Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2023 (18) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
- Dissertation (18) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Afghanistan (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Autonomie (1)
- Autonomy (1)
- Dignity (1)
- Energiewende (1)
- Forschungsevaluation (1)
- Freedom (1)
- Freiheit (1)
- Individuality (1)
- Individuum (1)
- Internationale Organisation (1)
- Künstliche Intelligenz (1)
- Menschenwürde (1)
- Nachhaltige Entwicklung (1)
- Research Evaluation (1)
- Responsibility (1)
- Verantwortung (1)
Institut
- Fakultät Nachhaltigkeit (18) (entfernen)
Environmental governance beyond borders: Governing telecoupled systems towards sustainability
(2023)
This doctoral dissertation analyses the environmental governance of long-distance social-ecological interactions in telecoupled systems in two issue domains: global commodity chains and infrastructure projects as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Although both domains involve different governance actors, institutions and processes, they both concern the question of how the involved actors develop governance structures and institutional responses to telecoupling. This dissertation aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how to govern environmental problems that are associated with global flows. Since many multilateral environmental governance initiatives have not yet produced the desired solutions to global problems, particular attention is directed at unilateral state-led governance approaches. This dissertation addresses the questions of (1) how to achieve a spatial fit between the scale of telecoupled systems and the scale of governance institutions, (2) how governance actors exercise agency in governing telecoupled systems, and (3) how state actors can govern the domestic and foreign environmental effects of telecoupled flows. The results show that creating a spatial fit in the governance of global commodity flows is challenging because boundary and resolution mismatches can emerge. Boundary mismatches denote situations where social-ecological problems transcend established jurisdictional boundaries, whereas resolution mismatches refer to governance institutions that have too coarse a spatial resolution to allow them to address the specific aspects of social-ecological problems effectively. No single governance institution is likely to avoid all mismatches, which highlights the need to align multiple governance approaches to effectively govern telecoupled systems.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the importance of the inextricable link between social and ecological systems and human quality of life (QoL) and biodiversity. Therefore, understanding the feedback and interactions between biodiversity, nature’s contributions to people (NCP), and QoL plays a central role in advancing toward sustainability. In this context, the social-ecological systems (SES) approach has advanced on the subject, particularly in recent decades; however, much remains to be done to comprehensively understand these relationships and interactions, especially at local decision-making scales. In this thesis, through the lenses of the SES approach, the researcher investigates connections between biodiversity, NCP, and QoL in a tropical dry forest (TDF) on the Western coast of Mexico. This place is one of the best-known Neotropical TDF and has been the focus of SES research in the past 20 years, making it an excellent case study for exploring these connections. First, to approach the need for dialogue among different global and local scales and between global and local frameworks, the thesis identifies five key components of the SES dynamics-(1) ecological supply, (2) co-production of NCP, (3) management, (4) demand, and (5) benefits - and three local decision-making scales of analysis: individual plot, smallholder, and land tenure or governance units. A literature review was performed on the social-ecological indicators for the last 11 years in the Chamela-Cuixmala region to operationalize this framework. Second, this thesis uses social-ecological information to identify social-ecological systems units (SESU) spatially explicitly. A methodology was provided to spatially identify the components of social-ecological systems that environmental conditions and management practices have shaped at three previously stated relevant decision-making scales: plots owned by individuals, plot owners, and governance units. To do so, the research group identified and characterized: (1) ecological clusters (EC), (2) social-management clusters (SC), and (3) SESU in a TDF in western Mexico. The findings suggested that decision-makers (ejidatarios, i.e., type of ownership (related to agrarian reform), that in most cases the land allocated is small-smallholders) are bounded by the topographical characteristics and the public policies that determine communal (or private) governance and the number of resources available to them. Finally, the thesis examines the self-perceived QoL across the different SESU, finding 48 QoL items, which were grouped into six categories: 1) social capital, 2) economic capital, 3) agency, 4) nature, 5) peasant non-work activities, and 6) government and services; and two additional dimensions referred to obstacles and enablers of QoL. The researchers found that the more land cover transformation, the more enablers, and obstacles of QoL are identified; emphasis was put on economic capital to achieve QoL. As management is intensified and governance fosters individualism across SES, the higher the Current Welfare Index, and the lower the self-perceived material and non-material satisfaction.
Diese Dissertation verfolgt einerseits das Ziel der umfassenden Sichtung der technischen, psychologischen, philosophischen und neurobiologischen Grundlagen der Künstlichen Intelligenz und damit die Etablierung einer epistemischen und ontologischen Eingrenzung der Technologie und andererseits das Ziel der moralphilosophischen Beurteilung und Risikobewertung. Die zentrale Hypothese unterstellt der Technologie, die überhaupt nur durch die rasanten Fortschritte der Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften und damit durch die Aufklärung ermöglicht wurde, eine Unterwanderung der zentralen Prinzipien und Werte der Aufklärung. Zu befürchten ist eine selbstverschuldete Unmündigkeit des Menschen durch die Künstliche Intelligenz. Wesentlich in der Argumentation ist das Aufgeben von menschlicher Autonomie zugunsten einer Technologie, die selbst nicht autonom sein kann, die Verlagerung von Verantwortlichkeiten in einen neu entstandenen rechtsfreien Raum, der Verlust der menschlichen Individualität und letztlich die Preisgabe der Menschenwürde durch den Übergang in ein "Reich ohne Notwendigkeit", aus dem es kein Entkommen gibt. Eine Ethik der Künstlichen Intelligenz muss, so die normative Schlussfolgerung, die Wahrung der menschlichen Autonomie, Verantwortlichkeit, Individualität und Würde in den Vordergrund stellen, sodass ein individueller und kollektiver Rückfall des Menschen in die Unmündigkeit verhindert wird.
Der hohe Verbrauch von Antibiotika führt zu stetig steigenden Konzentrationen der Wirkstoffe und ihrer Transformationsprodukte in der Umwelt. Antibiotika in der Umwelt haben das Potential Funktionen von Ökosystemen zu stören und tragen zur Entwicklung und Selektion von resistenten Bakterien bei. Um diese negativen Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Umwelt zu reduzieren, sind vielseitige Lösungen notwendig. Benign by Design (BbD) ist ein wichtiger Baustein dafür. Daher ist es wichtig zu verstehen, inwiefern das BbD Prinzip auf verschiedene Substanzgruppen anwendbar ist und welche Limitierungen zu berücksichtigen sind. Mit dieser Arbeit soll ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung von in der Umwelt mineralisierbaren Antibiotika entsprechend des Benign by Design Konzeptes geliefert werden. Dies wurde am Beispiel der Fluorchinolonantibiotika durchgeführt, da diese sehr wichtige, aber auch sehr persistente Wirkstoffe sind. Ziel war es, zu verstehen, welche Veränderungen an der Grundstruktur vorgenommen werden können, um Derivate zu erzeugen, die während der Wirkdauer und Lagerung ausreichend stabil bleiben, aber anschließend in der Umwelt möglichst schnell und vollständig mineralisiert werden können. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wurden die BbD Ansätze des targeted und non-targeted Re-Designs und de novo Designs, sowie die Verwendung von in silico Tools zu deren Umsetzung, untersucht. Basierend darauf wurde ein Workflow entwickelt, der eine mögliche Verwendung von computergestützten Methoden innerhalb des BbD Frameworks aufzeigt. Der Ansatz des non-targeted Re-Designs wurde für neun verschiedene Substanzen aus der Klasse der Fluorchinolone angewandt. Dafür wurden Transformationsprodukte der Muttersubstanzen mittels Photolyse und Photokatalyse erzeugt. Das resultierende Substanzgemisch wurde hinsichtlich der biologischen Abbaubarkeit und Toxizität untersucht. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass durch die Bestrahlung mit UV-Licht eine Vielzahl an neuen Strukturen entstehen und das Gemisch oft eine gesteigerte biologische Abbaubarkeit im Vergleich zur Muttersubstanz aufweist. Das targeted Re-Design wurde am Beispiel von Fluorchinolon-Glucosamin-Derivaten untersucht. Dabei galt es zu verstehen, inwiefern Glucosamin-Substituenten die biologische Abbaubarkeit beeinflusst. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass durch die Verwendung von acetylierten Glucosamin-Substituenten ein partieller Abbau stattfindet. Diese Erkenntnisse können zukünftig in das gezielte, fragment-basierte Design von grüneren Strukturen einfließen. Im letzten Teil der Arbeit wurden die Struktur-Bioabbau-Beziehungen von N-hetero-zyklischen Verbindungen, welche auch die Basis des Fluorchinolon-Grundgerüstes sind, untersucht und leicht biologisch abbaubare Leitstrukturen identifiziert. Dafür wurden 84 verschiedene N-Heterozyklen nach OECD 301 Richtlinien getestet. Basierend darauf wurde zum einen ein lokales 3D-QSAR Modell, insbesondere zur Visualisierung der Effekte der Substituenten im dreidimensionalen Raum, erstellt, als auch Regeln für das Design von umweltfreundlicheren Chinolonen und verwandten Strukturen abgeleitet. Weiterhin wurden abbaubare Strukturen aus der Gruppe der Chinazoline identifiziert, welche vielversprechende Leitstrukturen für das Design von Topoisomerase-Inhibitoren oder anderer Chemikalien darstellen. Insgesamt zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass die Umsetzung von BbD im Wirkstoffdesign möglich ist und wie potentielle Vorgehensweisen aussehen können. Dabei konnte gezeigt werden, dass selbst die als besonders persistent geltenden Fluorchinolonantibiotika das Potential bieten, zu besser abbaubaren Derivaten re-designt zu werden. Es wurde jedoch auch deutlich, dass es keine allgemeingültige Herangehensweise gibt und Methoden den entsprechenden Substanzklassen und Anforderungen angepasst werden müssen.
Das Promotionsprojekt, das in das Forschungsprojekt Nawi-In (Naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht inklusiv gestalten – Kompetenzentwicklung von Lehramtsstudierenden für und mit der Praxis) eingebettet ist, fokussiert die Entwicklung von Analysekompetenzen Masterstudierender der Sekundarstufe I mit naturwissenschaftlichem Fach, inklusiven naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht zu identifizieren und zu analysieren. Hierfür analysierten die Masterstudierenden (N=5) sowohl eigenen videografierten als auch fremden inklusiven naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht im Rahmen eines dreisemestrigen Projektseminars. Die Begleitforschung, die im ersten und zweiten Semester des Projektseminars stattfand, untersuchte die Entwicklung der Merkmalsausprägungen der Selbstwirksamkeit, Einstellungen und des selbsteingeschätzten fachdidaktischen Wissens (PCK) in Bezug zu inklusivem naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht. Der Kern der Forschung ist die Entwicklung eines Modells, um die video-stimulierten Reflexionen zum eigenen (pre und post) und fremden inklusiven naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht (pre, re und post), die audiografiert und transkribiert wurden, auszuwerten und so eine Entwicklung der Analysekompetenzen über die verschiedenen Erhebungszeitpunkte hinweg feststellen und abbilden zu können. Das Analytical Competency Model (ACM) ist ein Kategoriensystem, das aus verschiedenen Forschungen zu Professionalisierung, Expertiseforschung über Lehrpersonen und professioneller Unterrichtswahrnehmung besteht. Validiert wurde das ACM durch das Erstellen eines Expertenratings. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine deutliche Entwicklung der Analysekompetenzen in der Studierendenstichprobe. Es wurden über den Erhebungszeitraum hinweg mehr Momente als inklusiver naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht identifiziert und die identifizierten Momente in übergeordnete Konzepte zu inklusivem naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht eingeordnet.
Companies are invited to contribute to the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and sustainability management accounting (SMA) has an important role to play in achieving them. However, if companies are to address the SDGs and linkages beyond organizational boundaries, SMA needs a broader scope than is conventionally assumed. Therefore, the author advances a multi-level framework that addresses context, action-formation, and transformative contributions (CAT) in the following directions: first, an innovative systematic method that allows screening company-related SDGs and assessing corporate contributions to selected SDGs is introduced; second, management control systems are integrated to support managers in guiding employee behavior to make contributions to the SDGs; and, third, self-reinforcing mechanisms of the path-dependence theory are incorporated to serve as a guide to identifying barriers to individuals and groups becoming involved in SMA. This advanced CAT framework contributes to corporate practice and research by providing a multilevel framework that offers concrete management guidance for SMA to address the SDGs. It also facilitates analysis of both enabling and inhibiting factors at the organizational level. The advanced CAT framework has several implications for SMA: it promotes backcasting from the SDGs for benchmarking purposes, integrates different social, environmental, and economic issues, facilitates future-oriented action and transformation planning, addresses different layers such as the company as well as individuals and groups within it and enables to identify barriers hindering individuals and groups from becoming involved in SMA.
This dissertation deals with the increasingly recognized role of incumbent firms in advancing sustainability-oriented industry transitions. Incumbent firms are understood as firms-in-industries, which are embedded in established market structures and thereby contrast new entrant firms. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, to provide empirical evidence of barriers to and success factors of incumbent-driven industry transitions. Second, to unify hitherto dispersed descriptions of transition-related firm behaviour in a new understanding of incumbent firms in industry transitions. To this end, theoretical concepts are discussed and extended on the basis of different empirical studies in the German meat industry. The meat industry serves as suitable research setting due to its diverse sustainability challenges, ranging from climate change and pollution to animal welfare and public health, as well as its current developments towards sustainable protein alternatives. The meat context also offers opportunities to delve into individual-level processes influencing transition-related behaviour. The main contribution of this dissertation is a Multi Embeddedness Framework (MEF) that details processes and outcomes of integrated incumbent firm behaviour, including passive, reactive and proactive behaviors. The framework acknowledges the diversity in incumbent firm behaviors within industries and firms and provides new insights into transition-related behaviors at firm and individual level. With regard to the latter, the potential of learning about and from innovative start-up firms as well as shared sensemaking processes are discussed. The contents of this dissertation provide valuable contributions to the transition literature as well as important management implications with regard to the stimulation and promotion of proactive behaviors
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.
This thesis deals with sustainability in African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the influence of language in achieving sustainable development. Several authors highlight the existing imbalance of sustainability research in higher education, with most publications focusing on the so-called Global North. Little is known about sustainability in the so-called Global South, and in African educational institutions in particular. The first article of this thesis investigated existing sustainability activities in African HEIs. Rather than focusing on the shortcomings, the paper took a positive stance, opposing the predominant language of deficits in research on Africa. In the Delphi study conducted, 32 experts from 29 HEIs in 16 African countries described the sustainability activities they are engaging in. Experts provided information about their experiences in their respective HEI, while language and culture emerged as areas in need of further research. The second article therefore focused on the relationship between language and education for sustainable development in African educational institutions, and systematically reviewed scholarly literature regarding this connection. Authors of the reviewed 33 papers approached this connection mainly on a theoretical and philosophical level, focusing on education and Africa as a whole rather than specified forms of education in specific countries. The third article examined the views of Tanzanian higher education students and graduates regarding language and sustainability. Participants explained how they integrate sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their research and how they approach translations in the process. In the ensuing interviews, participants estimated that only a fraction of people outside of academia are aware of sustainability and the SDGs, rendering the achievement of target 4.7 unlikely. This thesis therefore contributes to a better understanding of the current challenges in implementing sustainability and the SDGs in African educational institutions. It highlights the need to integrate (local) African languages in order for sustainability activities as well as the SDGs to be successful.
The research described in this dissertation focuses on developing a process to remove oligomers and suppress their formation by intercepting the aging procedure's precursors using adsorbents when biodiesel and its blends are used as fuel. So far, there has been no attempt to cause the stabilization of biodiesel and its blends using adsorbents from open literature. This investigation is one of the first studies on the use of adsorbents to mitigate biodiesel and diesel fuel's stability behavior–biodiesel blends and the removal of oligomers or suppressing the formation of high molecular mass species in aging oil. This study's primary aim has been achieved by several experimental measurements that provided results on adsorbents' effecton fuel oxidative stability, especially ester-based fuel like biodiesel and its blends. The chemical composition and some critical rheological analyses of the samples have been measured to understand their role in the oxidation of the sample by comparing the presence and absence of the adsorbents during the aging process. Furthermore, it aims to use adsorbents to suppress oligomers' formation and remove them in aging oil due to the influence of biodiesel and its blends. The research project also seeks to stabilize fuel, especially ester-based fuel like biodiesel, and its blends using the adsorbents. The adsorbents' application will enhance biodiesel's oxidative stability and its blends during long-term storage or application, focusing on its use in plug-in hybrid vehicles, emergency power plants,and generators. The combustion engine only starts in plug-in hybrid vehicles if the battery cannot supply energy on longer journeys. As a result, the fuel remains longer in plug-in hybrid vehicles. Fuels that are exposed to heat and oxygen over anextendedperiod can form aging products. These aging products lead to the formation of deposits, especially in the case of diesel fuels mixed with biodiesel content,and can, therefore, endanger the operational safety of the vehicle in critical components such as injectors or filter units.