Tag: Sustainability

START Awardee Stephan Pühringer

Interview & Opinion

How our concept of economics hinders societal transformation

Interview: Laura Anninger

Conventional ideas of how the economy works are deeply embedded in universities, everyday life and politics. However, they are often counterproductive for bringing about the transformation necessitated by the climate crisis. Social economist and START award winner Stephan Pühringer has set out to change this by taking an interdisciplinary research approach. Continue reading “How our concept of economics hinders societal transformation”

Interview & Opinion

Will we make the energy transition happen?

Opinion: Michael Ornetzeder

Austria intends to become climate neutral by 2040. The scale of transformation is momentous and requires multi-layered and complex changes, involving not only new technologies and infrastructures, but also changing mindsets, social practices and new forms of economic activity. Coping with such change necessitates a broad discussion, which has been lacking so far, and attendant […] Continue reading “Will we make the energy transition happen?”

Interview & Opinion

Learning from each other

Interview: Ingrid Ladner

When practitioners and researchers form an alliance for change, the stakes are often high, but so are the chances of success. Transdisciplinary projects of that kind enable the partners to negotiate conflicts of interest and develop solutions to social problems. In this interview, Christian Pohl from the ETH Zurich explains why it is time for […] Continue reading “Learning from each other”

Projects

Regional is not banal

At higher education institutions (HEIs), regional commitment that is not profit-oriented often suffers from neglect. At the same time, sustainable regional development is becoming an increasingly important factor. As current studies show, there is still a lot of work to be done if HEIs are to be more of a driving force at regional level. Continue reading “Regional is not banal”