Development of a Heuristics for Analysing Sustainability Governance at Universities

Author(s):

Marco Rieckmann(presenting / submitting)Inka Bormann(presenting)Benjamin Kummer Mara Bauer

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 08 B, Whole Instituton Governance: Defining goals, leading, evaluating

Paper session

Time:

2017-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

K6.18

Chair:

Arjen Wals

Contribution

Universities play a crucial role for promoting sustainable development by addressing sustainability through their major functions of education, research and outreach (Fadeeva and Mochizuki, 2010; Müller-Christ et al., 2014; Wals et al.; 2016). During the last years, many universities have realised activities for integrating the concept of sustainable development in their structures and activities (Barth, 2015; Michelsen, 2016). The overall aim of the project “HOCH^N – Sustainability at Universities: developing – networking – reporting” (2016-2018) is the promotion of sustainable development at universities in Germany within all relevant fields of action (research, teaching, operation, governance, and sustainability reporting and networking). Four specific objectives are addressed by the project: 1) establishment of a network for the exchange of experiences with regard to sustainability-oriented university development, 2) development of a common understanding of sustainability at universities in Germany, 3) promotion of sustainable university development by the identification of appropriate support measures and 4) development of integrative guides to sustainable university development. The project is divided in the following working packages: overall coordination of the network, sustainability reporting, governance, research, teaching, and operation.

In universities, as sites of basic and applied research, teaching, knowledge transfer as well as enterprises and regional actors, a variety of different actors are involved in processes of developing and managing sustainability, e.g. administrative staff, academics of different disciplines, students, etc. These actors have specific knowledge and specific competencies, but also different resources (such as influence, networks, time, ...) for contributing with their knowledge and competencies to the development processes. To implement a "whole-institution approach" (Scott, 2014; Sylvestre and Wright, 2016) within the context of the sustainability process and reporting of higher education institutions also means recognising and negotiating different competencies and interests in these stakeholder constellations, and to include these – in the sense of a participatory approach – in the development of goals and measures.

In order to identify which areas of action are important for the negotiation and implementation of common goals and measures and how these areas relate to each other, a heuristics has been developed in higher education-related governance research (originally Schimank, 2007). This heuristics has been further developed within the context of sustainability-related educational governance research and has been applied to other fields of application (Franz and Brüsemeister, 2016). This further developed heuristics ("governance equalizer") covers the following fields of action and the following guiding questions, which have been adapted for this project: politics (How can the relevant decision-makers be mobilised?) – profession (To what extent is it possible to collaboratively deal with a topic – beyond professional and disciplinary boundaries?) – organisation (To what extent is it possible to involve different higher education stakeholders?) – knowledge (To what extent is it possible to identify, bundle, and integrate useful knowledge?) – visibility (To what extent is it possible to make visible the processes and their results?). Based on this heuristics, the working package “Governance” of the project aims at the identification of governance mechanisms in the implementation of sustainability processes and principles at selected German universities. This research will help to better understand how sustainability governance processes at universities look like and how they can be facilitated more effectively. Furthermore, this research will contribute to further developing the theories on sustainability governance at universities.

Method

In the working package “Governance”, the five governance dimensions (politics, profession, organisation, knowledge, visibility) are to be analysed and further developed in terms of their importance for sustainability at universities on the basis of literature research, expert interviews, interviews with various representatives of groups of actors at different universities, which are very engaged in the area of sustainability, as well as interactive practice research events and networking days. First, the international and national discourse on sustainability governance at universities is analysed, based on literature research. Key articles and books are identified, in order to expand and improve the theoretical framework and the governance heuristics. Second, guided interviews will be conducted with nine experts in sustainability governance at universities. These experts include researchers, practitioners as well as experts from the area of policy administration. The interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed, and will be analysed using content analysis. The findings will also contribute to improving the governance heuristics. Third, based on the further developed governance heuristics, an interview guideline for analysing sustainability governance processes at universities will be developed. This guideline will be used to interview representatives of various groups of actors at different universities, which participate in the HOCHN network and are very engaged in the area of sustainability. The interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed, and will be analysed using content analysis. Based on the findings, university-specific sustainability governance profiles will be developed, in order to provide information and experience on the processes and measures concerning the five dimensions of politics, profession, organisation, knowledge and visibility (and possibly further dimensions of sustainability governance to be identified during the research process) and to make suggestions for further development processes. In addition, insights into typical constellations of hindering and conducive institutional conditions for the implementation of sustainability governance at universities will be gained. The results of the expert interviews and the interviews with representatives of various groups of actors at different universities will be presented and discussed at interactive practice research events and networking days. These discussions will help to further reflect on the results and draw conclusions equally relevant for theory and practice.

Expected Outcomes

The results of this research will make possible to identify sustainability governance profiles at different universities, which deal with sustainability in research, teaching and operation. This will help to better understand how sustainability governance processes at universities look like and how they can be facilitated more effectively. Furthermore, this research will contribute to further developing the theories on sustainability governance at universities. According to the planned state of the project in August 2017, this paper will present the further developed governance heuristics, based on the results of the literature research as well as the results of the expert interviews. Furthermore, the detailed research design for the interviews with representatives of various groups of actors at different universities will be presented.

References

Barth, M. (2015): Implementing sustainability in higher education. Learning in an age of transformation. London: Routledge Fadeeva, Z.; Mochizuki, Y. (2010): Higher education for today and tomorrow: university appraisal for diversity, innovation and change towards sustainable development. In: Sustainability Science 5 (2), 249-256 Franz, K.; Brüsemeister, T. (2016): Selektive Wissensorganisation in Kommunen des BNE-Transfers. In: Bormann, I./Hamborg, S./Heinrich, M. (eds.): Governance-Regime des Transfers von Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Qualitative Rekonstruktionen. Wiesbaden: VS Michelsen, G. (2016): Policy, politics and polity in higher education for sustainable development. In: Barth, M.; Michelsen, G., Thomas, I.; Rieckmann. M. (eds.): Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development. London: Routledge, pp. 40-55 Müller-Christ, G.; Sterling, S.; van Dam-Mieras, R.; Adomßent, M.; Fischer, D.; Rieckmann, M. (2014): The Role of Campus, Curriculum, and Community in Higher Education for Sustainable Development – a Conference Report. In: Journal of Cleaner Production 62, 134-137 Rieckmann, M. (2012): Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? In: Futures 44 (2), 127-135 Schimank, U. (2007): Die Governance-Perspektive: Analytisches Potential und anstehende konzeptionelle Fragen. In: Altrichter, H.; Brüsemeister, T.; Wissinger, J. (eds.): Educational Governance. Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem, Wiesbaden, pp. 231-261 Scott, W. A. H. (2015): Exploring a transformative orientation to sustainability in universities: a question of loose and tight framings. In: Environmental Education Research 21 (6), 943-953 Sylvestre, P.; Wright, T. (2016): Organisational change and organisational learning for promoting higher education for sustainable development. In: Barth, M.; Michelsen, G., Thomas, I.; Rieckmann. M. (eds.): Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development. London: Routledge, pp. 301-314 Wals, A. E. J.; Tassone, V. C.; Hampson, G. P.; Reams, J. (2016): Learning for walking the change: eco-social innovation through sustainability-oriented higher education. In: Barth, M.; Michelsen, G., Thomas, I.; Rieckmann. M. (eds.): Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development. London: Routledge, pp. 25-39

Author Information

Marco Rieckmann (presenting / submitting)

University of Vechta, Germany

Inka Bormann (presenting)

Free University of Berlin, Germany

Benjamin Kummer

Free University of Berlin, Germany

Mara Bauer

Universität Vechta

Fakultät I - Bildungswissenschaften

Vechta

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