Ann-Kristin Müller M.A. (Research Assistant)

The project is based on the observation that the goals, criteria, interests and types of knowledge associated with this term have multiplied in the course of the establishment of the sustainability discourse. Against this background, the objective of the project is to answer the question of which meta-criteria can be used to justify the assessment of projects, programmes and initiatives as "sustainable".

The question of which sustainability dilemmas exist and how they relate to each other epistemically and strategically can be formulated across all projects. With reference to this, four interrelated questions related to the cross-project interest will be examined in more detail in the individual modules, namely 1) how and to what extent sustainability dilemmas are operationalised in sustainability research programmes, if necessary corresponding to different understandings of sustainability; 2) which dilemmas of sustainability become recognisable in sustainability projects and to what extent these, as well as developed solution strategies, interact with the project's understanding of sustainability; 3) which specific changes of perspective and epistemic configurations of the objects of knowledge characterise those sciences that see themselves as sustainability sciences; and 4) to what extent "sustainability" involves a specific type of knowledge that poses new challenges to knowledge regulation.

The methodological core of the project is the joint further development of the initial heuristics of specific sustainability dilemmas. Furthermore, the project combines the methods of evaluation research including transdisciplinary methods, the methods of qualitative empirical social research as well as the reflexive methods of discourse and conceptual analysis in their accentuation in the philosophy of science and social theory.

In transdisciplinary cooperation between educational science, governance research, philosophy of science and social theory, the proposed project combines empirical and reflexive approaches. Thus, the empirical investigation of the connection between the understanding of sustainability and the operationalisation of sustainability dilemmas in evaluation programmes (module 1) and in sustainability projects (module 2) is related to the investigation of epistemic fields of knowledge (module 3) and the change in knowledge regulation (module 4). The common point of reference is the development of specific dilemmas of sustainability, which are generated from the state of research in the sense of an initial heuristic and successively developed further over the course of the project (Module 0).

Overview article by Anna Henkel, Matthias Bergmann, Nicole Karafyllis, Bernd Siebenhüner, Karsten Speck (2018): Dilemmas of sustainability between evaluation and reflection. Justified criteria and guidelines for sustainability knowledge. In Nico Lüdtke and Anna Henkel (eds.): The knowledge of sustainability. Challenges between research and counselling. Munich: oekom, pp. 147-172.

Further information on the partners listed below can be found on the linked website under "Further links".

Prof Dr Anna Henkel

Prof Dr Matthias Bergmann

Prof Dr Nicole C. Karafyllis

Prof. Dr Bernd Siebenhüner (project coordinator)

Prof Dr Karsten Speck

Dilemmas of sustainability (external website)