Birgit Blättel-Mink

Transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: Diffusion conditions of an institutional innovation

Under the assumption that there is a close interrelatedness between sustainability research and transdisciplinarity, the authors have explored the experiences of researchers in the sustainability area with this mode of knowledge generation. The paper refers to two standardised surveys carried out in extra-university research institutes in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Explored were the actual research practice and the structural, cultural and personal factors which play a role regarding the feasibility of transdisciplinarity. In the everyday practice of researchers, it was found that it is extraordinarily complicated to overcome disciplinary limitations and to abandon the epistemological security of ones own discipline. This is a duplicate form of insecurity: insecurity concerning the research object and insecurity concerning ones own identity and professional future as a scientist. Thus, cultural (scientific) and structural factors prove to be inhibitory to transdisciplinarity. In the future, this situation may change, especially in extra-university research institutes, if it is possible to let both forms of knowledge generation flow in a project-dependent parallel way.

Discursive methods in environmental decision making

Sustainable practices can be initiated or encouraged by governmental regulation and economic incentives. A major element to promote sustainability will be, however, the exploration and organization of discursive processes between and among different actors. Many analysts agree that sustainability will remain a highly desirable, but unrealistic option for development, if people do not feel a degree of ownership and identity with the goal of sustainability for their own life and a preference for its policy implications. Inviting the public to be part of the decision-making process from the beginning improves the likelihood that the resulting decision will be accepted. Participatory processes are needed that combine technical expertise, rational decision making, and public values and preferences. To accomplish such an integration, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration are potential solutions. Many different procedures and forms of mediation have been proposed and some tested. One major attempt of the authors has been the organization of round-table discourses among a wide variety of stakeholders to develop environmental policy goals or to design local and regional waste management plans. These discourses are based on the assumption that each participant can contribute to the common good if the setting of the discourse encourages the generation of shared values and discourages strategic reasoning. The emphasis of the paper will be on the model of cooperative discourse and first applications in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

Health professions, gender and society: introduction and outlook

Changing market conditions, new modes of labour and decreasing legitimisation of experts, as well as an increasing ratio of women, pose new challenges to the professions. These ongoing dynamics are especially visible in the health care system – a traditional professional field with strongly formalised rules governing entrance, initiation and career paths. In addition, this field is highly segregated according to sexes. How do the bove‐mentioned processes of change present themselves and what economic, social or structural factors cause them? What role does gender play within these processes? What potential lies in the re‐structuring processes of health care systems as far as a gender equal architecture and design of professions is concerned? These and other questions are addressed in this collection of papers. For the main part they grew out of a thematic focus event organised and coordinated by the editors for the 5th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) Research Network Sociology of Professions that was held in 2001 in Helsinki. Inspired by the richness of the research results on professions and gender in health care systems in various European countries and new horizons which opened up from the comparative perspective in different countries, professions, and theoretical approaches, and finally motivated by very constructive ensuing discussions, we decided to continue the discussion with a publication.

Conceptualizing Sustainable Consumption: Toward an Integrative Framework

Abstract Consumption and sustainability are complex issues—they cannot be reduced to the choice of consumer goods or to “green consumption.” Doing so would neglect the multifaceted embeddedness of consumer acts and the multidimensionality of sustainability. To understand patterns of consumption and move them toward sustainability means dealing with this double complexity. A coherent reference framework is therefore needed, to enable locating and correlating research questions, theories, and findings. Such a framework should provide a basis for interdisciplinary under-standing, mutual acknowledgment, and collaborative knowledge creation. Therefore, it needs to be the result of an integrative approach; otherwise it would not allow a wide variety of disciplines to work with it. This article presents such a framework, developed in the course of an interdisciplinary process in a research program. In this process, the researchers of the focal topic asked four questions: 1) How can consumption be conceptualized? 2) How can consumption and sustainability be related? 3) How can sustainable consumption be assessed? and 4) How can changes to individual consumption be motivated? The article condenses the researchers’ overall answers to these questions into four complementary core statements capturing the key elements of the reference framework and concludes by sketching the framework’s benefits for future research.

From bottom to top in higher education: women’s experiences and visions in different parts of the world – a summary

Presents a summary of information taken from the second conference on gender equality in higher education at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, September 2000. Outlines the proceeding papers stating that they give an overview of gender equality across five continents. Gives a brief overview of each paper and summarizes the findings of the conference as “women in higher education all over the world – highly socially and cultural differentiated but equally positioned”.

Gender and subject decision at university. Gender specificity in subject perception and decision with main emphasis on science and technology

States that the participation of men and women in the German academic and scientific system is unequally distributed. Shows that the higher the status at the university, the lower the female proportion and that women also choose different subjects to men. Asks why more men choose science and engineering and what social cognitive characteristics do women show who opt for a “male” subject. Presents the theoretical background to the above before providing some insights using surveys carried out in Germany.

Coordination and Motivation of Customer Contribution as Social Innovation: The Case of Crytek

While research on social innovation develops the idea of opening up innovation processes towards society, the economic concepts of “open innovation” and “user innovation” focus on the implications for companies, customers and users of such processes. In order to find out how companies coordinate open resp. user innovation, and why users actively support companies in innovating, a case study of a German company developing computer games (Crytek) has been carried out. Adopting the theoretical facets of user innovation to this case, among others game designers and community managers of Crytek have been surveyed as well as “modders”, users who are deeply involved in generating new products. The following main results can be reported: (1) in terms of user motivation, intrinsic, social as well as extrinsic motives have a role. Extrinsic motives of the modders correlate clearly with the intentions of Crytek itself, in that it every now and then recruits its employees out of this group.

Innovationssysteme im wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Diskurs

Das Konzept der Innovationssysteme ist in den innovationstheoretischen Debatten der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften verwurzelt. Es befasst sich mit den institutionellen und technologischen Bestimmungsgrunden der industriellen Wettbewerbsfahigkeit und des wirtschaftlichen Wachstums. Dabei werden innovationsokonomische, industriesoziologische und technologiepolitische Perspektiven miteinander kombiniert. Eine zentrale These des Innovationssysteme-Ansatzes lautet, dass Wissen als masgebliche okonomische Ressource in einer globalisierten Weltwirtschaft aufzufassen ist. Innovationen entstehen demnach im Kontext interaktiver Lernprozesse systemisch vernetzter Akteure.

Innovationssysteme — Soziologische Anschlüsse

Der Innovationssystemeansatz1 ist ein wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Ansatz, der seinen theoretischen Ursprung in einer Kopplung von Evolutionstheorie und Institutionentheorie hat. Zum einen wird davon ausgegangen, dass wirtschaftliche (und gesellschaftliche) Entwicklung durch Innovationen vorangetrieben wird, und zum anderen, dass nicht alleine wirtschaftliche Akteure, sondern auch auserwirtschaftliche Akteure und soziale Institutionen am Innovationsprozess beteiligt sind. Nicht nur die wirtschaftliche Struktur, und damit vor allem das Verhaltnis von Spitzentechnologien, hoherwertigen und low-tech Branchen, einer Gesellschaft determiniert ihre Innovativitat, sondern erst eine Kopplung von wirtschaftlicher Struktur und institutionellem Setting ermoglicht die Institutionalisierung bzw. Veralltaglichung von Innovationen und damit zugleich die Gewahrleistung internationaler Wettbewerbsfahigkeit.

Innovation und Organisation

Die Organisationssoziologie analysiert das Thema Innovation vor allem im Hinblick auf das Verhaltnis von Organisationen und ihren relevanten sozialen, institutionellen und materialen Umwelten, sie identifiziert spezifische strukturell oder kulturell bedingte Innovationsbarrieren in Organisationen und sucht nach den organisationalen Akteuren des Innovationsprozesses. Es lassen sich vier Paradigmen identifizieren: Zum einen die Idee der organisationsspezifischen Entwicklungslogiken, die die Bereitschaft der Organisation, Innovationen zu realisieren, determinieren (vgl. Quinn / Cameron 1983).