Project: Regional approaches for sustainable economy |
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Co-ordination and communication for model research projects on "Regional approaches for sustainable economy"Objectives: Research for success factors and hurdles of different approaches to achieve sustainable economic structures at regional level. At national and European level regions are gaining influence as actors for sustainable development. But how can regions contribute, and what is the scale of their potential influence? Can self-supporting networks between economic actors be set up, which enable a more efficient resource use and a decrease of material flows? Can sustainable enterprises withstand the pressure of global competition? What is the future of labour in a regional context? Will new markets and sustainable consumption patterns be a result of close producer-consumer relationships? Which effect has the strengthening of regional identity on social networks? The research initiative " model projects for sustainable economies", supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) attempts to answer those and other open questions. Since 1998, "pioneers" like innovative business, regional networks or local communities, model projects who work in interdisciplinary workgroups of scientific and practical experts try to establish new innovative processes. Implementing fundamental principles to promote regional economies and regions themselves, are funded with appr. 15 Mio. DM (~7,5 Mill. EURO). The main topics of these network projects are based on three subject areas "Agriculture and regional marketing", "Regional Material Flow Management" and "Strengthening regional potentials". In order to ensure an efficient co-operation of the project groups and to transfer common scientific issues the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has established a cross-cutting working group. This is assembled by an interdisciplinary group of experts in the " Institute for Social - Ecologic Research (ISOE)" in Frankfurt and the local government agency "International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives"(ICLEI). The project was started early 2000 and will continue until 2003.
Results and Literature:During two international fairs in 2002 ISOE organized presentations and technical discussions to allow a spreading of the modell project’s results into business. An international congress "Regional Cycles: Regional Economy towards Sustainability" (Oktober 30- November 2, 2002) stimulated scientific and political exchange with the model projects and similar projects abroad. (Download: http://www.iclei.org/europe/economy/conference/Report_englisch.pdf) The synthesis process in the research-initiative was lead by the ISOE team. A first synthesis workshop on regionalising economic activities for the model projects has taken place in Frankfurt on December 5th, 2001. Three external experts were invited to talk about their work. Two more workshops in spring 2002 supported the synthesis process in collaboration with the model projects. The resulting booklet "Regional Approaches to Sustainable Economy: Potentials and Limits. Experiences from German Case-Studies" documents a synthesis of a German research-initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Research. (An extended German version is published as book entitled "Aktivierung durch Nähe".) The concluding reflections and a synthetical outlook are based on further contributions on the experiences of the funded model-projects. As a main result, spatial and especially social proximity often encourages appropriate innovations and can be regarded as relevant factor on the way to a more sustainable economy: Th. Kluge/E. Schramm (2002) (Eds.): Regional Approaches to Sustainable Economy: Potentials and Limits. Experiences from German Case-Studies. Materialien Soziale Ökologie, Nr. 19. Frankfurt am Main, 4,20 Euro, 84 pages Order Form To prepare the next phase of the research initiative, the ministry has stimulated smaller evaluations of its frame work conception „sustainable economy“. The evaluations are taking place in the second half of 2003: Experts of the Austrian Institute for Spatial Planing and the Austrian Institute for Applied Ecology are focussing the regional aspects. Prof. Zundel of Lausitz University of Applied Sciences is analysing the economic aspects. ISOE is investigating the question of praxis orientation. Further Information on the Research Initiative:First results of the model projects are described in the brochure "What an Economy". It presents the results without resorting to subject-specific jargon and columns of figures. The brochure "What an Economy" is available free on the order form as Download you will find the files at the download page English Website for this project: http://www.regional-sustainability.de German Website: http://www.nachhaltig.org
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