European Research on Sustainable Development ─ Transformative Science Approaches for Sustainability

This book provides the reader with a state-of-the-art view of research on sustainable development. Its emphasis lies on the transformative dimension of this research: sustainable development can only be realized through a far-reaching transformation of the situation humankind finds itself in at the beginning of the third millennium. The contributions are written by leading world experts in the conceptualisation and actual practice of sustainable development. The book provides a timely overview of ideas and methods as well as a variety of original learning examples on the most innovative approaches on sustainability science.

Carlo C. Jaeger is Professor for modelling social systems at Potsdam University in Germany, chair of the research domain "Transdisciplinary Concepts and Methods" (TCM) at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and chair of the European Climate Forum. TCM develops climate impact research guided by stakeholder dialogues and using mathematics as a tool to meet conceptual challenges. He has been professor at the University of Darmstadt in Germany and head of the human ecology department at the Swiss federal institute for environmental science and technology. He is member of the Scientific and Technical Council of IRGC (International Risk Governance Council), and has served on the boards of various scientific organizations. He holds degrees in economics (PhD, Frankfurt University), sociology (diploma, University of Berne), and human ecology (habilitation ETH Zurich) and has worked extensively on interactions between technological progress and environmental problems, in particular the role of information technologies for urban development. He has also considerable research experience in the field of stakeholder dialogues. His current research interest is focused on the role of financial markets in managing climate change and is the coordinator of the EU project Global Systems Dynamics and Policies (www.gsdp.eu). J. David Tabara is a senior researcher, professor qualified, at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He holds degrees in economics, environmental economics, business administration and developed his Phd in the emerging field of environmental sociology (1995). At UAB he lectures social science method for Integrated Assessment and Sustainability Science. He has fifteen years experience of EU research on sustainability issues. He has published extensively on socio-environmental theory and integrative environmental methods, with particular attention to questions of public perception, social learning, communication and public participation for sustainability. In 2009 he received Research Excellence Award at UAB. Recently, he developed the appraisal method on the ‘climate learning ladder’ (Environmental Policy and Governance, 2010, vol. 20:1-11) Julia Jaeger is a Swiss environmental scientist educated at Zurich University, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the London School of Economics. At Boston University she worked on a project on subsistence farming and climate change in Zimbabwe. She has been involved through the European Climate Forum on research regarding the 2 degree Celsius threshold as a target for global climate policy (“Three Views on Two Degrees”, Climate Economics, 2011). She has been engaged in bank financing initiatives aimed at supporting innovations for sustainable development and is currently working on climate disaster risk reduction. She is also interested in Arts, and is involved in preparing the Setouchi art festival in Japan, and is studying Art performance in Berlin.