Descrizione del progetto
Un approccio innovativo per la trasformazione sostenibile
I cambiamenti climatici costituiscono una sfida socio-ecologica costante di fondamentale importanza per la società. Gli scienziati impegnati nell’ambito della sostenibilità analizzano le sfide ecologiche, quali i cambiamenti climatici, al fine di elaborare interventi che contribuiscano a risolvere questi problemi. Spesso, tuttavia, ci mancano le conoscenze necessarie ad apportare una trasformazione positiva in una determinata situazione, in altri termini le conoscenze trasformative. Finanziato dal Consiglio europeo della ricerca, il progetto LEVER si propone di sviluppare e implementare una teoria e una pratica a sostegno della produzione di conoscenze trasformative. Il progetto combinerà una ricerca di tipo transdisciplinare con esperimenti nel campo delle scienze sociali per studiare i valori in qualità di fattori di influenza per la trasformazione della sostenibilità, nonché allo scopo di creare una teoria integrata per quanto concerne la ricerca trasformativa. LEVER rappresenta un significativo passo in avanti per il rapporto esistente in Europa tra scienza e società.
Obiettivo
Grand and persistent social-ecological challenges, such as climate change, push forward a rapidly growing discourse on how sustainability science can support society in dealing with today’s global crises. Between studying change and contributing to change, sustainability science seeks both to analytically understand sustainability problems, but also to design interventions that can contribute solution-options to these problems. However, knowledge about how to intervene in order to reach a desirable vision (i.e. transformation knowledge) is typically missing. Especially how to deliberately engage with values as places of intervention (leverage points), as proposed by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, remains a critical knowledge gap. To fill these gaps, LEVER aims to critically develop and apply a transformative theory and practice to support the (co-)production of transformation knowledge, including a focus on transformation knowledge necessary to investigate and unleash values as leverage points for sustainability transformation. To this end, LEVER originally combines transdisciplinary research with the empirically rigorous methods of social science experiments. The scientific breakthrough consists in delivering an integrated theory of transformative research, capable of representing the many co-evolving links between its design principles, philosophy of science, normative assumptions, and ethical dimensions. Methodologically, LEVER opens new avenues on how to produce transformation knowledge, by experimenting with, testing and evaluating novel transformative methods. Finally, LEVER seeks to answer the globally relevant and timely question of how to unleash values. Using a treatment and control group experimental design, LEVER assesses the impact of values-targeting interventions and demonstrates the potential of values as leverage points. LEVER pioneers a salient conscious science-society relationship in Europe.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencessustainability sciences
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- social sciences
- humanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophy
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
34125 Kassel
Germania