Transforming Well-Being in Wuppertal - Conditions and Constraints
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Authors
Conventional welfare production is unsustainable. A societal emphasis on (green) economic growth may therefore be superseded by an extended concept of well-being. Taking a transformative approach, science may take part in catalysing this challenging transformation of both the understanding and the level of well-being. Instead of economic growth at the expense of sustainability, we aim to cooperatively refocus on integrating economic, social and ecological perspectives into a more holistic, sustainable approach to individual and municipal well-being in Wuppertal (Germany). Therefore, the research team investigates and develops concepts of local sustainable well-being production, e.g., by employing a new indicator system and the real-world laboratory approach. What are the conditions and constraints of transforming well-being in Wuppertal and most particularly of the role of scientists in this endeavour? Answering this research question with a comparative case study approach, we have analysed our resources, processes, contexts and normativity. The results show that the role of 'transformative scientists' in Wuppertal faces constraints of timing and funding, as well as challenges from the different demands of science and practice. Hampered co-design interacts with role conflicts. Open-minded stakeholders are crucial for local well-being transformation, as is the awareness that urban residential districts have bottomed out. However, the normative sustainability claims of the transformative research project are not fully shared by all of its stakeholders, which is both necessary and challenging for transformative research.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2375 |
| Journal | Sustainability |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| ISSN | 2071-1050 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 19.12.2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
As conditions and constraints of staff and resources strongly interact, they are summarised in one single section. As already indicated, the research presented in this article is part of the research project “Well-being transformation Wuppertal” (WTW), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for a three-year period (2015–2018). The academic staff is employed in this project at TransZent and several workshops were funded by the project as well. Both TransZent and Wuppertal Institute are for the most part funded by third-party-funded research in the area of sustainable development. However, practice partners need to rely on their own resources.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The research project ‘Well-Being Transformation Wuppertal (WTW)’ is funded by the framework programme ‘Research for Sustainable Development (FONA)’ of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under Grant 01UT1412A. The authors furthermore would like to thank their colleagues Hans Haake, Annaliesa Hilger, Matthias Wanner and Janina Westerkowski, as well as the project leaders Maria Behrens and Uwe Schneidewind for their dedicated support and the fruitful discussions. Specials thanks go to the organisers and participants of the Transformative Research and Development in Urban and Regional Environment Conference and especially to Roland Scholz and Ulli Vilsmaier for their invaluable inputs on transdisciplinary research and processes at the beginning of the project. Moreover, we are especially grateful to the three anonymous referees and Roland Scholz for their insightful comments on the former drafts of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors.
- Sustainability Science - Beyond GDP, City districts, Civic participation, Real-world laboratories, Roles of scientists, Sustainable urban development, Transdisciplinarity, Transformative research, Well-being, Well-being indicators
- Transdisciplinary studies