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Considering the recent success of right-wing populist candidates and parties in the United States and across Europe, there has for some years now been talk among scholars (and the wider public) about a worldwide democratic recession. The younger generations appear to be especially unsupportive of democracy’s liberal principles and more willing to express support for authoritarian alternatives. What these authors overlook, however, is that the publics of advanced industrial societies have experienced an intergenerational value shift. In fact, populations in industrial democracies have become more liberal overall, but not everyone’s mindset is changing at the same speed. It is mainly – but not exclusively – the members of the lower classes that do not keep up. While societies have generally become more liberal, there is increasing alienation between the social classes over these liberal values. Drawing on a more recent trend in social class research with a social cognitive approach, this dissertation contributes to the study of growing anti-democratic tendencies around the world by analyzing the interplay between inequality dynamics and value orientations. The focus lies on investigating the effect socio-cultural polarization (i.e., ideological polarization between social classes) has on civic culture in the mature democracies of the West. The findings suggest that it is not ideological polarization between the social classes that has the greatest negative effect on civic culture, or general civic attitudes and behavior, for that matter. It is the increasing dissent in society about whether the country’s elites are still to be trusted with making the right decisions to increase the average citizen’s quality of life. This difference in opinion manifests itself in a decline in some civic attitudes.
Urban areas are prone to climate change impacts. Simultaneously the world's population increasingly resides in cities. In this light, there is a growing need to equip urban decision makers with evidence-based climate information tailored to their specific context to adequately adapt to and prepare for future climate change. To construct climate information high-resolution regional climate models and their projections are pivotal. There is a need to move beyond commonly investigated variables, such as temperature and precipitation, to cover a wider breath of possible climate impacts. In this light, the research presented in this thesis is centered around enhancing the understanding about regional-to-local climate change in Berlin and its surroundings, with a focus on humidity. More specifically, following a regional climate modelling and data analysis approach, this research aims to understand the potential of regional climate models, and the possible added value of convection-permitting simulations, to support the development of high-quality climate information for urban regions, to support knowledge-based decision-making. The first part of the thesis investigates what can already be understood with available regional climate model simulations about future climate change in Berlin and its surroundings, particularly with respect to humidity and related variables. Ten EURO-CORDEX model combinations are analyzed, for the RCP8.5 emission scenario during the time period 1970-2100, for the Berlin region. The results are the first to show an urban-rural humidity contrast under a changing climate, simulated by the EURO-CORDEX ensemble, of around 6% relative humidity, and a robust enlarging urban drying effect, of approximately 2-4% relative humidity, in Berlin compared to its surroundings throughout the 21st century. The second part explores how crossing spatial scales from 12.5km to 3km model grid size affects unprecedented humidity extremes and related variables under future climate conditions for Berlin and its surroundings. Based on the unique HAPPI regional climate model dataset, two unprecedented humidity extremes are identified happening under 1.5°C and 2°C global mean warming, respectively SH>0.02 kg/kg and RH<30%. Employing a double-nesting approach, specifically designed for this study, the two humidity extremes are downscaled to the 12.5km grid resolution with the regional climate model REMO, and thereafter to the 3km with the convection-permitting model version of REMO (REMO NH). The findings indicate that the convection-permitting scale mitigates the SH>0.02kg/kg moist extreme and intensifies the RH<30% dry extreme. The multi-variate process analysis shows that the more profound urban drying effect on the convection-permitting resolution is mainly due to better resolving the physical processes related to the land surface scheme and land-atmosphere interactions on the 3km compared to the 12.5km grid resolution. The results demonstrate the added value of the convection-permitting resolution to simulate future humidity extremes in the urban-rural context. The third part of the research investigates the added value of convection-permitting models to simulate humidity related meteorological conditions driving specific climate change impacts, for the Berlin region. Three novel humidity related impact cases are defined for this research: influenza spread and survival; ragweed pollen dispersion; and in-door mold growth. Simulations by the regional climate model REMO are analyzed for the near future (2041-2050) under emission scenario RCP8.5, on the 12.5km and 3km grid resolution. The findings show that the change signal reverses on the convection-permitting resolution for the impact cases pollen, and mold (positive and negative). For influenza, the convection-permitting resolution intensifies the decrease of influenza days under climate change. Longer periods of consecutive influenza and mold days are projected under near-term climate change. The results show the potential of convection-permitting simulations to generate improved information about climate change impacts in urban regions to support decision makers. Generally, all results show an urban drying effect in Berlin compared to its surroundings for relative and specific humidity under climate change, respectively for the urban-rural contrast throughout the 21st century, for the downscaled future extreme conditions, and for the three humidity related impact cases. Added value for the convection-permitting resolution is found to simulate humidity extremes and the meteorological conditions driving the three impacts cases.
The transition of our energy system towards a generation by renewables, and the corresponding developments of wind power technology enlarge the requirements that must be met by a wind turbine control scheme. Within this thesis, the role of modern, model-based control approaches in providing an answer to present and future challenges faced by wind energy conversion systems is discussed. While many different control loops shape the power system in general, and the energy conversion process from the wind to the electrical grid specifically, this work addresses the problem of power output regulation of an individual turbine. To this end, the considered control task focuses on the operation of the turbine on the nonlinear power conversion curve, which is dictated by the aerodynamic interaction of the wind turbine structure and the current inflow. To enable a power tracking functionality, and thereby account for requirements of the electrical grid instead of operating the turbine at maximum efficiency constantly, an extended operational range is explicitly considered in the implemented control scheme. This allows for an adjustment of the produced power depending on the current state of the electrical grid and is one component in constructing a reliable and stable power system based on renewable generation. To account for the nonlinear dynamics involved, a linear matrix inequalities approach to control based on Takagi-Sugeno modeling is investigated. This structure is capable of integrating several degrees of freedom into an automated control design, where, additionally to stability, performance constraints are integrated into the design to account for the sensitive dynamical behavior of turbines in operation and the loading experienced by the turbine components. For this purpose, a disturbance observer is designed that provides an estimate of the current effective wind speed from the evolution of the measurements. This information is used to adjust the control scheme to the varying operating points and dynamics. Using this controller, a detailed simulation study is performed that illustrates the experienced loading of the turbine structure due to a dynamic variation of the power output. It is found that a dedicated controller allows wind turbines to provide such functionality. Additionally to the conducted simulations, the control scheme is validated experimentally. For this purpose, a fully controllable wind turbine is operated in a wind tunnel setup that is capable of generating reproducible wind conditions, including turbulence, in a wide operational range. This allows for an assessment of the power tracking performance enforced by the controller and analysis of the wind speed estimation error with the uncertainties present in the physical application. The controller showed to operate the turbine smoothly in all considered operating scenarios, while the implementation in the real-time environment revealed no limitations in the application of the approach within the experiments. Hence, the high flexibility in adjusting the turbine operating trajectories and structural design characteristics within the model-based design allows for efficient controller synthesis for wind turbines with increasing functionality and complexity.
The worldwide decline of plant and insect species during the last decades has far-reaching consequences for the functionality of ecosystems and their inherent processes. Pollination as one of them is an indispensable ecosystem service for human wellbeing. However, an increasing number of pollinator and plant species are threatened by multiple, interacting, and sometimes synergistic causes that are becoming a growing threat to ecosystem functioning. Given the loss of plant species diversity, it is increasingly difficult for pollinators to find food throughout the year. Therefore, this study analyses the influence of plant diversity on pollinators. The study was conducted in the course of the Jena Experiment, which is a long-term biodiversity experiment (since 2002) with 60 plant species, common to Central European Arrhenatherum grasslands. With a plant diversity gradient of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 60 plant species per plot, time-series data resulted from a wide range of ecosystem processes, ranging from productivity, decomposition, C-storage, and N-storage to herbivory, and pollination. These were studied to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Chapter 2 studies the spatio-temporal distribution of pollinators on flowers along an experimental plant diversity gradient. In particular, the spatial pollinator behaviour was examined. Chapters 3 and 4 continues on the chemical composition of flower nectar (nectar) of various plant species. The chemical composition of the nectar was analysed for the two most important macronutrients, carbohydrates (C) and amino acids (AA), using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Subsequently, their contents were analysed in terms of concentration, proportional content and the ratio of carbohydrates to amino acids (C:AA). In Chapter 3, the nectar of 34 plant species from the grasslands of the Jena Experiment was compared. In Chapter 4, nectar was investigated in the context of diversity effects on the example of the plant species Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis. It was analysed to what extent the nectar quality (nutrient content) differs between plant individuals of one species. Overall, these studies indicate how fragile plant-pollinator interactions are but also how important plant species-rich grasslands are to support plant-pollinator interactions. Increased plant species diversity is essential to ensure the availability of flowering resources throughout the year. Pollinators, such as honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, and hoverflies can use the niches in time and in vertical space complementarily. However, in plant species-poor grasslands there may be more niche overlaps, which is probably due to a reduced availability of resources. This points to the need to include different plant species belonging to different plant families, whose nectar may have evolved in response to morphological flower traits and metabolic pathways. Therefore plant species diversity can supply pollinators with nectar differing in carbohydrate and amino acid content and thus differing in quality. Also C-AA ratios have proven to be a useful measurement to reveal differences between plant species. In addition, C:AA ratios were not differing in nectar of K. arvensis individuals growing in different plant species richness levels, although their nectar seemed to be more attractive in mixtures with 16 plant species, likely due to higher content of essential and phagostimulatory amino acids than in plant species-poor mixtures.
Destination websites, which are maintained by destination marketing/management organisations (DMOs), are a key source of information for tourists in the pre-trip phase. DMOs are increasingly applying experiential marketing on their websites to support positive pre-travel online destination experiences (ODEs) and make the vision of the holiday as vivid as possible. However, research into technology-driven travel experiences is still in its infancy. In particular, a theoretical understanding of the nature of ODEs arising from destination websites is still lacking. Therefore, this dissertation is dedicated to an extensive investigation of ODEs on destination websites in the pre-travel phase. The aims were to analyse the influences of experiential design on ODEs, explore the ODE dimensions, and develop and validate a measurement tool for assessing the ODE values of destination websites. In the first qualitative multi-method study (eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews, and video observations), the objective was to gain an in-depth understanding of the ODE facets in the travel inspiration phase. It was found that the experience dimensions adopted in previous research regarding the product-brand context (sensory, affective, intellectual, social, and behavioural dimensions) also occurred in the ODE context but exhibited some particularities, such as a future-oriented affective component (affective forecasting). Moreover, a supplementary spatio-temporal experience dimension was identified. An online field experiment was subsequently conducted and aimed at assessing the effects of applying experiential marketing on destination websites on ODEs in the travel inspiration phase. Based on the findings of Study 1, an initial attempt at developing an ODE measurement instrument was made and the ODE dimensionality tested. The results showed the theoretically relevant experience dimensions to be less differentiated compared to the product-brand context; instead, they merged into a holistic ODE encompassing several experience facets. Furthermore, it was shown that the application of experiential design enhanced ODEs; however, considering the subjectivity of experiences, the effect was rather small. Accordingly, complex multi-media elements do not automatically increase the experiential effect. In the third study, a quasi-online field experiment was conducted, simulating the travel information phase (higher involvement than Study 2) to re-assess the ODE dimensions and develop and validate a measurement instrument. The results showed the overall ODE to be reflected by two interrelated dimensions that aligned with the dual process theory: hedonic and utilitarian experiences. The facets identified in the first study were largely reflected in these two overarching components. Moreover, a reliable, valid, and parsimonious second-order measure for assessing ODEs was proposed. Overall, the results yielded by this dissertation enhance the scientific understanding of the technology-empowered tourist experience in the currently under-researched pre-travel experience phase. In addition, by proposing a new scale for the measurement of ODEs, this dissertation provides useful methodological advancements that can pave the way for further research in this field.
Rangelands are the most widespread land-use systems in drylands, where they often represent the only sustainable form of land-use due to the limited water availability. The intensity of the land-use of such rangeland ecosystems in drylands depends to a large extent on the climatic variability in time and space. Rangeland systems are seriously threatened by climate change, because climate change will alternate the availability of water in time and space. This dissertation therefore deals with the question which role climatic variability plays for the effects of grazing on vegetation in dry rangelands. The relatively intact steppes in central Mongolia were chosen as a model system. They are characterised by low precipitation and high climatic variability in the south (100mm annual precipitation), and comparatively high precipitation and low climatic variability in the north (250mm). The effects of grazing on vegetation on 15 grazing transects were investigated along the climatic gradient. The central elements were the plant species and their abundances on 10m x 10m areas, for which functional characteristics such as height, affiliation of functional groups or leaf nutrients were recorded. The main hypothesis of this dissertation is that grazing has a greater impact on vegetation communities with increasing rainfall. To test this hypothesis, three studies were carried out. In a first study, the research group found that the vegetation communities in the dry area differ strongly along the climatic gradient, while the plant communities in the wetter area differ more strongly along the grazing gradient. The results of the second study suggested that this difference can be explained by a functional environmental filter that becomes weaker from south to north as the niche spectrum increases. The third study has shown that this is likely a function of the higher availability of resources, which at the same time leads to higher grazing pressure, therewith stressing the vegetation especially in years with droughts. In summary, the author concludes that the climate gradient also represents an environmental filter that filters species for certain characteristics, thus having a significant influence on the vegetation. Climatic variability influences the effect of grazing on vegetation, which is particularly problematic where the grazing intensity is high and the species are less adapted to strong climatic fluctuations. Future scenarios predict increasing productivity and therefore increasing livestock density. This may lead to an increase in floristic and functional diversity across the climate gradient, but also to increasing grazing effects and therefore threads for overgrazing. Increasing climatic variability is likely to intensify this thread, especially in the moister regions, whereas the dry rangelands are likely to be more resilient due to the adaptation of the plants to non-equilibrium dynamics.
Transformative learning is increasingly set to become an essential component in sustainability transformation. Despite, little has been done to systematically explore the contribution to sustainability transformation. This learning theory developed decades ago independently of sustainability discourses; however, it provides an analytical framework for understanding the learning processes, outcomes and conditions in individual and social learning towards sustainability transformation. Against this background, the following research question arises: To which extent can transformative learning lead to sustainability transformation? This doctoral work aims to explore transformative learning processes, outcomes, and conditions occurring and advancing towards sustainability transformation of the textile-fashion industry in Mexico. Taking an exploratory approach, the methods employed were literature reviews to untangle concepts and to construct theoretical pillars to support the empirical research design and data analysis. For data collection, snowball-sampling techniques were used to explore the practice field of the textile-fashion industry in Mexico. Qualitative interviews were employed to gather data about the learning experiences of actors. Qualitative and quantitative methods were required to perform the respective data analysis, the qualitative codification of interviewees' responses. Analysis of social media content was also utilised to understand the communication and business practices of projects involved in the transformation of the textile-fashion sector. As a result, this work comprises three articles, one a systematic literature review and two empirical research articles, investigating the transformative learning processes of entrepreneurs in the development of sustainability niches. As for the findings of this doctoral work, the use of transformative learning in sustainability transformation requires a careful study of the theory and its conceptual elements. Regarding the case study, transformative learning is inherent in forming and developing sustainability niches as entrepreneurs venture into them: It is individual prior learning, expectations and actions that initiate the path of sustainability transformation while disorienting dilemmas, critical reflection, and discourse accelerate them. Through these stages, it is when individual learning turns into social learning. On the other hand, based on the multi-level perspective, the interplay between the niche, regime and landscape levels generates a space for sustainability transformation and transformative learning.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been established in recent years as an essential component of the economic system, demanded and promoted by a wide variety of stakeholder groups. The present dissertation shows that organizations face major communicative challenges with regard to CSR. CSR is not only determined by organizations themselves, but rather arises in the interplay with economic and social discourses. It is assumed that boundarys of organizational action are under constant change, so that CSR actors inevitably initiate constitutive communication processes. The resulting polyphony requires an understanding of the underlying communication processes. Hence, the performative character of CSR communication is taken up by this dissertation and thus the constitution of both the communicating actors and their relationships in the network is illustrated. The presented scientific papers are united by the overarching assumption that communication does not accompany and describe organizational action, but unfolds its own power.
Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit analysiert den interkulturellen Austausch zwischen der Türkei und Deutschland auf der Ebene von Forschungskooperationen und bei Akquisitionsgesprächen in der Türkei. Anhand von weiteren Situationsanalysen werden auch die Erfahrungen der Autorin in Deutschland aufgezeigt. Die teilnehmenden Beobachtungen und Situationsanalysen vertiefen empirisch die Frage der kulturellen und sozialen Bedingungen einer Markterschließung im Bereich von menschlichen Beziehungen und ökonomischen Rahmenbedingungen - wobei vor allem Forschungskooperationen in den Feldern von Ernährung und Pharmazie von Interesse sind. Die Analysen der teilnehmenden Beobachtungen werden anhand der Kulturdimensionen von Hofstede durchgeführt, es wird gezeigt inwieweit diese anwendbar sind und mögliche Ergebnisse für die Bewertungen einer Kultur erlauben könnten. Die Kulturdimensionen von Hofstede stehen im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit. Zuerst wird die aktuelle politische und wirtschaftliche Lage der Türkei in den letzten 20 Jahren aufgezeigt, dann wird das Konzept der "Interkulturellen Kompetenz" beleuchtet. Sodann wird das Kulturkonzept von Hofstede im interkulturellen Dialog betrachtet und die allgemeine Kritik an Hofstede dargestellt. Auch alternative Theorieansätze werden beschrieben. Die Strategie des Fraunhofer Forschungsverbunds wird über das praktische Vorgehen beleuchtet und Faktoren für den Erfolg beschrieben. Die Arbeit schließt mit einem methodisch-philosophischen Ausblick hinsichtlich des Zusammenhangs vom korrelativen Denken und der Anwendung der Kulturdimensionen von Hofstede.
Woman, Stand Straight: An Integrated Lutheran Feminist Theological Concept of Human Flourishing
(2022)
Beginning with the theology of Martin Luther and drawing on a selection of feminist theologians, this thesis proposes a relational, agential model of human flourishing. It is rooted in Luther's doctrines of the hiddenness of God and of God’s alien and proper work in the lives of believers. Such an approach gives rise to questions concerning human freedom and agency, sin, and the nature of our relationship with God and with other persons. Many feminist theologies provide an inadequate account of sin and its effects on the person and their relationships. This thesis asserts that taking sin and its effects seriously is essential to developing a secure and healthy self, and a healthy relationship with God and other persons. It therefore proposes a reworked understanding of religious incurvature as a relational model of sin which supports the goal of human flourishing. This concept of the self curved either inwards, or towards another, speaks to the nature of sin in its traditional understanding of sin as pride, as well as addressing feminist criticisms that the notion of sin as pride is not relevant to the needs and experiences of women. The model of human flourishing proposed here is specifically Christian in its assertion that we do not exist as persons, are not fully human, without our being in relationship with the triune God and other created persons. We flourish in community. Further, it supports the idea that true Christian freedom consists of a life dedicated to service of God and others.
The doctoral dissertation deals with the problems of the diagnosis of rolling bearings using recurrence analysis. The main topic is the influence of radial internal clearance on the change of dynamics in a self-aligning double-row ball bearing with a tapered bore, in which the axial preload can control this parameter in a wide range. The dissertation began with an analysis of the state of knowledge. In the next part of the dissertation, the thesis was formulated and activities related to its proving were defined. The theoretical part was supplemented with the basics related to vibroacoustic diagnostics of rolling bearings and presented methods that can be used for their diagnostics. The research on proving the thesis was started with the preparation of a mathematical model in which a change in the damping coefficient in the field of radial clearance was adopted, a difference in the clearance value for a given row of balls was proposed, and the influence of shape errors and radial shaft endplay on the dynamics of the tested bearing was taken into account. During the dynamics tests, the radial clearance was adopted as a bifurcation parameter, and on the basis of the bifurcation diagram, it was possible to indicate the characteristic areas of bearing operation due to the radial internal clearance. In order to verify the model, experimental tests were carried out with a series of bearings in which the radial clearance was changed in a wide range possible to be physically realized. Recurrence analysis was used for both the dynamic response obtained from model and experimental studies. Owing to the comparative analysis of the dynamic response, recurrence quantificators were selected that are most susceptible to changes in radial clearance to bearing dynamics. Moreover, as a result of the research, it was possible to select a narrow range of radial clearance, ensuring the smoothest operation of the tested bearing.
Detecting and Assessing Road Damages for Autonomous Driving Utilizing Conventional Vehicle Sensors
(2021)
Environmental perception is one of the biggest challenges in autonomous driving to move inside complex traffic situations properly. Perceiving the road's condition is necessary to calculate the drivable space; in manual driving, this is realized by the human visual cortex. Enabling the vehicle to detect road conditions is a critical and complex task from many perspectives. The complexity lies on the one hand in the development of tools for detecting damage, ideally using sensors already installed in the vehicle, and on the other hand, in integrating detected damages into the autonomous driving task and thus into the subsystems of autonomous driving. High-Definition Feature Maps, for instance, should be prepared for mapping road damages, which includes online and in-vehicle implementation. Furthermore, the motion planning system should react based on the detected damages to increase driving comfort and safety actively. Road damage detection is essential, especially in areas with poor infrastructure, and should be integrated as early as possible to enable even less developed countries to reap the benefits of autonomous driving systems. Besides the application in autonomous driving, an up-to-date solution on assessing road conditions is likewise desirable for the infrastructure planning of municipalities and federal states to make optimal use of the limited resources available for maintaining infrastructure quality. Addressing the challenges mentioned above, the research approach of this work is pragmatic and problem-solving. In designing technical solutions for road damage detection, the researchers conduct applied research methods in engineering, including modeling, prototyping, and field studies. They utilize design science research to integrate road damages in an end-to-end concept for autonomous driving while drawing on previous knowledge, the application domain requirements, and expert workshops. This thesis provides various contributions to theory and practice. The investigators design two individual solutions to assess road conditions with existing vehicle sensor technology. The first solution is based on calculating the quarter-vehicle model utilizing the vehicle level sensor and an acceleration sensor. The novel model-based calculation measures the road elevation under the tires, enabling common vehicles to assess road conditions with standard hardware. The second solution utilizes images from front-facing vehicle cameras to detect road damages with deep neural networks. Despite other research in this area, the algorithms are designed to be applicable on edge devices in autonomous vehicles with limited computational resources while still delivering cutting-edge performance. In addition, the analyses of deep learning tools and the introduction of new data into training provide valuable opportunities for researchers in other application areas to develop deep learning algorithms to optimize detection performance and runtime. Besides detecting road damages, the authors provide novel algorithms for classifying the severity of road damages to deliver additional information for improved motion planning. Alongside the technical solutions, they address the lack of an end-to-end solution for road damages in autonomous driving by providing a concept that starts from data generation and ends with servicing the vehicle motion planning. This includes solutions for detecting road damages, assessing their severity, aggregating the data in the vehicle and a cloud platform, and making the data available via that platform to other vehicles. Fundamental limitations in this dissertation are due to boundaries in modeling. The pragmatic approach simplifies reality, which always distorts the degree of truth in the result.
Extracting meaningful representations of data is a fundamental problem in machine learning. Those representations can be viewed from two different perspectives. First, there is the representation of data in terms of the number of data points. Representative subsets that compactly summarize the data without superfluous redundancies help to reduce the data size. Those subsets allow for scaling existing learning algorithms up without approximating their solution. Second, there is the representation of every individual data point in terms of its dimensions. Often, not all dimensions carry meaningful information for the learning task, or the information is implicitly embedded in a low-dimensional subspace. A change of representation can also simplify important learning tasks such as density estimation and data generation. This thesis deals with the aforementioned views on data representation and contributes to them. The authors first focus on computing representative subsets for a matrix factorization technique called archetypal analysis and the setting of optimal experimental design. For these problems, they motivate and investigate the usability of the data boundary as a representative subset. The authors also present novel methods to efficiently compute the data boundary, even in kernel-induced feature spaces. Based on the coreset principle, they derive another representative subset for archetypal analysis, which provides additional theoretical guarantees on the approximation error. Empirical results confirm that all compact representations of data derived in this thesis perform significantly better than uniform subsets of data. In the second part of the thesis, the research group is concerned with efficient data representations for density estimation. The researchers analyze spatio-temporal problems, which arise, for example, in sports analytics, and demonstrate how to learn (contextual) probabilistic movement models of objects using trajectory data. Furthermore, they highlight issues of interpolating data in normalizing flows, a technique that changes the representation of data to follow a specific distribution. The authors show how to solve this issue and obtain more natural transitions on the example of image data.
Die institutionelle Bildung, Erziehung und Betreuung für Kinder im Alter von 0-3 Jahren erfährt seit Beginn der Diskussionen um einen quantitativen Ausbau der institutionellen Betreuungsplätze für diese Altersgruppe, einen intensiven Wandel. Die vorliegende Dissertation eröffnet eine Metaperspektive auf das Feld der Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildungen im Bereich der Frühpädagogik (Kinder von 0 bis 3 Jahren) und leistet einen Beitrag zur (didaktischen) Weiterentwicklung und Reflexion dieser vielfältigen Lehr-/Lernsettings. Den Kern der Dissertationsstudie bilden qualitative leitfadengestützte (Experten-) Interviews. Das forschungsleitende Interesse ist auf Lehrende im oben genannten Bereich gerichtet, die zum Zeitpunkt der Erhebungen bereits langjährig in diesem Feld tätig sind. Ausgewählte Ebenen und Dimensionen einer Professionalisierung des Feldes werden daher primär aus der Perspektive der dort lehrend tätigen Akteure transparent gemacht. Integriert wird hierbei u.a. die Offenlegung der Anforderungen an die Fachkräfte (die Lernenden) und ihre Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildner (die Lehrenden) im Kontext der zu gestaltenden (lebenslangen) Lehr-/Lernprozesse. Es werden zentrale Zusammenhänge und Abhängigkeiten aufgezeigt, um eine weitere Systematisierung des Feldes der Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildungen im Bereich der institutionellen Bildung, Erziehung und Betreuung für Kinder von null bis drei Jahren zu unterstützen. Es wird gezeigt, dass Lehrende aus diesem Bereich Perspektiven, Strategien und Ansätze entwickelt haben, um mit der vorhandenen Komplexität, den Anforderungen und Strukturen des Feldes, bei der Planung sowie Realisierung von Lehr-/Lernprozessen zukunftsorientiert umzugehen. Für die Erarbeitung einer Aus- oder Fort- und Weiterbildung müssen schwerpunktspezifisch, grundlegende, feldbezogene Implikationen und Zusammenhänge aufgearbeitet und den Lernenden transparent gemacht werden. Für die Erarbeitung eines Themas/einer Theorie werden von Lehrenden Reflexionsfolien zur Kontextualisierung dieser sowie Fokussierung und Individualisierung der Lehr-Lernprozesse eingesetzt. Es wird deutlich, dass die am/im Lehr-/Lernprozess beteiligten/wirkenden Ebenen, Akteure und Anforderungen/Konstruktionen sich dabei in wechselseitigen Prozessen der Gestaltung und Aushandlung befinden. Durch ihre vielfältigen Tätigkeitsfelder und Impulse leisten die Lehrenden selbst einen elementaren Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung des Feldes.
Food forests present a promising solution to address multiple sustainability challenges adaptable to local contexts. As biodiverse multi-strata agroforestry systems, they can provide several ecological, socio-cultural and economic services. They sequester carbon, limit soil erosion and regulate the micro-climate; they offer the opportunity for education on healthy diets and ecology, and they produce food and can create livelihood opportunities. However, despite their obvious benefits, food forests are still a niche concept. To date, research has focused on their ecological and social services; we lack an understanding of food forests as a comprehensive sustainability solution, including their economic dimension, and knowledge on how to develop them. Addressing these gaps, this qualitative research used a solution- and process-oriented methodology guided by transformational sustainability research. In a comparative case study approach, it created an inventory of 209 food forests, followed by interviews and site visits of 14 sites to understand their characteristics and assess their sustainability (Article 1). More indepth, it analyzed the implementation path of seven food forest for success factors, barriers and coping strategies (Article 2). Based on these insights, two experimental case studies were initiated to develop sustainable food forests with practice partners, one based in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. and one in Lüneburg, Germany. Two studies analyzed the cases' outputs and processes highlighting success factors and challenges, including the role of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem (Article 3, Phoenix case) and key features of productive partnerships to understand why one case succeeded and the other failed (Article 4). Findings include key features of existing and sustainable food forests as well as success factors on how to develop them; namely acquiring a complementary skill set that includes specialty farming and entrepreneurial know-how, securing sufficient start-up funds and long-term land access as well as overcoming regulatory restrictions. Supporting institutions are especially needed to integrate and professionalize the planning stage and provide know-how on alternative business practices. Key features of productive partnerships include an entrepreneurial attitude, access to support functions, long-term orientation and commitment to food system sustainability.
Increased international compliance with human rights and democracy standards is a core issue for both human rights and democratizing actors as well as for victims of human rights abuse. International human rights organizations (IHROs) are expected to make positive contributions to this end, even though they possess low levels of authority. This authority has been renegotiated multiple times in various reform processes. An oversimplified expectation would have us assume that democracies would want to strengthen IHROs, and that autocracies would seek to weaken them. As the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was reformed in 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011, some autocracies strived to abolish parts of the UNHRC. Other autocracies aimed "merely" to weaken them. Democracies displayed an even larger variance. The question that drives this research work is how we can explain the broad variety of state preferences for strengthening or weakening IHROs. Previous research has mostly concentrated on democracies, leaving autocracies understudied. It also treated countries as black boxes. To account for such shortcomings, first, the author systematically tests the relationship between the UNHRC and its authoritarian and democratic members by means of inferential statistics. Second, he analyzes a bottom-up process inherent to New Liberalism. It scrutinizes the role of domestic societal actors, domestic institutions, as well as pressures on the international stage. The results reveal that societal actors, along with the interplay of wealth and regime type in the international realm, figure as the most important predictors of delegation preferences voiced by autocracies and democracies during the reform of the monitoring bureaucracy Special Procedures of the UNHRC. Societal actors play a more important role in democracies than in autocracies. Institutionalized domestic oversight mechanisms help societal actors to conduct effective lobbying at the domestic level. Oversight mechanisms are more important than the rule of law and electoral institutions. Regarding international coalition building, authoritarian regimes turn out to be better organized than democracies. The author concludes that supporters of strong IHROs shall 1. empower domestic societal actors; 2. disrupt cohesive delegation preferences of authoritarian regimes; and 3. invest in independent domestic oversight mechanisms.oversight mechanisms.
Design methods for collaborative knowledge production in inter- and transdisciplinary research
(2022)
This dissertation seeks to better understand how design methods facilitate collaborative knowledge production and integration in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research. Through five independent papers, this dissertation contributes to addressing the research question on four levels – conceptual-epistemological, empirical, methodological and practical. By exploring the linkages between design research and inter- and transdisciplinary research, a conceptual basis for the targeted use of design methods in collaborative processes of inter- and transdisciplinary research is laid and their spectrum of methods is expanded. This is followed by the development of a transformative epistemology in and for problem-oriented, collaborative forms of research, such as transdisciplinary sustainability research, called problematic designing. Based on a deeper understanding of integration and collaborative knowledge production, as well as its accompanying challenges, empirical research into applying design prototyping as a method in and for situations of collaborative research was conducted. To this end, the findings provide a fundamental basis for the facilitation of inter- and transdisciplinary research processes when dealing with complex problems. With its inherent openness and iterative approach in addressing the unknowns of complex phenomena, design prototyping contributes to the required form of imagination that enables to anticipate possible futures. Furthermore, by including visual-haptic modes of expression, design prototyping reduces the dominance of language and text in scientific negotiation processes and does justice to the diversity of cognitive modes. Finally, the empirical findings of this dissertation emphasise the importance of the visual-haptic dimension for collaborative knowledge production and the communication of knowledge, and provide insights into the visual structuring of human thought processes. The results on material metaphors, collaborative prototyping and material-metaphorical imagery contribute decisively to the basic knowledge of the epistemological quality of design and the importance of the visual and haptic for thought processes in general. The extension and adaptation of existing analysis methods in this dissertation add to the further development of analysis of visual-haptic data. The results are once again reflected in the synthesis of this framework paper as cross-cutting issues.
This doctoral thesis deals with the topic of organizational misconduct and covers the three salient research streams in this area by addressing its performance outcomes, antecedents, and preventive measures. Specifically, it is concerned with the question of how different forms of misconduct are reflected in the stock performance of related organizations, thereby, covering the three pillars of corporate sustainability environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Furthermore, it aims to conceptualize how individual cognitive biases may lead to misconduct, therefore, potentially representing an antecedent and how existing management control systems can be enhanced to effectively address specific forms of misconduct, respectively. To these ends, the author first reviews the research stream of stock price reactions to environmental pollution events in terms of the underlying research samples, methodological specifications, and theoretical underpinnings. Based on the findings of the systematic literature review (SLR), he performs three stock-based event studies of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal (Dieselgate), workplace sexual harassment (#MeToo accusations), and the 2003 blackout in the US to cover the three ESG dimensions, respectively. In line with the SLR, his event studies reveal substantial stock losses to firms involved in misconduct that are eventually even accompanied by a spillover effect to uninvolved bystanders. Then, the author reviews the extant literature conceptually to develop a framework outlining how moral licensing as an individual cognitive bias might lead to a self-attribution of corporate sustainability, a consecutive accumulation of moral credit, and a later exchange of this credit by engaging in misconduct afterward. Finally, he assesses existing workplace sexual harassment management controls, such as awareness training and grievance procedures critically in another conceptual analysis. Based on the shortcomings stemming from management controls' focus on compliance and negligence of moral duties, he introduces five specific nudges firms should consider to enhance their existing management controls and eventually prevent occurrences of workplace sexual harassment. Based on the six distinct articles within this doctoral thesis, the author outlines its limitations and point at directions for future research. These mainly address providing further evidence on the long-term performance effects of organizational misconduct, enriching our knowledge on further cognitive biases eventually leading to misconduct, and conceptualizing nudging beyond the use-case of workplace sexual harassment.
Nachhaltigkeitsziele im Sinne einer Ökologie, Ökonomie und Soziokultur lassen sich im Bauwesen auf verschiedene Instrumente zurückführen. Optimierung des Wärmeschutzes durch die Energieeinsparverordnung (Effizienz) oder Minimierung von Abfall im Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz (Suffizienz). Um jedoch eine neue Qualität der Nachhaltigkeit zu schaffen, ist ein Paradigmenwechsel notwendig. Dabei können Cradle to Cradle Prinzipien als ökoeffektive Methode angewandt werden, in dem exemplarisch die Biodiversität eingebunden, gesunde Bauprodukte verbaut und erneuerbare Energien genutzt werden. Die Natur dient als Vorbild (Konsistenz). Demnach werden Gebäude nützlich für Mensch, Umwelt und Gesellschaft umgesetzt und gleichzeitig Werte geschaffen. Für den deutschen Einzelhandel bestehen vielschichtige Potenziale, da der Gebäudebestand mit mehreren Millionen Quadratmetern bedeutend ist und die Bauwerke aufgrund von Konzeptänderungen oder Verschleiß der Ladenflächen regelmäßig umgebaut werden. Die Forschung beginnt mit einer Bestandsaufnahme von Cradle to Cradle Bauprodukten und Analyse eines real umgesetzten Einkaufszentrums. Um Einflussfaktoren von Stakeholdern zu identifizieren, wurden qualitative Experteninterviews mit ausgewählten Projektbeteiligten aus Bauherrn, Betreibern, Beratern, Mietparteien und Herstellern durchgeführt. Im Rahmen des Forschungsvorhabens wurde untersucht, inwieweit sich Bauprodukte aus der Gebäudeplanung in wissenschaftlicher Theorie und praktischer Bauwirtschaft umsetzen lassen, Geschäftsmodelle anwendbar sind, Trends und Innovationen im Zusammenhang stehen oder Änderungen in Politik oder Wirtschaft notwendig sind. Im Ergebnis wurden Maßnahmen für eine neue Qualität der Nachhaltigkeit bei Einzelhandelsgebäuden identifiziert. Exemplarisch wird anhand der Interviews deutlich, dass neben einem staatlichen Umweltzeichen oder einer Green Building Planungsdisziplin, insbesondere die Ökonomie in Form von Investitions- und Betriebskosten den größten Stellenwert besitzt. Es braucht einen staatlichen Regulierungsrahmen und neue Geschäftsmodelle, damit nachhaltige Bauprodukte wirtschaftlich werden und durch Stakeholder in den Prozessen der Planung, Bauausführung und dem Betrieb berücksichtigt werden.
Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die bis Ende 2020 entstandenen gesetzlichen Strukturen und Instrumente zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien aus rechtswissenschaftlicher Perspektive eingeordnet, um der Frage nachzugehen, mit welchen Ansätzen und in welchem Umfang der Rechtsrahmen die verschiedenen Entwicklungen zur Erreichung der Ausbauziele für die erneuerbaren Energien einerseits und damit deren Beitrag zur Erreichung der Klimaschutzziele steuern kann. Darüber hinaus wird beleuchtet, welche Reformperspektiven aus den bisherigen Entwicklungen abgeleitet werden können oder sollten. Dazu werden die Strukturen und Elemente des Erneuerbare-Energien-Rechts sowie dessen Entwicklungslinien herausgearbeitet und bewertet. Dieser Schritt erfolgt durch die Analyse einzelner, für das Recht der erneuerbaren Energien prägender Strukturen und Entwicklungsschritte, etwa der Schaffung neuer Instrumente wie der Nutzungspflicht erneuerbarer Energien, der Beschreibung der prägenden Strukturelemente und Wirkungszusammenhänge in dem sich im Laufe von 30 Jahren herausgebildeten Recht der Erneuerbaren Energien im Stromsektor oder anhand der Einordnung von tiefgreifenden gesetzgeberischen Veränderungen wie der Umstellung auf Ausschreibungen im Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz. Diese Einzelbeobachtungen werden dann in Beziehung zueinander gesetzt, Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der hinter den Entwicklungen erkennbaren Gründe herausgearbeitet und in einen übergeordneten Gesamtkontext. Die Arbeit gliedert sich in vier Schritte, die sich einer kurzen einleitenden Problemskizze in Teil 1 anschließen: die grundlegende Analyse zu Recht und Klimaschutz sowie zur Rolle des Rechts bei der Transformation (Teil 2), eine umfassende Bestandsaufnahme zu den Bausteinen des Erneuerbare-Energien-Rechts, den Entwicklungslinien und deren Einordnung (Teil 3), ein Zwischenfazit, das die Gründe für die beobachteten Entwicklungslinien und Strukturen zusammenfasst und eine Einordnung des Rechts der erneuerbaren Energien in den größeren Kontext des Umweltenergierechts (Teil 4) sowie abschließend ein auf einer Einordnung des Rechts der erneuerbaren Energien in den Kontext der neu entstehenden Klimaschutzgovernance beruhenden Ausblick auf mögliche Themenfelder der weiteren Rechtsfortbildung (Teil 5).
Consisting of three articles and a framework manuscript, this cumulative dissertation deals with sustainable compensation of chief executive officer (CEO) with a focus on climate-related aspects. Against the backdrop of the European action for sustainability and the EU Green Deal, the dissertation pays special attention to the consideration of climate-related aspects of corporate performance in CEO compensation. In this context, sustainable compensation is characterized by the consideration of long-term interests and sustainability of the company as well as by the inclusion of financial and non-financial aspects of environmental, social and governance performance (ESG) in compensation agreements. While this novel instrument of corporate governance aims to incentivize the implementation of sustainability-oriented corporate strategy, it is particularly important to unfold this incentive effect at the individual CEO level in view of their managerial discretion. The framework manuscript discusses the research objectives, the regulatory and theoretical background, the results of the dissertation and their implications in the context of regulation, research, and business practice. The essence of the dissertation are the three articles. The first article examines the current state of empirical research based on 37 articles that were published between 1992 and 2018. Based on a multidimensional research framework, the structured literature review compiles past research findings, identifies contentual and methodological foci in the research area, and derives questions for future research. The second article addresses the topic from a conceptual perspective. Taking the existing work as a starting point, a conceptual framework is derived, which organizes the determinants of carbon-related CEO compensation at societal, organizational, group and individual levels of analysis. On this basis, eight propositions are presented that seek to distinguish between the determinants which support and challenge the implementation of carbon-related CEO compensation. The third article focuses on the use of CO2-oriented performance indicators in CEO compensation. The empirical-qualitative study analyzes corporate disclosure of the 65 largest companies in the EU for the years 2018 and 2019. The study addresses the use of CO2-oriented performance indicators in corporate strategy and CEO compensation. It also examines which compensation components are determined with the help of CO2-oriented performance indicators, which type of performance indicators are used, and whether CO2-intensive and less CO2-intensive companies differ in this regard.
Understanding that entrepreneurship can be better modeled from a systemic point of view is a primordial aspect that determines the important role of universities in entrepreneurial ecosystems. What makes the ecosystem approach a valuable tool for understanding social systems is that, from a holistic perspective, their behavior seems to have emerging characteristics. This dissertation presents a dual scientific account of the entrepreneurship phenomenon in universities. The work is divided into two equal parts, each of which is composed of two research papers. The narrative of the first half takes on a macro perspective view, consisting of one theoretical and one empirically-based conceptual case study. This part conceptually depicts a systematic approach to entrepreneurialism in higher education, namely an ecosystems perspective. The second half concentrates on the meso- and micro levels of study from the university's point of view, comprising of a case study as historical account for the emergence of the entrepreneurial university, and of a metasynthesis of empirical case studies in entrepreneurial universities, which serves as the basis for the development of entrepreneurial university archetypes. This doctoral work contributes to an in-depth understanding of Entrepreneurship in universities regarding its systemic qualities and archetypal characteristics of entrepreneurial universities. It argues for an ecosystem's perspective on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial activity, highlighting the fundamental role that universities play as the heart of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Furthermore, this research expands on the novel concept of the entrepreneurial university by using extensive case study literature to empirically identify distinct archetypes that better reflect the diverse reality of how universities engage as entrepreneurial actors by way of differentiated entrepreneurial structures, systems, and strategies.
Die Dissertation leistet einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der Schriften John Stuart Mills, indem darin Mills rudimentär ausformulierte Denkfigur und Forschungslücke der "Art of Life" untersucht wird. Die Autorin erweitert die traditionelle Interpretation Mills als klassischem Utilitaristen um einen geschärften Blick auf Mills Handhabung des antiken Theorieelements der Tugend. Drei überlappende thematische Zugänge – Lust, Charakter, Glückseligkeit - dienen der Veranschaulichung und Stärkung der These, wonach es sich bei Mills Theorie um eine hedonistische, perfektionistisch gefärbte Theorie der guten Lebensführung handelt. Der methodische Rückgriff auf die Lust- und Glückskonzeption des Aristoteles erlaubt es Mills differenzierte Auffassung von Lust bzw. Freude zu ergründen, die Rolle des menschlichen Charakters für das (moralische) Handeln festzustellen und eudemische Spuren im Verständnis von Glück aufzudecken. Abschließend bietet die Dissertationsschrift eine Interpretation der Schriften Mills als Lebenskunstphilosophie mit moralischen und außer-moralischen Ebenen und zeigt Anschlusspotentiale zu antiken, sowie zeitgenössischen (Lebenskunst) Theorien auf.
Undertaking local actions, such as implementing public (sustainability) policy, plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable development (SD) at the municipal level. In this regard, indicator-based assessment supports effective implementation by measuring the SD process, based upon evidence-based outcomes that indicators produce. Over the last decade, using subjective indicators, which rely on an individual's self-perception to measure subjects, has gained its significance in sustainability assessment, in line with the increasing importance of signifying individual's and community's well-being (WB) in the context of SD. This study aims to discuss and clarify the scope and functions of subjective sustainable development indicators (SDIs) conceptually and theoretically while examining the usability of such indicators employed in the practice of assessing sustainability policy and action process in a Japanese municipality. Furthermore, the potential usability of using subjective SDIs in monitoring a municipal initiative of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is also explanatorily examined. The present paper consists of a framework paper and three individual studies. In the framework paper, Section 1 introduces the global transition of SD discourse and the role that local authorities and implementing public policy play in achieving SD while outlining how WB positions in the SD context. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the major scope of overall SDIs at the conceptual and theoretical levels. Section 3 defines WB in the study's own right while exploring the scope of indicators measuring WB. In addition, this study strives to further clarify the peculiar scope of SDIs, measuring WB by synthesising the findings. Section 4 overviews how SD at the municipal level in Japan is practiced while acknowledging the extent to which residents perceive WB and SDGs in policymaking. Section 5 provides a brief yet extensive summary of the three individual studies. Section 6 discusses the findings while presenting implications for further study and practices of subjective SDIs. Furthermore, the three individual studies provide a thorough and in-depth discussion of the study subject. Study 1 illustrates the SD trend at the municipal level in Japan and the growing recognition of using subjective SDIs in public (sustainability) policy assessment in exploring comparative SDI systems to municipality groups. The findings, in turn, raise the need for a further study on subjective SDIs. Study 2 extensively discusses the concept of WB as the overarching subject to be measured while examining varying approaches and scopes of SDIs. It identifies three differentiated WB (i.e., material and social objective WB as well as subjective WB) and distinctive approaches of subjective SDIs (i.e., expert-led and citizen-based approaches) alongside objective SDIs. The findings suggest that these SDIs identified are, conceptually, most capable of measuring associated WB; for instance, citizen-based subjective SDIs can most optimally measure subjective WB. Finally, Study 3 examines the usability of (citizen-based) subjective SDIs in a practice of assessing public policy, aiming at municipal SD, and the potential usability of using such indicators in monitoring a municipal SDG initiative. The findings highlight the determinants and obstacles of using subjective SDIs as well as signifying WB in measuring progress of a municipal SD practice.
Companies increasingly use social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) to measure, manage, and report their influence on ecological and social issues, i.e., climate change and human rights violations. Nowadays, there are many different tools, frameworks, and standards for SEAR that companies can use. Beyond the content presented in the tool itself, e.g., social and/or ecological information, these tools differ, among others, by the language used and the type of data collected (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, or monetary data). This dissertation aims to expand previous literature by clarifying the effects of SEAR on corporate decision-making and its influencing factors. Additionally, antecedents for implementation and use of SEAR in regard to supporting sustainability decision-making are discussed. For this purpose, the given dissertation investigates public sustainability reports by companies with different environmental orientation, conducts two survey-based case studies on the effects of different types of SEAR and one qualitative case study on the antecedents of institutionalizing management accounting change through SEAR. The results lead to seven criteria that practitioners and researchers should recognize for supporting successful SEAR regarding a company's environmental orientation, the role of employees and leadership as well as the specific SEAR tool itself.
The global coffee market is connected to many sustainability issues like the persisting poverty of coffee farmers, and degrading ecosystems. Many interventions, from state-led regulation to industry-led certification processes, exist, that try to change global value chains to shift societies back on more sustainable trajectories. To this date, it is still under debate if these interventions are an effective means to change global value chains. With climate change and persisting issues of social justice as strong accelerators, calls are increasingly made for a radical transformation of global production and consumption patterns. Many frameworks try to inform research and real-world policies for a transformation of global value chains. In this dissertation, the author uses the framework of the practical, political and personal sphere proposed by O'Brien and Sygna (2013) highlighting that the interactions between these three spheres bare the greatest potential for a transformation towards sustainability. However, in this dissertation, the author argues that it is exactly at the nexus between the three spheres of transformation where barriers towards a fundamental shift of systems occur. He, therefore, uses three perspectives to bring empirical nuance to the problems that arise on the interplay between the different spheres of transformation. (1) The scientific perspective: using a systematic review of alternative trade arrangements; (2) the producer perspective: facilitating a participatory network analysis of social-ecological challenges of Ugandan coffee farmers and their adaptive management practices; (3) the consumer perspective: through the use of a German consumer survey and a structural equation model to investigate into the Knowledge-Doing-Gap end-consumers are facing. Through the results from the scientific perspective, the author is able to show that most of the research is investigating the certified market and that the effectiveness of labels rarely exceeding the practical sphere. His empirical research on the producer perspective highlights that Ugandan coffee farmers facilitate a variety of on-farm crop management (practical sphere) but their support structures rarely exceed informal exchange with neighboring communities (political sphere). Exchange with governmental actors and global traders is happening but has been assessed as not sufficient to cope with the social-ecological challenges the producers are facing. Through the results of the consumer perspective, the author is able to highlight that even though end-consumers have pro-sustainable attitudes (personal sphere) they are facing situational constraints (political sphere) that create a gap between their attitudes and the respective behavior. Using these empirical insights about drivers and barriers for a transformation he proposes that frameworks, aiming to inform research and policies, need to include two aspects: (1) the notion of a forced transformation; and (2) the translational capacity of the frameworks to create meaningful interdisciplinary discourses in different contexts. The author, therefore, propose two approaches:(1) a fourth sphere, called the "planetary force" to include the notion of a forced transformation that is already happening in different contexts, highlighted by the producer perspective in this dissertation; and (2) the consequent use of methods that create interdisciplinary exchange and rigorous testing.
Die empirische Unterrichtsforschung verfolgt das Ziel, Unterricht und die darin stattfindenden Prozesse zu beschreiben und zu beurteilen und deren Einfluss auf den Lernerfolg von Schülern zu analysieren. Auch wenn Videostudien zu den aufwändigeren Verfahren in der empirischen Unterrichtsforschung zählen, werden sie vermehrt eingesetzt, um sich diesen Unterrichtsprozessen anzunähern. Mittels Videografie werden Verhaltensweisen und Prozesse sicht- und messbar, die den Lernerfolg von Schüler maßgeblich beeinflussen können. Die detaillierte, reliable und valide Erfassung von Unterrichtsprozessen ist jedoch an Bedingungen geknüpft, die spezifische Herausforderungen für Videostudien darstellen und im Rahmen dieser Dissertation in drei Teilstudien empirisch untersucht werden. Allen Teilstudien liegen Unterrichtsvideos zugrunde, die mittels eines schülerzentrierten Aufnahmesystems aufgenommen wurden. Bei einem schülerzentrierten Aufnahmesystem werden ergänzend zu der Lehrkraftkamera und der Überblickskamera an jedem Gruppentisch weitere Kameras aufgestellt, um die Handlungen und Interaktionen aller am Unterricht beteiligten Personen im Detail erfassen zu können. In Teilstudie 1 wird ein potenzieller Reaktivitätseffekt bei Schülern als eine zentrale Herausforderung von Videostudien untersucht, der zu Verzerrungen des Datenmaterials aufgrund der Anwesenheit von Kamera(personen) führen kann. Dadurch kann die Validität der Daten einschränkt werden. In Teilstudie 2 wird der Herausforderung des in Videostudien oftmals geringen Beobachtungszeitraums begegnet, indem untersucht wird, wie stabil das verhaltensbezogene Engagement von Schülern im Verlauf einer videografierten Unterrichtsstunde ist bzw. wie lange Schüler in ihrem verhaltensbezogenen Engagement beobachtet werden müssen, um dieses zuverlässig erfassen zu können. In Teilstudie 3 wird der methodische Ansatz der Netzwerkanalyse vorgestellt, durch welchen der Herausforderung bezüglich der Beschreibung und Bewertung komplexer Wirkgefüge im Unterricht begegnet werden kann. Mittels einer Netzwerkanalyse können dynamischen Interaktionsprozesse im Unterricht detailliert und im zeitlichen Verlauf des Unterrichts beschrieben werden. Insgesamt werden im Rahmen dieser kumulativen Dissertation zentrale Herausforderungen der videobasierten Unterrichtsforschung betrachtet und Lösungsansätze zu deren Überwindung vorgeschlagen. Nur wenn diese Herausforderungen berücksichtigt werden bzw. ihnen begegnet wird, kann die empirische Unterrichtsforschung fruchtbare Erkenntnisse liefern, die zum Verstehen von Unterricht beitragen und schlussendlich zu einer Verbesserung der Unterrichtspraxis führen können.
This dissertation presents an analysis of the relations to self and technology that emerge from and in the use of self-tracking technologies. The ethnographical study, combined with the Grounded Theory approach and a media analysis, demonstrates the complex intertwining or duality of control and care towards oneself that emerge or become possible in and through the application of ST technologies. ST devices assist in strengthening one's health and well-being in a playful way, building and maintaining a positive self-feeling, self-image and agency, and discovering unknown abilities and potentials within oneself. The ST technologies used provide orientation through complexity-reducing visualizations, highlighting patterns, and trend progression. They challenge through self-overload, dissatisfaction when not achieving goals, self-deception and distraction, narcissism and even loss of control - internally through compulsion to control as well as externally through loss of data otection and exploitation of private data by third parties, as well as handing over responsibility (in the form of decisions) to technology (algorithms) instead of self-responsibility. These two seemingly opposed yet concurrently existing self-relations reflect the dynamic between today's demands for self-responsibility (in health and performance terms) and the need for self-care and guidance for the many relevant, sometimes daily, decisions. They balance possibly existing tensions and ambiguities between the modes of self-relations that at first glance seem to be opposed and yet ultimately are jointly oriented towards the same goal, namely to master one's life (life maintenance) and to be in balance. The self-relations described in this thesis are supported, reinforced, or enabled by ST technology (and practice). Three different roles that ST technology can take in self-care and self-control were elaborated: technology as a means, a counterpart, and a promise. In relation to technology, another dialectic is visible, which shows the apparent contrast between its conception as a tool and means to achieve something and the approach to technology as an intimate counterpart (partner, nanny, coach) and a promise of salvation. The relationship with technology seems to intensify in and through the ST experience and takes on or is assigned a partner-like role by the users. Finally, the results indicate that the concept of (self-)optimization, contrary to its etymological meaning of a logic of increase, can also be understood differently, namely balancing. In this context, optimization does not necessarily mean the fastest, the highest, the strongest, but something that is achievable and satisfactory for the self - within the framework of the given and the desired. At the same time, the optimization understood as harmonizing and balancing in self-tracking becomes a lifelong task that, in principle, can never be completed because with the addition of new vital areas in life and throughout a lifetime also the individually understood and conceived balance often shifts.
Assessment of forest functionality and the effectiveness of forest management and certification
(2021)
Forest ecosystems are complex systems that develop inherent structures and processes relevant for their functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem services that contribute to human wellbeing. With increasing climate change impacts, especially regulating ecosystem services such as microclimate regulation are ever more relevant to maintain forest functions and services. A key question is how forest management supports or undermines the ecosystems’ capacity to maintain those functions and services. The main objective of this thesis is the development of a concept to assess the functionality of forests and to evaluate the effectiveness of forest ecosystem management including certification. An ecosystem-based and participatory methodology, named ECOSEFFECT, was developed. The method comprises a theoretical and an empirical plausibility analysis. It was applied to the Russian National FSC Standard in the Arkhangelsk Region of the Russian Federation - where boreal forests are exploited to meet Europe's demand for timber. In addition, the influence of forestry interventions on temperature regulation in Scots pine and European beech forests in Germany was assessed during two extreme hot and dry years in 2018 and 2019. Microclimate regulation is a suitable proxy for forest functionality and can be applied easily to evaluate the effectiveness of forest management in safeguarding regulating forest functions relevant under climate change. Thus, the assessment of forest microclimate regulation serves as convenient tool to illustrate forest functionality. In the boreal and temperate forests studied in the frame of this thesis, timber harvesting reduced the capacity to self-regulate forests’ microclimate and thus impair a crucial part of ecosystem functionality. Changes in structural forest characteristics influenced by forest management and silviculture significantly affect microclimatic conditions and therefore forest ecosystems' vulnerability to climate change. Canopy coverage and the number of cut trees were most relevant for cooling maximum summer temperature in pine and beech forests in northern Germany. The Russian FSC standard has the potential to improve forest management and ecological outcomes, but there are shortcomings in the precision of targeting actual problems and ecological commitment. It is theoretically plausible that FSC prevents logging in high conservation value forests and intact forest landscapes, reduces the size and number of clearcuts, and prevents hydrological changes in the landscape. However, the standard was not sufficiently explicit and compulsory to generate a strong and positive influence on the identified problems and their drivers. Moreover, spatial data revealed, that the typical regular clearcut patterns of conventional timber harvesting continue to progress into the FSC-certified boreal forests, also if declared as "Intact Forest Landscape". This results in the need to verify the assumptions and postulates on the ground as it remains unclear and questionable if functions and services of boreal forests are maintained when FSC-certified clearcutting continues.The analysis of satellite-based data on tree cover loss showed that clearcutting causes secondary dieback in the surrounding of the cleared area. FSC-certification does not prevent the various negative impacts of clearcutting and thus fails to safeguard ecosystem functions. The postulated success in reducing identified environmental threats and stresses, e. g. through a smaller size of clearcuts, could not be verified on site. The empirical assessment does not support the hypothesis of effective improvements in the ecosystem. In practice, FSC-certification did not contribute to change clearcutting practices sufficiently to effectively improve the ecological performance. Sustainability standards that are unable to translate principles into effective outcomes fail in meeting the intended objectives of safeguarding ecosystem functioning. Clearcuts that carry sustainability labels are ecologically problematic and ineffective for the intended purpose of ecological sustainability.The overexploitation of provisioning services, i.e. timber extraction, diminishes the ecosystems' capacity to maintain other services of global significance. It also impairs ecosystem functions relevant to cope with and adapt to other stresses and disturbances that are rapidly increasing under climate change.
Mittlerweile wird auch im Hinblick auf Kindertageseinrichtungen (Kitas) zunehmend über die Verwendung digitaler Medien diskutiert. Die pädagogischen Fachkräfte stoßen dabei auf neue Herausforderungen. Einerseits geht es um die Nutzung digitaler Medien bei der unmittelbaren Arbeit mit den Kindern, andererseits um die Nutzung digitaler Medien für mittelbare Aufgaben wie die Verwaltung oder beispielsweise die Bildungs- und Entwicklungsdokumentation. Der Einsatz digitaler Medien im Rahmen der Bildungs- und Entwicklungsdokumentation in Kindertageseinrichtungen erfolgt nicht einheitlich. Mittlerweile gibt es auch sogenannte Dokumentations-Apps, mit denen Kindertageseinrichtungen ihre Dokumentation ausschließlich digital durchführen können. Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation geht es im Schwerpunkt um eine Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Dokumentations-Apps für Kindertageseinrichtungen. Nach einer Bestandsaufnahme zum Thema Bildungsdokumentation und Entwicklungsdokumentation in Kindertageseinrichtungen, die durch die erste Teiluntersuchung vorgenommen wurde, werden durch die zweite Teiluntersuchung die Sichtweisen von Kita-Leitungen und Erzieherinnen / Erziehern zum Einsatz von Dokumentations-Apps in Kindertageseinrichtungen betrachtet. Dabei werden die Akzeptanz sowie die tatsächliche Nutzung der Dokumentations-Apps von Seiten der pädagogischen Fachkräfte untersucht. Zudem werden Vor- und Nachteile der Verwendung von Dokumentations-Apps aus Sicht der pädagogischen Fachkräfte herausgearbeitet, wobei diese auf die Qualität der Dokumentation bezogen werden. Mithilfe des Rahmenpapiers werden die im Rahmen der zwei Teiluntersuchungen konzipierten drei Beiträge theoretisch eingebettet und in einen übergeordneten Zusammenhang gebracht. Die Ergebnisse werden abschließend im Hinblick auf die Implementierung und Nutzung von Dokumentations-Apps in Kindertageseinrichtungen diskutiert.
Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift analysiert die Konstruktion schützenswerter "Natur/en" in Gebieten "neuer Wildnis" aus Perspektiven der Sozialen Ökologie sowie der Geschlechterforschung. Das zentrale Erkenntnisinteresse zielt auf den Umgang mit und die Zuschreibungen auf Neobiota in Gebieten "neuer Wildnis". Ziel ist es, herauszuarbeiten, wie in der Konstruktion "fremder Natur/en" in "neuer Wildnis" gesellschaftliche Naturverhältnisse und Geschlechterverhältnisse wechselseitig miteinander verwoben sind und inwiefern in dieser Vermittlung dichotome und hierarchisierende Trennungen wirksam werden. Die empirische Basis der Untersuchung bilden zwei Literaturreviews sowie eine qualitative Interviewstudie zu Naturverständnissen in zwei Untersuchungsgebieten "neuer Wildnis". Dabei werden Neobiota als Ausdruck gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Neobiota in "neuer Wildnis" einerseits als Bestandteil dynamischer Naturentwicklung und schützenswerter Prozesse akzeptiert und nicht (mehr) aufgrund ihrer "Fremdheit" abgewertet werden. "Neue Wildnisse" können mithin als sozial-ökologische Vermittlungsräume gelesen werden, in denen sich die Konstruktion des Schützenswerten verschiebt und hierarchisierende Trennungen abgebaut werden. Andererseits werden Neobiota in Gebieten "neuer Wildnis" oftmals aufgrund ihrer "Ungezähmtheit" und Unkontrollierbarkeit von Eingriffen und Pflegemaßnahmen zur (Wieder-)Aneignung von Kontrolle über "fremde Natur/en". Die potentielle Beherrschbarkeit von Natur bleibt mithin auch in Gebieten "neuer Wildnis" grundlegende Voraussetzung für ihre Schutzwürdigkeit. Damit festigen sich in den Zuschreibungen auf Neobiota hierarchisierende Trennungen und reproduzieren die Konstruktion von "Natur" und "Weiblichkeit" als sich gegenseitig stabilisierendes Unterordnungsverhältnis.
Depressionen spielen eine gewichtige Rolle im Forschungsfeld der mentalen Gesundheit. Durch eine zunehmende Digitalisierung erscheint es naheliegend, depressive Störungen auch mithilfe internetbasierter Maßnahmen zu behandeln. Für den effektiven Einsatz internetbasierter interventionen existiert bereits vielfältige Evidenz. Bisher gibt es allerdings nur begrenzte Erkenntnisse darüber, ob internetbasierte Maßnahmen zur Behandlung von majoren Depressionen auch aktiven Kontrollbedingungen überlegen sind. Die Ergebnisse einer randomisiert-kontrollierten Studie (RCT = randomized controlled trial) zum Vergleich einer internetbasierten Intervention mit reiner Online-Psychoedukation (Studie 1) zeigen, dass dies zutrifft. Darüber hinaus ist die Erkenntnislage für Personen mit subklinischen depressiven Symptomen hinsichtlich ihrer langfristigen Wirksamkeit inkonsistent. Eine Meta-Analyse auf Basis der individuellen Teilnehmerdaten (IPD-MA = individual participant data meta-analysis) zur Evaluation der Wirksamkeit internetbasierter Maßnahmen zur Behandlung von subklinischen depressiven Symptomen (Studie 2) führte zu einer kurz-, mittel- und langfristigen Überlegenheit der Behandlungsgruppe im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe. Eine zusätzliche Analyse ergab, dass das Risiko für die Entwicklung einer majoren Depression innerhalb von 12 Monaten in der Interventionsgruppe im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe 28 % geringer ist. Für die Implementierung internetbasierter Maßnahmen in die Routineversorgung ist es gegebenenfalls erforderlich, geeignete Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um mit den Studienergebnissen vergleichbar hohe Effekte bei den Betroffenen zu erreichen. Die Identifizierung von Faktoren, die den Behandlungserfolg beeinflussen, ist von großem Interesse, um internetbasierte Maßnahmen geeigneten Populationen kosteneffektiv und mit maximalem Nutzen zur Verfügung stellen zu können. Die IPD-MA für Personen mit subklinischen Symptomen (Studie 2) zeigte, dass eine hohe initiale Symptomschwere und höheres Alter zu einer niedrigeren depressiven Symptomatik zum Post-Messzeitpunkt führten. Eine weitere IPD-MA für Personen mit majorer Depression (Studie 3) identifizierte darüber hinaus ein geringes Bildungsniveau als Risikofaktor für eine Symptomverschlechterung. Die Ergebnisse des RCT (Studie 1) lassen vermuten, dass für Teilnehmer mit vorangehender Psychotherapieerfahrung Online-Psychoedukation bereits hilfreich ist, während diese Maßnahme für Therapie-Neulinge keinen Nutzen zeigt, sie aber erheblich von der internetbasierten Intervention zur Behandlung ihrer Symptome profitieren. Angesichts der zunehmenden Nutzung internetbasierter Maßnahmen zur Behandlung von depressiven Symptomen erscheint es erforderlich, das Augenmerk neben dem Behandlungsnutzen auch auf die unerwünschten Nebenwirkungen zu lenken, für deren Berichterstattung und Handhabung es in diesem Forschungsfeld bisher kaum einen Konsens gibt. Die IPD-MA zur Behandlung von majoren Depressionen (Studie 3) konnte zeigen, dass das Risiko für eine reliable Verschlechterung von der Ausgangssituation bis zum Post-Messzeitpunkt in der Interventionsgruppe im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe signifikant geringer war. Eine langfristige Überlegenheit ließ sich nicht konsistent bestätigen. Der RCT (Studie 1) zeigte keinen signifikanten Unterschied in den Verschlechterungsraten zwischen den beiden Versuchsgruppen. In Studie 2 war die Interventionsgruppe der Kontrollgruppe zum Post-Messzeitpunkt und nach 12 Monaten hinsichtlich einer Symptomsteigerung um 50 % überlegen. Wie negative Effekte von internetbasierten Maßnahmen zukünftig idealerweise definiert und berichtet werden sollten, bedarf weiterer Klärung.
Siliziumorganische Substanzen sind aus dem Alltag kaum wegzudenken. Sie kommen in vielfältiger Form vor und finden durch ihre Stabilität in vielen Produkten des Haushalts und der Industrie Anwendung. Eine Freisetzung in die Umwelt ist unvermeidbar. Siliziumorganische Substanzen konnten bereits in allen Umweltkompartimenten (Luft, Wasser, Boden) analytisch nachgewiesen werden. Welche Risiken von dieser Stoffgruppe ausgehen, ist noch nicht abschließend geklärt. Dennoch gibt es Hinweise auf negative Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Umwelt. Deshalb sollten Strukturen in siliziumorganischen Substanzen untersucht werden, die einen Abbau in der Umwelt begünstigen, um die Akkumulation dieser Stoffe in der Umwelt zu verringern. Dafür wurden diverse biotische und abiotische Abbautests mit unterschiedlichen siliziumorganischen Substanzen durchgeführt. Der Fokus der vorliegenden Arbeit lag vor allem in der biologischen Abbaubarkeit der Substanzen. Es wurden die Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-konformen Tests Closed-Bottle-Test (CBT, OECD 301D) und Manometrischer Respirationstest (MRT, OECD 301F) durchgeführt. Die Hydrolysierbarkeit wurde mithilfe des Hydrolysetests OECD 111 bei unterschiedlichen pH-Werten untersucht. Bei bestimmten Substanzgruppen ohne biologischen Abbau wurde das Verhalten der Substanzen bei Bestrahlung mit verschiedenen Bestrahlungsquellen untersucht. Die Analyse der Primärelimination der siliziumorganischen Substanzen erfolgte je nach Substanzeigenschaften mithilfe der Hochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatografie gekoppelt mit einem Spektrometer mit ultraviolettem und sichtbarem Licht (HPLC-UV/Vis) oder der Gaschromatografie gekoppelt mit einem Massenspektrometer (GC-MS). Die Transformationsprodukte wurden hingegen mithilfe der Flüssigkeitschromatografie gekoppelt mit einem Mehrfach-Massenspektrometer (LC-MSn) analysiert. Für eine umfassende Bewertung des biologischen Abbaus von siliziumorganischen Substanzen wurden ein Vergleich mit analogen Kohlenstoffverbindungen und eine Aufstockung mit Daten aus der Datenbank der Europäischen Chemikalien Agentur (ECHA) durchgeführt. Die Gruppierung der Substanzen nach ihren Strukturmerkmalen wurde hinzugezogen, um Rückschlüsse auf die Abbaubarkeit zu ziehen. Eine besser biologisch abbaubare Grundstruktur brachte für die Benzenderivate keine Verbesserung der biologischen Abbaubarkeit. Dennoch hatte die Einführung von +M-Gruppen am Aromaten einen positiven Einfluss auf die Geschwindigkeit und den Grad des photolytischen Abbaus. Die Bestrahlungsquelle hatte ebenfalls einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Eliminierungsrate während des Photolyseexperiments. Mit einer Veränderung der Wellenlängen in den kurzwelligen Bereich und der daraus resultierenden energiereicheren Strahlung konnten die Substanzen schneller und teilweise vollständig primär eliminiert werden. Bei allen Abbaupfaden hatte die Hydrolyse eine entscheidende Rolle und wurde als einer der Hauptabbauprozesse charakterisiert. Bei einer Verbindung wurde im Nachgang an die biotischen und abiotischen Abbautests eine ausführliche Aufklärung der elf gebildeten Transformationsprodukte vorgenommen. Um den Einfluss von Silizium in organischen Substanzen auf die biologische Abbaubarkeit zu untersuchen, wurde der direkte Vergleich von siliziumorganischen Substanzen und deren Kohlenstoffanaloga im CBT durchgeführt. Dabei hat sich gezeigt, dass drei von fünf Kohlenstoffverbindungen und keine siliziumorganische Verbindung als leicht biologisch abbaubar eingestuft werden konnten. In allen bis auf einen Fall konnten für die Kohlenstoffverbindungen höhere Abbauraten im CBT beobachtet werden. Die Hydrolyse wurde als erforderlicher Schritt vor dem biologischen Abbau von siliziumorganischen Substanzen identifiziert. Das siliziumfreie Produkt der Hydrolyse bestimmte den Grad des biologischen Abbaus. Die gute biologische Abbaubarkeit der einen siliziumorganischen Verbindung resultierte aus der leicht hydrolysierbaren Silizium-Stickstoff-Bindung und der leichten biologischen Abbaubarkeit des siliziumfreien Hydrolyseproduktes. Die siliziumhaltigen Reaktionsprodukte der Hydrolyse waren nicht biologisch abbaubar. Bioabbaudaten aus eigenen Experimenten, aus vorhergehenden in der Arbeitsgruppe durchgeführten analogen Arbeiten und aus der ECHA-Datenbank wurden zusammengetragen, um einen Datensatz zu generieren. Die 182 Substanzen des Datensatzes wurden hinsichtlich ihrer Struktur gruppiert, um allgemeine Erkenntnisse für die biologische Abbaubarkeit von siliziumorganischen Verbindungen abzuleiten. Es gab Gruppen mit Substanzen, die überhaupt nicht biologisch abbaubar waren (z. B. zyklische, lineare und verzweigte Siloxane). Gruppen, die Substanzen mit Ethern, Estern, Oximen, Aminen und Amiden enthielten, waren hydrolyseanfällig, sodass auch leicht biologisch abbaubare Zwischenprodukte gebildet werden konnten. Die siliziumfreien Hydrolyseprodukte waren meist biologisch abbaubar, während die siliziumhaltigen Hydrolyseprodukte persistent waren. Allgemein hat sich gezeigt, dass Modifikationen am Molekül einen positiven Einfluss auf die Abbaubarkeit haben können. Beispielsweise können Heteroatome eine Veränderung der Polarität bzw. der Elektronendichte hervorrufen, was die Photolyse- und Hydrolysefähigkeit und folglich auch den Bioabbau zum Positiven verändern kann. Das Einführen solcher Heteroatome oder funktioneller Gruppen in Polysiloxanketten kann demnach ein vielversprechender Ansatz für leichter abbaubare siliziumorganische Verbindungen sein. Nicht abbaubare Stoffe sollten vermieden werden, wenn sie nach ihrer Verwendung in die Umwelt gelangen.
Die fortschreitende Aktivierung vieler Lebensbereiche führt zu einer gezielten Nutzbarmachung von menschlichen Ressourcen. Dies gilt speziell für die Ressourcen von Frauen und Kindern. Ausgehend von einem sozialpädagogisch-sozialpolitischen Sozialmanagementverständnis und aufbauend auf u.a. oststrukturalistischen, soziologischen, pädagogischen und professionspolitischen Theorien untersucht diese Studie die politischen Diskurse zum Prozess der Realisierung des Kinderförderungsgesetzes (KiföG) im Deutschen Bundestag (2009-2013) und punktuell in anderen Diskursarenen in Form einer Wissenssoziologischen Diskursanalyse (Keller 2011). In dieser werden Diskurs- und Subdiskursstränge herausgearbeitet sowie Konstruktionen wie bspw. Familienbilder der Akteure analysiert, unter Berücksichtigung von Sprache als Mittel im politischen Diskurs sowie von Frames (Wehling 2017). Die verschiedenen Deutungsmuster der Diskursakteuren werden rekonstruiert und es wird u.a. herausgearbeitet, welche Deutungsmuster in Bezug auf die Realisierung des Kinderförderungsgesetzes konstruiert wurden. Subdiskurse sind dabei u.a.: die Zuständigkeit für den Betreuungsausbau und die Finanzierung; Familienbilder; das Betreuungsgeld als Alternative zur institutionellen Betreuung; die sozialen Berufe. Zudem wird dargestellt, welche Auswirkungen und Bedeutungen die Diskurse auf die Profession der Sozialen Arbeit und das Sozialmanagement haben. Deutlich wird, dass Kinder als Ressourcen der Gesellschaft eine wichtige Rolle in den Diskursen einnehmen. Sie sollen gefördert werden, damit sie für sich aber auch die Gesellschaft einen Mehrwert erwirken. Auch nimmt die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf, speziell für Frauen, einen wichtigen Stellenwert in den Diskursen ein. Die familienpolitische Maßnahme des Betreuungsgeldes wiederspricht hingegen teilweise der dominanten Argumentation der Aktivierung der Subjekte und bildet damit ein besonderes Element in den analysierten Diskursen. Wichtig ist hierbei auch das jeweilige Familienbild der Diskursparteien, dass Einfluss auf u.a. die Positionierung zum Betreuungsgeld hat. Die sozialen Berufe werden in den Diskursen als wichtige Akteure konstruiert, da sie die Subjekte aktivieren und damit die Potenziale der Subjekte bzw. die Subjekte als Ressource entwickeln helfen.
Maximizing the value from data has become a key challenge for companies as it helps improve operations and decision making, enhances products and services, and, ultimately, leads to new business models. While enterprise architecture (EA) management and modeling have proven their value for IT-related projects, the support of enterprise architecture for data-driven business models (DDBMs) is a rather new and unexplored field. The research group argues that the current understanding of the intersection of data-driven business model innovation and enterprise architecture is incomplete because of five challenges that have not been addressed in existing research: (1) lack of knowledge of how companies design and realize data-driven business models from a process perspective, (2) lack of knowledge on the implementation phase of data-driven business models, (3) lack of knowledge on the potential support enterprise architecture modeling and management can provide to data-driven business model endeavors, (4) lack of knowledge on how enterprise architecture modeling and management support data-driven business model design and realization in practice, (5) lack of knowledge on how to deploy data-driven business models. The researchers address these challenges by examining how enterprise architecture modeling and management can benefit data-driven business model innovation. The mixed-method approach of this thesis draws on a systematic literature review, qualitative empirical research as well as the design science research paradigm. The investigators conducted a systematic literature search on data-driven business models and enterprise architecture. Considering the novelty of data-driven business models for academia and practice, they conducted explorative qualitative research to explain "why" and "how" companies embark on realizing data-driven business models. Throughout these studies, the primary data source was semi-structured interviews. In order to provide an artifact for DDBM innovation, the researchers developed a theory for design and action. The data-driven business model innovation artifact was inductively developed in two design iterations based on the design science paradigm and the design science research framework.
Ikonizität der Information
(2021)
Die vorliegende Dissertation befasst sich mit der ikonischen Dimension von Wissensorganisationssystemen (KOS) und dem epistemischen Potenzial von Bildlichkeit, bzw. Ikonizität auf Zeichenebene, im Bereich des digitalen Kulturerbes. Dabei bezieht sich die Ikonizität der Information einmal auf eine implizite Dimension auf einer strukturellen Ebene sowie auf explizite Ausdrucksformen wie Visualisierungen, die Objekte und ihre Relationen topologisch darstellen. In einem interdisziplinären Ansatz, der sich unter anderem auf Bild-, Zeichen und Medientheorie bezieht, werden sowohl aktuelle Visualisierungen als auch historische Entwicklungen in der Theorie und Modellierung von Wissensorganisationssystemen analysiert. Der Theorieteil, in dem die Konzepte Information, Zeichen und Ikonizität adressiert werden, stützt sich vor allem auf die universelle Zeichentheorie und das Konzept des diagrammatic reasoning von Charles Sanders Peirce und bildet die Basis für die Analyse impliziter und expliziter Bildlichkeit in der digitalen Wissensorganisation. Die Kategorien Genauigkeit (accuracy) und Effizienz (effiency) dienen als Parameter für eine Analyse des europäischen Kulturerbeportals Europeana, mit dem Ziel den Grad der semantischen Kontextualisierung (Dichte der Beschreibung) zu identifizieren. Die Vagheit und Mehrdeutigkeit oder simultane Pluralität visueller Ausdrucksformen bildet einen ikonischen Überschuss, welcher als maßgeblich für die Erkenntnisfunktion der Bildlichkeit identifiziert wird.
Kompetenz und Performanz von (angehenden) Lehrkräften im Bereich Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ)
(2021)
Die Forderung nach sprachbildendem Fachunterricht ist aktueller denn je. Deshalb stellt sich die Frage, welche Kompetenzen (Fach-) Lehrkräfte benötigen, um dies leisten zu können und wie sie diese in ihrer Aus- und Weiterbildung erwerben können. Zwar gibt es Empfehlungen für die Lehrkräftebildung, jedoch ist die Ausbildungslandschaft im Bereich Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ) deutschlandweit und universitätsabhängig sehr heterogen. Um Aussagen über benötigte Kompetenzen treffen zu können, müssen diese messbar gemacht werden. Wissensfacetten im Bereich DaZ können mit einem Paper-Pencil-Test erfasst werden. Um Handlungsfacetten erfassen zu können, wird eine Testumgebung benötigt, die der Komplexität von Unterricht möglichst gerecht wird, weshalb sich Paper-Pencil-Tests dafür nicht eignen. Dem Kompetenz-als-Kontinuum-Modell (Blömeke, Gustafsson & Shavelson, 2015) folgend, widmet sich diese Arbeit der Entwicklung eines videobasierten Testinstruments mit einem mündlichen Antwortformat, um so performanznah DaZ-Kompetenz zu erfassen. Folgende Forschungsfragen werden in dieser Dissertation untersucht: 1.) Inwieweit können eine ausreichende psychometrische Qualität und eine dimensionale Struktur des Testinstruments festgestellt werden? 2.) Inwieweit kann performanznahe DaZ-Kompetenz bei (angehenden) Lehrkräften festgestellt werden? 3.) Wie hängen individuelle und akademische Hintergrunddaten der Probanden, DaZ-bezogene Lerngelegenheiten, Überzeugungen zu sprachlich-kultureller Heterogenität in Schule und Unterricht oder Persönlichkeitsmerkmale mit performanznaher DaZ-Kompetenz zusammen? Das Rahmenpapier bettet die vier Artikel in den übergeordneten theoretischen Kontext ein, diskutiert die Ergebnisse und leitet abschließend Empfehlungen für weitere Forschung und für die Lehrkräftebildung ab.
This cumulative dissertation investigates food policy councils (FPCs) as potential levers for sustainability transformation. The four research papers included here on this recent phenomenon in Germany present new insights regarding the process of FPCs' emergence (Emergence paper), the legal conditions which affect their establishment (Legal paper), the different roles of FPCs in policy-making processes (Roles paper) and FPCs' potential to democratise the food system (Food democracy paper). Drawing on and contextualizing the results of the four individual studies, the framework paper uses the leverage points concept originally developed by Meadows (1999) and adopted by Abson et al. (2016) as a lens to discuss FPCs’ potential as levers for sustainability transformation. This conceptual background includes three so-called realms of leverage, which are considered to be of particular importance in transformational, solution-oriented sustainability science: first, the change, stability and learning in institutions (re-structure), second, the interactions between people and nature (re-connect) and third, the ways in which knowledge is produced and used (re-think). Framing the findings of the four research papers in terms of these three realms, the framework paper shows that FPCs could serve as cross realm levers, i.e. as interventions that simultaneously address knowledge production, institutional reform and human-nature interactions.
The dissertation consists of three scientific papers and a synopsis. The synopsis addresses the relevance of the dissertation and lists the key factors for the sustainability transition in the electricity system as a common denominator of the three papers. The relevance of the dissertation results, on the one hand, from the urgency of the sustainability transition in the electricity system and an insufficient transition willingness of the eastern European Member States. On the other hand, the Multi-Level-Perspective as one of the most important scientific frameworks to grasp transitions does not provide a sufficient explanation of its mechanisms. Moreover, Demand Response aggregators as new enterprises on the European electricity market and potential reform initiators are still under researched. The following key factors for the sustainability transition of the electricity system have been identified: supply security concerns, Europeanisation, policy making and the dominance of short-term oriented economic evaluation. Paper#1 sheds light on the roots of this problem in the context of Poland. It suggests that unfavorable regulation is symptomatic of the real, underlying barriers. In Poland, these barriers are coal dependence and political influence on energy enterprises. As main drivers, supply security concerns, EU regulatory pressure, and a positive cost-benefit profile of DR in comparison to alternatives, are revealed. A conceptual model of DR uptake in electricity systems is proposed. Applying a social mechanisms approach to the Multi-Level Perspective, paper#2 conceptualizes mechanisms of socio-technical transitions and of gaining legitimacy for transitions as co-evolutionary drivers and outcomes. Situational, action-formational, and transformational mechanisms that operate as drivers of change in a socio-technical transition require corresponding framing and framing contests to achieve legitimacy for that transition. The study illustrates the conceptual insight with the case of the coal dependent Polish electricity system. Paper #3, a qualitative study reveals Demand Response (DR) aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs that struggle to reform the still largely supply-oriented European electricity market. Unfavourable regulation, low value of flexibility, resource constraints, complexity, and customer acquisition are the key challenges DR aggregators face. To overcome them they apply a combination of strategies: lobbying, market education, technological proficiency, and upscaling the business. The study highlights DR aggregation as an architectural innovation that alters the interplay between key actors of the electricity system and provides policy recommendations including the necessity to assess the real value of DR in comparison to other flexibility sources by taking all externalities into account, a technology-neutral approach to market design and the need for simplification of DR programmes, and common standards to reduce complexity and uncertainty for DR providers.
This dissertation addresses the question of how sustainability curricula can be implemented and established in higher education institutions. Universities – as hubs for knowledge generation, innovation, and education – provide a central leverage point for sustainably developing society at large. Therefore, the institutionalization of sustainability curricula is not only socially demanded, but also stipulated in numerous political statements from the international community (e.g., those of the UN and UNESCO) and operationalized via Sustainable Development Goal No. 4: "Quality Education". Previous findings on how such implementation can be successful and what factors support or inhibit the process have come primarily through case studies of individual higher education institutions. These studies have been largely descriptive rather than analytical and leave open questions about the generalizability of their findings. The present dissertation addresses this research gap. Through a meta-study (i.e., an analytical comparison of existing case studies), generalizable findings on the implementation processes of sustainability curricula are explored. In the first step, a case universe was collected in order to provide a database for deeper analyses. In two further analysis steps that built on the case universe from Step 1, certain factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of sustainability curricula (Step 2) and specific implementation patterns (Step 3) were examined. The presented findings add a complementary empirical perspective to the discourse on the establishment of education for sustainable development (ESD) at higher education institutions. First, the case studies that specifically address the implementation processes of sustainability curricula are reviewed and analyzed here for the first time as part of a research landscape. This research landscape reveals where research on such implementation processes has been or is being conducted. On this basis, both researchers and funders can reflect on the status quo and plan further research or funding endeavors. Second, this dissertation offers the opportunity to compare a multitude of individual case studies and thus to develop new and generalizable insights into the implementation of sustainability curricula. The empirical analysis uses 133 case studies to identify key factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of sustainability curricula and to add a complementary perspective to the discourse, which has thus far been dominated by theoretical considerations and individual case studies. The analysis thereby offers a new perspective on generalizable influencing factors that appear to be important across different contexts. Thus far, specific patterns of implementation processes have been infrequently studied, and with few datasets. This dissertation analyzes the complex interplay between over 100 variables and provides one of the first research attempts at better understanding the processes that lead to the deep-rooted and comprehensive implementation of sustainability curricula. Internal and external practitioners of higher education institutions can find examples and evidence that can be useful in planning the next steps of their sustainability curriculum implementation. This dissertation offers generalizable empirical findings on how universities can succeed in recognizing their own responsibility to that end and in realizing this transformation through the implementation of ESD.
TIME for REFL-ACTION: Interpersonal Competence Development in Project-based Sustainability Courses
(2021)
This dissertation investigates interpersonal competence development in project-based sustainability courses. Visions of a sustainable, safe, and just future cannot be reached by one individual alone. Thus, future change agents need to be able to collaborate and engage with stakeholders, to approach the manifold crises, challenges, problems, and conflicts we are facing together, and to promote and push forward sustainability transitions and transformations. Therefore, this research investigates three project-based sustainability graduate courses by comparing and contrasting teaching and learning outcomes, processes, and environments. A comparative case study approach using a Grounded Theory-inspired research design which triangulates several qualitative methods and perspectives is applied to allow for generalizable insights. Thereby, this dissertation provides empirically-informed insights which are further discussed in relation to selected teaching and learning theories. This leads, first, to a discussion of practical implications within (and beyond) sustainability higher education; and second, provides a theoretical foundation for interpersonal competence development in project-based learning settings – so that educating future change agents can gain momentum. Findings of this research show that embracing conflicts when they occur (i.e. before they provoke cascading effects in the form of further conflicts down-the-road) is an effective strategy to help further develop interpersonal competence. This requires a conflict-embracing attitude. Attitude, in general, seems to be key in interpersonal competence and competence development overall. Self-reflection, if not explicitly required by outside influences (such as instructors), arises naturally from a self-reflective attitude, and is shown to provide the basis for developing interpersonal competence. This research introduces the term "Refl-Action" which stresses the importance of pairing "learning by doing" (as is often the focus in project-based learning settings) with conscious moments of "reflecting about the doing". More specifically, the research presented here identified four learning processes for interpersonal competence development: receiving input, experiencing, reflecting, and experimenting. Based on the empirical data, when the four processes are purposefully combined, following a meaningful sequence attitudes, knowledge, and skills in collaborative teamwork and impactful stakeholder engagement, are fostered (two facets of interpersonal competence). Each of the four learning processes is set in motion through various interactions students engage in during project-based sustainability courses: student-student (labeled "peer"), student-instructor (labeled "deliberate"), student-stakeholder (labeled "professional"), and student-mentor (labeled "supportive") interactions. When these interactions are made explicit subjects of inquiry - i.e. the (inter-)action is linked with (self-)reflection – different learning processes complement one another: Interpersonal competence facets (collaborative teamwork and impactful stakeholder engagement) and domains (attitudes, knowledge, skills) are fostered. While, overall, interactions, processes, and conflicts have been identified as supportive for interpersonal competence development, trust has emerged as another variable inviting further investigation.
"Einfachheit" gehört zu den maßgeblichen Begriffen, mit denen in der Kunst-, Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte unterschiedliche Wertzuschreibungen einhergehen. Seit Ende des 20. Jahrhundert setzt sich nebenher ein globalisierter Lifestyle durch, der mit geschickten Werbetriggern eine "Sehnsucht nach Einfachheit" weckt und hohe Erwartungen an das Ideal der Komplexitätsbewältigung knüpft. Das damit einhergehende breite Funktionalisierungspotential wird hier aufgegriffen, um den neuen Fragen nachzugehen, warum die Einfachheit einen bemerkenswerten Erfolg in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur feiert und was uns vergleichbare Bewegungen in Architektur, Design und den visuellen Künsten über den aktuellen Ruf nach Einfachheit erzählen. Am Beispiel des erzählerischen Werks von Judith Hermann, Peter Stamm und Robert Seethaler wird erstmalig gefragt, mit welcher Intention und Qualität sich die Einfachheit in den Texten dieser Autoren formiert und ob es sich bei der Kunst der erzählerischen Reduktion um ein spezifisch für die Gegenwart relevantes Konzept handelt. Die Studie leistet damit einen wesentlichen Beitrag zu der noch ausstehenden literaturwissenschaftlichen Systematisierung einer "Ästhetik der Einfachheit".
Mental health is an important factor in an individuals' life. Online-based interventions have been developed for the treatment of various mental disorders. During these interventions, a large amount of patient-specific data is gathered that can be utilized to increase treatment outcomes by informing decision-making processes of psychotherapists, experts in the field, and patients. The articles included in this dissertation focus on the analysis of such data collected in digital psychological treatments by using machine learning approaches. This dissertation utilizes various machine learning methods such as Bayesian models, regularization techniques, or decision trees to predict different psychological factors, such as mood or self-esteem, dropout of patients, or treatment outcomes and costs. These models are evaluated using a variety of performance metrics, for example, receiver operating characteristics curve, root mean square error, or specialized performance metrics for Bayesian inference. These types of analyses can support decision- making for psychologists and patients, which can, in turn, lead to better recommendations and subsequently to increased outcomes for patients and simultaneously more insight about the interplay between psychological factors. The analysis of user journey data has not yet been fully examined in the field of psychological research. A process for this endeavor is developed and a technical implementation is provided for the research community. The application of machine learning in this context is still in its infancy. Thus, another contribution is the exploration and application of machine learning techniques for the revelation of correlations between psychological factors or characteristics and treatment outcomes as well as their prediction. Additionally, economic factors are predicted to develop a process for treatment type recommendations. This approach can be utilized for finding the optimal treatment type for patients on an individual level considering predicted treatment outcomes and costs. By evaluating the predictive accuracy of multiple machine learning techniques based on various performance metrics, the importance of considering heterogeneity among patients' behavior and affect is highlighted in some articles. Furthermore, the potential of machine learning-based decision support systems in clinical practice has been examined from a psychotherapists' point of view.
This dissertation focused on the nature and role of organizational practices for the employment of older people and the extension of their working lives. The set of four articles is driven by the objective to further deepen our understanding of how organizations can facilitate ageing at work to the benefit of both, employees and employers. Findings are empirically based on qualitative expert interview data from Germany and the U.S. and several quantitative field studies among older employees in Germany. To bridge gaps in measurement of organizational practices related to aging at work, this dissertation proposes a new comprehensive, multifaceted, and thoroughly conceptualized measure of organizational practices related to aging at work, the Later Life Workplace Index (LLWI). Through the course of the four articles the LLWI is conceptually developed based on qualitative interview data, operationalized, validated based on multiple field studies among older workers, and applied in a multi-level study among older employees of 101 organizations. Results suggest that organizational practices are not uniform, but multifaceted in their presence within organizations and their effects for the employment of older workers. The LLWI distinguishes nine domains of practices including an age-friendly organizational climate, work design, individual development, and practices tailoring the retirement transition. Thus, it may lay the foundation for more granular organizational level research in the field. Further, this dissertation's fourth article applies the LLWI and argues based on person-environment fit and socio-emotional selectivity theory that organizational practices address different individual needs and, thus, affect employment depending on employees' individual characteristics. Results suggest that older employees' retirement intentions are effected by individual development, transition-to-retirement, and continued employment practices depending on their health resources. Application of the new measure in practice to improve organizations' response to the aging workforce and opportunities for future research based on the LLWI are discussed.
Since the early 2000s, ecosystem services strongly gained significance as a research topic. However, the temporal dimension of ecosystem services has not been taken into consideration, although this should be the basis for a sustainable long-term management of ecosystems and their services. Therefore, the author presents three articles in this thesis that deal with temporal aspects of ecosystem services. In two of them she also present a proposal for a framework for the classification of ecosystem services based on their temporal dynamics. In this dissertation she differentiates between two types of temporal aspects, both of which have in common that change takes place over a certain period of time. The concepts of transformation, transition and regime shift are used to describe changes in social or ecological systems as a whole, for example the transformation towards a more sustainable society. The temporal dynamics, on the other hand, relate to the temporal changes in ecosystem services themselves. The first article focuses on how the literature on ecosystem services incorporates social and ecological change. The second and third articles deal with the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services. While the second article presents a preliminary framework for categorizing the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services, the third article uses this framework to test how the temporal dynamics of ecosystem services are represented in the literature. Based on the insights from the three articles, the author concludes that most of the studies on ecosystem services only focus on one point in time. One reason for this is that most studies are conducted over a maximum of a four-year time span which does not allow to monitor dynamics over longer time spans.
Transforming the International Food Supply – Sustainable Practices in Small Intermediary Businesses
(2021)
The global food system faces many complex challenges, and there is general agreement that a transformation is needed. While localizing food has been proposed as a means to this end, changing global food supply chains may also lead to sustainable food systems. Because most food systems today have an international dimension and are likely to remain connected, on one way or another, to other ones across the globe, it is necessary to find solutions to problems such as exploitation or environmental degradation. Addressing this challenge and the related gap in the literature, this study examines the emerging practices of small intermediary food businesses, which act between agricultural producers and consumers, and may have the potential to advance sustainability in international food supply. Including a systematic review of the literature on food systems change (Study#1), this dissertation adopts a transformational sustainability research methodology, which is solution-oriented, aims to integrate system, target and transformation knowledge, and is characterized by a transdisciplinary research practice. It conceptualizes challenges of international food supply and empirically investigates entrepreneurial solution approaches to address these challenges (Study#2). Two transdisciplinary research projects with small coffee businesses located in Germany, Mexico, and the U.S. were conducted to examine how these approaches could be implemented (Study#3, Study#4, Workshop reports 1+2). Overall, this study shows that challenges in international food supply chains can be conceptualized as negative effects of large geographical and relational distances. It also identifies five entrepreneurial solution approaches specified by twelve sustainability-oriented design principles to address these negative effects. Creating relational proximity between supply chain actors, that is, strong relationships based on knowledge and care, seems to be a key factor to advance sustainability in international food supply.The results also suggest that by building such strong relationships and changing the fundamental principles of international food trade, small intermediary businesses could be important agents in food system transformations.
Pestizide werden als Pflanzenschutzmittel im landwirtschaftlichen Bereich und als Biozide z. B. in der Industrie, in Haushalten und Kommunen eingesetzt. Bereits auf den behandelten Flächen und in den angrenzenden Gewässern können Pestizide Abbauprozessen durch u. a. Photolyse unterliegen. Diese Prozesse führen zur Entstehung von Transformationsprodukten (TP), deren Berücksichtigung bei der Umweltrisikobewertung für ein umfassendes Risikomanagement von großer Bedeutung ist. Doch gibt es über die in der Umwelt vorkommenden Transformationsprozesse und die dabei entstehenden TP immer noch Wissenslücken. Darüber hinaus sind die Eintragswege von TP, vor allem von Biozid-TP, in die angrenzenden Gewässer zum Teil unbekannt. Da eine Vielzahl von TP mit unterschiedlich starken ökotoxikologischen Effekten bewertet werden muss, besteht ein großer Bedarf an schnellen und umfassenden Methoden, um die stetig wachsende Anzahl an Chemikalien auf dem Markt erfassen zu können. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist daher, das Verhalten und den Verbleib ausgewählter Pestizid-TP in der aquatischen Umwelt zu analysieren. Zu diesem Zweck wurden unterschiedliche Phototransformationsprozesse von Pestiziden sowie der Eintrag aus Fassaden über Regenwasserversickerungsanlagen (RVA) in angrenzenden Gewässern der Stadt Freiburg untersucht. Schlussendlich erfolgte die Identifizierung der ökotoxikologischen Eigenschaften von 45 Pestizid-TP in einem mehrstufigen Ansatz durch die Kombination experimenteller und computerbasierter Methoden. Inwiefern unterschiedliche Phototransformationsprozesse zu unterschiedlichen TP führen, wurde im ersten Teil der Arbeit durch einen Vergleich der Entstehung von TP durch direkte und indirekte Photolyse der Substanzen Penconazol, Terbutryn und Mecoprop untersucht. Weiterhin wurde der Abbau durch die Bestrahlung mit unterschiedlichen Xenonlampen untersucht. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wurde der Eintrag von Bioziden, die in Fassadenanstrichen Anwendung finden, und deren TP über Regenwasserversickerungsanlagen in das Grundwasser untersucht. Dabei wurden qualitative und quantitative Target-Screening-Methoden zum Nachweis und zur Quantifizierung bekannter und unbekannter TP der Biozide Diuron, Terbutryn und Octhilinon (OIT) in der aquatischen Umwelt mittels Flüssigkeitschromatographie mit gekoppeltem Massenspektrometer (LC-MS) kombiniert. Die ökotoxikologischen Eigenschaften von 45 Pestizid-TP wurden im dritten Teil dieser Arbeit in einem mehrstufigen Ansatz untersucht. Insgesamt zeigte sich, dass die Berücksichtigung von TP im Rahmen von Gewässerüberwachung und Risikobewertung eine genauere Abschätzung der Risiken durch Schadstoffe ermöglicht. Die in dieser Dissertation entwickelte Vorgehensweise, bei der TP zunächst im Labor erzeugt und bewertet und anschließend in aquatischen Systemen gezielt analysiert werden, kann einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Regulatorik des Einsatzes und der Zulassung von Pestiziden leisten.
In this dissertation, advanced nonlinear control strategies and nonlinear minimum-variance observation are combined, in order to improve the estimation and/or tracking quality within control and fault detection tasks, for several types of systems from the fields of electromobility and conventional drivetrain technology that have some potential for sustainability or performance improvements. The application-specific innovations in terms of nonlinear Kalman filter methods are: (1) Improved state of charge estimation for Lithium-ion battery cells, powered by a novel self-adaptive EKF that uses a high-order polynomial curve fit as a decomposition of the uncertain nonlinear output equation with intentionally redundant bases, and with a reduced number of polynomial parameters that are adapted online by the EKF itself. (2) Online estimation of the time delay between two periodic signals of roughly the same shape that have pronounced uncorrelated noise, based on a fractional-order approximation of the transcendent transfer function of the time delay which is used as a model in a novel kind of EKF. (3) Using two (E)KFs (one for the linear subsystem and one for the nonlinear subsystem of a new kind of multi-stage piezo-hydraulic actuator) in a cascaded loop structure in order to reduce the computation load of the estimation, by appropriate 'interfacing' between the two observers (using one shared system model equation, among other aspects). - The innovations in terms of nonlinear control methods are powered by observation, as well: (1) Sliding mode velocity control of a DC drive that is subject to nonlinear friction and unknown load torques, enhanced by an equivalent control law, and with a new intelligent switching gain adaptation scheme (for reduced control chattering and, thus, less energy consumption and actuator wear), which is powered by Taylor-linearized model predictive control, which in turn requires observer-based disturbance compensation (by a KF with a double-integrator disturbance model) for model-matching purposes in order to function correctly. (2) Direct speed control of permanent-magnet three-phase synchronous motors that have a high power-to-volume ratio, based on sliding mode control in a rotating d,q coordinate system, with a new equivalent control method that exploits both system inputs and with a secondary sliding surface to ensure compliance with the current-trajectory of maximum efficiency for the required torque, and which works without measurement of the rotor angle (thanks to a new kind of EKF that estimates all states in the stationary α,β coordinate system, as well as the disturbance/load torque and its derivative). In all instances, improvements (compared to methods existing in the literature) in terms of control and estimation performance have been achieved and confirmed using simulation studies or real experiments.
One of the Colombian strategies to diversify and decarbonize the energy sector is encouraging the use of non-conventional renewable resources (NCRR). This thesis measures the environmental rebound effect (ERE) when increasing the shares of wind power into the Colombian power grid in the residential (household) sector. For doing so, a process-based Life Cycle Assessment (P-LCA), an environmental extended input output (EEIO) model and re-spending models (almost ideal demand system AIDS) were applied. Direct rebound effect was measured thought the elasticity price of the electricity demand; furthermore, the environmental savings for increasing the shares of wind power into the grid were calculated via P-LCA. For doing so, a P-LCA for a wind farm in Colombia was performed, whereas the information for other energy resources (Hydro, Coal, Gas, Solar and Thermal) where collected from Ecoinvent 3.4 database. To calculate the environmental indirect rebound effect the monetary savings obtained for the environmental efficiency were calculated. For doing so, an AIDS was applied to obtain the marginal budget shares (MBS). Combining the MBS obtained with the EEIO model the monetary savings were translated into environmental indicators. The ERE is presented for ten impact categories (climate change (CC), acidification (A), ecotoxicity (E), marine eutrophication (MEUT), terrestrial eutrophication (TEUT), carcinogenic effects (CE), non-carcinogenic effects (NCE), ozone layer depletion (OD), photochemical ozone creation (POC), and respiratory effects, inorganics (RES)). Moreover, a sensitive analysis was conducted to measure the variability of the ERE to different values of the direct rebound effect and different percentages of price efficiency. The results show that the inclusion of the environmental rebound effect has generally a non-negligible impact on the overall environmental indicators across all studied years. Such impacts ranging across impact categories from 5% (eutrophication) and 6,109% (photochemical oxidant creation) for the combined model, whereas for the single model the values fall on the ranges of 1% (eutrophication) and 9,277% (photochemical oxidant creation). Further, a sensitivity analysis of the elasticity price of the electricity and the price of the electricity reveals that the ERE varies in different ways, specifically, changes in these parameters could vary the impacts, respectively, by up to about <1% and 38%. Backfire effects are present for 8 of the 10 environmental impacts studied in different magnitudes across the years, depending meanly of the savings available to re-invest.
This doctoral dissertation aims to contribute to clarification of the potential of learning for water governance. The goal is to trace and understand the environmental impacts of learning through participation (research aim 1) and adaptive management (research aim 2), and the effect of learning on participation as a governance mode (research aim 3). For this goal, the researcher engages in a predominantly qualitative research design following the case study method. For every specific research aim cases are selected and analysed qualitatively according to conceptual categories and mechanisms which are defined beforehand. Quantitative studies are used to corroborate the results for research aim 1 and 2 in a mixed-method approach to enhance the validity of results. The empirical research context is European water governance, the implementation of the EU Water Framework and EU Floods Directive (WFD, FD) specifically. Eight cases of participatory decision-making across three European countries and five cases of adaptive management in Northern Germany for WFD implementation are examined to identify whether learning in these processes enhanced environmental outcomes. To detect whether governance learning by public officials occurred, the design of participatory processes for FD implementation in ten German federal states is assessed. The findings of research aim 1, understanding learning through participation and its effects on water governance, reveal that participatory planning led to learning through improved understandings at an individual and group level. Learning did, however, hardly shape effective outcomes. In the AM cases (research aim 2) managers and participants of implementing networks improved their knowledge as well as capacities, and spread the results. Nonetheless, environmental improvement was not necessarily linked to ecological learning. Regarding learning about participation as a governance mode (research aim 3) all interviewed public officials in German federal states reported some degree of governance learning, which emerged not systematically but primarily drawing on own experiences and intuition. These findings are condensed into three overarching lessons for learning in water governance: (1) Interactive communication seems to form the overall frame for participant and group learning. Framing of learning experiences turned out to play an important and potentially distorting role, for which professional facilitation and structured knowledge aggregation methods might be an im-portant counterbalance. (2) Learning did not automatically enhance environmental outcomes. It may thus not be an explanatory variable for policy outcomes, but a conditioning or intervening variable related to collective action, motivation for participation, and situating the issue at hand at wider societal levels. (3) The concepts of puzzling and powering might help understand learning as a source for effectiveness in the long-term when complemented with interest-based debates for creat-ing sufficient political agency of policy issues. Learning seen as puzzling processes might instruct acceptance and legitimization for new powering efforts. The perpetuation of learning in systematic ways and structures appears to characterize an alternative to this reflexive and strategic interplay, for which the water-related EU directives provide the basis.