UniNEtZ (2019 – 2025)
Contact persons: inside: Andreas Koch, Meike Bukowski
Since 2019, the University of Salzburg, Department of Social Geography and Sociology, has been part of the Austria-wide joint project UniNEtZ ( Universities for Sustainable Development Goals), which unites up to 19 universities from all over Austria and over 200 scientists and artists in the task of helping to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The aim is to support the Austrian government with scientifically sound, transdisciplinary implementation strategies related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Numerous implementation measures, research and cooperation projects have grown out of the interdisciplinary Uninetz cooperation and the joint options report from the first performance period.
Earth 4 All Austria (ongoing)
Contact person: Meike Bukowski
In addition to networking and research within the framework of UniNEtZ, the department team is also involved in other initiatives such as the Club of Rome and the UN’s Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI). The Club of Rome’s Earth4All project is an international initiative to accelerate the systemic change we need for a just future on a finite planet. Building on the frameworks “The Limits to Growth” and “Planetary Boundaries”, business thinkers, scientists and stakeholders have come together to find ways to maximize social, environmental and economic well-being for all within planetary boundaries in this century. In 2022, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 report to the Club of Rome – “The Limits to Growth” – their work was published under the title “Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity”
Austria is one of the two pilot countries selected for an Earth4All initiative at national level. In this context, scientists from the department are working with international and national colleagues on the application and implementation of Earth4All approaches in Austria and have contributed to the latest report.
SDG VisionPath/ Co-creating future visions and transition pathways for the SDGs climate action, inequality and decent work and economic growth
Contact person: Meike Bukowski
We are moving in the wrong direction – in relation to the measures urgently needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the volatility and multidimensionality of the climate crisis and the associated socio-ecological conflict potential.
The research projects on this topic at the Department of Social Geography offer a systemic approach that applies methods and models that can deal with structural breaks, that take appropriate account of the interactions between the SDGs and that promote stakeholders’ understanding of the upcoming and emerging challenges. Stakeholder and expert knowledge is integrated into a qualitative and quantitative system assessment and supported by modeling processes. In this way, the system representation itself expands and reduces the gap between models vs. reality, ideas vs. measures ( sdg.visionpath.at).
European Apparel – Thinking our Way out of Unsustainable Supply Chains
Contact: Kornelia Hahn
The project investigates the economic, social and material processes of clothing production in Europe. The first phase focuses on and compares the state of production in two countries, Austria and Bulgaria. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from both countries is working closely together on joint field trips to apparel and second-hand industry businesses. The aim is to assess what would make the European apparel industry more profitable and attractive to workers, thereby reducing the negative socio-environmental impacts of global supply chains. This project informs initiatives for the prevention of clothing waste and the promotion of more sustainable, regional, and customised clothing production. It is funded by the OeAD Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation, Grant: WTZ BG 07/2023, duration June 2023 to June 2025. PI: Kornelia Hahn
