Completed MOST project

The main concern of this project is to initiate and then intensify, on an international scale, a problem­oriented debate on the concept of sustainable development within the various social sciences. Statement of the Problem At present, the social sciences are confronted with a wide range of novel and partly interdependent transformation processes.The contributions and proposals of the social sciences for the political, social and economic management of these transformation processes fall a long way short of the demands and expectations placed in them. In this situation, the aim of the project is to elaborate whether and how sustainable development which has become an internationally accepted model of environmental and development policy can be formulated as a feasible scientific concept for the social sciences as well as a basis of empirical research. Project Objectives By initiating and then intensifying a problem­oriented debate on the concept of sustainability within the various social sciences, it is intended: to improve the ability of the social sciences to tune in to current developmental, environmental and economic problem areas, to step up and expand the exchange of views and inter­disciplinary co­operation, both within the social sciences and between the social and natural sciences. to prepare a conceptual framework for new international research programmes. Project's Procedure As a science organising process, the project entails the identification of experts, the preparation of reports on state and perspectives of the discussion on sustainability in the various social science disciplines and the organisation of a workshop on "Sustainability as Social Science Concept". Target Groups: The project aims at the improvement of social scientific contributions to sustainability­related research topics as proposed in the AGENDA 21. It addresses scientists, science and research policy authorities and decision­makers engaged in this field. General Co-ordinator of the Project: Thomas Jahn, Institute for social-ecological research (ISOE), Germany Co-ordinator MOST: Christine von Furstenberg UNESCO-MOST Tel: +33 1 45 68 45 16 Fax: +33 1 45 68 57 24 E-mail: c.von-furstenberg@unesco.org Extensive project description Project participants Declaration: "Enhancing Social Scientific Understanding of Sustainability" List of first signatories of the declaration News from the Institute for social-ecological research (ISOE) Sustainability and the social sciences: a cross-disciplinary approach to integrating environmental considerations into theoretical reorientation edited by Egon Becker and Thomas Jahn, UNESCO-MOST and ISOE, 1999 Sustainability as a Concept of the Social Sciences by Thomas Jahn, UNESCO heute, magazine of the German UNESCO Commission, No. 44, Edition I-II, Spring/Summer 1997 (in German) For an improved (social) scientific understanding of sustainability by UNESCO heute, magazine of the German UNESCO Commission, No. 44, Edition I-II, Spring/Summer 1997 (in German)

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