Seit die Preise für Erdöl und Erdgas steigen, gilt Biomasse als Hoffnungsträger für die Energieversorgung. Die Politik fördert den Ausbau der Bioökonomie, denn pflanzliche Rohstoffe können energetisch und stofflich genutzt werden. Doch Wissenschaft
und Zivilgesellschaft sehen den massiven Anbau von Mais, Raps und Co. zunehmend kritisch, da Nachhaltigkeitskriterien und die Beteiligung von Bürger(inne)n missachtet werden. Transdisziplinäre Nachhaltigkeitsforschung kann Wege aufzeigen, wie die Bioökonomiepläne transparen
ter und gerechter gestaltet werden können.
This paper deals with the development of scientific policy advice by providing a methodology to foster a social learning process. The methodology, called participatory Sustainability Impact Assessment (pSIA), aims to structure complex problem situations, to clarify interests and basic assumptions, to interpret scientific studies, to develop impact assessment, and to explore sensitivity of uncertainty and lack of information.
Researchers and policymakers increasingly aim to set up collaborative research programmes to address the challenges of adaptation to climate change. This does not only apply for technical knowledge, but for governance knowledge also. Both the Netherlands and Germany have set up large-scale collaborative action research (CAR) programmes for the governance of adaptation to climate change. Despite the collaborative designs, the initial enthusiasm, the available resources and the many positive outcomes, both programmes encountered several stubborn difficulties. By comparing both programmes, this paper explores the difficulties researchers encounter, analyses the underlying mechanisms and presents some lessons. It found that many difficulties are related to the tensions that exist between the assumptions underlying the new collaborative trajectories and the logics of the existing policy and research institutions. These institutional misfits are decisive to explain ultimate difficulties and successes. Furthermore, the paper concludes that risk aversion, stereotyping and scale fixation strengthen institutional misfits; and that these misfits persist due to lacking bridging capabilities. We suggest some lessons that can help to resolve the difficulties and reconcile CAR into existing institutions: organize the knowledge arrangement as a collaborative process; construct boundary objects as focal point for collaboration; and invest in bridging capabilities
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