Project description

The project „Meta-Analysis“ is supported by BMBF in the context of the thematical research framework “„Innovationspolitische Handlungsfelder für die nachhaltige Entwicklung“.
In the project a Sustainability Atlas will be developed, in which a national and international comparative overview is given on selected governmental and business strategies of sustainable development. Thereby, the underlying (meta-) conceptions of sustainable development, which are the basis of the different sustainability strategies in politics and economics are identified, categorized, and analyzed. Further, the mechanisms of institutionalization as well as instruments of implementation are investigated.
Particularly the question of how public (also sub-national and local) and private strategies of sustainability influence each other will be evaluated. In this context, we also will examine similarities and differences between them and eventual transfer potentials between both objects of research.
In the course of the two-year project, roughly 20 case studies will be conducted for the public and private sector that will be analyzed in 5-6 major studies.
Furthermore, it will be analyzed how different approaches of sustainability effect innovation policies and –programmes as well as how or to what extend they are integrated into innovation policies.
The project combines taking stock of sustainability strategy research with a derivation of operationalized categories with different case studies on various research levels as well as with comparative qualitative and quantitative approaches to analysis.   
The result will be an overview of different concepts of sustainability, their variants of institutionalizing and implementation mechanisms, what should be useful for practitioners and scientists alike.