值和国际化水平。     

New science for global sustainability? The institutionalisation of knowledge co-production in Future Earth

In the context of complex and unprecedented issues of global change, calls for new modes of knowledge production that are better equipped to address urgent challenges of global sustainability are increasingly frequent. This paper presents a case study of the new major research programme “Future Earth”, which aims to bring ‘research for global sustainability’ to the mainstream of global change research. A core principle of Future Earth is the co-production of knowledge with extra-scientific actors. In studying how the principle of co-production becomes institutionalised in the emerging structure of Future Earth, this paper points to the existence of three distinct rationales (logics) on the purpose and practice of co-production. Co-production is understood as a way to enhance scientific accountability to society (‘logic of accountability’), to ensure the implementation of scientific knowledge in society (‘logic of impact’), and to include the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of extra-scientific actors in scientific knowledge production (‘logic of humility’). This heterogeneous conception of knowledge co-production provides helpful ambiguity allowing actors with different perspectives on science and its role in society to engage in Future Earth. However, in the process of designing an institutional structure for Future Earth tensions between the different logics of co-production become apparent. This research shows how logics of accountability and impact are prominent in shaping the development of Future Earth. The paper concludes by pointing to an essential tension between being inclusive and transformative when it comes to institutionalising new modes of knowledge production in large research programmes.     

Towards better integration of environmental science in society: Lessons from BONUS,the joint Baltic Sea environmental research and development programme

Integration of environmental science in society is impeded by the large gap between science and policy that is characterised by weaknesses in societal relevance and dissemination of science and its practical implementation in policy. We analyse experiences from BONUS, the policy-driven joint Baltic Sea research and development programme (2007–2020), which is part of the European Research Area (ERA) and involves combined research funding by eight EU member states. The ERA process decreased fragmentation of Baltic Sea science and BONUS funding increased the scientific quality and societal relevance of Baltic Sea science and strengthened the science-policy interface. Acknowledging the different drivers for science producers (academic career, need for funding, peer review) and science users (fast results fitting policy windows), and realising that most scientists aim at building conceptual understanding rather than instrumental use, bridges can be built through strategic planning, coordination and integration. This requires strong programme governance stretching far beyond selecting projects for funding, such as coaching, facilitating the sharing of infrastructure and data and iterative networking within and between science producer and user groups in all programme phases. Instruments of critical importance for successful science-society integration were identified as: (1) coordinating a strategic research agenda with strong inputs from science, policy and management, (2) providing platforms where science and policy can meet, (3) requiring cooperation between scientists to decrease fragmentation, increase quality, clarify uncertainties and increase consensus about environmental problems, (4) encouraging and supporting scientists in disseminating their results through audience-tailored channels, and (5) funding not only primary research but also synthesis projects that evaluate the scientific findings and their practical use in society – in close cooperation with science users − to enhance relevance, credibility and legitimacy of environmental science and expand its practical implementation.     

The importance of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability: Theoretical considerations and preliminary findings from a Brazilian experience

Scientific literacy can be considered as a new demand of post-industrial society. It seems necessary in order to foster education for sustainability throughout students' academic careers. Universities striving to teach sustainability are being challenged to integrate a holistic perspective into a traditional undergraduate curriculum, which aims at specialization. This new integrative, inter- and transdisciplinary epistemological approach is necessary to cultivate autonomous citizenship, i.e., that each citizen be prepared to understand and participate in discussions about the complex contemporary issues posed by post-industrial society. This paper presents an epistemological framework to show the role of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability. We present a set of 26 collaborative concept maps (CCmaps) in order to illustrate an instance of theory becoming practice. During a required course for first-year undergraduate students (ACH 0011, Natural Sciences), climate change was presented and discussed in broad perspective by using CCmaps. We present students' CCmaps to show how they use concepts from quantitative and literacy disciplines to deal with the challenges posed by the need of achieving a sustainable development.     

“熟人社会”农村与“原子化”农村中的生猪养殖废弃物能源化利用——博弈、仿真与现实检验

以生猪粪便制沼气为例,应用博弈论和仿真方法,探究了“熟人社会”农村和“原子化”农村中养猪户的行为演化规律和稳定策略。进而以规模养猪户微观数据为基础,应用计量经济学研究方法,对博弈和仿真结果进行了检验。研究表明：“地方性共识”引致的隐性激励是维系“熟人社会”农村生猪养殖废弃物能源化利用集体行动的重要机制。而在“原子化”农村中,由于人情机制与礼俗机制的衰弱,“地方性共识”近乎消失殆尽,养猪户倾向于成为严格的机会主义者,从而导致生猪养殖废弃物能源化利用集体行动举步维艰。据此,在强化法律法规、政策方针等正式制度建设的同时,还应推动“地方性共识”建设,以乡村文化振兴助推乡村生态振兴。     

Designing a knowledge co-production operating space for urban environmental governance—Lessons from Rotterdam,Netherlands and Berlin,Germany

Challenges for a sustainable urban development are increasingly important in cities because urbanization and related land take come up with negative challenges for the environment and for city residents. Searching for successful solutions to environmental problems requires combined efforts of different scientific disciplines and an active dialogue between stakeholders from policy and society. In this paper, we present a comparative assessment of the way policy-science dialogues have achieved knowledge co-production about strategic urban environmental governance action using the cities of Berlin in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands as case studies. The ecosystem services framework is applied as a lens for policy–science interaction and a ‘knowledge co-production operating space’ is introduced. We show how policy officers, urban planners, practitioners and scientists learned from each other, and highlight the impact of this knowledge co-production for governance practice. We found that the concerted collaboration and co-creation between researchers and policy officers have led to mutual learning and establishment of relationships and trust in both cities. Not only the policy-relevance of research and its policy uptake were achieved but also new insights for research blind spots were created. In our conclusions we reflect on co-production processes with two types of conditions that we introduced to be most influential in the way knowledge can be co-created. These are conditions that relate to the way knowledge co-production processes are set-up and, conditions that relate to the expected value or benefit that the co-produced knowledge will bring across society, policy and practice.     

Moving forward on educating for sustainability in Manitoba

This paper discusses the approach taken by the provincial government to move educating for sustainability (EfS) forward. The paper identifies the activities that Manitoba has initiated over the past decade that contribute to EfS including: providing funding in support of EfS; establishing policies that integrate sustainable development concepts into provincial curricula; establishing sustainability indicators and reporting on indicators; developing regulations and policies that work towards greening operations of educational institutions, and supporting educators in the field. The paper concludes with an overview of future developments in the area of EfS and calls for strategic, systemic, and concerted action to support educators as they work to develop students' knowledge, skills and values that contribute to a sustainable future.     

People,pigs and pollution – Experiences with applying participatory learning and action (PLA) methodology to identify problems of pig-waste management at the village level in Fiji

Participatory learning and action (PLA) methodology was used at the village level in Fiji to identify and understand factors that influence two selected communities in implementing changes to current pig-waste management practices. The focus area was the Coral Coast in the south of Viti Levu island, where international tourism is expanding but stream and coastal waters are under threat of pollution from the largely uncontrolled release of pig waste into the local environment. The investigation found that participatory approaches are effective at the village level if correct tools are used and if the research process adapts to community needs. In particular, PLA methods in the two study villages (Komave and Votua) were able to assist different demographic groups to identify and then prioritise a range of pig-waste problems, including deteriorating water quality, public health and agricultural sustainability. Encouragement by PLA facilitators for communities to take ownership of these problems led eventually to one village installing a new pig-management system. This has become a showcase as a successful local-scale rural development project with long-term benefits for the local environment and the continuing growth of tourism in the area.     

From ideas to market applications: dynamics of knowledge transfer and the role of champions

Technology transfer is a significant effort of the federal government and the intent of this effort is to transfer technologies developed in federal laboratories to the private sector for commercial use. The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer is a clearing-house for technologies developed through federal research laboratories. In addition, universities and other institutions use various mechanisms for transferring the technologies or knowledge to the private sector for civilian use. In this paper, the transfer of experimental and conceptual knowledge from research environment to civilian sector, covering aspects of engineering and social science is emphasized. The engineering examples deal with alleviating the nitrate pollution of rural domestic wells (a conceptual knowledge) and phytoremediation of hazardous wastes (an experimental knowledge). The social science examples deal with a culture assimilator for improving race relations (a conceptual knowledge) and a multimedia assimilator for global managers (an experimental knowledge). In each case, mechanisms and shortcomings involved in transfer-ring the knowledge for civilian use are demonstrated. We present a framework for knowledge transfer, and discuss the role of champions in knowledge transfer. We take the position that, though the attributes of the technology itself are important, knowledge transfer does require champions.