Social-ecological research for the transformation to a sustainable economy Opening up new

perspectives

high level of production and consumption of goods and services reflect prosperity and quality of life.However, at the same time, this leads to social-ecological problems such as the destruction of nature with the loss of biodiversity, overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and exploitative working conditions.The unsustainable production and consumption patterns of our economic system with companies and citizens as key players represent a crucial social challenge.One goal, therefore, is to turn companies and consumers into shapers of social-ecological change.The task of companies is to reorganise their production processes in accordance with sustainability principles and to influence consumption patterns.The role of citizens is more diverse.As the consumers and users of products and services, they exert influence, finance projects (e.g., through investing and crowdfunding) and are involved in civic activities.They are also increasingly becoming producers themselves, of food, for example (e. g., urban gardening or food sharing).As a result, the spheres of production and consumption are becoming increasingly interconnected (prosuming), leading to the creation of cooperative innovation processes between companies and consumers (BMBF 2015, p.19).
Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires numerous eco-innovations.This is reflected in policy initiatives such as eco-innovation action plans on both the national and EU level, which concentrate mostly on technical innovations (Walz et al. 2019a).However, organisational, institutional and social innova tions are needed in addition to technical ones, and it is their combination, which can lead to a transformation towards sustainable development.Despite the progress made in corporate activities and sustainable consumption patterns, the road to a transformation towards a sustainable economy is still a long one.A survey on recent trends in Germany (Walz et al. 2017) concluded that most eco-innovations still focus on technical innovations, the dynamics of German corporate eco-innovations seems to stagnate, despite progress in corporate sustainability reporting, there is still a lack of integration of sustainability issues into the strategic positioning of corporations, the importance of sustainability for consumption decisions has been stabilising on a moderate level, and adjusting actual behaviour is still subject to numerous restrictions.

Research for sustainable economy
A sustainable economy has been addressed in numerous scientific articles in the past.Figure 1 illustrates the results of a literature analysis of publications in journals referenced by SCOPUS.The number of publications which use the term "sustainable economy" in their title, abstract, or among their keywords, has been increasing steadily.The number of articles dealing with transforma tion and a sustainable development, however, is lower by more than the factor of ten.Albeit increasing substantially in recent years, the number of publications explicitly identifying with a social-ecological research is also rather low.Given the need to improve our knowledge about these issues, there clearly is a need to increase research with a social-ecological focus on transformation to a sustainable economy.Social change processes and transformations under the guiding principle of sustainable development form the central focus of the Social-Ecological Research (SOEF) funding priority of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which integrates the perspective of social sustainability research into the research agenda of the German Federal Government for the Green Economy (BMBF 2016).Instead of focusing on isolated environmental problems, social-ecological research analyses the complex problem of interrelationships and interactions between society and nature.This is based on the insight that sustainable development can be achieved only if technical and social innovations, such as new social practices of consumption or the development of new business models, mesh with one another (Wilhelm and Schulz 2017, pp. 217 ff.).
An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approach needs to be used to develop proposals to solve these societal problems.Beginning with the problem description, the necessary natural, engineering or social science disciplines as well as the affected social actors with their context-related knowledge are to be integrated.Social actors, such as representatives of companies, local authorities or nongovernmental organisations, must be involved in such processes as knowledge bearers on the one hand and, on the other hand, must be persuaded to put the research results into practice.Participation in transdisciplinary social-ecolog ical research means participation in understanding and shaping transformational processes.The aim is to make the knowledge generated available to social stakeholders in the most direct way possible (BMBF 2015, pp. 3 ff.)(figure 2, p. 182).In addition, the transforma tion to a sustainable economy that is ecologically compatible, socially equi table and, at the same time, competitive also requires a supportive framework.

Research projects set impulses
All these aspects have been addressed in the SOEF programme with its funding focus on the Sustainable Economy (Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften,NAWI): 1 in the period from 2015 to 2020, the BMBF will provide funding of approximately 32 million euros to a total of 30 research groups (NAWI projects).The sponsored project teams conduct research into various issues and areas of life -from clothing, mobility, nutrition, construction and housing to logistics and tourism (figure 3, p. 183).Some of the NAWI projects analyse consumer behaviour, as consumers are to be better informed about sustainable products and services and encouraged to consume sustainably.These projects can build on the results of the SOEF funding measure Sustainable Consumption -From Knowledge to Action (funding period 2008 to 2013, cf.Defila et al. 2014).Other projects examine business models, production forms and value chains with regard to their sustainability potential.Together with practitioners, sustainability innovations are created and strategies are developed for the dissemination of successful approaches.In addi tion, overarching recommendations for political action are devel oped as to how obstacles to the transformation of the economy towards sustainability can be removed, and which approaches can be used to successfully support such a transformation (cf.Wilhelm 2015, pp. 199 f.)An accompanying project called NaWiKo: Scientific Coordination of Research Projects on a Sustainable Economy supported the research. 2Various workshops and conferences were organised in order to facilitate communication between the projects and support transfer activities.Furthermore, NaWiKo aims at synthesizing the results of the projects.Thus, researchers from different projects were encouraged to team up and develop conclusions, which are drawn from more than one project.The synthesis activities also aim at making insights from the NAWI projects available to the broader scientific community in order to enhance future discussion.Based on a call for papers among the NAWI project partners, this special issue brings together a collection of articles particularly suited to show the range of issues analysed in NAWI.

Lines of inquiry
So far, the discussion about the potential and impacts of sustainable economy approaches has mainly taken place on the level of single case studies.This stands in contrast to other arenas of environmental policy, such as climate change, where aggregated assessments are abundant.During the course of the NAWI projects, the need for a more aggregated assessment became apparent.In order to trigger a debate about this crucial issue, we included two articles within the Forum section: 1 Funding measure Sustainable Economy and project list of the research networks see: https://www.fona.de/en/measures/funding-measures/sustainable-economy.php. 2 https://nachhaltigeswirtschaften-soef.de/enpresent an approach to quantify sharing economy in its heterogeneity of forms and effects.They argue that approaches towards quantifying the sharing economy could enrich societal knowledge about this phenomenon and, thus, fuel societal transformation.quantify the implications of two scenarios of sustainable economy approaches, whose scope is based on NAWI projects.They focus on the nexus of intended emission reduction and unintended structural implications for the economy.
In one form or another, most NAWI projects touch upon the need to adjust policies.Thompson (1991) distinguishes markets, hierarchies and networks as archetypes of coordination in societies.The effectiveness of hierarchies has been questioned in the last decades, among other reasons, due to globalisation and the reduced steering capacity of the nation-state.Scholars, such as the Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, have underlined the need for diverse institutional arrangements that put decisions as close as possible to the level of the single actors involved.Recently, innovation policy scholars, such as Mazzucato (2018)  As this special issue demonstrates, sustainable economy approaches in their heterogeneous form promise to advance transformation towards sustainability.However, more conceptual and empirical analyses will be necessary to assess potentials and implications, policy mix and new forms of governance, and the systemization of the differences and commonalities of sector-specific approaches.

FIGURE 1 :
FIGURE 1: Number of annual publications referenced in SCOPUS database which use the terms sustainable economy, transformation and sustainable economy, and social-eco logical research in their title, or abstract, or among their keywords.Source: data retrieved from SCOPUS.

FIGURE 3 :
FIGURE 3: Scope of projects within the funding measure Sustainable Economy (NAWI).

Hacke et al. (pp. 233-239) explore
Edler and Boon (2018)8), have called for new governance arrangements to support mission-oriented innovation policies.Against this background, two articles present specific governance insights from a NAWI perspective:Many of the NAWI projects focus on specific sectors, and address obstacles to, and success factors for, sustainable economy approaches.The global nature of the challenges emerges, such as the need to incorporate international parts of the life cycle of products.New consumption patterns are needed, and new actors have to be involved, in order to move towards sustainability.innovative initiatives in housing.They introduce cohousing as a social innovation, discuss the factors affecting its diffusion, and provide information about its social impacts.

182 INTRODUCTION | SPECIAL ISSUE: SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
© Design: Dilan Capan/ Foto: Patrick Slesiona Kleinhückelkotten and Neitzke (pp.240-248) focus on sustainable production and consumption patterns regard to clothing.They analyse a multitude of economic, technical, social and personal factors to determine which factors impede or support a change towards more sustainability.