Irina Silina – författare

Sustainable development is now considered one of the major narratives shaping society's future. At the same time, it is proving to be an area of conflict where expectations, morals, politics, and ideas of scientific evidence collide. This book shows why current discourses on sustainability are reaching their limits. But it also shows how a new, openly conceived approach to sustainable development can emerge. Based on Richard Rorty's neopragmatism and Ralf Dahrendorf's concept of life chances, Olaf Kühne, Karsten Berr, and Irina Silina develop an innovative perspective: sustainable development is not understood as a teleologically defined goal but as a contingent, dialogical process that must be constantly reshaped, in which people generate life chances. The focus is on questions such as how people create meaning, how conflicts can become productive, and how individual freedom can be linked to collective responsibility. The book combines theoretical foundations, from vocabulary analyses to various forms of criticism of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a comprehensive redescription of sustainable development. Following the guiding principle of liberal ironist Richard Rorty, an approach is developed that understands freedom from humiliation, compassion, processes of understanding, and the expansion of the "we" as prerequisites for a resonant culture of sustainability.The book is a committed and reflective plea for sustainability research that does not cover up conflicts but takes them seriously—and thinks of the future as a shared, open possibility, giving high priority to individual life chances.

Sustainable development is now considered one of the major narratives shaping society's future. At the same time, it is proving to be an area of conflict where expectations, morals, politics, and ideas of scientific evidence collide. This book shows why current discourses on sustainability are reaching their limits. But it also shows how a new, openly conceived approach to sustainable development can emerge. Based on Richard Rorty's neopragmatism and Ralf Dahrendorf's concept of life chances, Olaf Kuhne, Karsten Berr, and Irina Silina develop an innovative perspective: sustainable development is not understood as a teleologically defined goal but as a contingent, dialogical process that must be constantly reshaped, in which people generate life chances. The focus is on questions such as how people create meaning, how conflicts can become productive, and how individual freedom can be linked to collective responsibility. The book combines theoretical foundations, from vocabulary analyses to various forms of criticism of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a comprehensive redescription of sustainable development. Following the guiding principle of liberal ironist Richard Rorty, an approach is developed that understands freedom from humiliation, compassion, processes of understanding, and the expansion of the "e;we"e; as prerequisites for a resonant culture of sustainability.The book is a committed and reflective plea for sustainability research that does not cover up conflicts but takes them seriously-and thinks of the future as a shared, open possibility, giving high priority to individual life chances.

Eine Nachhaltige Entwicklung ist unabdingbar für die weitere Entwicklung menschlicher Gesellschaften. Die Sustainable Development Goals der Vereinten Nationen sind mit dem Anspruch angetreten, diese sicherzustellen. Diese wurden auch mit einem weitreichenden Set an Zielerreichungsindikatoren unterlegt. Allerdings sind sie konzeptionell widersprüchlich und weisen Lücken in der Operationalisierbarkeit auf. In ihrem Vertrauen auf top-down-Lösungen übersehen sie die Notwendigkeit der Bedeutung der Lebenspraxis. Die aus dem Bedarf der lebenspraktischen Umsetzung resultierenden Konflikte werden nicht als produktiv aufgefasst. Damit gehen zwei Probleme einher, einerseits wird das produktive Potenzial sozialer Konflikte missachtet, andererseits die Problemlösungsfähigkeit der Alltagswelt. Ausgehend von dieser Feststellung werden in dem Buch Ansätze zu einem Verständnis nachhaltiger Entwicklung vorgestellt, die einerseits auf der Maximierung von Lebenschancen (in der Tradition von Ralf Dahrendorf) sowie andererseits auf einem positiven Konfliktverständnis beruhen.