RT Dissertation/Thesis
T1 The bioeconomy : a knowledge-based innovation paradigm to foster sustainability transformations
A1 Urmetzer,Sophie
WP 2020/07/17
AB Notwithstanding 40 years of global climate policies, carbon dioxide emissions are still increasing and global surface temperature is still rising until today – with all its consequences to ecosystems and the fate of humanity on Earth. Current attempts to stop and reverse unsustainable developments that lead to the climate crisis and to other ecological and social disasters have proven rather ineffective. While there certainly are many reasons for this on the operative level, the dissertation is motivated by the assumption that countermeasures generally suffer from a lack of systemic framing of the wicked sustainability issues. What if solution approaches – despite being brought forward to the best of decision makers’ knowledge and belief – (only) are subject to a perceptual mistake in the way sustainable solutions are currently framed?
I propose a change in perspective as decision making basis for improved sustainability governance. It is a call for getting to the systemic root causes of sustainability problems. To achieve a change in (unsustainable) outcomes, I argue, the logic on which they are produced must change. I conceptualize this change as a paradigmatic shift in knowledge-based innovation systems that becomes necessary to equip them with the requirements to foster sustainability transformations. To this end, I adduce the sustainable knowledge-based bioeconomy as an example of a new innovation paradigm. The knowledge base of innovation systems dedicated to sustainability is explored theoretically and empirically on a policy, an educational, and on a business level. 
The dissertation is composed of four studies published between 2017 and 2020. After an introduction to the topic and the presentation of the theoretical background, the first paper explores the paradigmatic changes necessary to align innovation systems to the normative implications of sustainability transformations. The types of knowledge required for transformations in the case of the shift towards a sustainable bioeconomy are dealt with in the second publication. The elaboration and refinement of the notion of dedicated knowledge provides a knowledge-theoretical basis for better informing policy makers aiming at the installation of a sustainable knowledge-based bioeconomy. In th ethird study, I analyze to what extent elements of transformative knowledge – one integral part of dedicated knowledge – are considered in the design of European academic bioeconomy curricula. The last paper spotlights the role of firms in contributing to a system-wide adoption of the dedication to sustainability. It closes an important gap between the macro-level of transformation theories and the powerful private actors contributing to its overall outcome from the micro-level. The final Chapter synthesizes and discusses the results of the dissertation’s publications by sketching the knowledge-based change of innovation paradigms that contribute to a transformation to sustainability.
The results reveal that a reflection of dedicated transformation processes from a paradigmatic perspective offers theoretical insights that can and should inform public, academic, as well as corporate sustainability endeavors. The consideration of innovation paradigms prompts research to explicitly spell out the normative dimension of innovation processes in innovation systems. This is a decisive step to understanding and possibly informing actions aiming at deliberate change. As an example, I have framed the sustainable bioeconomy as a new paradigm that determines the rate and the direction of innovation in a dedicated innovation system. Once the sustainable bioeconomy paradigm is effective, I argue, it will spontaneously trigger a change in resources used without having it imposed from authorities. To get there, however, policies must take due consideration of the specific characteristics of the relevant knowledge flows, academia must be better trained to afford the required shift in perspectives and trigger transformation processes, and companies must reconsider the values they propose and deliver to their customers.
The assemblage of publications spells out the theoretical underpinnings of the knowledge-based bioeconomy and its potential to serve as a new paradigm to spur sustainability transformations. More concretely, the dissertation reveals to what extent the role of knowledge and knowledge itself needs to be reconsidered and in which ways it must be expanded for achieving a systemic change towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns.
K1 Nachhaltigkeit
K1 Transformation
K1 Bioökonomie
PP Hohenheim
PB Kommunikations-, Informations- und Medienzentrum der Universität Hohenheim
UL http://opus.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2020/1761