Journal "Technikfolgenabschätzung - Theorie und Praxis". No. 3/4 2003 online available [16.12.2003]

Focal theme: Sustainable Development

The focal theme of this issue is devoted to sustainable development, more concretely to the implementation in different contexts of the integrative sustainability concept which was developed by the Helmholtz Associaton of German Research Centers (HGF). Each of the five projects presented use the normative framework for sustainability assessments as elaborated in the HGF approach: a communal information system for sustainability assessment which is developed by the UFZ Research Center Leipzig-Halle; an interdisciplinary research project of "Zentrum Umwelt und Gesellschaft" (Center for Environment and Society) of the Technical University at Berlin which concentrates on the possible contributions of a special regional sector (in this case: ecological agriculture and forestry) to the prosperity of that region with regard to social, cultural, economic and ecological aspects ("sustainable prosperity"); two projects deal with renewable resources and their possible contributions to sustainability; and the project EASY - Ecological and Social Efficiency, a joint project of the University of Vienna, Austria, and the Austrian Stock Exchange and other partners, which aims at developing a sustainability index for enterprises quoted on the stock exchange. The last contribution to the focal theme describes the current activities of the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to orient its funding measures in the realm of Global Change Research more strongly towards the sustainabilityLeitbild.ITAS has worked out a position paper for the ministry of which a shortened version is presented in this issue.
All articles are in German!

Other Sections

The other sections comprise in brief:
(unless otherwise stated, all articles are in German)

  • In the Institutions section, the newly founded "artec:Forschungszentrum Nachhaltigkeit" at the university of Bremen is presented (artec: Research Center for Sustainability)
  • The TA concepts and methods section features an article by Prof. Arno Rolf, University of Hamburg, on "Interdisciplinary technology research and informatics - an offer for an analytical framework"
  • In the TA-Projects section, the EMERGENCE project of the European Union, which has analysed in 18 European countries plus Asia, Australia and North America whether the widespread introduction of ICTs at a global level will lead to the "death of distance" and the emergence of an autonomous "weightless" new economy, is presented by one of the main contractors (in English); the project on the "Social and Economic Challenges of Nanotechnology" is presented by the main authors of the University of Sheffield, UK (in English); the other projects deal with Cyberscience (the main project publication is in English language!), an analysis of the R&D services in Germany; and the possibility of co-incineration of waste in cement kilns as a legitimate way of waste utilization.

The articles in the Book Reviews section are all in German.
The Conference Reports contain a report in English on an International Workshop on "Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change: Toward a Mutual Agenda" where a first concerted effort was made to reduce some of the deficits of knowledge about adaptation processes and strategies for changing environmental conditions in modern societies (ITAS was one of the organisers).
The ten pages of Conference Announcements also comprise event announcements in English.

The News from ITAS and TAB-- the German Parliamentary Office for Technology Assessment -- are all in German except from a report on the Dresden "Tigers" project where the findings from an EU project about success factors in IT industries in Eastern Germany are briefly described.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the Discussion Forum on the ITA - Innovation and Technology Analysis concept of the BMBF comprises five articles dealing from different angles and interests with the concept launched by the BMBF. One article is in English "Can Institutions Anticipate?" (by M. Nadin, University of California at Berkeley).

Links:

U. Huws: A New Virtual Global Division of Labour? Some Lessons from the EMERGENCE project html pdf
S.J. Wood, A. Geldart, R.A.L. Jones: The Social and Economic Challenges of Nanotechnology html pdf
International Workshop: Mitigation and Adaptation in Climate Change (Essen, May 15-16, 2003) html pdf
M. Nadin: Can Institutions Anticipate? html pdf
Conference Announcements html pdf
The Dresden Tiger - Findings from an EU Project about Success Factors in IT Industries html pdf

 Complete contents of issue 3-4 / 2003 of "Technikfolgenabschätzung - Theorie und Praxis" here