About the project

The project 'Transformations towards sustainability. Brandenburg and the border region' analyses how stakeholders in the region tackle the challenges of sustainable transformation. What views of problems and approaches to solutions do they develop when they set out to make their environment and their profession more sustainable? What expertise can they draw on and what attempts at political and legal control do they have to deal with? What recommendations for action emerge from their experiences?

Viadrina students are exploring these questions in a series of seminars, accompanied by Amelie Kutter and in cooperation with local practitioners. They are researching local views of problems and solutions in the fields of water, moorland, mobility, energy, forests, food and politics with the help of document analyses, interviews and field trips. Most recently, we supported a Brandenburg agricultural cooperative in the planning of a solar moor project; we are currently exploring scenarios for cross-border climate-friendly mobility in the context of stricter border controls with the Frankfurt-Słubice Cooperation Centre. The dialogues, e.g. the Viadrina Mobility Dialogue, are a special format for exchanging ideas with practitioners, in which findings on solution scenarios, local projects and student research are presented.

The project pursues the following goals:

• Innovative university teaching: solution-oriented, research-based learning (CBL) in cooperation with local practitioners
• New basic research: innovative practices, governance and governmentality of sustainability transformation
• Reciprocal knowledge transfer: local experience - academic systematisation
• Committed social science: making local problem views and good practice visible

Further information on core concepts and teaching and research methods will follow shortly.