Measuring Sustainability: Researchers' Perception and Use of Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings (1/1998 - 10/2000)

Investigators

Andrea Scheller, Daniel Spreng

Partners

"The Indicator Project: Energy Consumption Indicators and Energy Conservation Policies"; David Goldblatt, Shonali Pachauri, Bernard Aebischer

Time Frame

1/1998-10/2000

Funding

Alliance for Global Sustainability AGS

Abstract

This project investigates the conceptualisation of sustainability and the making of sustainability indicators by researchers from various disciplines in interdisciplinary research projects.

Contents

English Summary

Publications

Presentations

English Summary

The construction or choice of indicators is a major topic in the sustainable development discourse. Operationalising and quantifying sustainability is about nothing less than the attempt to grasp and finally manage the passing from today's world to a future sustainable state of the world. The debate on the right kind of measurement is far from being closed. This project concentrates on the sustainability research community as one of the central arenas where indicators for sustainability are constructed and negotiated. Sustainability research intrinsically cuts across traditional boundaries and concerns of disciplines and the development of sustainability indicators is an interdisciplinary endeavour. The understanding of the processes of the development of indicators in specific research settings with regard to their disciplinary background may inform the design of interdisciplinary indicators.

A constructivist approach (social construction of technology SCOT put forth by BIJKER) is used to introduce the various 'relevant social groups' who deal with sustainability; to conceptualise the 'interpretative flexibility' which the term 'sustainability' offers; and to present the term 'closure', a term which alludes to the degree of consensus which exists with regard to what a sustainability indicator is. A taxonomy of disciplines (as elaborated by BECHER) serves as basis to position the four academic cultures that are investigated in the fieldwork: economics, engineering, natural science and social science.

A case study is carried out within the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS), where interdisciplinary research teams work on sustainability topics. The methodology chosen for this exploratory research are qualitative interviews with principal investigators from AGS projects.

The study shows that even in interdisciplinary research settings the actual work is closely connected to disciplinary work. The concept of sustainability doesn't seem to be a tool for actually doing science so far. On the research level only very few organise their work in sustainability terms. Sustainability rather seems the greater framework and a compass to help to align roughly the direction of the research activities. Regarding indicators, there is an astounding degree of agreement on an abstract level. The differences lie less in the thinking about indicators than in their actual everyday construction and use. The discipline is most formative for the construction of indicators. Accordingly, the indicators are not often constructed for the purpose of the specific interdisciplinary project, but are chosen from an array of disciplinary indicators. This procedure leads to a compilation of indicators from various fields with no underlying sustainability framework. However, there are also examples where project specific sustainability frameworks are developed and the attempt to develop indicators out of this framework is made. These efforts, which we find mostly in the field of planning, can be viewed as starting points for the construction of interdisciplinary and context-dependently meaningful measures.

Publications

• Scheller, Andrea: "Measuring Sustainability: The Making of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings", in POSTI International Conference "Policy Agendas for Sustainable Technological Innovation", London, December 2000.
• Scheller, Andrea: "Measuring Sustainability: Researchers' Perception and Use of Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings", Master thesis submitted to the European Inter-University Association on Society, Science and Technology ESST, October 2000.
• Goldblatt, David, Shonali Pachauri, and Andrea Scheller: "Energie und Nachhaltigkeit: Einsichten in die Konstruktion von Indikatoren", in: Bulletin ETHZ, no. 276, pp. 20-23, January 2000.
• Scheller, Andrea: "Researchers' Use of Indicators: Interim Report of The Indicator Project", CEPE Internal Report, ETHZ, Zurich, September 1999.
• Scheller, Andrea: "Researchers' Use of Indicators: First Insights", Appendix II of the AGS Research Proposal "The Indicator Project: Energy Consumption Indicators and Energy Conservation Policies", September 1998.

Presentations

• "Measuring Sustainability: The Making of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings" (paper presentation), POSTI International Conference "Polica Agendas for Sustainable Technological Innovation", London, December 2000.
• "Standardization in the Midst of Disunity: The Making of Sustainability Indicators in Interdisciplinary Research Settings" (talk), 4S/EASST Conference 2000 "Worlds in Transition: Technoscience, Citizenship and Culture in the 21st Century", September 2000.
• Researchers' Use of Indicators" (poster), CEPE Inauguration Symposium "Challenges for Energy Policy and Research in the New Decade", ETHZ, Zurich, January 2000.
• "Kennzahlen allgemein" (talk), FgEA-Vorlesungsreihe "Rationelle Verwendung von Energie: auf den Weg zur 2000 Watt Gesellschaft", ETHZ, Zurich, December 1998.