Schwerpunktprogramm Umwelt Programme Prioritaire Environnement Priority Programme Environment – serie

What kind of science do we need today and tomorrow? In a game that knows no boundaries, a game that contaminates science, democracy and the market economy, how can we distinguish true needs from simple of fashion? How can we distinguish between necessity and fancy? whims How can we differentiate conviction from opinion? What is the meaning of this all? Where is the civilizing project? Where is the universal outlook of the minds that might be capable of counteracting the global reach of the market? Where is the common ground that links each of us to the other? We need the kind of science that can live up to this need for univer­ sality, the kind of science that can answer these questions. We need a new kind of knowledge, a new awareness that can bring about the creative destruction of certainties. Old ideas, dogmas, and out-dated paradigms must be destroyed in order to build new knowledge of a type that is more socially robust, more scientifically reliable, stable and above all better able to express our needs, values and dreams. What is more, this new kind of knowledge, which will be challenged in turn by ideas yet to come, will prove its true worth by demonstrating its capacity to dialogue with these ideas and grow with them.

What is wrong with society and the individual? Why do most people not act in environmentally responsible ways? These are the central questions discussed in the present book. It will serve as an important reader for the growing number of socially orientated environmental scientists who are interested in how people deal with environmental issues, which in turn results from the complex interactions of values and attitudes towards society, its institutions and nature. These analyses are of increasing importance and counterbalance the current scientific and technological approaches to environmental problems.

Transdisciplinarity is a different approach to research and problem solving. The core idea is that researchers, practitioners and stakeholders co-operate in order to address the complex challenges of society. This book contains definitions, keynote addresses, and summaries of sessions and panels, from the International Transdisciplinarity Conference, held in Switzerland in early 2000. Key topics include: the nature of transdisciplinarity; research management; knowledge integration; mutual learning; teamwork and stakeholder involvement; guidelines for good practice, institutional structures; North-South patnerships; and evaluation. The intended audience includes disciplinary and interdisciplinary researchers concerned with sustainability in a wide variety of areas, such as: energy; natural resources; urban and landscape planning; waste management; biotechnology; health care; and education.