From concepts and, theories to methods and models: pluralistic methodologies and multiple lines of evidence for informing sustainability transitions across science-society

• Introductions and organisational matters
• Understanding the nexus between theory and concepts, methods and models
• How to effectively constitute the science-policy- society interface?
• Exploring the link between EC&P I and EC&P II
• Introducing Journal

Additional Reading

Dow, S.C., 2007. Variety of methodological approach in economics. Journal of Economic Surveys 21, 447-465.

Turnheim,B., Berkhout, F., Geels, F., Hof, A., McMeekin, A., Nykviste, B., van Vuuren, D. (2105). Evaluating sustainability transitions pathways: Bridging analytical approaches to address governance challenges. Global Environmental Change 35: 239–253

van den Hove, S. (2007). A rationale for science–policy interfaces. Futures 39. 807–826

McNie, E. (2007). Reconciling the supply of scientific information with user demands: an analysis of the problem and review of the literature. Environmental science & policy 10, 17–38 

Hodgson, G. M. (2006). "What Are Institutions?" Journal of Economic Issues XL(1).

Stagl, S. (2012). Value articulating institutions and changing social preferences. Reflexive governance for global public goods. T. D. Eric Brousseau, Bernd Siebenhüner. Cambridge, MIT Press.

 - Start your Journal

Environmental Accounting and Social Metabolism: Methodological Approach

Bring laptops!

How to holistically account for physical flows and environmental impacts?

How to correctly use and interpret environmental data?

Getting familiar with available data and sources

Reading

Haberl, Helmut, et al. (2004) Progress towards sustainability? What the conceptual framework of material and energy flow accounting (MEFA) can offer. Land Use Policy 21.3 (2004): 199-213. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837703000942

Dittrich, M., Giljum, S. Lutter,S., Polzin, C. (2012). Green economies around the world? Implications of resource use for development and the environment. Vienna. https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/201207_green_economies_around_the_world.pdf

Environmental Accounting and Social Metabolism: Footprints and Input-Output Analysis

Bring laptops!

How to calculate and interpret footprint indicators from the micro to the macro level?

Hands on exercises using standard spreadsheet software (MS Excel or similar) or (for the advanced users) a programming environment (e.g. R, Python or Matlab)

Reading

Tukker, A., Bulavskaya, T., Giljum, S., de Koning, A., Lutter, S., Simas, M., Stadler, K., Wood, R., 2014. The Global Resource Footprint of Nations. Carbon, water, land and materials embodied in trade and final consumption, Leiden/Delft/Vienna/Trondheim. http://www.truthstudio.com/content/CREEA_Global_Resource_Footprint_of_Nations.pdf

Environmental Accounting and Social Metabolism: Practical exercises

Bring laptops!

• Collect and assemble data for a country of your choice
• Integrate with IO tables and calculate footprints
• Analyse results for territorial and consumption-based environmental accounts

Reading

UBA (2016). The Use of Natural resources - Report for Germany 2016. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/377/publikationen/161025_ressourcenbericht_en.pdf

Individual paper due Wed 15 Nov 23:55  (the day before the next ECP II class)

Green Growth? National System of Accounts (statistical analysis)

Bring laptops!

Set up the national system of accounts for a country of your choice. Understand the sectors of the economy:

Readings (do these before the class!):

Understand the European System of Accounts ver. 2010 (ESA 2010)

ESA 2010 replaced the ESA 1995 to update the numbers. To find out what major changes took places read the ESA 2010 FAQ: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/esa-2010/overview

ESA 2010 can be downloaded in German/French/English from:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-02-13-269

Read Chapters 1 and 2 to get an overview. Understand the sectors, balance sheet items, stocks and flows. If you have time, also read Chapters 19 and 20 which specifically deals with the European Accounts and the government.

Understand the balance sheet reports on the ECB website

The general report can be downloaded from:

http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/reports.do?node=10000039  (Statistics Bulletin (full report))

Have a look at the following:

Table 3.1 shows the integrated economic and financial accounts and Tables 3.2-3.4 discuss the individual institutional sectors. Table 6.1 discusses the government balance sheet.

Download the dataset from Eurostat database

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

Look for the table nama_10_gdp in the tree (Economy and Finance). Download the ZIP file. Unzip it and import it in Excel.

Explanatory notes here:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/nama10_esms.htm

Look for the table env_air_emis in the tree (Environment and Energy). Download the ZIP file. Unzip it and import it in Excel.

What we will do in class:

- Bring your own laptops and make sure it has Excel (preferable) or Open Office installed on it. You can use other statistical softwares as well if you are proficient (Stata, R, Matlab, SPSS etc.). I can support with Stata and provide limited support with R and Matlab.

- What we will learn:

o How to parse data in Excel to make it readable.

o Generate sheets based on actual data

o Merge the data with environmental accounts

· What we should achieve:

o A national system of accounts for a country of your choice with detailed national accounts.

Generate key indicators for the economy including indicators of green growth, de-growth. Understanding decoupling indicators

Green growth? Environmental Accounts (statistical analysis)

Bring laptops!

Reading the database and setting up the excel file for the national accounts (nama_10_gdp)

Green growth? Deriving decoupling indicators (statistical analysis)

Bring laptops!

Reading the database and setting up the excel file for emission accounts (env_air_emis)

Readings

Naqvi, A. and Zwickl, K. (2017): 50 Shades of Green: Revisiting Decoupling by Economic sector and Air Pollutants. Ecological Economics 133: 111-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.09.017

Tapio, P. (2005). Towards a theory of decoupling: degrees of decoupling in the EU and the case of road traffic in Finland between 1970 and 2001. Transport Policy 12:137–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2005.01.001.

- Write a short report (2000 words) on decoupling indicators on the country of your choice. Has the country decoupled? In which environmental indicators? Individual paper due Mon 4 Dec 23:55

Systems analysis for policy: Methodological Approach

Bring laptops!

What we will learn in the class?

• What does thinking in systems mean?
• What is System Dynamics?
• How could System Dynamics support sustainability policy design and implementation?
• Has System Dynamics been effective in informing sustainability policy? The experience of the Limits to Growth

What we will achieve?

• Understand of the core elements of systems thinking  and system dynamics, i.e.: stocks, flows, feedback-loops, amplification effects, time-delays
• Analyse the lights and shadows behind the experience of the most famous System Dynamics model, i.e., the World3 model by the Limits to Growth
• Assess the limits of the System Dynamics community in informing policy-making

Reading

Forrester, J. W. (1971). Counterintuitive behavior of social systems. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 3, 1-22.

Forrester, J. W. (1994). System dynamics, systems thinking, and soft OR. System dynamics review, 10(2‐3), 245-256.

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Meadows, D., Meadows, D., Randers, J. & William W. Behrens III (1972). The Limits to Growth. Universe Books

System dynamics: from theory to practice

Bring laptops!

What we will learn in the class?

• Apply the core concepts of system thinking to analyse specific policy problems such as (i) population growth, (ii) sustainable land use, (ii) sustainable economic development
• Analyse a policy problem in terms of stocks-flows, feedback loops.

What we will achieve?

• Identify stocks and flows in the analysis of a specific sustainability policy problem –i.e., the Zambaqui case study
• Design the causal loops diagram of a specific policy problem
• Identify the major feedback loops and their driving dynamics, systems’ tipping points

Reading

Pasqualino R., Monasterolo I., Jones A. W. (2017) An Integrated Global Food and Energy Security System Dynamics model for addressing systemic risk. Forthcoming on Food Policy Journal.

Saeed, K. (1996). Sustainable development: old conundrums, new discords. Jay Wright Forrester Prize Lecture, 1995. System Dynamics Review, 12(1), 59-80.

Material provided in the class about the Zambaqui case study.

Systems dynamics for sustainability policy analysis: Application

Bring laptops!

 What we will learn in the class?

• How to download main socio-economic variables  from World Development Indicators database (in excel file)
• Getting acquainted with the Vensim software by Ventana
• Simulate a block of the Zambaqui model in Vensim

What we will achieve?

•  Install Vensim on your laptop
• Prepare the equations of a module of the Zambaqui model
• Run a block of the Zambaqui model in Vensim

Paper due on January 9th :

Short paper (max 8 pages): choose a specific section of the Zambaqui model, update the database and re-run the analysis in Vensim, commenting on them at the light of the knowledge acquired in the class.

Bottom-up scenario development – Methodological Approach & Application

The Scenario Building Method: Approach and Applications class is taught in an inverted classroom format.   The lecture is provided online before class.  The in-class lecture is replaced with an organised scenario building exercise that gives the students hand on experience creating scenarios for an interesting and current topic.  This year, we will use the topic: A Car-free Vienna City Center by 2036.  The City Center is defined as Districts 1-9 from the Gürtel to the Donau.

Lecturecast

Gillian Foster, Introduction to Scenario Building (2x approx. 15 min.) You must watch the Lecturecasts on scenario development on MyLearn before class.   We will need the time in class to do the scenario building.

Reading

1 journal article that is an overview of scenario building with a huge bibliography for future use (roughly 30 minutes to read). Amer, Muhammad, Tugrul U. Daim, and Antonie Jetter. "A review of scenario planning." Futures 46 (2013): 23-40.

1 Guardian newspaper article on urban mobility in Europe, focusing on car-free city centers (roughly 30 minutes to read).  “End of the car age:  how cities are outgrowing the automobile”, Stephen Moss, Tuesday 28 April 2015

Multi-Criteria Analysis: Methodological Approach

Bring laptops!

• Environmental valuation and integrated sustainability assessment
• How can we support decision-making when multiple criteria need to be taken into consideration?
• What do the different elements of the technical analysis mean?
• How and why might we consider ‘broadening out’ the scope of what appraisal methods take into account and ‘opening up’ the effects they have on the political policy processes to which they relate?

Reading

Stagl, S. (2007). Emerging Methods for Sustainability Valuation and Appraisal - SDRN Rapid Research and Evidence Review, London, Sustainable Development Research Network: 92. http://www.sd-research.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Emerging%20Methods%20for%20Sustainability%20Valuation%20and%20Appraisal_0.pdf

Stagl, S. (2006). "Multicriteria evaluation and public participation: The case of UK energy policy." Land Use Policy 23(1): 53-62.

Stirling, A. (2008). "’Opening Up’ and ‘Closing Down’: Power, Participation, and Pluralism in the Social Appraisal of Technology." Science, Technology & Human Values 33(2): 262-294

Multi-Criteria Analysis: Application

Bring laptops!

Practice clinic: Fr 26 January 2018 9am to 5pm (unless a project workshop is scheduled for this day – I’ll let you know asap)

Group paper due – 2 February 2018 at 23:55 (last day of semester)

Upload your paper using MCA listing the names of all authors at Learn@WU

What are quality criteria for high quality empirical ecological economic analyses?

Student led debate where all students will be expected to participate in different ways (e.g. develop positions, engage with opponents, questions from the floor).

Synthesis and feedback Science – Policy – Society Interface