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The question whether representation of travel experience actually leads to personal prestige enhancement has been widely neglected so far. The study of prestige benefits of travel is a necessary endeavour to develop suitable methodological approaches toward the concept, in order to close critical knowledge gaps and enhance scientific understanding. The present thesis lays out the rationale and results of three research projects which shed light onto the relationship between touristic self-presentation and its effects on personal prestige evaluations of the social environment. The empirical studies conclude in the following main findings: (1) Leisure travel is a useful means for people to self-express in a positive way, and material representations of travel are frequently displayed to others. Tourists make use of travel experience to self-present in a positive way by uploading photos on social media, collecting and displaying souvenirs, wearing jewellery and clothing from their last trip, or talking about their trips to others. They express positive self-messages about personal character traits, affiliation to social in-groups and proof of having travelled somewhere. The findings ascertain the utility of travel representations for positive self-expression, showing that travel experience is an effective vehicle for conspicuous consumption and self-expression as an antecedent for personal prestige enhancement. (2) Personal prestige is an element of social relations, and holds capacity to affect perceptions of social inclusion and social distinction, so it has to be conceptualised as a multidimensional construct. In a tourism context, personal prestige is reliably measurable along the four dimensions of hedonism, social inclusion, social distinction and prosperity. The herein developed Personal Prestige Inventory (PPI) is a valid, reliable and parsimonious measurement tool which substantially enhances methodological approaches toward empirical research into personal prestige. (3) The way in which people represent travel experience to others measurably affects how their personal prestige is evaluated by social others. Empirical evidence of a series of experimental studies provides support for the assumption that representation of travel experience has an effect on the social evaluation of tourists' personal prestige. Experimental variance suggests small to moderate effects on personal prestige depending on the amount of leisure information given about a person, participation in tourism, and the destination and type of travel represented. This evidence is reasonable basis to conclude that whether and how people travel, and whether and how they share travel experience with others, does measurably affect social other's evaluation of their personal prestige.
Algae-bacteria-based biotechnology has received more and more attention in recent years, especially in the subtropical and tropical regions, as an alternative method of conventional multistep wastewater treatment processes. Moreover, the algal biomass generated during wastewater treatment is regarded as a sustainable bioresource which could be used for producing biofuel, agricultural fertilizers or animal feeds. Although this technology is attractive, a number of obstacles need to be solved before large-scale applications. The main purposes of this work are to find more effective biomass harvesting strategies and develop high-effective algal-bacterial systems to improve wastewater treatment performance, biomass generation rate and biomass settleability. A wastewater-borne algal-bacterial culture, cultivated and trained through alternate mixing and non-mixing strategy, was used to treat pretreated municipal wastewater. After one month cultivation and training, the acclimatized algal-bacterial system showed high carbon and nutrient removal capacity and good settleability within 20 minutes of sedimentation. Algal biomass uptake was the main removal mechanism of nitrogen and phosphorus. The biomass productivity, nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation in biomass during the wastewater treatment process were investigated. The characterization of the microbial consortium composition in the enriched algal-bacterial system provided new insights in this research field. Aerobic activated sludge which already showed good settleability was used as bacterial inoculum to enhance the wastewater treatment performance and biomass settleability of algal-bacterial culture. The influence of different algae and sludge inoculum ratios on the treatment efficiency and biomass settleability was investigated. There was no significant effect of the inoculation ratios on the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. But algae/sludge inoculum ratio of 5 showed the best nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies (91.0 ± 7.0% and 93.5 ± 2.5%, respectively) within 10 days. Furthermore, 16S rDNA gene analysis showed that the bacterial communities were varying with different algae and sludge inoculation ratios and some specific bacteria species were enriched during the operation. Four commonly used and high-potential microalgae species including one cyanobacteria (Phormidium sp.) and three green microalgae species (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus rubescens) were cultivated and trained through alternate mixing and non-mixing strategy for tertiary municipal wastewater treatment. After one month of cultivation, the four microalgae species were compared in terms of biomass settleability, nutrient removal rates and biomass productivity. The three green microalgae showed good settleability within 1 h sedimentation and had higher biomass generation rates (above 6 g/m2/d). The nutrient removal efficiencies were 99% for the four selected microalgae species but within different retention time, resulting in 3.66 ± 0.17, 6.39 ± 0.20, 4.39 ± 0.06 and 4.31 ± 0.18 mg N/l/d (N removal rate) and 0.56 ± 0.07, 0.89 ± 0.05, 0.76 ± 0.09 and 0.60 ± 0.05 mg P/l/d (P removal rate) for Phormidium sp., Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus rubescens, respectively. A mixed algal culture composed of three selected high-effective green microalgae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus rubescens) was used for tertiary municipal wastewater treatment. The key biotic factor (algal inoculum concentration) and abiotic factors such as illumination cycle, mixing velocity and nutrient strength were studied. Based on the nitrogen and phosphorus balance, it was found that assimilation into algal biomass was the main removal mechanism.
This work investigates how managers/consultants (practitioners) of different ranks are engaged in patterns of behavior (practices) in socially situated contexts (practice) attempting to shape preferred shared interpretations of reality to achieve their goals. Following this line of inquiry, the work aims at (1) advancing our understanding of the role of practitioners in shaping managerial realities and (2) investigating how practitioners actually shape managerial realities, particularly focusing on "reality-shaping" practices and their content. The dissertation comprises a set of four complementary articles investigating these research questions empirically based on in-depth, empirical case studies and theoretically within various managerial contexts (client-consultant relationship, CEO post-succession strategic change process, evolutionary initiative development) and considering different actor perspectives (top managers, middle managers, consultants and clients). Resulting from this variety, the articles rely on and contribute to different, at times distant, research fields and therewith scholarly discussions. However, the literature on sensemaking and sensegiving offers a suitable overarching theoretical frame which is used in this work to synthesize the key contributions of the four articles.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women own or partly own one third of all businesses, thereby having a large potential to contribute to the economic development and societal well-being in this region. However, women-owned businesses tend to lag behind men-owned businesses in that they make lower profits, grow more slowly, and create fewer jobs. To identify reasons for this gap and effective means to promote women entrepreneurs, large parts of the entrepreneurship literature have compared male and female entrepreneurs with regard to individual characteristics, paying only limited attention to the underlying environmental conditions. This is problematic as women entrepreneurs operate under different conditions than men, with particularly pronounced differences in sub-Saharan Africa. Against this backdrop, the goal of this dissertation is to contribute to a more profound understanding of women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa and its promotion through training by examining critical context factors. Specifically, the author analyzes two context factors that influence women's entrepreneurial performance and the success of training interventions: 1) women entrepreneurs' husbands and 2) the entrepreneurship trainer. These analyses are embedded in considerations of the cultural, social, and economic conditions women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa are facing. In Chapter 2, the author conducts a systematic literature review on spousal influence in entrepreneurship and identifies six recurrent types of influence. Complementing the literature originating from Western settings, she develops propositions on how the sub-Saharan context affects husbands' influence on women entrepreneurship in this region. In Chapter 3, she builds on a cultural theory and an economic theory of the household to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of husbands' constraining and supportive influences on women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical results point to three distinct types of husbands that differ significantly in their impact on women entrepreneurs' business success. In Chapter 4, the author explores the influence of the trainer on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training in sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on an unsuccessful training implementation. Qualitative analyses indicate that the use of adequate teaching methods is critical towards training success.
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.
"Sustainable development" evolves along the resolutions, declarations, and reports from international processes in the framework of the United Nations (UN). The consensual outputs from such processes feature global-generalised and context-free perspectives. However, implementation requires action at diverse and context-rich local levels as well. Moreover, while in such UN processes national states are the only contractual parties, it is increasingly recognised that other ("nonstate") actors are crucial to sustainability. The research presented here places the attention on bottom-up initiatives that are advancing innovative ways to tackle universal access to clean energy and to strengthen small-scale family farmers. This means, the focus is on bottom-up initiatives advancing local implementation of global sustainability targets, more precisely, targets that make part of the Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 7 (SDG 2 and SDG7). The research asks how such bottom-up initiatives can contribute to the diffusion of sustainability innovations, thereby also contributing to social change. Three aims are derived out of that central question: (1) To understand the role of bottom-up initiatives in the diffusion of sustainability innovations and in the thereby involved social changes. (2) To contribute with my research to the actual diffusion of sustainability innovations. (3) To outline a research approach that provides a solid conceptual and methodological framework for attaining the analytical and transformative aims. The doctoral research comprises four single studies, in which the notion of diffusion is explored at different scopes of social scales. It begins with a thorough analysis of diffusion programs of domestic biodigesters to rural households in countries of the global south. The focus is on the process by which this specific technical inno0vation results integrated (or not) into the daily realities of single rural households, that is, the adoption process. In the second study, the attention is on energy supply models based on different decentralised renewable technologies. Central to these models is the building of new (or strengthening of existing) local socioeconomic structures that can assume and ensure the proper operation and supply of energy services. The interest in this study is on the strategies that organisations implementing community-based energy projects apply to support the realisation of such local structures. The third study focuses on a network of bottom-up initiatives that have been advancing alternative approaches to family farming in Colombia. The network mainly comprises farmers associations, other organisations from civil society, and researchers who had been collaborating and experimenting with innovations in different innovation fields such as technical, organisational, financial, and commercialisation schemes. The aim of this third study is to provide insights into the challenges and difficulties faced by these actors in broadening the diffusion of the innovations they have been advancing. To perform this study, a methodological strategy is applied that combines a transdisciplinary mutual learning format with qualitative content analysis techniques. The fourth and last study is a conceptual disquisition. It develops a conceptual framework that (a) provides better accounts for the particularities of endeavours aimed at the diffusion of knowledge and practices from the bottom-up across local contexts and social scales, and (b) advances first conceptual steps towards an explicit account for the role that innovation research (and innovation researchers) can assume for the actual realisation of diffusion. The main findings or contributions of the doctoral research can be categorised into four subjects: 1) Bottom-up initiatives contribute to the diffusion of sustainable innovations by mobilising transformative resources for inducing diffusion in their scope of action and creating spaces for experimentation in which interventions can be tested (and if necessary adjusted) in order to ensure the proper deployment of innovations. 2) In their efforts to advance the diffusion of sustainability innovations, bottom-up initiatives contribute to social changes for ensuring the effective deployment of the innovations and building local available storage of transformative resources. 3) A conceptualisation of innovation diffusion, in which the work of academic researchers studying innovation is a constitutive part of transdisciplinary knowledge articulations that promote diffusion. In this way transdisciplinary research alliances can be envisioned in which researchers investigate about, with, and for bottom-up initiatives. 4) Contributions to the consolidation, systematisation, and dissemination of strategies that are applied by farmers associations in order to strength the economic, social, environmental, and cultural dimensions of Colombian family farmers.
The literature on term bids by presidents tends to focus on the institutional arrangements to hinder such term bids in the first place, on presidential strategies to circumvent the constitutional law, or on counteractions of political elites. Mobilizations against such attempts by presidents to run for office again, after reaching the end of their last allowed term, are often solely included as "pressures from below". To address these shortcomings, this dissertation explores the issue of term amendment struggles through the lenses of contentious politics systematically combined with insights of revolution theories and democratization studies. Its conceptual perspective therefore lies on the interactions of actors and their constellations to each other as well as to institutions. The author deduces three diverse pathways to promote institutional change and prevent democratic backslidings – through political elites, (political) allies, and security forces. By selecting two cases that are most similar in terms of institutions and youth movements at the forefront, Senegal (2011-12) and Burkina Faso (2013-14), this analysis offers insight in the divergence of the struggles and their outcome. Because in both cases, the announcement of the presidents to run for another term in office led to broad mobilization led by youth movements against such tenure amendments, the political system in general and socioeconomic inequalities - but with diverging results. In Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré eventually resigned while Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal candidated again, legitimized by the Constitutional Court. Based on extensive fieldwork, including interviews with movement leaders and their allies, as well as a comprehensive media analysis and the SCAD databank for the analysis of protest events, the author differentiates and reconstructs the various phases of the conflict. The results of the dissertation point at two dimensions most relevant to comprehend the dissimilar pathways the struggles took – the reach of mobilization and, closely interlinked to the first, the refusal of soldiers to obey orders. It shows further that these differences go back to the respective history of each country, its former protest waves, and political culture. Although both presidents faced mass mobilization against their unconstitutional candidature, only in Burkina Faso it eventually led to an ungovernable situation. The dissertation concludes by reflecting on lessons learned for future democratic backslidings by presidents to come and avenues for future research – and thus offers fruitful insights.
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.
The increasing perils of connectivity technologies in the context of large satellite constellations come alongside with legal aspects concerning the protection of the space environment. The interplay of connectivity and sustainability must be regulated. To analyse the legal measures and tools regulating the risks, both sides of the problem are taken into consideration. The technological side of large satellite constellations is summarized under the term cybersecurity. Cyber is a code-based system, i.e. at first sight it requires a specialized field of law. This holds true on space sustainability as well. Large satellite constellations raise the discussion on space debris and junk. The consensus on the LTS guidelines by COPUOS at UNISPACE+50 in 2018 constitutes a milestone in Space Law. Space sustainability requires a particular adoption of legal norms: the idea is very similar to the subject of cybersecurity. Since both areas of issue are internationally driven and have multilateral impact, self-regulation proves ineffective. The genesis of reliable and uniform legal rules requires a different approach considering the multilevel systems of obligations with different binding authority. This thesis evaluates the balance between the future of connectivity and space sustainability in the context of large satellite constellations by considering the impact of legal rules with different binding authority.
El-Salam Canal Project aims at increasing the Egyptian agricultural productivity through agricultural and stock development by irrigating about 263,500 ha gross of new lands. In order to stretch the limited water supply to cover these reclaimed areas, fresh River Nile water is augmented with agriculture drainage water from Hadus and Lower Serw drains to meet crop requirements, especially during summer months (peak demand). With a growing population and intensified industrial and agricultural activities, water pollution is spreading in Egypt, especially in main drains, which receive almost all kinds of wastes (municipal, rural, domestic and industrial wastes). The medical records indicate that significant numbers of waterborne-disease cases (bilharzias, typhoid, paratyphoid, diarrhoea, hepatitis A, B and C) have been reported in many areas in Egypt (MOHP, 2000). The National Water Quality Monitoring Program (NWQMP) in Egypt covers the Nile River, irrigation canals, drains and groundwater aquifers to assess the status of water quality for different water uses and users. The overall objective of this research is to introduce a rationalization technique for the drainage water quality-monitoring network for Hadus drain as a main feeder of El-Salam Canal Project. Later on, this technique can be applied for other parts in the NWQMP. The rationalization process started firstly with assessing and reformulating the current objectives of the network. Then, the monitoring locations were identified using integrated logical and statistical approaches. Finally, a sampling frequency regime was recommended to facilitate proper and integrated information management. The monitoring objectives were classified into three classes: design oriented, short-term and long-term deductible objectives. Mainly, the objectives “assess compliance with standards”, “define water quality problems”, “determine fate and transport of pollutants”, “make waste-load allocations” and “detect possible trends” were considered in the redesign process of the network. A combination of uni-, bi-, and multi-variate statistical techniques supported by spatial and temporal analysis for the important tributaries (key players) in Hadus drain system, were used for locating the monitoring sites. The key players analysis was carried out in the light of monitoring objectives. As a result, the monitoring network was divided into three priority levels (Layers I, II and III) as following: Layer I: It has the highest priority level and includes eight monitoring locations Layer II: It has the second priority level and includes three monitoring locations Layer III: It has the lowest priority level and includes five monitoring locations Using the method proposed by Lettenmaier (1976), the sampling frequencies were initially estimated and then evaluated for 36 water quality parameters, which were collected on monthly basis during the period from August 1997 to January 2005. The evaluation process was carried out by generating new data sets (subsets) from the original data. Then, the common required statistics from the monitoring network were extracted. The information obtained from different data sets was assessed using visual and statistical comparisons. Three integrated validation methods were employed to ensure that any decisions concerning the proposed program would not affect its ability to accomplish the monitoring objectives. These validation methods employed: descriptive statistics, regression analysis and linear multiple regression in an integrated approach. The validation results ensured that excluding the monitoring locations in layer III did not significantly affect the information produced by the monitoring network. Therefore, a monitoring network including only 11 sites (out of 16) representing the layers I and II was recommended. Based on the evaluation of sampling frequencies, it is recommended to have 6 (instead of 12) samples per year for 18 water quality parameters (COD, TSS, TVS, N-NO3, Pb, Ca, Na, Cl, Visib, BOD, Cu, Fe, Mn, pH, TDS, K, SO4_m and DO). The measured parameter SO4m will automatically replace the SO4 (calculated). SAR and Adj. SAR also can be calculated from the other parameters. For the other fifteen parameters (Mg, EC, Br, Ni, Sal, Cd, TN, TP, Temp, Fecal, Coli and N-NH4, Zn, P and Turb), it is recommended to continue with twelve samples per year. These recommendations may ensure significant reduction in the total cost of the monitoring network. This facilitates a fiscal resource, which is a key prerequisite in developing a successful program. The rescued budget can be redirected to achieve better performance in terms of improving the current resources. In addition, a frame of stakeholders-participation mechanism was proposed to not only facilitate a better coordination among the Egyptian Ministries involved in the water sector but also guarantee effective landowners/farmers involvement. However, applying such a mechanism requires more detailed studies of all the previous experiences gained by many projects trying to achieve better integration between objectives, plans and activities for the different environmental institutions in Egypt.