Open Access

This research argues that the emergent driverless car, as a kind of autonomous vehicle, is a Foucault-ian ‘ethical apparatus’, working as an epistemic device to materially embody and enable discursive power by generating notions of ‘autonomy’ and ‘ethical decision-making’. The ethical implications of AI, algorithmic, and autonomous technologies are topics of current regulatory and academic concern. This concern relates to the lack of meaningful oversight of black boxes inside AI systems, liabilities for manufacturers, and inadequate frameworks to hold AI-based socio-technical systems to account. One recent artefact, the driverless car, has taken on these concerns quite literally in the shaping of a niche discourse of the ‘ethics of autonomous driving’. Ambitions to produce a fully autonomous vehicle based on AI technologies are constrained by speculative concerns that its decision-making in unexpected accident situations cannot be assumed to protect humans. ‘The ethics of autonomous driving’ evaluates proposals to build ‘ethical machines’ by examining the relationship between structures of human values and moral decision-making, and how they comport to computational architectures for decision-making. This is the first case this work takes up, chiefly organised around an analysis of a thought experiment, the Trolley Problem, and the online game, Moral Machine, that crowdsourced values to suggest approaches to an ‘ethics of autonomous driving’. Rather than evaluate the feasibility or appropriateness of these two approaches, this work attends to the more critical issue that ethics is being proposed in terms of technologies turning on the logics of risk, speculation, and probabilistic correlations that are fundamental to how machine learning makes decisions. The concern in this work is less a normative framework or approach for a better or more appropriate ethics of autonomous driving. Rather, this work argues that what we understand as ‘the ethical’ is being transformed when architected by, through, and for AI/autonomous technologies to become their own regulators. Hence the production of autonomous driving necessitates computational infrastructures that are creating a world legible to and for the navigation of a driverless car. I argue that this is fostering computational governance that has implications for human bodies and social relations, chiefly that conventional approaches to regulation and accountability attend to human values and decision-making rather than computational ones. A second case that this research examines is that of driverless car crashes, to examine how ‘autonomous’ driving requires substantial embodied human knowledge and micro-work. Taken together, these two cases - the ethics of autonomous driving, and crashes - make an argument for how myriad practices of knowledge-production are translating the human world into something legible to the navigational needs of the car, producing changes in the human world through the actions of the car on that basis, and advancing notions of ‘autonomy’. This work concludes with arguments for a critical reconceptualisation of ethics and ethical decision-making in AI/autonomous systems.

This dissertation deals with the increasingly recognized role of incumbent firms in advancing sustainability-oriented industry transitions. Incumbent firms are understood as firms-in-industries, which are embedded in established market structures and thereby contrast new entrant firms. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, to provide empirical evidence of barriers to and success factors of incumbent-driven industry transitions. Second, to unify hitherto dispersed descriptions of transition-related firm behaviour in a new understanding of incumbent firms in industry transitions. To this end, theoretical concepts are discussed and extended on the basis of different empirical studies in the German meat industry. The meat industry serves as suitable research setting due to its diverse sustainability challenges, ranging from climate change and pollution to animal welfare and public health, as well as its current developments towards sustainable protein alternatives. The meat context also offers opportunities to delve into individual-level processes influencing transition-related behaviour. The main contribution of this dissertation is a Multi Embeddedness Framework (MEF) that details processes and outcomes of integrated incumbent firm behaviour, including passive, reactive and proactive behaviors. The framework acknowledges the diversity in incumbent firm behaviors within industries and firms and provides new insights into transition-related behaviors at firm and individual level. With regard to the latter, the potential of learning about and from innovative start-up firms as well as shared sensemaking processes are discussed. The contents of this dissertation provide valuable contributions to the transition literature as well as important management implications with regard to the stimulation and promotion of proactive behaviors

Globalization has increased the speed, volume and spatial scale of global flows of people, information, finance, goods and services. Economic globalization is closely linked to the globalization of environmental problems, with the underlying causes and directly visible effects of environmental problems becoming increasingly geographically dispersed. For example, the products consumed in one place can have negative environmental effects in distal places of production. This poses challenges to territorially-based governance systems. Governments do not have legal authority to regulate environmental problems in other jurisdictions, even if their own policies or actions of domestic companies contribute to these problems. Likewise, companies face challenges with overseeing and governing the environmental effects that occur along their supply chains. Nevertheless, state and non-state actors increasingly aim to govern environmental problems outside their jurisdictional and organizational boundaries that arise from long-distance interactions between social-ecological systems – so-called telecoupled systems. This doctoral dissertation analyses the environmental governance of long-distance social-ecological interactions in telecoupled systems in two issue domains: global commodity chains and infrastructure projects as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Although both domains involve different governance actors, institutions and processes, they both concern the question of how the involved actors develop governance structures and institutional responses to telecoupling. This dissertation aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how to govern environmental problems that are associated with global flows. Since many multilateral environmental governance initiatives have not yet produced the desired solutions to global problems, particular attention is directed at unilateral state-led governance approaches. This dissertation addresses the questions of (1) how to achieve a spatial fit between the scale of telecoupled systems and the scale of governance institutions, (2) how governance actors exercise agency in governing telecoupled systems, and (3) how state actors can govern the domestic and foreign environmental effects of telecoupled flows. This dissertation draws upon, and contributes to, two fields of research: research on telecoupling and research on global environmental governance. The results show that creating a spatial fit in the governance of global commodity flows is challenging because boundary and resolution mismatches can emerge. Boundary mismatches denote situations where social-ecological problems transcend established jurisdictional boundaries, whereas resolution mismatches refer to governance institutions that have too coarse a spatial resolution to allow them to address the specific aspects of social-ecological problems effectively. No single governance institution is likely to avoid all mismatches, which highlights the need to align multiple governance approaches to effectively govern telecoupled systems. 2 Telecoupled flows are often governed at places where they originate and places where they arrive for processing, final consumption, or investment. If governance in the jurisdiction experiencing the environmental issue is weak, external governance actors can aim to fill this governance gap by introducing due diligence legislation and by promoting sustainability standards in international (trade) relations. State actors often rely on the actions of non-state actors to govern beyond jurisdictional borders. Despite efforts to govern environmental outcomes in distant jurisdictions, it is important to recognize the agency of governments that experience the direct environmental effects of telecoupling. They have great leverage to steer telecoupled systems towards sustainability through the formulation, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of stringent regulatory frameworks, in the context of both commodity supply chains and BRI projects. The findings of this dissertation are relevant for scholars and policy makers interested in what can be termed external environmental governance, which refers to the governance structures and institutions to shape environmental outcomes outside the borders of a given jurisdiction. This dissertation sets

The research described in this dissertation focuses on developing a process to remove oligomers and suppress their formation by intercepting the aging procedure's precursors using adsorbents when biodiesel and its blends are used as fuel. There has been the search for various energy sources due to the increasing awareness of the depletion of fossil fuel resources, environmental issues, and more urgently is the need to mitigate climate change. Biodiesel has become more attractive in recent times (Daming et al. 2012, Abdullah et al., 2007) as an alternative fuel. Biodiesel, a methyl ester of vegetable oil, is a renewable, low environmental impact, green alternative fuel for diesel engines (EU Regulation, 2012, Ghosh and Dutta, 2012). In addition to its renewable status, biodiesel, compared to fossil fuel, has advantages such as its biodegradability, reduced exhaust emissions, higher cetane number, lubricity, and safer distribution and storage due to its higher flash point (Pereira et al. 2015, Monyem and Van Gerpen, 2001). Biodiesel fuel is chemically fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) derived from different plant oils. It varies slightly in molecular structures due to the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids in the different sources compared to conventional diesel fuel (Pereira et al. 2015, 2013, Sharma and Singh, 2009). Biodiesel fuels contain significant amounts of esters of oleic, linoleic, or linolenic acids, which influence their oxidative stability. A small percentage of more highly unsaturated fatty compounds have a disproportionately strong effect in reducing oxidation stability and promoting oligomers formation. The oxidation products of the biodiesel in the engine sump influence the degradation of the lubrication oil.

Given the complex, dynamic, and urgent problems that sustainability science addresses, research approaches are required that not only improve the understanding of sustainability challenges, but also to support action for sustainable development. In this context, transdisciplinary research has established as an approach that aims not only to generate new knowledge, but also to promote the societal relevance and application of research findings through direct collaboration of scientists and societal stakeholders from different fields in integrative research processes. Despite its increasing prevalence in the field, there remains a gap between theoretical ideal-typical models of transdisciplinary research and its actual application within sustainability science. While scholars generally agree that transdisciplinary research is societally effective, there is scattered and partly conflicting evidence on which aspects of transdisciplinary research foster societal impact. Moreover, the extent to which transdisciplinary research contributes to scientific progress is largely unexplored. This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the actual implementation of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science. Following three aims, this work likes to (1.) contribute to the measurability of transdisciplinary research processes as well as their societal and academic outputs and impacts, to (2.) demarcate transdisciplinary research from other modes of research in sustainability science and to (3.) identify and examine the determinants that shape the contribution of transdisciplinary research to societal action for sustainable development and to scientific knowledge production. To serve these aims a mixed methods approach is applied that combines strong quantitative elements with in-depth qualitative analyses that integrate the perspectives of practitioners. This thesis provides a broad set of indicators to describe and assess transdisciplinary research that translate theoretical concepts form transdisciplinarity theory into observable variables. The indicators offer a holistic perspective on transdisciplinary research by representing research mode characteristics, societal as well as scientific outcomes of research projects and their specific context. To theoretically demarcate transdisciplinary research from other forms of research, a narrative literature review first elaborates the differences between ‘normal science’, political use of scientific knowledge and transdisciplinarity in their underlying logics of problem definition, knowledge production and research utilization. Subsequently, these concepts were compared with perspectives and expectations of practitioners in the forest sector on integrative research settings, showing that practitioner perspectives align the most with conceptualizations of political use of scientific knowledge. Moreover, a cluster analysis of data from 59 research projects identified five research modes that empirically demarcate ideal-typical transdisciplinary research from other research modes within sustainability science: (1) purely academic research, (2.) practice consultation, (3.) selective practitioner involvement, (4.) ideal-typical transdisciplinary research and (5.) practice-oriented research. Based on this finding, transdisciplinary research can be characterized as an intensive, but balanced involvement of practitioners. It incorporates not only the needs and goals of the practitioners but also their norms and values. Ideal-typical transdisciplinary research goes beyond mere consultatory research approaches and must be distinguished from what is conceptualized as applied research. Regression analysis of 81 research projects and statistical group comparisons of the five research mode clusters show that societal and academic outputs and impacts vary with specific project characteristics and combinations of project characteristics defined as research modes. The findings indicate that more interactive research modes reach more societal impacts. In particular, the involvement of practitioners in early project phases and the targeted dissemination of the research results positively affect societal impacts. This finding also aligns with practitioner expectations on integrative research and research utilization, provided by qualitative analysis. Moreover, the quantitative results show that scientific outputs and impacts decrease with the intensity of interactions, indicating a trade-off between societal and scientific outcomes and impacts. Overall, the empirical results of this thesis support the claimed effectiveness of transdisciplinary research in providing societally relevant, applicable knowledge and encourage further funding of transdisciplinary research by funding agencies. The relationships discovered in this study between research mode characteristics and societal as well as academic outputs and impacts can help researchers design and reflect on their research and can inform funding agencies in the design of project calls and research programs. However, the observed lower academic outputs and impacts of more integrative research modes raise the question of how to further strengthen the systematic documentation and accessibility of the results of transdisciplinary sustainability research. Additionally, the observed trade-off between societal and academic impacts of transdisciplinary research highlights the need for strategies to mediate between the dual aim of transdisciplinary research to contribute to societal problem solving and scientific knowledge production. Keywords: transdisciplinarity, sustainability science, transdisciplinary research, societal impact, scientific impact, research mode, research evaluation

In this chapter, we aim to present how shame, vulnerability, self-care and community care interrelate to one another and how they help build the necessary foundation for mutual care in interdependent communities, and thus for community-supported projects (CSX). Furthermore, we argue that by looking at the role of shame and vulnerability within our personal life, as we simultaneously learn to take care of ourselves, we then lay a solid foundation for learning how to support others. We then suggest that at the birthplace between healthy sustainable self-care and community care, people and communities are able to shift from a hyper-individualized lifestyle (isolation, disconnection) to a more collective community-centered approach (belonging and connection) that finally creates the perfect recipe for the creation of CSX Projects and a more inclusive and kinder economy for all.

How can CSX be applied to different industries in the cultural field? The following three subchapters discuss general problems of the cultural sector (the past), current practice examples of CSX (the present) and visions about new possibilities in this sector (the future), envisioning the progress of the sector through the implementation of CSX as an alternative economic model. This chapter explores this by using creative writing styles. While all the characters are fictional, the characterizations and the outline of the story draw from our scientific research. Our main protagonist is Quinn who studies Cultural Studies, is a volunteer in several cultural initiatives and works at a podcast studio. Planning to be done with the Master's program in about a year, questions about possibilities of a future employment in the cultural sector are becoming more present for Quinn and their fellow students.

This chapter is structured into two sub chapters, studied and written by two research-groups, titled: (1) Tales of Challenge (2) Tales of Success. The chapter concludes with a common summary of all findings. In both sub chapters the same approach was applied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed according to Mayring (2000) to collect perspectives from practice and research. Some interviews were conducted by each research group separately and some together. Also, a method inspired by Photovoice was used to gain a deeper understanding of specific challenges and drivers in the respective projects. Inspired by the Photovoice method (Wang and Burris, 1997), interviewees were asked to share a picture and short description answering a question posed by the researchers to gain a deeper understanding of specific challenges and drivers in the respective projects. Our shared main character, Joice, will keep popping up during this chapter to share her experience.

Climate change presents a major sustainability challenge to coastal social-ecological systems (SES). The integration of climate change adaptation into processes or structures for coastal governance, however, has been described as challenging. Resilience presents a suitable concept to approach this problem, as it facilitates bridging between the natural and social sciences, as well as between science and policy in an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also makes use of the concept of resilience and confirms that recent literature increasingly suggests that transformative changes in SES are required to enhance their resilience to climate change. Yet, knowledge gaps still exist on how to enable effective coastal governance to enhance the climate resilience of coastal SES. To address this problem, the importance of actionable knowledge is growing in climate change adaptation, environmental governance, and broader sustainability research. Actionable knowledge refers to knowledge that contributes to solving societal problems and points to actions and processes of change. One way of generating actionable knowledge is the co-production of knowledge with societal stakeholders. Yet, knowledge gaps exist in what methods and approaches may contribute to generating actionable knowledge and what obstacles to knowledge co-production exist especially for early-career researchers (ECRs). This dissertation contributes to research on generating actionable knowledge for coastal governance to enhance the resilience of coastal SES to climate change. It does this by providing theoretical, methodological and empirical insights on three research questions (RQs), laid out in Chapter I. These are: 1) what is a more actionable concept for applying the concept of resilience in coastal governance?; 2) what methods and approaches are suitable to generate actionable knowledge for coastal governance?; and 3) what obstacles to knowledge co-production exist for ECRs and how can they be overcome? The RQs are addressed in five publications, each presenting one chapter of this dissertation. For answering RQ1, Chapter II applies a research synthesis to bring together common themes and challenges documented in resilience, climate change and environmental governance literature. For answering RQ2, in Chapter III-V different methods and approaches for generating actionable knowledge are proposed and tested using a case-study in the SES of Algoa Bay, South Africa. These include i) the analysis of stakeholder agency as an indicator of the ability of stakeholders to act in governance processes; ii) the application of a stakeholder analysis to gain an improved understanding of the current degree of knowledge exchange for climate change adaptation; and iii) the combination of a capital approach framework, and fuzzy cognitive mapping, which shed light on the governance performance for climate change adaptation and on leverage points that can enhance climate resilience. Finally, for answering RQ3, Chapter VI provides a perspective on the obstacles that especially ECRs face, and actions that are needed to create the conditions under which knowledge co-production processes can be successful. This is done by applying a multi-method approach combining an online survey and workshop targeted at ECRs in the marine sciences. Key findings suggest that system and transformative knowledge are particularly important when applying the concept of resilience in coastal governance to generate actionable knowledge. The different methods and approaches that are proposed and tested contribute to generating both system and transformative knowledge. Firstly, they provide an overview of the capacities of different stakeholders to act, shed light on current collaboration and knowledge exchange, and enable the identification of different governance processes for coastal governance and climate change adaptation (system knowledge). Secondly, results have implications for how to improve knowledge exchange and identify leverage points that can enhance overall governance performance, thus providing recommendations on actions and processes that can enhance climate resilience in the case-study area (transformative knowledge). It is also highlighted how knowledge co-production can contribute to generating system and transformative knowledge together with stakeholders, and what actions are needed to build the capacities to translate knowledge into action. Additionally, the findings of this dissertation put forward actions that are needed at different organisational levels of the academic system to facilitate knowledge co-production processes with stakeholders involved in coastal governance. The results of this dissertation have implications for stakeholders and decision-making in the case-study area, as well as for environmental governance, climate change adaptation and broader sustainability research. Implications for stakeholders include recommendations for implementing formal commitments to share climate information across levels and sectors, establishing the role of information providers in the municipality, and reinforcing human capital within the local municipality in Algoa Bay. It also requires more support from the provincial government, such as addressing funding issues, offering training focusing on stakeholders with lower agency and capacities, and improving the overall availability and accessibility of climate information, as well as the priority given to climate change in the Integrated Development Plan. Findings also suggest the need for a more integrated approach to climate change adaptation in coastal planning and management frameworks. It also suggests that the conservation of environmental assets presents an important bottleneck for resilience management and needs to be further prioritised within decision-making. Implications for research include the applicability of methods beyond the context of this dissertation; a more actionable concept for approaching resilience in (coastal) governance systems that can be applied for achieving broader sustainability goals; and a more critical reflection on how transformative research is conducted, and what academic foundation is needed so that it can fulfil its societal goal. Future research may include a combination of the methods applied in this dissertation; qualitative applications of the stakeholder network analysis; and an application of the proposed approach to other case-studies using real-world laboratories. Overall, this dissertation provides theoretical, methodological, and empirical implications and insights into pressing SES problems. It also contributes to advancing the field of transformative research for more societally relevant outcomes in face of climate change and broader sustainability challenges

This study examines the perspective of German venture capitalists on the success factors of digital startups and follows an explorative three-dimensional research approach that integrates the micro perspective on the entrepreneurial personality, the macro perspective on the entrepreneurial context, and the meso perspective on the business model. Thus, the study operates in a very young field of entrepreneurship research. One of the purposes of this research project is to work out the significance of particular characteristics at each research level for the economic success of a digital start-up from the perspective of German venture capitalists. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the view of this group of experts on the relevance of an entire group of characteristics. To answer the central research questions, qualitative research methods and a mixed-methods approach are pursued, with quantitative and qualitative primary data being collected by means of theory-driven semi-structured expert interviews. As a result, a total of four articles have been produced: three articles that focus on presenting the results of qualitative research from only one of the three aforementioned research perspectives each, and a fourth article that combines methods from qualitative and quantitative research and derives an integrated, evidence-based working model of the economic success of digital startups from the perspective of German venture capital (VC) investors.

This dissertation comprises three stand-alone research papers dealing with different aspects of labor market characteristics: bonus payments and the gender pay gap; second job holding; and workers un-covered by collective bargaining. The first paper ``Non-base compensation and the gender pay gap'' investigates whether and how non-base compensation in the form of bonus payments, overtime pay, and shift premia contributes to the gender pay gap. Unionization along with collective bargaining coverage has been on the decline on recent decades. Using German administrative data, the second paper examines which workers in firms covered by col-lective bargaining agreements still individually benefit from these union agreements, which workers are not covered anymore and what this means for their wages. The third paper studies the development and persistence of second job holding in Germany after a legislative change in the year 2003 allowed the extensive dispensation of marginal second jobs from taxes and social security contributions. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel I document a substantial increase in second job holding in Germany since 2003 and find in a dynamic panel model setting that there is true state dependence in second job holding.

The requirements for the design of information and assistance systems in labour-intensive processes are interdisciplinary and have not yet been sufficiently addressed in research. This dissertation analyses, evaluates and describes possibilities for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of labour-intensive processes through design-optimised socio-technical systems. The work thus contributes to further developing information and assistance systems for industrial applications and use in healthcare. The central dimensions of people, activity, context and technology are the focus of the scientific investigations following the Design Science Research paradigm. Design principles derived from this, a corresponding taxonomy, and a conceptual reference model for the design of socio-technical systems are the results of this dissertation.

New media and digital technologies open up numerous possibilities to document different versions of reality, which makes it essential to examine how they transform the logic behind the creation and production of documentaries in digital cultures. The goal of this study is to inves-tigate the integration between the traditional documentary and new media: the interactive doc-umentary, in the context of the different sociocultural and technological environments of China and the West. Accordingly, a comparative study on the evolution and integration of these two fields was carried out. The documentary genre brings with it a method of classification and various modes of representing reality, while new media provide new approaches to interactivity as well as the production and distribution of interactive documentaries. In this context, the study examines the differences and characteristics of interactive documentaries in China and the West. Interactive documentaries grow and change as a continuously evolving system, engaging the roles of the author and the user, such that their roles are mixed for better co-expression and the reshaping of their shared environment. In addition, an analytical approach based on the types of interactivity was adopted to explore this new form of documentary both to deduce how the stories about our shared world can be told and to understand the impact of interactive doc-umentaries on the construction of our versions of the reality as well as our role in it.

To respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, scholars from various disciplines increasingly emphasize that a mere outer transformation is insufficient and that we also need an inner transformation that addresses deep leverage points. Yet, the open questions are how the inner and outer dimensions relate to each other and how inner transformation might lead to outer transformation. How we attempt to answer these questions is determined by our dominant paradigm. Paradigms define how we understand and shape the world, and thus, they define how we conceptualize challenges, such as inner and outer transformation. Various authors argue that the dominant paradigm, which is characterized by reductionism, empiricism, dualism, and determinism, might be a root cause for insufficiently addressing sustainability challenges. As an alternative, many argue for a relational paradigm, which understands complex phenomena in terms of constitutive processes and relations. A relational paradigm might offer possibilities to reconceptualize inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene and might shed new light on how to integrate both in sustainability science. Yet, it is still being determined how a relational paradigm can contribute to the understanding of inner and outer transformations towards sustainability in the Anthropocene. Therefore, this dissertation's overarching scope is to contribute to systems change towards a more social-ecological future by generating insights into and exploring possibilities of a relational paradigm for inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene. This thesis is divided into three sub-questions. The first research question aims to contribute to transformation research by increasing the theoretical understanding of a relational paradigm. The second research question aims to contribute to transformative research by developing a transformative educational case study grounded in a relational, justice-oriented approach. The third research question aims to contribute to transformation research by analyzing how a relational paradigm might contribute to policies and practices for sustainable lifestyles. The results indicate that inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene can be reconceptualized as paradigm-ing relationality in the Ecocene. "Paradigm-ing" as an active verb, reconceptualizes inner and outer transformation into ontologies, epistemologies, ethics, and socialecological realities that are ongoing, nonhierarchical, nonlinear, dynamic, co-creative processes of intra-action. The Ecocene decenters the human and attends to what we might be able to intra-actand become-with. These insights can offer unexplored perspectives to address sustainability challenges and increase our capacities to respond in novel ways.

Biodiversity is quickly diminishing across the planet, primarily owing to human pressures. Protected areas are an essential tool for conserving biodiversity in response to increasing human pressures. However, their ecological effectiveness is contested and their capacity to resist human pressures differ. This dissertation aimed to assess the ecological effectiveness of different protection levels (from strict to less strictly protected: national park, game reserve, forest reserve, game-controlled area, and unprotected areas) in biodiversity (both mega diverse butterflies and mammals), maintaining habitat connectivity, and reducing anthropogenic threats at the wider landscape in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem of southwestern Tanzania. To achieve this overarching goal, I employed an interdisciplinary approach. First, I analyzed butterfly diversity and community composition patterns across protection levels in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. I found that species richness and abundance were highest in the game reserves and game-controlled areas, intermediate in the forest reserves, national park and unprotected areas. Species composition differed significantly among protection levels. Landscape heterogeneity, forest cover, and primary productivity influenced species composition. Land-use, burned areas, forest cover, and primary productivity explained the richness of species and functional traits. Game reserves hosted most indicator species. Second, I modelled the spatial distribution of six large mammal target species (buffalo Syncerus caffer, elephant Loxodonta africana, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus, topi Damaliscus korrigum, and zebra Equus burchellii) across environmental and protection gradients in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. Based on species-specific density surface models, I found relatively consistent effects of protection level and land-use variables on the spatial distribution of the target mammal species: relative densities were highest in the national park and game reserves, intermediate in forest reserves and game-controlled areas and lowest in un-protected areas. Beyond species-specific environmental predictors for relative densities, our results highlight consistent negative associations between relative densities of the target species and distance to cropland and avoidance of areas in proximity to houses. Third, I examined temporal changes in land-use, population densities and distribution of six large mammal target species across protection levels between 1991 and 2018. During the surveyed period, cropland increased from 3.4 % to 9.6 % on unprotected land and from ≤0.05 % to <1 % on protected land. Wildlife densities of most, but not all target species declined across the entire landscape, yet the onset of the observed wildlife declines occurred several years before the onset of cropland expansion. Across protection levels, wildlife densities occurred at much greater densities in the national park and game reserves and lowest in the forest reserves, game-controlled areas and unprotected areas. Based on logistic regression models, target species preferred the national park over less strictly protection levels and areas distant to cropland. Because these analyses do not support a direct relationship between the timing of land-use change and wildlife population dynamics, other factors may account for the apparent ecosystem-wide decline in wildlife. Fourth, I quantified land-use changes, modelled habitat suitability and connectivity of elephant over time across a large protected area network in southwestern Tanzania. Based on analyses of remotely-sensed data, cropland increased from 7% in 2000 to 13% in 2019, with an average expansion of 634 km2 per year. Based on ensemble models, distance from cropland influenced survey-specific habitat suitability for elephant the most. Despite cropland expansion, the locations of the modelled elephant corridors (n=10) remained similar throughout the survey period. According to ecological knowledge, nine of the modelled corridors were active, whereas one modelled corridor had been inactive since the 1970s. Based on circuit theory, I prioritize three corridors for protected area connectivity. Key indicators of corridor quality varied over time, whereas elephant movement through some corridors appears to have increased over time. Overall, this dissertation underpins differences in ecological effectiveness of protected areas within one ecosystem. It highlights the need to utilize a landscape conservation approach to guide effective conservation across the entire protection gradient. It also suggests the need to enforcing land use plans and having alternative and sustainable forms for generating income from the land without impairing wildlife habitat.

In May 2020, the arrest and killing of George Floyd were followed by an uproar that reached far beyond Minneapolis (Taylor 2021). Under the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement, people unitedly demonstrated against police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S. Though racially motivated police violence did not end with George Floyd. The incident contributed to a more visible reality of a judicial and societal system built upon racism. In 1989, legal scholars developed the Critical Race Theory to recognise and examine racism embedded in the legal system. However, racism is not only found in legal studies but is also ingrained in and reproduced by schools. Scholars indicate that the educational system in the U.S. is now more segregated and unequal than ever. Also, topics such as racism, Whiteness, and White-supremacy are underrepresented in schools and teacher education (Milner Ⅳ, Deans Harmon, and McGee 2022, 364). If and how a CRT perspective should be taught in schools depicts a current controversy between politics, teachers, and parents.

Many dynamics are reshaping the global macroeconomics and finance. This cumulative dissertation empirically examines the impacts of two major global dynamics, the disaster risks and the China’s rise, on the global economy. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation and summarizes the dissertation. Chapter 2 investigates how geopolitical risks affect financial stress in the whole financial system and its sub-sectors (banking, stock, foreign exchange, bond) of major emerging economies. Chapter 3 shows how different disaster risks (financial, geopolitical, natural-technological) can explain the returns and risk premiums of stock and housing in advanced economies between 1870 and 2015. Chapter 4 examines how the rise of China is contributing to higher economic growth in emerging economies, especially after the Global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Chapter 5 illustrates how a close trade and investment relation with China has helped African countries to reduce poverty and to improve their income distribution.

The significance of selecting suitable talent A company’s success is significantly influenced by the professionalism and quality of decision-making, especially selecting decisions to hire suitable talent. The term “talent” can be taken to mean as someone who has talent (talent as the sum of one’s abilities) and someone who is a talent. Leadership talent makes a difference in organizational success, has the potential to succeed as a leader, and thus will hold corresponding pivotal positions. In this book, we focus on the selection and acquisition of leadership talent, since such talent is more difficult to find in the market and, at the same time, more challenging to select. Selecting these talented individuals is one of the most critical components of effective organizations. Hardly any other corporate decision has such significant effects on corporate success as talent selection. Recruiting and personnel selection are also the first steps in promoting capability building and creating successful teams. For example, Warren Buffet, renowned for his investing prowess, says, “I have only two jobs. One is to attract and keep outstanding managers to run our various operations”. This highlights the need for an effective and efficient personnel selection process and to improve the diagnostic performance of such procedures. In addition, the increasing diversity of applicants, global competitiveness, and the lack of qualified personnel in specific labor and job markets also increase the importance of high-quality personnel selection processes.

Human activities have become a major driver of global change, so that global society and economy are facing consequences such as climate change, increasing scarcity of resources, environmental pollution and degradation as well as disturbances of ecosystem functioning and services.In order to meet these main challenges in an appropriate way, adequate starting points and solutions must be pursued at all levels to shift the current socio-economic pathway from an unsustainable to a safe operating and thus sustainable development within the planetary boundaries. One of the application concepts in industrial contexts is Industrial Symbiosis (IS), which deals with the set-up of advanced circular/cascading systems, in which the energy and material flows are prolonged for multiple material and energetic (re-)utilization within industrial systems in order to increase resource productivity and efficiency, while reducing environmental impacts. The overarching goal of the research project was to identify and develop approaches to enable the evolution of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) in Industrial Parks (IPs). Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a collaborative cross-sectoral approach to connect the resource supply and demand of various industries in order to optimize the resource use through exchange of materials, energy, water and human resources across different companies, while generating ecological, technical, social and economic benefits. Many Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools have been developed to facilitate IS, but they predominantly focus on the as-is analysis of the IS system, and do not consider the development of a common desired target vision or corresponding possible future scenarios as well as conceivable transformation paths from the actual to the defined (sustainability) target state. This gap shall be addressed in this work, presenting the software requirements engineering results for a holistic IT-supported IS tool covering system analysis, transformation simulation and goal-setting. This study also aims to present the conceptual IT-supported IS tool and its corresponding prototype, developed for the identification of IS opportunities in IPs. This IS tool serves as an IS facilitating platform, providing transparency among market players and proposing potential cooperation partners according to selectable criteria (e.g. geographical radius, material properties, material quality, purchase quantity, delivery period). Therefore a quantitative indicator system was compiled and recurring patterns were identified to utilize this knowledge in the comprehensive IT-supported IS tool. So this IS tool builds the technology-enabled environment for the processes of first screening of IS possibilities and initiation for further complex business-driven negotiations and agreements for long-term IS business relationships.

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, to provide a better understanding of the unique urban climate and its evolution under climate change. 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 12.5 km to 3 km 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 12.5 km grid resolution with the regional climate model REMO, and thereafter to the 3 km with the convection-permitting model version of REMO (REMO NH). The findings indicate that the convection-permitting scale mitigates the SH>0.02 kg/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 3 km compared to the 12.5 km 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 12.5 km and 3 km 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 research makes novel contributions that advance science, through demonstrating the potential of regional climate models, and especially the added value of convection-permitting models, to understand urban rural humidity contrasts under climate change, supporting the development of knowledge-based climate information for urban regions.

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. More than 85% of the worldwide flowering-plant species depend to some degree on pollination by insects (pollinators). Similarly, many pollinators depend on the flowers of the plants, as they need nectar and pollen as food resources for themselves and their offspring. However, an increasing number of pollinator and plant species are threatened by multiple, interacting, and sometimes synergistic causes (habitat loss, fragmentation, diseases, parasites, pesticides, monocultures) 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. For this purpose, the pollinators were divided into four different functional groups, i.e. honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. In particular, the spatial pollinator behaviour was examined, that is, in which flowering height the flowers were visited within the plant community. In order to study the temporal component, pollinator visits were observed over the course of the day and the season. As a result, an unprecedented high resolution of plant-pollinator interactions was found. For the first time it was possible to demonstrate that the different pollinator functional groups can complementarily use different spatio-temporal niches which was most pronounced in species-rich plant mixtures,. This leads to the conclusion that species-rich plant mixtures provide sufficient resources that can be used by generalists, such as honeybees and bumblebees, as well as other pollinator functional groups, such as hoverflies and solitary bees. Chapters 3 and 4 continues on the chemical composition of flower nectar (nectar) of various plant species. Nectar is used as food resource for adult pollinators, but is also largely used as a supply for their offspring, making it the most important pollinator reward. 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 doing so, similarities and/or differences of the nectar compositions were investigated with respect to the most important macronutrients carbohydrates and amino acids between the individual species but also between the most representative plant families. This should lead to a better understanding about how plant diversity influences consuming pollinators and which factors, e.g. phylogenetics, morphology or ecology, can lead to different nectar compositions. We could show that each plant species differs in terms of carbohydrate content, amino acid content and C:AA-ratio. In addition, there were clear differences between the four representative plant families Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Lamiaceae regarding the proportions of essential amino acids. The proportions of the individual sugars and the C:AA-ratios also differed greatly between the four plant families. Therefore, it can be assumed that these nectar contents are family-specific. The need for differences in carbohydrate content are probably due to the different morphology of the flowers, as plants with open flowers and exposed nectar, as in Apiaceae and Asteraceae, can protect their nectar from evaporation if the nectar has a higher osmolality, which can be achieved by a higher hexose (fructose and glucose) content. Thus, the nectar can remain dilute for a longer time and consequently remain consumable for pollinators, which in turn can contribute to the pollination of plants. Fabaceae and Lamiaceae showed different results. Here the nectar was probably protected from evaporation by closed flowers, which explains the high proportion of sucrose, leading to a lower osmolality that would enhance evaporation for exposed nectar. The metabolic pathways controlling the family-specific C:AA-ratios are yet to be explored. In conclusion, it can be suggested that this study contributes to elucidating the morphological and phylogenetic characteristics that control each plant species’ nectar composition. 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. The underlying factors causing these differences in nectar composition have never been studied before. In order to investigate these coherences, plant communities in the Jena Experiment of different plant species richness levels containing the target plant species K. arvensis were used. In particular, we examined whether the nectar of K. arvensis is influenced by other neighbouring plant species, e.g. through competition for pollinators. The carbohydrate and amino acid content in nectar varied both between individuals of K. arvensis and between the different plant species richness levels. However, there were significant non-linear differences in the proportions of certain essential and phagostimulatory amino acids, which were produced proportionally more in the nectar of K. arvensis plants in species-rich plant communities, while histidine, one of the generally inhibiting amino acids tended to be less present. Our findings therefore suggest that the nectar of K. arvensis is more palatable when the plants grow in species-rich plant communities. 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. Thus further research investigating diversified farming systems, including pollinator-friendly practices to reveal the attractiveness of different plant species. More diversified field margins and grasslands, for the maintenance of pollinator services for sustainable provision of crop pollination.

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. Thereby they aim to turn virtual visitors into physical visitors. 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. Closing this knowledge gap is of great interest from a theoretical perspective; furthermore, it is of central importance for strategic marketing-controlling of destinations. 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. The results will also be of great practical value for DMOs, as they yield a tool for controlling the experiential outcomes of websites as a base for strategic marketing decisions.

This thesis aims to develop a FE-based model of a dieless wire drawing process for wires made from magnesium alloys. To this end a general material model of pure magnesium and a model of the dieless wire drawing process are developed. Based on the general pure magnesium model an alloy specific model for AZ31 wire is developed. The performance of both models is assessed using experimental data generated on a dieless wire drawing prototype. The process model is conceptionally split into the thermal and mechanical response of the wire. The thermal model is validated by axial temperature profiles and the mechanical model is vali-dated by CSA-reduction and wire force. Both behaviours are validated separately before combin-ing the thus created models into a thermomechanical model of the dieless wire drawing process. The thermal material model is developed for pure magnesium. An initial assumption of limited correlation between content of alloying elements and thermal behaviour, was disproven. As a results in addition to alloy-specific mechanical data, thermo-electric data is recorded to achieve thermal validity of the model. This is done by identifying the experimental maximum temperature of the drawn wire for a given heating power and calculating the necessary input power of the in-duction heating device to achieve this temperature in simulation. The mechanic material model is based on experimental stress-strain curves recorded for each investigated wire materials in addi-tion to pure magnesium data, based on literature. Results show the thermomechanical magnesium models to be mostly valid, provided process parameters stay within the range of available data on the mechanic material performance. Where the model is forced to extrapolate material behaviour, simulation quality drops. This ap-plies for wire temperature and CSA-reduction. Estimations of wire force are shown to be invalid. For AZ31 wire the thermal model generated valid temperature profiles of the wire. The thermo-mechanical model for AZ31 is shown invalid as both CSA-reduction and wire force deviate from experimental results.

Algorithmic distribution has fundamentally altered the news industry and has led to conflicts over regulatory issues. Focusing on the introduction of European ancillary copyright, this chapter addresses an earlier international reform around algorithmic news distribution. Based on an in-depth thematic analysis of key documents from the policy formulation phase, the chapter maps the arguments for and against the ancillary copyright reform put forward by Google and news publishers in Germany. While we provide a detailed analysis of the underlying rationales of two key actors primarily affected by the regulation, we also place ancillary copyright in the context of competing private property and public policy visions, which allows for a better understanding of how and why different actors take particular positions on copyright reform and algorithmic regulation.

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.