Die 10 zuletzt veröffentlichten Dokumente
The emergence of sustainability as a guiding principle for tourism development came along with needs to introduce instruments that can monitor the actual impacts of tourism. Sustainability assessments in tourism (SAT) have gained popularity in recent years with a range of measurement schemes being introduced for national and subnational tourism destinations. With the help of sustainability indicators these schemes intend to guide decision-makers in making better evidence-informed decisions and to improve the overall sustainability performance of tourism. With this dissertation, the author aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the implementation and performance of sustainability assessments, by linking transformative needs of tourism with necessary assessment approaches that can serve as effective instruments for a shift towards a more sustainable tourism development. Thus, the research is part of recent efforts to establish profound and effective measurement approaches for sustainable tourism. The author employs a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative, quantitative, set-theoretic, and review methods, with the aim of maximising the validity of results. First, he explores the general progress and current state of research on sustainability assessments in tourism, with the intention to identify patterns, key elements and research gaps within assessment approaches This is followed by subsequent detailed analyses that examine specific environmental and socio-economic sustainability issues with the aim of providing conceptual, methodological and empirical solutions for assessing them in detail. The dissertation highlights that concrete assessment tools are needed for evidence-informed decision-making and the establishment of effective actions in destination management. The findings indicate that assessments will be more successful in terms of serving as tools for decision-making, if they tackle main drivers of change and encourage management or policymakers to take decisions that affect multiple sustainability issues. It also reviews different concepts and accounting principles and rises awareness of a cautious selection of methods and measurement approaches, as this may affect overall results. The thesis empirically evaluates and applies different measurement approaches in specific destinations, with the help of quantitative and qualitative data collection methodologies. In general, my thesis provides further clarification about key environmental and socio-economic measurement methodologies, which supports ongoing debates about sustainability impacts of tourism. Thus, the research contributes to knowledge, frameworks, methodologies and practical application for tourism governance and tourism sustainability science.
Mikroalgen können bei den internationalen Bemühungen zur Begrenzung der CO2-Emissionen einen wichtigen Beitrag leisten. In der Photosynthese der Mikroalgen wird das CO2 aus der Atmosphäre in Biomasse fixiert. Im Gegensatz zu Landpflanzen können Mikroalgen zudem exponentiell wachsen, haben geringere Anforderungen an die Wasserqualität und konkurrieren nicht mit Agrarflächen, die begrenzt und für die Nahrungsmittelsicherheit der Weltbevölkerung erforderlich sind. Die produzierte Mikroalgenbiomasse kann als regenerative Ressource zu Biokraftstoffen wie Biogas und Biodiesel umgewandelt und somit als Energieträger genutzt werden. Zudem können Mikroalgen auch bei der biotechnologischen Produktion kommerziell relevanter Wertstoffe wie Pigmenten und Omega-3-Fettsäuren für die Nahrungsmittelindustrie Anwendung finden. Mit dem Ziel der Steigerung dieser Wertstoffe stand die Untersuchung des Einflusses der Kultivierungsparameter Licht und Temperatur auf das Wachstum und die Zusammensetzung der Mikroalgenbiomasse im Mittelpunkt dieser Dissertation. Insbesondere der Einfluss unterschiedlicher Lichtspektren auf das Wachstum und die Wertstoffproduktion in Mikroalgen wurde detailliert untersucht. Zusätzlich wurde überprüft, ob sich die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse auch auf Landpflanzen übertragen lassen. Im Rahmen dieser Promotion wurde erstmals systematisch der Einfluss unterschiedlicher Temperaturen und Lichtspektren im zeitlichen Verlauf der Kultivierung auf Mikroalgen untersucht. Hierbei konnten distinkte Spektralbereiche sowie Temperaturen ermittelt werden, die für eine maximale Produktion von Biomasse und Pigmenten sowie einem maximalen Desaturierungsgrad der Fettsäuren erforderlich sind. Die in dieser Arbeit gewonnenen Erkenntnisse tragen zu einem besseren Verständnis der Biochemie von photosynthetischen Organismen bei.
Thematischer Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit ist die rechtliche Einordnung des Kinderrechtes auf Familienzusammenführung, welche ausgehend von den Kinderrechtskonventionen über europäisches Recht in nationales Recht mündet. Es werden Brüche in der Rechtsauslegung und Rechtsanwendung aufgezeigt, welche Familieneinheiten einschränken oder verhindern. Diesem gegenüber wird die Umsetzung der Kinderrechtskonventionen in nationales Recht in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gestellt, um aufzuzeigen, dass Bestrebungen zur Umsetzung der Kinderrechtskonventionen auf nationaler Ebene vorhanden sind, diese jedoch gegen integrationspolitische Interessen im Sinne einer geordneten Zuwanderung ausgelegt werden. Um eine Brücke der intensiven rechtlichen Auseinandersetzung zu den Tätigkeitsrealitäten von Sozialarbeitern zu schlagen, werden weitergehend die Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Soziale Arbeit in der tatsächlichen Arbeitsrealität mit unbegleiteten, minderjährigen Ausländer betrachtet. Innerhalb dieses Kontextes wird dargestellt, dass das Arbeitsgebiet Flüchtlingssozialarbeit existent und aufgrund stetiger Zuwanderung in den Arbeitsrealitäten der Sozialen Arbeit allgegenwärtig ist. Hieraus ergeben sich Ausweitungen der Tätigkeitsgebiete Sozialer Arbeit, welchen mit einer Modifikation des Anforderungsprofils für Tätigkeiten in der Sozialen Arbeit mit Geflüchteten und einer verstärkten sozialpolitischen Einflussnahme begegnet werden muss.
Despite warnings from scientists and from society starting in the 1970s, we have long overshot our planetary boundaries – eroding biodiversity, changing our landscapes, and polluting our soil and atmosphere. Yes, efforts to change the unsustainable trajectories of our Earth system have increased through, for example, the Millennium Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals, or the Aichi Targets, but to no avail. The interventions to increase sustainability are conflicting on local, national and global levels, and often prioritise quick-fixes and short-term solutions instead of tackling the root causes of the “sustainability gap”. We, hence, need to find “places to intervene in complex systems that bring about transformative change” (Meadows 1999) – a premise and concept that Donella Meadows calls “leverage points”. Based on her seminal work, a team from the Leuphana University has identified three “realms of leverage” in which changes may lead to system transformation (Abson et al. 2017). One of these realms is the reconnection of humans to nature. In this habilitation, I focus on this realm of leverage and aim to (1) enhance the understanding of the influence of landscape change on human-nature relations through empirical, place-based research and comparisons across landscapes in different countries and continents; (2) identify and clarify the new concepts of relational values and leverage points; and (3) highlight empirical evidence on leverage points to foster human-nature relations for sustainability transformation, building mainly on empirical work done in six landscapes in Transylvania, Romania and Lower Saxony, Germany, but also including case studies from Ethiopia and India, systematic literature reviews and conceptual pieces. This thesis showed that cultural landscapes are changing with astonishingly comparable trajectories toward unsustainable futures. Our earth’s current environmental and climate crisis will continue to erode the fundaments of sustainability, hence, re-connecting humans to nature is of outstanding significance for transformative change. Identifying leverage points and implementing an intervention to strengthen human–nature relations will be a great challenge in the coming years. One possible leverage point can be strengthening experiential and emotional dimensions, as they specifically shape the connections people have with cultural landscapes. Further, this thesis highlighted the importance of the interlinkages between shallow and deep leverage points. Our results show that structurally complex landscapes and structurally rich social relations mediated by nature are interlinked and strengthening one, may strengthen the other. Moreover, strengthening sense of place and a sense of agency may enable self- and re-organization of cultural landscapes by opening the possibility to renegotiate people’s values for values and the goals of the social-ecological system, which, in turn, may enhance the structural diversity of landscapes and small-scale agriculture. Our results presented in this thesis also lay the ground for the hypothesis that degrading landscapes might also degrade social relations, which, in turn, can lead to contrasts and conflicts between actors and social groups. Although much work is still necessary to foster transformative change, this thesis offers innovative approaches. This thesis created and popularised the “Leverage points perspective”, including “chains of leverage”, as well as producing novel insights on human-nature relations – such as the distinction of human-nature connectedness and relational values, classifying relational value groups and empirically assessing dimensions of human-nature connectedness and relational values concerning landscape change and landscape features. These novel contributions can have wide-ranging impacts on the scientific discussions and societal implementation of interventions for sustainability.
Leverage points to foster human-nature relations for sustainability transformation
Considering the historical relationship of subordination from the Global South countries to the Global North countries, this research aims to understand how culture is instrumentalized in the Peruvian political arena looking to achieve Western development standards. By focusing on the Commission of Culture and Heritage of the Congress of Peru, period 2016-2017, as its case study, it will do a discourse analysis to try to find the spheres in which developmental ideology is produced and reproduced. Those findings will be later discussed under decolonial thought and dependency theories.
Though the loss of biological diversity is an ecological phenomenon, it also has a social dimension. This makes the study of the social landscape, encompassing the multitude of perspectives and aspirations by different stakeholders, highly relevant for better navigating trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and other land use objectives. Engaging with and addressing contextual understandings of biodiversity is vital to develop socially palatable solutions for biodiversity loss. This dissertation, therefore, takes a place-based approach to studying biodiversity conservation trade-offs and seeks to understand how the perspectives and aspirations of different stakeholders shape them. First, it aims to identify shared viewpoints as ensembles of perceptions and meanings about human-nature relations and biodiversity. Second, it aims to understand how biodiversity is valued and constructed in stakeholders’ aspirations towards their landscape. To this end, a convergent mixed methods approach and case study design are used. Two cases were selected that face different underlying drivers of land-use change, resulting in loss of biodiversity. The Muttama Creek Catchment area is a farming landscape in south-eastern Australia where the ongoing intensification of agricultural production threatens native biodiversity. In the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve in north-eastern Germany, land abandonment and the resulting loss of the biodiversity-rich wet meadows presents a key challenge for biodiversity conservation. Narratives and discourses provide conceptual lenses through which the author studies biodiversity conservation trade-offs. Drawing on Q-methodology, this dissertation identifies biodiversity-production discourses for the first case study and cultural landscape narratives for the second case study. Moreover, based on a participatory futures approach, the Three Horizons Framework, it elicits narratives of change that highlight opportunities for biodiversity conservation in farming landscapes. The findings highlight that despite some overlap in how stakeholders perceive biodiversity, contrasting problem framings and different biodiversity priorities present hindrances to concerted action to protect biodiversity and for collaboration. The findings also identify shared values among stakeholders. However, there is polarity and contestation around the role and importance of biodiversity in rural development.
As human rights evolved to become part of a dominant moral discourse in world politics, regional organisations (ROs) often portray themselves in the language of human rights. Facing growing contestation and politicisation, they have also gradually begun to legitimate their authority drawing on human rights. Yet not all ROs do so to the same extent, in the same manner, or consistently over time. This begs the question: why and how do ROs use human rights for self-legitimation? To answers this research question, I combine a macro analysis using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) on 23 ROs from 1980 to 2019 with a micro analysis via process-tracing in two cases - Arab League (LoAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Ultimately, ROs use human rights in their legitimation because they strive for congruence. When norms, values, and moral principles purported and embodied by the RO are congruent with those of its core constituency and all relevant audiences, The researcher observes human rights legitimation. She argues that the degree of congruence combines with different degrees of delegitimation stemming from the distinct constellation of agents and audiences of legitimation. Shee circumscribes this via four types of human rights legitimisers. Testing existing theories on legitimacy, legitimation, and human rights, the QCA suggests that "Self-containing Legitimisers" are ROs with a status quo of congruence between the RO and its core constituency. "Signalling Legitimisers" irregularly use human rights legitimation as a signal to respond to additional audiences. Thanks to the case studies, the author further refines existing theory. CARICOM constitutes a case of a "Reviving Legitimisers" where delegitimation towards their core constituency occurs to which it reacts by reviving what it embodies which entails including human rights in its legitimation. With LoAS, the author observes a "Brokering Legitimisers" in which case delegitimation is on the verge of a legitimacy crisis, but its Secretary General manages to broker human rights to two diverging audiences thanks to localisation. Thus, this book provides an explanation of how a distinct norm is used in self-legitimation, nuances our understanding of agents and audiences of legitimation, and introduces the concept of localisation to the study of legitimation.
Die Nutzung von YouTube-Tutorials in Lernprozessen wird häufig informellen Lernstilen zugeordnet. Betrachtet man die kommunikative Funktionsweise von Tutorials, können diese durch ihren instruktionalen Charakter jedoch auch als non-formales Lernangebot interpretiert werden. Strukturierung, Umfang und Thema werden durch die Videourheber bestimmt, ohne dass eine Anpassung an situative Bedürfnisse der Lernenden vorgesehen ist. Je nach Urheber kann ein Tutorial sogar einen formalen Kontext darstellen. In dieser Arbeit werden Fallbeispiele für beide Lernangebote herangezogen. Die Probanden, professionelle Musiker, sind dabei konfrontiert und treten in Interaktion mit einem postdigitalen "MusikmachDing" (Ismaiel-Wendt, 2016) auf der einen Seite und dem Computer, welcher die Plattform YouTube, Tutorials und gegebenenfalls Musik-Softwares abbildet, auf der anderen Seite. Das betrachtete Datenmaterial besteht aus filmischen Selbstdokumentationen (Maleyka et al., 2018). Anhand dieser Fallbeispiele wird innerhalb dieser Arbeit analysiert, inwiefern die Lernenden in die in den Tutorials angelegte Vorstrukturierung des Lernprozesses eingreifen. Idealerweise können so Hinweise gewonnen werden auf (1) Qualitätskriterien für die Gestaltung von digitalen Lernumgebungen und Musik-Tutorials sowie (2) auf speziell durch postdigitale "MusikmachDinge" erzeugte Herausforderungen. (3) Zudem werden die herausgearbeiteten Praktiken mit dem aktuellen Forschungsstand zu informellem und digitalem Lernen verknüpft und dadurch beispielhaft die spezifische Gestaltung postdigitaler Lernprozesse dargestellt.
Mathematisches Problemlösen ist eine in den Bildungsstandards verankerte Kompetenz, die es bei Schülern explizit zu fördern gilt. Für eine erfolgreiche Bearbeitung von Problemlöseaufgaben ist laut Begriffsverständnis der Bildungsstandards des Faches Mathematik die Auswahl und zielführende Anwendung von Heurismen erforderlich, was für Schüler durchaus herausfordernd sein kann. Bereits seit Jahrzehnten beschäftigt sich daher die Forschung der deutschsprachigen Mathematikdidaktik mit der Schaffung geeigneter Lernmaterialien zur Förderung von Problemlösekompetenz und dennoch sind bislang nicht alle Unklarheiten ausreichend beantwortet. So ist beispielsweise nach wie vor weitestgehend unklar, wie eine Förderung der Kompetenz etwa durch geeignete Lernmaterialien unterstützt werden kann. Daraus ergibt sich nicht zuletzt der unmittelbare Forschungsansatz, wie geeignete Lernmaterialien geschaffen bzw. ausgestaltet sein sollten, um die Entwicklung von Problemlösekompetenz von Schülern zu fördern. Im Fokus stand dabei die Beantwortung folgender übergeordneter Forschungsfrage, welche sich in der Dissertationsschrift in weitere Teilfragen untergliedert: "Welche Veränderung des Bearbeitungserfolgs bei Problemlöseaufgaben zur Flächeninhaltsberechnung zeigen Schüler – hinsichtlich der Auswahl und Anwendung von Heurismen – durch die Bearbeitung eines papier- bzw. eines videobasierten Lösungsbeispiels?" Die Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage fand im Rahmen einer durchgeführten Studie in Form einer quasiexperimentellen Laborstudie mit insgesamt 38 Schülern statt. Untersucht wurde dabei, inwiefern medial unterschiedlich aufbereitete Lösungsbeispiele eine geeignete Lernunterstützung zur Entwicklung von Problemlösekompetenz darstellen. Dafür wurde in einer Treatmentgruppe eine Problemlöseaufgabe zur Flächeninhaltsberechnung mit Hilfe eines papierbasierten Lösungsbeispiels bearbeitet, während in einer zweiten Treatmentgruppe ein inhaltlich identisches Lösungsbeispiel videobasiert in Form eines Erklärvideos zur Verfügung stand.
Tropical ecosystems are critical for biodiversity conservation and local people’s livelihood sustenance. However, these ecosystems are under high pressure from land-use and land cover (LULC) change, which is further projected to intensify and increase rapidly, thereby affecting biodiversity and the provisioning of vital ecosystem services (ES). It is thus important to understand how LULC might change in the future and how such changes could affect biodiversity and ES provisioning in a given landscape of tropical ecosystems. Scenario planning has become an increasingly popular tool and technique to produce narrative scenarios of the future landscape change. Thus, quantifying changes under different land-use scenarios could be a means to elucidate the synergies and trade-offs within the scenarios. In this dissertation, the author examines the future of biodiversity and ES provisioning for different plausible land-use scenarios in southwestern Ethiopia. First, he translates four future plausible narrative social-ecological land-use scenarios ("Gain over grain", "Coffee and conservation", "Mining green gold" and "Food first") developed for southwestern Ethiopia by participatory scenario planning into spatially explicit LULC scenario maps. Results showed distinct LULC changes under each scenario. Second, the author investigates the impact of these land-use scenarios on biodiversity by specifically modelling woody plant species richness in farmland and forest. Both indicators of human disturbance and environmental conditions were used. Third, he also investigates the effect of these land-use scenarios on woody plant-based ES provisioning by combining woody plant species with household surveys on how woody plants were used by the local community. He models and predicts the current and future availability of woody plant-based ES under the four scenarios of landscape change. Overall, the findings of this dissertation show the importance of integrating future land-use mapping with participatory, narrative-based scenarios to assess the social-ecological outcomes of alternative futures. The spatially explicit maps of LULC change, biodiversity and ES (at different scales) could be used as a valuable input to support stakeholders and decision-makers to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different development trajectories on ecosystems and human well-being and to avoid or minimize future undesirable consequences. To this end, apart from the benefits of coffee production under "Mining green gold" and crop production under "Food first" scenarios, the findings under these scenarios of large-scale agricultural intensification point to a potentially high loss of biodiversity and ES. These two scenarios could have a negative long-term impact on ecosystems and human well-being. Finally, the "Coffee and conservation" scenario, which involves the creation of a new biosphere reserve, appears to be the most sustainable scenario. This scenario could result in a sustainably managed, diversified landscape which could make major contributions to biodiversity conservation and human well-being in the region and beyond.