Project description
Combining sustainability transition research and social work
Transdisciplinary sustainability transition research, policies and practices in social work will be combined to create a new scientific domain. By establishing new transformative standards of social work doctoral training in Europe, the EU-funded ASTRA project will pave the way for a radical new approach to tackling major societal challenges. Specifically, the project will train early-stage researchers to focus on the challenge of social inclusion of young people in precarious situations and migrants in vulnerable communities. Led by a consortium of leading European social work academics and research organisations for environmental and economic sustainability, ASTRA will investigate methodic models of nature-based well-being, environmental justice, and circular and solidarity economy as well as sustainable food policies in vulnerable communities.
Objective
A sustainable social foundation for human life can only develop in an inherent interdependence with the overall ecological
ceiling and regenerative economy. ASTRA paves the way for a radically new approach to tackle the major societal
challenges faced with social work. This is done by combining transdisciplinary sustainability transition research, policies and
practices in social work. The combination creates a novel scientific domain and establishes new transformative standards of
social work doctoral training in Europe. Within this frame, the recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) focus on the
challenge of social inclusion of young people in precariousness situations as well as people with a migration background in
vulnerable communities. In participatory research with the target groups, social work methods are co-created as steps of the
transition towards sustainable and inclusive society. The potential of the following methodic models are investigated: nature-
based well-being, environmental justice, circular and solidarity economy, sustainable food policies in vulnerable
communities, ecosocial innovations and contributive justice. The practice-research methodology of social work is applied by
the ASTRA consortium, which consists of leading European social work academics involved in sustainability transition
research and two non-academic research organisations for environmental and economic sustainability. The diversity of the
partner organisations working on sustainability transition in practice deepens the transdisciplinary approach. The innovative
practice-related solutions and fundamentally new types of research-based knowledge will have a long-term impact not only
on social work but on society and science at large. ASTRA offers the ESRs novel career perspectives in
transdisciplinary research, cross-sectoral policy-making and new economic models at the local, national and European level.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
40100 Jyvaskyla
Finland