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To respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, scholars from various disciplines increasingly emphasize that a mere outer transformation is insufficient and that we also need an inner transformation that addresses deep leverage points. Yet, the open questions are how the inner and outer dimensions relate to each other
and how inner transformation might lead to outer transformation. How we attempt to answer these questions is determined by our dominant paradigm. Paradigms define how we understand and shape the world, and thus, they define how we conceptualize challenges, such as inner and outer transformation. Various authors argue that the dominant paradigm, which is characterized by reductionism, empiricism, dualism, and determinism, might be a root cause for insufficiently addressing sustainability challenges. As an alternative, many argue for a relational paradigm, which understands complex phenomena in terms of constitutive processes and relations. A relational paradigm might offer possibilities to reconceptualize inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene and might shed new light on how to integrate both in sustainability science. Yet, it is still being determined how a relational paradigm can contribute to the understanding of inner and outer transformations towards sustainability in the Anthropocene. Therefore, this dissertation's overarching scope is to contribute to systems change towards a more social-ecological future by generating insights into and exploring possibilities of a relational paradigm for inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene. This thesis is divided into three sub-questions. The first research question aims to contribute to transformation research by increasing the theoretical understanding of a relational paradigm. The second research question aims to contribute to transformative research by developing a transformative educational case study grounded in a relational, justice-oriented approach. The third research question aims to contribute to transformation research by analyzing how a relational paradigm might contribute to policies and practices for sustainable lifestyles. The results indicate that inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene can be reconceptualized as paradigm-ing relationality in the Ecocene. "Paradigm-ing" as an active verb, reconceptualizes inner and outer transformation into ontologies, epistemologies, ethics, and socialecological realities that are ongoing, nonhierarchical, nonlinear, dynamic, co-creative processes of intra-action. The Ecocene decenters the human and attends to what we might be able to intra-actand become-with. These insights can offer unexplored perspectives to address sustainability challenges and increase our capacities to respond in novel ways.
This research report presents a transdisciplinary student research project on developing climate resilience of communities in Marine Protected Areas in the Lesser Antilles. For the second time, the Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Sustainable Marine Financing Programme (SMF) of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) partnered up. The first project on the Caribbean Island Dominica showed that community resilience is a complex concept that is not yet well understood. Building on these findings, this year’s project broadened the scope in addressing the effect of varying local conditions on climate resilience on four different Caribbean islands: Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. For the GIZ, the research project aimed at improving the understanding of the socio-ecological resilience framework for tackling problems of Marine Managed Areas (MMA) and Marine Protected Areas (MPA). Also, it enabled new thoughts on how the GIZ and other development agencies can more effectively assist island states to better cope with the challenges of climate change. The role of the students from the “Global Environmental and Sustainability Sciences” programme of Leuphana University included the design of four transdisciplinary research projects to study the effect of varying local conditions in disaster-prone regions in the Southern Caribbean on climate resilience. The developing island states in the Caribbean are extremely vulnerable to more frequent and intense natural hazards while relying on ecosystem services that are threatened by extreme weather events, in particular Hurricanes. After such adverse events, low economic stability leads to a dependency of the states on international assistance. To decrease the vulnerability to shocks, counteracting measures that encourage learning and adaptation can increase the resilience against extreme weather events and their consequences. Concepts that were considered during the design of the transdisciplinary research projects were the adaptation of systems, diversity and stakeholder participation and resilience-focused management systems. Building on the results from last year in Dominica, the establishment of a four islands design allowed for greater comparison to better understand community approaches to solve a concrete sustainability problem: securing livelihoods while protecting natural and cultural resources. The research methods of a literature review, stakeholder mapping, semi-structured interviews, scenario development and visioning were used in the projects. A comparison of the four TD projects revealed four overarching lessons. First, all countries recognise a need for restoration and conservation projects, i.e., nature-based solutions implemented and managed by the local community in the MPA. Furthermore, all four cases show that the limited participation of local people in the management and organisation of the MPA is a factor constraining community resilience. Third, this TD project highlights the importance to distinguish climate change as an event or as a process. When climate change occurs as a series of disaster events (e.g., hurricanes, floodings, and heatwaves) in combination with s gradual degradation of natural ecosystems (e.g., coral bleaching and ocean warming), people in MPA communities show highly adaptive and restorative behaviour. Finally, this project was an attempt to realize a cross-cultural and virtual transdisciplinary project. The research approach of transdisciplinarity links different academic disciplines and concepts, and non-scientific stakeholders are included to find solutions for societal and related scientific problems. A major learning was that in virtual TD projects particular attention needs to be paid to setting clear boundaries and be explicit about success criteria. Nonetheless, the findings of the projects provide valuable learning lessons to be applied in practice and that can prove useful for future research.
Biodiversity is quickly diminishing across the planet, primarily owing to human pressures. Protected areas are an essential tool for conserving biodiversity in response to increasing human pressures. However, their ecological effectiveness is contested and their capacity to resist human pressures differ. This dissertation aimed to assess the ecological effectiveness of different protection levels (from strict to less strictly protected: national park, game reserve, forest reserve, game-controlled area, and unprotected areas) in biodiversity (both mega diverse butterflies and mammals), maintaining habitat connectivity, and reducing anthropogenic threats at the wider landscape in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem of southwestern Tanzania. To achieve this overarching goal, I employed an interdisciplinary approach.
First, I analyzed butterfly diversity and community composition patterns across protection levels in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. I found that species richness and abundance were highest in the game reserves and game-controlled areas, intermediate in the forest reserves, national park and unprotected areas. Species composition differed significantly among protection levels. Landscape heterogeneity, forest cover, and primary productivity influenced species composition. Land-use, burned areas, forest cover, and primary productivity explained the richness of species and functional traits. Game reserves hosted most indicator species.
Second, I modelled the spatial distribution of six large mammal target species (buffalo Syncerus caffer, elephant Loxodonta africana, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus, topi Damaliscus korrigum, and zebra Equus burchellii) across environmental and protection gradients in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. Based on species-specific density surface models, I found relatively consistent effects of protection level and land-use variables on the spatial distribution of the target mammal species: relative densities were highest in the national park and game reserves, intermediate in forest reserves and game-controlled areas and lowest in un-protected areas. Beyond species-specific environmental predictors for relative densities, our results highlight consistent negative associations between relative densities of the target species and distance to cropland and avoidance of areas in proximity to houses.
Third, I examined temporal changes in land-use, population densities and distribution of six large mammal target species across protection levels between 1991 and 2018. During the surveyed period, cropland increased from 3.4 % to 9.6 % on unprotected land and from ≤0.05 % to <1 % on protected land. Wildlife densities of most, but not all target species declined across the entire landscape, yet the onset of the observed wildlife declines occurred several years before the onset of cropland expansion. Across protection levels, wildlife densities occurred at much greater densities in the national park and game reserves and lowest in the forest reserves, game-controlled areas and unprotected areas. Based on logistic regression models, target species preferred the national park over less strictly protection levels and areas distant to cropland. Because these analyses do not support a direct relationship between the timing of land-use change and wildlife population dynamics, other factors may account for the apparent ecosystem-wide decline in wildlife.
Fourth, I quantified land-use changes, modelled habitat suitability and connectivity of elephant over time across a large protected area network in southwestern Tanzania. Based on analyses of remotely-sensed data, cropland increased from 7% in 2000 to 13% in 2019, with an average expansion of 634 km2 per year. Based on ensemble models, distance from cropland influenced survey-specific habitat suitability for elephant the most. Despite cropland expansion, the locations of the modelled elephant corridors (n=10) remained similar throughout the survey period. According to ecological knowledge, nine of the modelled corridors were active, whereas one modelled corridor had been inactive since the 1970s. Based on circuit theory, I prioritize three corridors for protected area connectivity. Key indicators of corridor quality varied over time, whereas elephant movement through some corridors appears to have increased over time.
Overall, this dissertation underpins differences in ecological effectiveness of protected areas within one ecosystem. It highlights the need to utilize a landscape conservation approach to guide effective conservation across the entire protection gradient. It also suggests the need to enforcing land use plans and having alternative and sustainable forms for generating income from the land without impairing wildlife habitat.
Does the presentation of travel experience affect personal prestige of tourists? Prestige enhancement has been considered a motive for travel by tourism researchers for decades. Yet, the question whether representation of travel experience actually leads to personal prestige enhancement has been widely neglected so far. The study of prestige benefits of travel is a necessary endeavour to develop suitable methodological approaches toward the concept, in order to close critical knowledge gaps and enhance scientific understanding. The present thesis lays out the rationale and results of three research projects which shed light onto the relationship between touristic self-presentation and its effects on personal prestige evaluations of the social environment. The empirical studies conducted in the frame of this dissertation conclude in the following main findings:
Leisure travel is a useful means for people to self-express in a positive way, and material representations of travel are frequently displayed to others. Tourists make use of travel experience to self-present in a positive way by uploading photos on social media, collecting and displaying souvenirs, wearing jewellery and clothing from their last trip, or talking about their trips to others. They express positive self-messages about personal character traits, affiliation to social in-groups and proof of having travelled somewhere. The findings ascertain the utility of travel representations for positive self-expression, showing that travel experience is an effective vehicle for conspicuous consumption and self-expression as an antecedent for personal prestige enhancement.
Personal prestige is an element of social relations, and holds capacity to affect perceptions of social inclusion and social distinction, so it has to be conceptualised as a multidimensional construct. In a tourism context, personal prestige is reliably measurable along the four dimensions of hedonism, social inclusion, social distinction and prosperity. The herein developed Personal Prestige Inventory (PPI) is a valid, reliable and parsimonious measurement tool which substantially enhances methodological approaches toward empirical research into personal prestige.
The way in which people represent travel experience to others measurably affects how their personal prestige is evaluated by social others. Empirical evidence of a series of experimental studies provides support for the assumption that representation of travel experience has an effect on the social evaluation of tourists’ personal prestige. Experimental variance suggests small to moderate effects on personal prestige depending on the amount of leisure information given about a person, participation in tourism, and the destination and type of travel represented. This evidence is reasonable basis to conclude that whether and how people travel, and whether and how they share travel experience with others, does measurably affect social other’s evaluation of their personal prestige.
By providing qualitative evidence for positive self-presentation through leisure travel, and the subsequent development and experimental application of the Personal Prestige Inventory (PPI) in a tourism context, the present dissertation enhances scientific understanding of personal prestige in the context of leisure travel and provides useful methodological advancements for further research into the topic.
In May 2020, the arrest and killing of George Floyd were followed by an uproar that reached far beyond Minneapolis (Taylor 2021). Under the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement, people unitedly demonstrated against police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S. Though racially motivated police violence did not end with George Floyd. The incident contributed to a more visible reality of a judicial and
societal system built upon racism. In 1989, legal scholars developed the Critical Race Theory to recognise and examine racism embedded in the legal system. However, racism is not only found in legal studies but is also ingrained in and reproduced by schools. Scholars indicate that the educational system in the U.S. is now more segregated and unequal than ever. Also, topics such as racism, Whiteness, and White-supremacy are underrepresented in schools and teacher education (Milner Ⅳ, Deans Harmon, and McGee 2022, 364). If and how a
CRT perspective should be taught in schools depicts a current controversy between politics, teachers, and parents.
The academic literature holds high expectations of crowdfunding to foster sustainable development by closing the funding gap for sustainable entrepreneurs. In particular, crowdfunding is considered a promising instrument for transforming existing socio-technical regimes by financing radical innovations of such entrepreneurs. However, this potential has not yet been fully explored. Large knowledge gaps exist especially in the area of investment-based crowdfunding. Therefore, this dissertation addresses the overarching research question of how sustainable entrepreneurs can exploit the full potential of investment-based crowdfunding to develop from niche operators to actors in the socio-technical regime. Five journal articles and one book chapter are included in this PhD project, which use a wide range of quantitative methodologies. In the framework paper, the findings are conceptually evaluated on a meta-level by applying the multi-level perspective. The key insights can be assigned to four categories, including the financing and marketing function, the target group, and the project presentation. The analysis shows that investment-based crowdfunding is suitable to equally fund and market the business ideas of environmental entrepreneurs, since the quest for entering the mass market is highest for such ventures. In contrast, purely social entrepreneurs tend to conduct crowdfunding projects on a smaller scale and probably aim to stay in the niche. Nevertheless, profit-oriented social entrepreneurs are still encouraged to use investment-based crowdfunding for funding and marketing purposes. The prominent display of environmental effects (e.g. the amount of compensated greenhouse gases) and financial incentives (e.g. high interest rates) has a high impact on the investment decision of individuals on investment-based crowdfunding platforms. The findings also suggest that the typical supporter of sustainability-oriented crowdfunding projects is younger than 50 years, has achieved at least a university degree and holds low levels of self-enhancement and conservative values. The case of fairafric is used as a best practice example to demonstrate how crowdfunding can be a stepping stone for sustainability-oriented niche actors to enter the mass market. The fair-trade and organic chocolate manufacturer has undergone six crowdfunding campaigns which enabled it to grow and build a strong community of supporters. The outcomes of this dissertation clarify how sustainable entrepreneurs can unleash the potential of investment-based crowdfunding for financing and marketing purposes.
Many dynamics are reshaping the global macroeconomics and finance. This cumulative dissertation empirically examines the impacts of two major global dynamics, the disaster risks and the China’s rise, on the global economy. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation and summarizes the dissertation. Chapter 2 investigates how geopolitical risks affect financial stress in the whole financial system and its sub-sectors (banking, stock, foreign exchange, bond) of major emerging economies. Chapter 3 shows how different disaster risks (financial, geopolitical, natural-technological) can explain the returns and risk premiums of stock and housing in advanced economies between 1870 and 2015. Chapter 4 examines how the rise of China is contributing to higher economic growth in emerging economies, especially after the Global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Chapter 5 illustrates how a close trade and investment relation with China has helped African countries to reduce poverty and to improve their income distribution.
Who is taken into consideration when we talk about the citizens, about the people or the activists? Often it is a rather unquestioned privileged positionality, which is taken to be the standard that most of the time it is actually not. In this quote, the activist Madjiguène Cissé, from the transnational Sans-Papiers movement, raises that just because someone or something is not visible—to the broader public or a particular public—it does not mean that they have not been there for a long time. Migrant rights activism is not a new phenomenon but has intensified and become more networked and visible over the past years (Eggert & Giugni, 2015). This study explores group contexts of activism by, with and for refugees and migrants in Hamburg, the claims, interactions, challenges and processes that activists experience, discuss and deal with. I have approached activists experiencing political organizing in this context from a constructivist grounded theory perspective. This allowed me to develop conceptual perspectives grounded in activist groups’ realities and was advanced through existing literature on this social movement but also theories from other research fields. Solidarities emerged throughout the research process as a more concrete focus. This research sets out to answer the questions: What does solidarity mean in social movements, and how do migrant rights activist practices result in negotiating, enacting and challenging it?
This publication is a revised version of my dissertation thesis.
The significance of selecting suitable talent
A company’s success is significantly influenced by the professionalism and quality of decision-making, especially selecting decisions to hire suitable talent. The term “talent” can be taken to mean as someone who has talent (talent as the sum of one’s abilities) and someone who is a talent. Leadership talent makes a difference in organizational success, has the potential to succeed as a leader, and thus will
hold corresponding pivotal positions. In this book, we focus on the selection and acquisition of leadership talent, since such talent is more difficult to find in the market and, at the same time, more challenging to select. Selecting these talented individuals is one of the most critical components of effective organizations. Hardly any other corporate decision has such significant effects on corporate success as talent selection. Recruiting and personnel selection are also the first steps in promoting capability building and creating successful teams. For example, Warren Buffet, renowned for his investing prowess, says, “I have only two jobs. One is to attract and keep outstanding managers to run our various operations”. This highlights the need for an effective and efficient personnel selection process and to improve the diagnostic performance of such procedures. In addition, the increasing diversity of applicants, global competitiveness, and the lack of qualified personnel in specific labor and job markets also increase the importance of high-quality personnel selection processes.
In political and academic debates, there are increasing voices for a sustainable transformation that culminates in the demand for collaborative human action. Collaborative governance is a promising approach to address the difficult challenges of sustainability through global public and private partnerships between diverse actors of state, market and civil society. The textile and clothing industry (hereafter: textile sector) is an excellent example where a variety of such initiatives have evolved to address the wicked sustainability challenges. However, the question arises whether collaborative governance actually leads to transformation, also because the textile sector still faces various sustainability challenges such as the violation of workers' rights, agriculture and water pollution from toxic chemicals, and emissions from logistics that contribute significantly to climate change.
In this dissertation, I therefore question whether and how collaborative governance in the textile sector provides space for, or pathways to, sustainability transformation. In three scientific articles and this framework paper, I use a mixed-methods research approach and follow scholars of sustainability science towards transformation research. First, I conduct a systematic literature review on inter-organizational and governance partnerships before diving into a critical case study on an interactive collaborative governance initiative, the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (hereafter: Textiles Partnership). The multi-stakeholder initiative (MSIs) was initiated by the German government in 2015 and brings together more than 130 organizations and companies from seven stakeholder groups. It aims at improving working conditions and reducing environmental impacts in global textile and clothing supply chains. In two empirical articles, I then explore learning spaces in the partnership and the ways in which governance actors navigate the complex governance landscape. For the former, I use a quantitative and qualitative social network analysis based on annual reports and qualitative interviews with diverse actors from the partnership. Then, I use qualitative content analysis of the interviews, policy documents and conduct a focus group discussion to validate assumptions about the broader empirical governance landscape and the social interactions within. Finally, in this framework paper, I use theories of transformation to distinguish forms of change and personal, political and practical spheres of transformation, and reflect on the findings of the three articles in this cumulative dissertation.
I argue that collaborative governance in general and MSIs in particular provide spaces for actors to negotiate their diverse interests, values and worldviews, which is a valuable contribution to social learning and interaction for transformation. However, private governance structures and the diversity and unharmonized nature of initiatives in the landscape hinder the realization of the full potential of such partnerships for practical transformation. My case study shows that in such partnerships, structures emerge that impede the full engagement of all actors in constructive conflict for social learning because they create structures in which few are actively involved in making decisions. This traces back to a practical trade-off between learning and achieving governance outcomes. I argue that decisions should not be rushed, but space should be provided for the confrontation of different values and interests to arrive at informed solutions. Additionally, actors in such partnerships are completely overwhelmed by the multiplicity of different and mostly voluntary initiatives and partnerships, which bring different, non-harmonized commitments, so that actors take on varying and sometimes conflicting roles. MSIs are thus limited by the need for stronger state regulation, which in Germany is now leading to the implementation of the Due Diligence Act in June 2021. Collaborative governance initiatives are thus critical platforms where different actors are able to negotiate their values and political interests. However, they need to be embedded in governmental framework conditions and binding laws that transcend national borders, because the industry's challenges also transcend borders. Only in this way can they contribute substantively to transformation. Further research should focus on the interplay between state and private regulation through further case studies in different sectors and foster inter- and transdisciplinary research that allow for spaces for social interaction and learning between science and practice.
