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Vorträge und Posterpräsentationen (ohne Tagungsband-Eintrag):

V. Sodl-Niederecker:
"Let´s think Science and Everyday Life together: What is the role of academic researchers in the transition to sustainable mobility?";
Vortrag: 11th International Sustainability Transitions Conference (IST 2020), Wien; 18.08.2020 - 21.08.2020.



Kurzfassung englisch:
Against the background of climate change, a central challenge of our time is to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility, especially from an ecological perspective. GHG emissions in the transport sector are still increasing and the transport sector is the largest source of GHG emissions (excluding the emissions trading). The need for transformation thus seems obvious, but implementation is slow-moving. Therefore, my thesis project aims to discover the role of academic researchers in the transition to sustainable mobility by approaching the research interest from three directions:
(1) Transition research: The need for transformation challenges the social achievements of the last 70 years, because mobility functions as a fundamental component of modern everyday life. But although the regime of automobility is still characterized by great stability, more and more developments counteract this stability and create scope for change. So-called pioneers, i.e. actors who work on radical innovations and promote mainstreaming processes, are making a major contribution to this.
(2) Knowledge society and the social relevance of scientific knowledge: Knowledge leads to social options for action and is the result of social action. Scientific knowledge is considered to be of great importance as a resource for innovation and as a legitimation of socially relevant decisions. Scientists are called in as experts, since scientific knowledge is still regarded as superior knowledge. The scientification of the environmental discourse, which has been prevalent for a long time, has only begun to break up again in recent years. Particularly in times of great social uncertainty, science is called upon to play an active role in shaping and acting as pioneers of change.
(3) Everyday life & individualization of ecological responsibility: Everyday life (practices, networks, discourses) functions as a place where ecological transformation is implemented and can be experienced in real life. Climate change is also a social and cultural phenomenon, where currently a strong individualization of environmental responsibility and an increasing social value of ecological practices can be observed. The predominant narrative in the climate discourse is that everyone has to make a contribution. This puts the focus on individual everyday life. Against this background, the question arises, what role scientists can play in their everyday life: Are they acting as pioneers of the mobility transformation? How are they travelling in their everyday life?
This interaction between everyday life and science (academic structures) in terms of transition is an essential part of my work: How are responsibility and competence for change subjectively perceived? How is the influence of our own actions perceived? Which ambivalences from (academic, technical) knowledge and everyday routines, especially with regard to mobility behaviour, are perceived? Scientific discourses are often perceived as too complex and, as a global phenomenon, as too far removed from everyday life, and therefore represent a major barrier, the question arises as to what it is like when science and everyday life are united in one person.
Methodology of qualitative social research is used to explore the field in an exploratory way. The Grounded Theory approach, with its basic premise of flexible and open access and theory generation from data, lends itself to exploring the complex interrelationships between scientific structure and everyday life in the context of the transformation of mobility behaviour. The aim of my PhD thesis is to find out to what extent mobility researchers already act as pioneers of the mobility transition in (everyday) practices, networks and discourses, what opportunities and barriers are perceived and how the transformative potential of researchers can be unleashed with regard to the mobility transition.

Schlagworte:
sustainable mobility behaviour, knowledge society, transition theory, everyday life, pioneers

Erstellt aus der Publikationsdatenbank der Technischen Universität Wien.