PROJECTS
Measuring Sustainability: Researchers'
Perception and Use of Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings
Investigators
Andrea Scheller,
Daniel Spreng
Partners
"The Indicator Project: Energy Consumption Indicators and Energy
Conservation Policies"; David
Goldblatt, Shonali
Pachauri, Bernard
Aebischer
Time Frame
1/1998-10/2000
Funding
Alliance
for Global Sustainability AGS
Abstract
This project investigates the conceptualisation of sustainability
and the making of sustainability indicators by researchers from
various disciplines in interdisciplinary research projects.
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1 English Summary
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The construction or choice of indicators is a major topic in
the sustainable development discourse. Operationalising and quantifying
sustainability is about nothing less than the attempt to grasp
and finally manage the passing from today's world to a future
sustainable state of the world. The debate on the right kind of
measurement is far from being closed. This project concentrates
on the sustainability research community as one of the central
arenas where indicators for sustainability are constructed and
negotiated. Sustainability research intrinsically cuts across
traditional boundaries and concerns of disciplines and the development
of sustainability indicators is an interdisciplinary endeavour.
The understanding of the processes of the development of indicators
in specific research settings with regard to their disciplinary
background may inform the design of interdisciplinary indicators.
A constructivist approach (social construction of technology
SCOT put forth by BIJKER) is used to introduce the various 'relevant
social groups' who deal with sustainability; to conceptualise
the 'interpretative flexibility' which the term 'sustainability'
offers; and to present the term 'closure', a term which alludes
to the degree of consensus which exists with regard to what a
sustainability indicator is. A taxonomy of disciplines (as elaborated
by BECHER) serves as basis to position the four academic cultures
that are investigated in the fieldwork: economics, engineering,
natural science and social science.
A case study is carried out within the Alliance for Global Sustainability
(AGS),
where interdisciplinary research teams work on sustainability
topics. The methodology chosen for this exploratory research are
qualitative interviews with principal investigators from AGS projects.
The study shows that even in interdisciplinary research settings
the actual work is closely connected to disciplinary work. The
concept of sustainability doesn't seem to be a tool for actually
doing science so far. On the research level only very few organise
their work in sustainability terms. Sustainability rather seems
the greater framework and a compass to help to align roughly the
direction of the research activities. Regarding indicators, there
is an astounding degree of agreement on an abstract level. The
differences lie less in the thinking about indicators than in
their actual everyday construction and use. The discipline is
most formative for the construction of indicators. Accordingly,
the indicators are not often constructed for the purpose of the
specific interdisciplinary project, but are chosen from an array
of disciplinary indicators. This procedure leads to a compilation
of indicators from various fields with no underlying sustainability
framework. However, there are also examples where project specific
sustainability frameworks are developed and the attempt to develop
indicators out of this framework is made. These efforts, which
we find mostly in the field of planning, can be viewed as starting
points for the construction of interdisciplinary and context-dependently
meaningful measures.
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4 Publications
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Scheller, Andrea: "Measuring
Sustainability: The Making of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary
Research Settings", in POSTI
International Conference "Policy Agendas for Sustainable
Technological Innovation", London, December 2000.
Scheller, Andrea: "Measuring Sustainability: Researchers' Perception
and Use of Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings",
Master thesis submitted to the European Inter-University Association
on Society, Science and Technology ESST,
October 2000.
Goldblatt, David, Shonali Pachauri, and Andrea Scheller: "Energie
und Nachhaltigkeit: Einsichten in die Konstruktion von Indikatoren",
in: Bulletin
ETHZ, no. 276, pp. 20-23, January 2000.
Scheller, Andrea: "Researchers' Use of Indicators: Interim Report
of The Indicator Project", CEPE Internal Report, ETHZ, Zurich,
September 1999.
Scheller, Andrea: "Researchers' Use of Indicators: First Insights",
Appendix II of the AGS Research Proposal "The Indicator Project:
Energy Consumption Indicators and Energy Conservation Policies",
September 1998.
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5 Presentations
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"Measuring Sustainability: The Making
of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings"
(paper presentation), POSTI International Conference "Polica
Agendas for Sustainable Technological Innovation", London,
December 2000.
"Standardization in the Midst of
Disunity: The Making of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary
Research Settings" (talk), 4S/EASST
Conference 2000 "Worlds in Transition: Technoscience, Citizenship
and Culture in the 21st Century", September 2000.
Researchers' Use of Indicators" (poster), CEPE Inauguration Symposium
"Challenges for Energy Policy and Research in the New Decade",
ETHZ, Zurich, January 2000.
"Kennzahlen allgemein" (talk), FgEA-Vorlesungsreihe
"Rationelle Verwendung von Energie: auf den Weg zur 2000 Watt
Gesellschaft", ETHZ, Zurich, December 1998.
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