Martina Schäfer

• PhD
• Managing Director at Technische Universität Berlin

Since the term Energiewende (energy transition) was coined in the early 1980s, Germany has often been seen as a pioneer in the transition towards an energy system based on renewable energy sources. However, to what extent is the German energy transition linked to the environmental and anti-nuclear movements of the 1980s and shaped by different form...

Via an iterative case-study based process, we developed and tested a workshop format including scientific and non-scientific TDR project team members. The reflective approach draws on Theory of Change as a conceptual framework, combines methodical elements including formulating a joint vision, a brief actor analysis and discussing intended and unin...

Energy citizenship is viewed as playing an essential role in the transition towards sustainable energy systems on a national and global scale. However, as a social science concept it is rather fuzzy and insufficiently elaborated. This paper proposes a conceptual typology of energy citizenship that aims for a balance between various competing unders...

The primary objective of transdisciplinary research (TDR) is to contribute to the solution of complex ‘real-world’ problems by integrating heterogeneous knowledge and achieving societal effects. However, establishing a continuous impact orientation during TDR processes remains a challenge, as the necessary tools are not yet sufficiently available....

Das Verbundvorhaben „InnoStrat – Weiterentwicklung der Innovationsstrategie“ des Bündnisses „region4.0“ hat die Innovationsstrategie des Bündnisses während der ersten Förderperiode begleitet. Hauptziel des Verbundvorhabens war die konzeptionelle und wirkungsorientierte Begleitung und wissenschaftliche Fundierung des Gesamtvorhabens „region 4.0“ als...

Interest in catering for public sector schools is increasing due to its potential role in addressing the prevailing problems of malnutrition, food insecurity and non-sustainable food habits. Based on the case of secondary schools in Berlin, this study aims to explore this potential by focusing on the process of transformation towards healthy, inclu...

There are few approaches to evaluating the societal impact of transdisciplinary research that assess and promote impact orientation while the project is still running. In this Design Report , we present a framework for designing and conducting accompanying formative evaluation of impact-oriented transdisciplinary research in real-world laboratories...

The EnergyPROSPECTS project conducted an online survey involving over 10,000 European citizens. The main objective of the survey was to collect information about opinions, expectations and doubts of European citizens regarding the preferred forms of their involvement in the energy transition. The survey was conducted in nine countries participatin...

The report identifies the most viable business models, social innovation models and new forms of organisation appropriate for advancing energy citizenship (ENCI) in different conditions. It offers an innovative approach based on business and social innovation models (BSIMs) of the ENCI detailed case studies for the elaboration of strategies for ups...

This paper presents initial findings on the establishment of a social logistics project in a peripheral rural region in Germany. As part of a real-life laboratory, two services were developed and tested with the aim of improving rural supply: the delivery of regional goods and the return of online orders in cooperation with a regional public transp...

The report describes the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal conditions that have impact on the emergence and development of energy citizenship in nine European countries involved in the EnergyPROSPECTS project: Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, The Netherlands, and Spain. The PESTEL analy...

Citizen science, transdisciplinary research, dialogic forms of science communication or public engagement: these and other research approaches and fields, often subsumed under participatory research, have in common that they enable people outside of academia to actively engage in the production of scientific knowledge. However, each of these fields...

To address complex societal problems, transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly being employed in research to achieve both scientific and societal effects. Comparing experiences of different impact evaluation approaches enables mutual learning across research fields. We provide an overview of the key characteristics of different approaches to a...

Um den Herausforderungen der Gegenwart nachhaltig begegnen zu können, ist transdisziplinär und partizipativ ausgerichtete Forschung zentral. Diese Art der Forschung erfordert verstärkten Austausch und verstärkte Vernetzung zwischen den Forschenden. Auf Initiative der Plattform tdAcademy wurde dazu die Gesellschaft für transdisziplinäre und partizip...

Analysis of the PESTEL factors impacting Energy Citizenship in Germany in 2023.

Innovative financing models can support the expansion of the organic sector by providing agri-food enterprises with access to necessary funding. One example are citizen shareholder companies, which raise capital from citizens and invest the money in organic enterprises along the regional food value chain. The paper analyses this model based on a Ge...

Angesichts vielfältiger Krisen wächst die Sorge um die Resilienz der Agrar- und Ernährungssysteme, aber auch um den sozialen Zusammenhalt im Hinblick auf Landwirtschaft und Ernährung. Der Beitrag stellt diese Diskussionen in den Horizont der Debatten um eine erforderliche Transformation. Er beleuchtet den Zusammenhang zwischen Resilienz, sozialem Z...

This document results from task 3.3, which deals with the preliminary analysis of the 596 cases of energy citizenship and their distribution among the typology ideal-types elaborated in D2.2. The analysis and typology development will facilitate the creation of new insights into the diversity of energy citizenship. D3.2 encompasses a catalogue of c...

Der Artikel stellt die Arbeit eines Forschungs- und Entwicklungsbündnisses zur Förderung der regionalen Wertschöpfung mit Schwerpunkt auf sozialen Innovationen vor. Die Begleitforschung stellt ihre Erkenntnisse vor und reflektiert die Chancen und Herausforderungen der Etablierung einer regionalen Innovationsstrategie basierend auf lokalen Einzelpro...

This report was prepared as part of the ‘mapping of energy citizenship in Europe’ task within the EnergyPROSPECTS project. EnergyPROSPECTS (PROactive Strategies and Policies for Energy Citizenship Transformation) works with a critical understanding of energy citizenship that is grounded in stateof- the-art social sciences and humanities (SSH) insig...

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to previously settled everyday routines, prompting a period of forced experimentation as people have adjusted to rapid changes in their private and working lives. For discussions regarding consumption, this period of experimentation has been interesting, as the apparent instability has disturbed the ongo...

Introduction Existing food systems are not only responsible for severe environmental damage, but also face pressing social challenges, with people having uneven access to safe and healthy food, good working conditions, and political participation. These socio-ethical aspects play a key role in successful food transitions. So far, aspects of social...

The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted societies out of normality, possibly creating new conditions for sustainability transformations. What does this mean for sustainability research? Because of the scope of the crisis, researchers have been heavily involved: not only have they had to speed up the pace of scientific production to provide urgently needed...

The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted societies out of normality, possibly creating new conditions for sustainability transformations. What does this mean for sustainability research? Because of the scope of the crisis, researchers have been heavily involved: not only have they had to speed up the pace of scientific production to provide urgently needed...

The importance of social and institutional innovations in the energy transition has become increasingly evident in recent years. The quest for new institutional arrangements and social relations has been accompanied by the proliferation of new concepts: Energy democracy, energy justice, energy poverty and energy literacy are interrogating and openi...

Within this deliverable we examine how energy citizenship, and the associated normative ideals of ‘active’ energy citizenship, has developed and continues to develop differently across European contexts. We report the results from four (local language) one-day regional workshops, hosted in Spain, Belgium, Germany, Hungary.

How can the formative, ie. process, evaluation of transdisciplinary research projects best incorporate the likely link between process and outcomes in such research? What are some useful approaches for developing an effective evaluation plan with a lens of impact orientation?

This document results from task 3.3, which deals with the preliminary analysis of the 596 cases of energy citizenship and their distribution among the typology ideal-types elaborated in D2.2. The analysis and typology development will facilitate the creation of new insights into the diversity of energy citizenship. D3.2 encompasses a catalogue of c...

Was genau ist ein Reallabor? Wie funktioniert Service Learning? Wozu dienen Praktikum, Citizen Science und Duales Studium? Dieses Handbuch erläutert zentrale Begriffe der jüngeren wissenschaftstheoretischen Debatte in ihren Auswirkungen auf Hochschullehre und Bildungsperspektiven. Transdisziplinarität erschließt sich auf diese Weise als umfassendes...

Since the emergence of transdisciplinary research, context dependencies, innovative formats and methods, societal effects, and scientific effects are key aspects that have been discussed at length. However, what is still missing is an integrative perspective on these four aspects, and the guidance on how to apply such an integrative perspective in...

This deliverable describes the conceptual framework on energy citizenship. It lays down the key definitions, theoretical underpinnings and social constructions of the required systematic energy citizenship understanding. The conceptual framework discloses the diversity of more and less 'active' energy citizenship forms, identifying the main distinc...

This deliverable elaborates the fundamentals of the conceptual framework (D 2.1) into a conceptual typology of energy citizenship (ENCI). Following a robust methodology, ten ideal-types are presented and discussed in this document. This innovative conceptual typology captures the breadth of energy citizenship in terms of conceptual forms, thus enco...

This deliverable elaborates the fundamentals of the conceptual framework (D 2.1) into a conceptual typology of energy citizenship (ENCI). This document provides a background report on the process of grouping the key conceptual distinctions of ENCI into empirical observable analytical categories. Following a robust methodology, ten ideal-types are p...

Over the past decade, transdisciplinary research has been faced with increasing demands by research policy and funding bodies to make its contribution to dealing with complex societal problems more transparent. In the literature, there is a range of methodological attempts to trace and describe the effects of transdisciplinary research, but these a...

Das vorliegende Dokument gibt einen Überblick über die realisierten Partizipationsformate im Rahmen des WIR!-Bündnisses region 4.0. In einer tabellarischen Übersicht werden zunächst Formatdesign, Zielsetzung und Zielgruppe, Ergebnisse (Outputs), bereits ersichtliche Wirkungen, förderliche und hinderliche Faktoren der Realisierung sowie die Einschät...

This deliverable describes the conceptual framework on energy citizenship. It lays down the key definitions, theoretical underpinnings and social constructions of the required systematic energy citizenship understanding. The conceptual framework discloses the diversity of more and less 'active' energy citizenship forms, identifying the main distinc...

Von der Wissenschaft wird neben dem Anspruch an exzellente Grundlagenforschung zunehmend auch ein Beitrag zur Lösung lebensweltlicher Probleme erwartet (Jahn et al. 2012, Lang et al. 2012). Wissenschaft soll als eine in die Gesellschaft eingebettete Akteurin agieren, die ihr Wissen in gesellschaftliche Prozesse direkt einfließen lässt. Sie soll zun...

Die Hygienemaßnahmen in der Pandemie veränderten den Alltag vieler Privathaushalte gravierend. Inwieweit haben sich dadurch nachhaltigere Verhaltensmuster herausgebildet? Stellen diese Anpassungen der Alltagsroutinen ein Gelegenheitsfenster für längerfristige Veränderungen dar?

Das regionale Innovationsbündnis „region4.0“ gefördert aus den Bundesmitteln des Förderprogramms „Wandel durch Innovation in der Region!“ ist seit dem Start am 1. September 2019 aktiv. Es ist nun nach mehr als einem Jahr Arbeit an der Zeit, das bisherige strategische Vorgehen zu reflektieren. Das vorliegende Feedback Loop Paper enthält konkrete Han...

The European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) still fails to address the environmental and socioeconomic challenges of EU’s agriculture. Agricultural ecosystems are further degrading, biodiversity is declining and agricultural Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions remain high. At the same time, farms are facing unresolved socio-economic chall...

Published in: Ökologisches Wirtschaften Ein Wandel in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit erfordert Innovationen in vielen Bereichen wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Handelns. Ein neues Instrument erleichtert die Steuerung der notwendigen Innovationsprozesse.

https://everydaylifeinapandemic.wordpress.com/2020/09/30/how-covid-19-changed-everyday-life-in-germany-insights-from-interviews-in-berlin-and-munich/

Current debates about the need to change daily practices to address sustainability or health issues often neglect to recognise that single practices like eating are embedded in daily routines and connected to a multitude of other practices that take place within networks. While connections, such as complexes, bundles or nexuses, are mentioned in ex...

Das Feld der transdisziplinären Forschung wird zusehends unübersichtlicher. Neben Reallaboren werden vielfältige neue Formate wie Fortschrittskollegs (akademische Qualifizierung), Innovationsgruppen (Bereitstellung von Innovationen) und Citizen Science (neue Verhältnisse von Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft) erprobt. Der Beitrag schafft Überblick und...

Seitens der Politik wird vermehrt die Frage gestellt, inwieweit die Wissenschaft in der Lage ist, Wissen zur Verfügung zu stellen, das zur Lösung drängender gesellschaftlicher Probleme beiträgt. Auch die Wirksamkeit transdisziplinärer Ansätze steht auf dem Prüfstand.

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) seeks to address real-world problems and aims to be socially transformative. This normative objective extends beyond particular TDR projects, as real-world problems are embedded in concrete contexts but, at the same time, are also related to wider societal challenges that are not restricted to one context. Therefore...

Wenn Unternehmen ambitionierte Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien erfolgreich umsetzen wollen, sind sie auf die Mitwirkung und das Engagement der Beschäftigten angewiesen. Welche Instrumente können dazu beitragen, die Mitarbeitenden zu einem Engagement zu motivieren?

Ein energieeffizienter Betrieb von Heizungsanlagen wird als Beitrag zum Erreichen der Klimaschutzziele immer bedeutsamer. Da zukunftsweisende Entwicklungen primär technischen Innovationen zugeschrieben werden, wurden in den vergangenen Jahren in vielen Gebäuden moderne Anlagen installiert. In der Praxis zeigt sich jedoch, dass die prognostizierten...

Transdisciplinary sustainability research aims to mitigate or to solve complex societal problems and advance the production of scientific knowledge. Reflexive approaches to transdisciplinary research processes are outlined to systematically strengthen the potential for societal effectiveness. So far, it is rare to find empirically based analyses of...

Despite the increased efficiency through differentiation of markets and division of labor, food systems are also confronted with large negative social and environmental impacts. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the agriculture and food sector have the potential to (further) develop innovative solutions to contribute to sustainability but...

Purpose Conspicuous consumption and sustainable consumption are commonly understood as being in contradiction with each other. Yet, scholars have recently become increasingly interested in examining positive relationships between these forms of consumption. The current research aims at conceptualizing the synergies and contradictions between sust...

In reaction to growing critics regarding ecological and ethical aspects of intensive animal husbandry, different initiatives of ethical poultry production try to establish alternative food supply chains on the market. To be able to stabilise these niche innovations parallel to the mainstream regime, new forms of cooperation along the value added ch...

Sustainability-oriented innovations (SOI) are indispensable to enable sustainable consumption and production. However, their multidimensional character makes the development of SOI an often difficult task for companies. This article addresses four major challenges which are in particular associated with SOI development, including defining an adequa...

Work organizations that implement sustainability strategies can create supportive environments for the performance of sustainable routines. For instance, employers have the capacity to influence sustainable lifestyles of their employees by increasing spillover effects from workplaces to home settings. These circumstances provide a potential pathway...

Engagierte Spreewälder wollen ihre Kulturlandschaft retten. Dazu setzen sie auf die Wissenschaft, Baumpaten, Honig und eine Wiesenaktie.

The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as a privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. However, the success of local climate governance in industrialized countries has been limited. One reason may be that local communities focus...

The challenge of facilitating a shift towards sustainable housing, food and mobility has been taken up by diverse community-based initiatives ranging from "top-down" approaches in low-carbon municipalities to "bottom-up" approaches in intentional communities. This paper compares intervention measures in four case study areas belonging to these two...

Transition of the energy sector compassing a shift to renewable energy use, higher energy efficiency and a decline of overall energy demand is one of the major goals regarding climate protection and transformation towards sustainability. Analyses of socio-technical changes in early industrialised countries point out that this kind of technological...

Knowledge production for sustainable land management requires close cooperation between research and practice. Drawing on insights from the ELaN project, which has developed a set of products to foster integrated water and land management in Northeast Germany, this paper compares two specific transdisciplinary research processes, seeking to obtain...

This conceptual paper contributes to management studies on workplace-related proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) by combining approaches from social practice theory (SPT), the settings-based approach to health promotion as well as the literature on organisational learning. From these perspectives, sustainable consumption at the workplace is seen as be...

Reaktion auf fünf Beiträge zum Thema Transformative Wissenschaft in GAIA

Conspicuous consumption is “the act of purchasing and using certain goods and services, not in order to survive but rather to identify oneself to others as having superior wealth and social standing” [1]. The consumption of certain goods demonstrates belonging to certain social groups and distinction from others [2]. Conspicuous consumption varies...

The global off-grid energy and policy landscape has undergone a profound transformation on different levels during the last decade, leading to new empirical problems and research challenges for the emerging academic community working on access to energy. In this paper, the research group Microenergy Systems outlines and discusses avenues for future...

Über den Fokus Alltagspraktiken den Handlungsraum für Klimaschutz erhöhen Der jüngste Bericht des Weltklimarates der Vereinten Nationen (IPCC) betont erneut die Dringlichkeit einer grundlegenden und umfassenden Transition industrialisierter Gesellschaften hin zu einer low-carbon Gesellschaft. Angesichts des sich schnell schließenden Zeitfensters z...

Sehr geehrte Frau Ministerin Hendricks, sehr geehrter Herr Minister Schmidt, sehr geehrter Herr Staatssekretär Billen, mit Ihrer Eröffnung der " Nationalen Konferenz ‚Umsetzung nachhaltiger Konsum in Deutschland' " am 23. März 2017 richten Sie den Blick auf die Implementierung des vor einem Jahr im Bundeskabinett verabschiedeten Nationalen Programm...

Wenn es darum geht, die Potenziale innovativer Formen nachhaltigen Konsums zur Förderung nachhaltiger Lebensstile zu betonen, wird meist eine Bandbreite sehr unterschiedlicher neuer Organisationsformen, Dienstleistungen und Konsumhandlungen und Schlagwörter, wie Collaborative Consumption und Sharing Economy, Commoning und Gemeingüter-Ökonomie, Pros...

Die Erfahrungen der letzten Jahrzehnte haben gezeigt, dass es mit den vorrangig eingesetzten Strategien der Entwicklung nachhaltiger Produkte, effizienter Technologien sowie der Vermittlung von Wissen oder Appellen an das Umweltbewusstsein bisher nicht gelungen ist, eine umfassende Trendwende in Richtung nachhaltigerer Lebensstile einzuleiten (Jack...

Vor dem Hintergrund der Typologie sozialer Innovationen nachhaltigen Konsums (vgl. Jaeger-Erben et al. in diesem Band) sollen abschließend die Beispiele „gelebter Praxis nachhaltigen Konsums“ im dritten Teil dieses Sammelbands in einer systematisierenden Zusammenschau betrachtet werden. Hierzu werden die Beispiele einerseits anhand der vorgestellte...

Die Beiträge des Bandes versammeln eine breite Palette an Perspektiven auf das Thema Governance für eine Gesellschaftstransformation in Richtung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Mithilfe der Einteilung in drei Teile des Buches wurde versucht, die Vielzahl der Perspektiven thematisch zu bündeln. Hierzu wurden den Leserinnen und Lesern zunächst konzep...

Die im Rahmen der Nachhaltigkeitsdebatte diskutierten Umweltprobleme, wie der Klimawandel und die Ressourcenverschwendung, stellen die moderne Gesellschaft vor enorme Herausforderungen. Die Bewältigung dieser Probleme erfordert tiefgreifende gesellschaftliche Veränderungen, die auch das Selbst- und Rollenverständnis insbesondere von Umweltpolitik b...

Dieser Sammelband widmet sich der wissenschaftlichen Analyse und Diskussion politischer und institutioneller Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten sowie förderlicher Bedingungen und bestehender Barrieren für neue Governance-Formen. Neben konzeptionellen Beiträgen werden konkrete Erfordernisse und innovative Gestaltungsoptionen nachhaltiger Entwicklung in ausgew...

• • Im vorliegenden Sammelband wird untersucht, wie die Potenziale innovativer Formen nachhaltigen Konsums – wie kollaborativer Konsum und Gemeingüter-Ökonomie, Prosuming und Produsing, Upcycling und ReUse – zur Förderung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung entfaltet werden können. Neben Vorschlägen zur Systematisierung der Vielzahl relevanter Phänomen...

Land use is an important field of interest regarding sustainability transformations. Research projects which deal with the multiple dimensions of sustainable land use usually apply an inter- and transdisciplinary design and are confronted with challenges of integrating heterogeneous knowledge. In this paper we refer to experience we had during the...

This article reflects upon experiences gained through an interdisciplinary integration process in a research project on sustainable land use which was carried out in northeast Germany, exploring how and to what extent the method of scenario development can support cognitive and social integration in interdisciplinary research groups. Integration is...

Der Erfolg transdisziplinärer Forschung misst sich daran, ob die angestrebten gesellschaftlichen Wirkungen erzielt werden können. Welche Methoden, Instrumente und konzeptionellen Herangehensweisen dafür geeignet sind, untersucht das Forschungsprojekt TransImpact, indem es abgeschlossene transdisziplinäre Projekte auswertet. Außerdem will das Projek...

ELaN examines alternative ways of using treated wastewater on special locations. Irrigation of Short-Rotation Coppice (SRC) on former sewage fields is one example for the modified practice. In this Discussion Paper a pilot project on the former sewage fields Wansdorf is presented and analyzed. This is done at three levels: First, an overview of the...

Consumption and sustainability are complex issues—they cannot be reduced to the choice of consumer goods or to “green consumption.” Doing so would neglect the multifaceted embeddedness of consumer acts and the multidimensionality of sustainability. To understand patterns of consumption and move them toward sustainability means dealing with this dou...

The organic sector is in an ongoing, but somewhat ambiguous, process of differentiation. Continuing growth has also entailed intensified competition and the emergence of conventional structures within the sector. Producers are under pressure to adapt their terms of production to these developments, bearing the risk that the original values and prin...

Im ersten Teil dieses Papers werden theoretische Grundlagen der Akzeptanzforschung mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Erklärungsmodelle für Technikakzeptanz vorgestellt. Es wird auf verschiedene Akzeptanzdimensionen und das Verständnis zentraler Begrifflichkeiten wie Akzeptanzsubjekt, -objekt und -kontext sowie den Stand der Forschung im Hinblick auf Einfluss...

Konsum soll nachhaltig sein – diese Forderung wird von weiten Teilen der Gesellschaft getragen. Was aber bedeutet das genau? Wie kann dieses Ziel erreicht werden und wer ist dafür verantwortlich? Diesen Fragen war ein Forschungsprogramm gewidmet, das 2008–2013 vom BMBF gefördert wurde. Aus der inter- und transdisziplinären Forschung sind, nebst vie...