Abstracts Open Workshops
| Author(s) | Affiliation(s) | Title |
| Moritz Engbers, Vera Brandner & Esther Meyer | Leuphana University of Lüneburg | Narrative and Visual Spaces - Experimenting with Transdisciplinary Methods |
| Thomas Klammsteiner, Andreas Walter & Heribert Insam | University of Innsbruck | Six-legged Livestock: A House for the Critters |
| Tabea Klier, Wouter Buursma, Franziska Allerberger & Philipp Mack | Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, University of Innsbruck |
University Institutions as a Resource for Social-Ecological Transformation? |
|
Armin Kratzer & Ute Ammering |
University of Innsbruck |
Was können wir aus den guten kleinen Beispiele des Wandels lernen und wie werden sie zu Bausteinen einer großen Transformation? – Forschende und VertreterInnen aus Tiroler Praxisinstitutionen tauschen sich aus |
Narrative and Visual Spaces - Experimenting with Transdisciplinary Methods
Moritz Engbers, Vera Brandner & Esther Meyer (Leuphana University of Lüneburg)
Friday, 08:30 – 10:30, Room F
Socio-ecological transformation is at stake that is formed by people in their every-day-life and offers perspectives on a sustainable future at regional as well as planetary level. In times of multiple socio-ecological crises, the assessment, distribution and use of resources becomes a crucial issue. Especially, as resource use is strongly linked with certain ways of living and thus knowledge production that we often take for granted. In order to question those ways of living and knowledge production and to develop alternative strategies for living together, new forms of cooperation and boundary work are required in order to take experiences, knowledges and visions of different actors from science, arts, social movements, and public institutions into account. Thus, transdisciplinary methods and methodologies are required that address “hegemonic elements of the existing mode of production and living” (Brand 2012, 127). Therefore, we suggest to go for a shift in the way research and researchers are perceived and research is done. (...)
Six-legged Livestock: A House for the Critters
Thomas Klammsteiner, Andreas Walter & Heribert Insam (University of Innsbruck)
Saturday, 08:30–10:00, Room F
Description of the workshop: With worldwide increasing amounts of biodegradable organic wastes, which in great part originate from losses of food products on their way from the field to fork, innovative and efficient solutions must be found to re-valorize these valuable organic materials. Over the last couple of years, certain insect species gained popularity in their use as organic waste degraders and even found their way into Westerly kitchens. Especially the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) has proven itself as a low-maintenance workhorse in terms of converting organics into high-quality protein and fat, which in turn can find application as animal feedstuff or as building blocks for industrial products. With the increasing knowledge and proliferating research in this field, also the corresponding EU-regulations regarding the use of insects as food and feed are constantly adapted and improved to guarantee safe and sustainable practices. While wild insects as a source for nutrients have a long tradition in many parts of the world, their direct industrial application to fight social, ecological and environmental issues is still in its infancy. In this workshop we will demonstrate the process of waste valorization by larvae in an applied manner and use this example of our “house for the critters” to extrapolate the applicability of this process to a large scale.
Methodology: Participants of the workshop will be introduced in the broad spectrum of the BSF-utilization and learn about their possible key role in tackling socio-ecological problems in the future. To exemplify the practicality of insect-based processes, we will build a bench-scale larval rearing station for households to use with biowaste (think vermicomposting). The Do-it-yourself materials as well as a set of young larvae will be provided and construction as well as process initiation can further be finished in teamwork or by the demonstrators.
Goals: This project aims to raise awareness about the ongoing trend of increasing amounts of organic wastes and the simultaneously advancing difficulty of providing healthy and nutritious food for the growing world population. Moreover, the prejudice and aversion against insect lifeforms should be counteracted by demonstrating the huge potential and promising abilities of these organisms and their future role in society and industry.
University Institutions as a Resource for Social-Ecological Transformation?
Tabea Klier (Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), Wouter Buursma, Franziska Allerberger & Philipp Mack (University of Innsbruck)
Friday, 11:00–13:00, Room F
Environmental pollution and resource exploitation as well as anthropogenic climate change represent just a few of the complex Grand Challenges of the 21st century. In light of this, the international community has set up operational frameworks on a global level including, among other documents, the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the necessity for taking immediate action should be recognized on a local level and thereby triggers a social-ecological transformation towards sustainability. The urgency of measures is highlighted by the recently published IPCC “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15)”. Regarding the complexity of these challenges, universities should assume their societal responsibility by actively taking part in the debates and working hand-in-hand with extramural institutions and the society to find solutions. In other words: universities should act as change agents. This is only possible if these powerful institutions and all their constituents develop a universal understanding of sustainability, and intently take bold action. Against this background, measures must be taken in both the educational and research realms in order to communicate with society on a transdisciplinary level and ultimately influence governance and management for a sustainable and just future. Thereby, we understand universities as a resource, embedded in complex structures of political and societal interests.
Students play not only a decisive role in fostering sustainability at universities but also act as multipliers to promote a pathway to social-ecological transformation. In this respect, we as a network of student initiatives from Germany and Austria have collaborated to organize this workshop with the aim to interactively discuss the obstacles and possibilities presented to us. Following our argumentation above, the target groups of this workshop include university students, staff, and faculty as well as influential players in society.
Considering existing political frameworks regarding the Third Mission of universities in three different countries (Netherlands, Germany and Austria), we want to scrutinize the reasons for different levels of implementation. We propose three case studies that will compare techniques and outcomes in regards to sustainability practices at various universities in these three countries. These brief and contextualized presentations of the status quo will facilitate interactive discussions, such as fishbowl discussions, world cafés and design thinking. In an overall context, the focus should lay inter alia on the potential of student initiatives.
Was können wir aus den guten kleinen Beispiele des Wandels lernen und wie werden sie zu Bausteinen einer großen Transformation? – Forschende und VertreterInnen aus Tiroler Praxisinstitutionen tauschen sich aus
Armin Kratzer & Ute Ammering (University of Innsbruck)
Friday, 16:00–18:00, Room F
Bottom-up Initiativen, die sich in verschiedenen Themenfeldern für eine sozial-ökologische Transformation einsetzen forschend unter die Lupe zu nehmen, ist im Wissenschaftsbetrieb en-vogue. Gleichzeitig versuchen öffentliche und private Institutionen im non-profit Bereich solche bestehenden Initiativen bestmöglich zu unterstützen. Beide Seiten beschäftigen sich z.B. mit Fragen des positiven Klimas für und des upscalings von kleinen Initiativen. Forschende und Praxisakteure machen dabei unterschiedliche Erfahrungen mit den "guten Beispielen", die in diesem Workshop in Austausch gebracht werden sollen. Häufig hilft schon gutes Zuhören und sich eindenken in eine andere Sichtweise um im eigenen Kontext etwas zu verändern. Denn selbst wenn transformative Wissenschaft häufig nahe an der Praxis steht und Praxisinstitutionen einen wissenschaftlichen Hintergrund haben, besteht die Vermutung von blinden Flecken, auf die es sich lohnt ein Licht zu richten. Zu diesem Workshop werden gezielt VertreterInnen von Tiroler bzw. Innsbrucker NGOs, öffentlichen Institutionen und Gruppen eingeladen, die sich für eine sozial-ökologische Transformation mit unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkten einsetzen. Der Workshop wird in deutscher Sprache ablaufen.