1,720,989 research outputs found
The Role of Non-State Actors in the Green Transition:Building a Sustainable Future
No full textThis book argues that there is no way to make progress in building a sustainable future without extensive participation of non-state actors.The volume explores the contribution of non-state actors to a sustainable transition, starting with citizens and communities of different kinds and ending with cities and city-networks. The authors analyse social, cultural, political and economic drivers and barriers for this transition, from individual behaviour to structural restraints, and investigate interplay between the two. Through a series of wide-ranging case studies from the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and Denmark, and a number of comparative case studies, the volume provides an empirically and theoretically robust argument that highlights the need to develop, widen and scale up collective action and community-based engagement if the transition to sustainability is to be successful.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, sustainability and environmental policy
A Clash of Science Policies:Interdisciplinary Collaboration and the Reflexive Gaze
No full textInterdisciplinary collaborations between public universities and commercially driven institutions are on the agenda worldwide. While such collaborations are expected to provide innovative solutions, this article shows that actors from diverse disciplines have difficulties in establishing meaningful shared activities and obtaining the expected results. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Copenhagen, I present a case in which the aim of reaching ‘usable’ knowledge in cross-sectorial interactions conflicts with the strategic work of academic institutions seeking to establish so-called entrepreneurial universities. I suggest that researchers encounter conflicting policies that disrupt interdisciplinary collaboration and strategic objectives. Furthermore, while the collaboration did not converge into innovative solutions, I conclude that it incited a reflexive gaze that opened possibilities for disciplinary self-awareness and consolidation
Frisk luft på skolebænken:Antropologiske bidrag til den smarte by
No full textForanlediget af en stærk politisk teknologioptimisme fremhæves ”den smarte by” ofte som en vigtig brik i den grønne omstilling i Danmark. Innovative teknologier og digitale systemer skal sikre en klimavenlig udvikling af byens bygninger og infrastrukturer. I forsøget på at realisere den smarte by fremkommer der imidlertid en diskrepans mellem de teknologiske forhåbninger og dagligdagens praktikaliteter. Derfor involveres antropologer, som ved at dokumentere menneskers måder at leve på i byen kan udvide en markant teknisk orienteret tilgang til den smarte by. Et studie af smarte byer i Øresundsregionen viser, at antropologer kan bidrage til en forståelse af forskellige positioner og interessenter i byen, hvormed en konstruktiv relation imellem borgere, lokale organisationer og centralt styrede institutioner opbygges. Med en empatisk tilgang og flersidet analyse introducerer antropologien forståelser, som hjælper med at tænke og agere på tværs af organisatoriske skel og derved giver et bedre grundlag for en bæredygtig byudvikling
In search of Innovation:Operating with the Future as a Working Imperative
No full textThis essay explores innovation as a socially and culturally embedded practice, coming to life in correlation between structural organizational conventions and entrepreneurial performances. With an empirical departure, it describes a rational understanding of creation, and it identifies innovation as a retrospective concept that entails a “re-development” process from the final product to the initial idea. Furthermore, it (re)locates innovation “in the (organizational) box”, and discusses the prototype as an enchanting artifact that entraps and transmits an innovative sensation. The essay concludes that innovation, although put forward as a strategic vision of a prosperous future, rather seems to serve as an inducted fundamental, a working imperative, from which employees are to manage and negotiate their everyday work. The essay emerges from ethnographic fieldwork that is consciously organized as a productive collaboration involving both applied and academic dimensions
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