European policy discourse on circular economy tends to focus on innovation in relation to business and especially industry. Research suggests, however, that in order to achieve successful transitions ...to circular economy all social actors must be considered. Institutional pluralism and a variety of modes of provision – market, public and communal – offer a framework for research on water innovation and circular economy not limited only to markets. The paper explores such a comprehensive perspective, with a focus on grassroots innovations and their contribution to circular economy. An exploratory study of three cases of such water innovation highlights the civic, communal, and nature conservation values that these innovations advance. It also points to alternative land and water use options, along with complementary practices beyond a purely efficiency-oriented focus. For innovation policy, it suggests a focus on the support of civil networks and their coordination capacities.
•Paludiculture matters for greenhouse gas emission reduction but is currently marginalised.•Strategies are proposed for moving paludiculture from the margin to a transformation pathway.•Critical ...sustainability innovation missions (CSIM) comprise productive use, restoration and conservation.•A 3Ms-schema for CSIM discussion addresses mission drift, market reduction and dominant technology reproduction.
Paludiculture is the productive use of wet and rewetted peatlands. A major motivation is climate change, because drained peatlands contribute significant amounts of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The study presents an analysis of paludiculture as a critical sustainability innovation mission in the making. It is based on qualitative interviews conducted in 2018 in the north-east of Germany as well as on subsequent regional and European level stakeholder workshops focused on wet agriculture options for rewetted mires and other types of wetlands. A social grid approach of cognitive frames, institutions and social networks and their interplay is used to analyse paludiculture options for currently drained mires. The analysis suggests a pathway of paludiculture as land use at the margins of intensive, dryland agriculture. It also points to strategies for paludiculture to move from the margin to a transformation pathway, based on the use of framing, institutional conversion and productive niche work. The study proposes a 3Ms-schema of mission, modes and making innovation as a device to create space for a wide and inclusive discussion of paludiculture.
The rise of social innovation expresses a discontent with innovation as we know it, and its ability to deliver just and sustainable outcomes. Yet, social innovation is also notoriously vague as a ...concept, thereby putting into doubt whether the concept offers any real improvements or alternatives. This paper issues an invitation to think about social innovation as a collaborative concept. The conceptual framework shows collaboration, rather than contestation, to offer a space for the working together of different perspectives and actors. The collaborative concept frame welcomes and seeks to explain a diversity of uses. Singling out key features of social innovation as a collaborative concept, it seeks to contribute to an emerging practice that makes different contributions part of a progressive conversation about social innovation, the evaluative ideas associated with it and the evidence from policies and projects. Identifying transformative, taxonomical and transitional-sceptical uses of social innovation, the paper highlights the importance of analysing the evaluative aspects of the multisectoral reconfigurations associated with social innovation so as to keep track of its role for justice and sustainability.
Drainage-base agriculture and forestry are key drivers of emissions from degraded peatlands. An important challenge of climate-oriented peatland management is an improved conservation of their huge ...carbon stocks. Paludiculture, the productive use of wet peatlands, is a promising land use alternative that reduces greenhouse gas emissions substantially since it requires rewetting of peatlands. As rewetting is accompanied by productive use, it offers a sustainability innovation for farmers and other land users. There is an emerging knowledge base on paludiculture but no empirical study of paludiculture and its diffusion as an international innovation. The paper closes this research gap presenting the results of a survey of paludiculture projects in a variety of global contexts.
It shows paludiculture to be an emerging, science-driven and collaborative innovation that faces adverse path-dependency from drained peatland exploitation. There is a diversity of paludicultures for fuel, fodder, horticultural substrate and construction material, but these are rarely directly commercially viable. A third of initiatives see themselves in continuity with traditional but often marginalized uses of peatlands. Paludiculture is a complex, critical sustainability innovation mission calling for a multiple-objective strategy and a sustainability-oriented form of governance.
As biomass from paludiculture per se can almost never compete with dryland alternatives, we recommend i) to initiate and sustain large-scale programmes to develop products that exploit the unique properties of wetland plants across market, public and communal uses, ii) to develop integrative concepts for payments for ecosystem services associated with wet peatlands, iii) a complementary focus on ending subsidies and policy support for drainage-based peatland use, as well as iv) inclusive stakeholder involvement from the start as well as sustained policy support to foster paludiculture as the productive niche within a culture of living sustainably with peatlands.
•First international survey on paludiculture innovation and diffusion.•Paludiculture is an emerging, science-initiated innovation mission across the globe.•Current subsidies and perceived lack of economic viability are a major barrier.•89% of survey participants expect more paludiculture 5 years from now.•Paludiculture is a productive niche in a culture of living sustainably with peatlands.
Synergizing Social Economy and Circular Economy Bellemare, Marie-France; Martin-Déry, Solen; Ziegler, Rafael ...
Canadian journal of nonprofit and social economy research,
01/2022, Volume:
13, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Both social economy and circular economy have received much attention recently. Yet, the relationship between the two remains under explored. While social economy primarily refers to economic ...democratization, collective enterprise, and the quest for common good, circular economy tends to focus on environmental sustainability. This article examines the overlap between the two.
Keywords / Mots clés : circular economy, social economy / économie circulaire, économie sociale
Transdisciplinary sustainability science (TSS) is a prominent way of scientifically contributing to the solution of sustainability problems. Little is known, however, about the practice of scientists ...in TSS, especially those early in their career. Our objectives were to identify these practices and to outline the needs and challenges for early career scientists in TSS. To that end, we compiled 10 key characteristics of TSS based on a literature survey. We then analyzed research groups with 81 early career scientists against these characteristics. All of these research groups are funded by an ongoing federally funded German program for social-ecological research whose main feature is to promote sustainability-oriented inter- and transdisciplinary research. We found that the practices of the 12 groups generally correspond with the characteristics for TSS, although there is ample variation in how they were addressed. Three major challenges were identified: (1) TSS demands openness to a plurality of research designs, theories, and methods, while also requiring shared, explicit, and recursive use of TSS characteristics; (2) researchers in TSS teams must make decisions about trade-offs between achievements of societal and scientific impact, acknowledging that focusing on the time-consuming former aspect is difficult to integrate into a scientific career path; and (3) although generalist researchers are increasingly becoming involved in such TSS research projects, supporting the integration of social, natural, and engineering sciences, specialized knowledge is also required.
Sustainability science does not fit easily with established criteria of the quality of science. Making explicit and justifying four features of sustainability science-normativity, inclusion of ...nonscientists, urgency, and cooperation of natural and social scientists-can promote deep and comprehensive questioning. In particular, because the inclusion of nonscientists into sustainability science has become a dogma, re-examining the epistemic, normative, and political reasons for inclusion is important for the quality of sustainability science. These reasons include providing a range of perspectives and helping to craft and implement policy in real-world social and ethical situations. To be included effectively, nonscientists must be understood within this demanding context rather than employed merely to satisfy a dogma. We situate our discussion in this article against a foundational controversy of sustainability science: the weak versus strong sustainability debate. According to our analysis, comprehensive consideration of the features of normativity, inclusion of nonscientists, urgency, and cooperation of natural and social scientists suggests a convincing case for strong sustainability.
There have been many creative responses to modern economic, political and technological developments and their (un)intended social and ecological consequences. These responses provide the soil for ...the type of social innovation identified in this article: citizen innovation as niche restoration. It is about civic action that creates novelty by seeking to restore the places and practices citizens already value. Drawing from an in-depth case study on decentralized water management, the concept of citizen innovation as niche restoration is explored, and its implications for political participation and sustainability discussed.
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