Sustainability – The travelling empty-master-signifier

Scientific Conference (2015, April)

Sustainability's Coming Home : Preliminary Design Principles for the Sustainable Smart District

in 14. International Business Informatics Conference (2019)

Consumer trends like local consumption, sharing of property, and environmental awareness change our habits and thereby our surroundings. These trends have their origin in our direct environment, in the ... [more ▼]

Consumer trends like local consumption, sharing of property, and environmental awareness change our habits and thereby our surroundings. These trends have their origin in our direct environment, in the districts of our city or community, where we live and socialize. Cities and districts are changing to “smart cities” and “smart districts” as a part of the ongoing digitalization. These changes offer the possibility to entrench the idea of sustainability and build a platform-based ecosystem for a sustainable smart district. This research aims to identify guidelines in form of preliminary design principles (PDPs) for sustainable smart districts. To achieve this, we conduct a structured literature review. On this basis, we derive and develop PDPs with the help of semi-structured interviews and a non-representative sample of the German population. The resulting nine PDPs describe a first insight into the design of sustainable smart districts. [less ▲]

A Sustainability-Centric Methodology for the Shunt-in Shunt-out Problem

in Transport research Arena (2022)

Sustainability? Local opportunities and scalar contradictions

Presentation (2015)

In 2014, a colleague and I guest edited a Special Issue of Local Environment. Focus was on the urban and local scale as it is often postulated to be the most appropriate site of sustainability ... [more ▼]

In 2014, a colleague and I guest edited a Special Issue of Local Environment. Focus was on the urban and local scale as it is often postulated to be the most appropriate site of sustainability intervention. But we were also interested in mechanisms of change that higher levels of authority are not able to engage. Clearly, there is a rich diversity of initiatives: Ideas are abound, technologies are available, and projects already exist in a variety of forms and at various stages of maturity. In this way, the issue contributes to the growing catalog of sustainability efforts. Significant, however, was that local initiatives must be viewed not as isolated events, but in association the wider multi-scalar contexts that enable them or inhibit them. If making a better planet ultimately means invoking change on a broad scale – which is the broad goal of sustainable development, sustainability, or sustainability transitions – then ideas have to originate with one or a few bodies, and there must be a process of translating the emerged new practice to anchor it at wider-reaching scales. In this way, the general course can be changed. Yet, it is a path that treads the fine line between alternative niches and mainstream, between counter and accepted practice, between the visionary ‘lone (eco)hero’ and conventional operations, between real change in the mainstream and expropriation of the alternative by the mainstream. At this point, a paradox often arises as local initiatives transgress from micro-local to wider, established and well known spheres. This tension – between what enables and what constrains actors interested in sustainability transitions – is the focus of this contribution. [less ▲]

Sustainable Building Transitions in Luxembourg and Freiburg: Local Meanings, Circumstances and Rationales

Doctoral thesis (2018)

Sustainable building has become a subject of high policy emulation to address sustainability challenges. Publications and interventions from international organisations concord in outlining the high share ... [more ▼]

Sustainable building has become a subject of high policy emulation to address sustainability challenges. Publications and interventions from international organisations concord in outlining the high share of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the building sector, while at the same time pointing towards the important leverage for sustainability interventions on the built environment. The realisation of sustainable building crosses serval functional domains: regulatory, economic, cultural, social, natural etc. It requires also to consider buildings in a comprehensive manner from their inception, construction, up to their use and eventual retrofit or demolition but also in relationship with their wider (urban) settings. And last but not least, it requires close interactions with a wide range of stakeholders with different interests and disciplinary perspectives. As a result, sustainable building transformations are a widely diversified agenda. Hence the primary interest, as well as objective of this work, has been to try to better grasp the causes and mechanisms that explain such large differentiation of sustainable building. Drawing on critical sustainable urban literature, I posit sustainable building as diversified because it is a situated and socially mediated object. Conceptually, the work engages with two approaches. First the literature on sustainable socio-technical transitions, in particular the Multi-Level Perspective. Its grounding in co-evolutionary and institutional thinking helps to comprehend the socio-material complexity of sustainable building across a broad range of dimensions and connections. In complementing, and following the adopted socially constructed stance, the work further looks at the discursive constructs used to argue in favour of the transformation towards sustainable building, as the performativity of discourse helps to explain why that change occurs. The operationalisation of the research inquires sustainable building transformations in two European urban areas, Luxembourg (LU) and Freiburg (D), that both focus on sustainable building transformations in their urban policy agenda. Using a mix of qualitative research methods (interviews, cooperative research workshops, and the discourse analysis of a text corpus), I look into detail at how sustainable building policies are played out and how their content varies in relation to the geographical context in which they are situated. Of particular interest to my research is to understand why the transitions towards sustainable building in Luxembourg and Freiburg is a certain way, following the ideologies and interpretations that underlay it. This focus allows to uncover similarities in both Luxembourg and Freiburg where sustainable building is dominantly addressed via technicalities, energy efficiency and green growth, thus tying onto the mainstreamed socio-economic paradigm, despite locally differentiated circumstances. [less ▲]

Sustainable Economic and Monetary Union: the role of social rights

Scientific Conference (2016, December 06)

This paper focuses on one significant aspect of the sustainability of the EMU. it argues that social rights are key factors to support economic integration in the EU and in fine the overall European ... [more ▼]

This paper focuses on one significant aspect of the sustainability of the EMU. it argues that social rights are key factors to support economic integration in the EU and in fine the overall European integration process. [less ▲]

Sustainable Everyday Eating Practices from the Perspective of Spatial Identifications.

in Wille, Christian; Reckinger, Rachel; Kmec, Sonja (Eds.) et al Spaces and Identities in Border Regions. Politics – Media – Subjects. (2016)

Sustainable Finance, EuSEF and the AIFMD

in The AIFM Directive (2020)

Sustainable Futures—An Agenda for Action By Raphael Kaplinsky Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021

in Economic Geography (2023)

Sustainable ICT4D in Africa: Where Do We Go From Here?

in EAI International Conference on e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries (2013)

In recent years many researchers in Africa and beyond have devoted considerable resources investigating ways to harness the potential of ICT for improving users’ livelihood in developing areas. Topics and ... [more ▼]

In recent years many researchers in Africa and beyond have devoted considerable resources investigating ways to harness the potential of ICT for improving users’ livelihood in developing areas. Topics and domains of interest appear to be broad with recurring themes and solutions. Unfortunately there are no clear research roadmaps on what is urgent and of the state of the art solutions. In this position paper for the AFRICOMM series of conference, we propose to investigate some priorities for ICT4D in Africa. We believe that our work could motivate researchers and create a synergy around a few important challenges of ICT4D in Africa. [less ▲]