The ongoing sustainability crisis offer numerous, multifaced societal challenges as a result of the ongoing degradation of socio-ecological systems by human activity causing massive ecological damage and human suffering. Overcoming these difficulties begs for the rapid transition of society towards sustainability. This desire for urgent action has been hindered by the lack of coordinated global leadership focused on addressing these challenges and implementing a transition towards a sustainable future. The sustainability crisis and its manifestations, which include for example climate change, air and water pollution, deforestation and social segregation, are interconnected and volatile issues whose parts influence and impact each other causing the crisis to worsen. The earth system is pushed towards tipping points from beyond which it may become impossible to maintain the human civilization. The failure of leadership to address the wicked nature of these crises means humanity has been left ill-equipped to deal with the complex problems of sustainability.  This thesis considers the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in overcoming these issues and operating as a leverage point towards sustainability. It focuses on investigating how the development of sustainability leadership education in Higher Education can contribute to addressing the sustainability crisis. It looks at the role that educators can play in designing learning environments that ensure leaders and leadership capable of addressing wicked problems posed by global unsustainability. The aim of this research is to investigate what educators should consider when designing learning environments that promote the qualities needed for leading in complexity towards sustainability. It does this by examining a number of ESD programs as case studies to investigate the efficacy of those programs at creating sustainability outcomes within their students. It also undertakes a literature review to describe and articulate the unique challenges faced by sustainability leaders from a personal and professional perspective. The study is situated closely to the ongoing ESD discussion regarding competencies-based learning for sustainability and the research aims to provide some contribution to that dialogue. It does this through the investigation of competencies acquisition and the discussion of emerging areas of leadership that may hold beneficial outcomes for the development and practice of sustainability leaders.   The results of the thesis suggest a number of outcomes for consideration by educators and include a number of main findings. Firstly, educational programs can be capable of achieving the acquisition of ‘sustainability’ competencies within their students, but if these competencies are not taught within a larger sustainability contextualization, then students can fail to see the purpose of the competencies ‘for’ sustainability. Secondly, reflective practices, developed as the result of reflective pedagogies, can provide beneficial qualities in students as future sustainability leaders and require distinct pedagogical structures in order to guide reflective practices towards sustainability outcomes. Finally, a number of unique personal and professional challenges to sustainability leadership exist and need to be overcome if the domain of sustainability is to ensure the ongoing resilience and wellbeing of individuals and groups acting as sustainability leaders.   This research suggests a novel contribution to a number of areas within ESD research, including creating knowledge within the competencies discussion regarding emerging areas of study that may influence the future of defined sustainability competencies. It also highlights the need for educators to consider the role of wellbeing and resilience in current and future sustainability leaders.

Title: Consistency in Constant Change: A Sensemaking Perspective to Uncover How Marketers Justify Budget for Branding Activities. Background: Branding activities are part of marketers’ everyday work life and have increased in organisational importance of how marketing is conducted. However, due to the lack of a direct linkage to conversion, branding activities are challenging to know the output of. Despite this, marketers continue to spend part of the marketing budget on branding activities. To understand how marketers justify decisions for branding activities, this Thesis views justifying branding activities as a wicked problem. It uses decision-making theory with a sensemaking lens to uncover patterns of decision input and output. Purpose: Taking the organisational perspective, this study seeks to clarify and bring insights into how branding decisions are justified by surfacing underlying patterns when marketers justify decisions for branding activities. Methodology: This Thesis uses an abductive qualitative study approach. To uncover the problem and guide the study direction, 12 pre-interviews were conducted. Then, a literature review and 12 in-depth, exploratory and semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals were conducted to understand directly from the budget owners regarding how budget is justified for branding activities. Findings: The introduced conceptual framework shows that justifying branding activities is an ongoing process that faces constant change. Three main patterns are found for how marketers justify budget for branding decisions. First, marketers clarify what identity and preference to use by identifying ‘what matters’ during the decision-making process and they either claim or share the right of deciding. Second, a general understanding is that branding activities are immeasurable in nature and marketers tell a plausible story of their effectiveness by measuring what can be measured, measure changes, or use financial results as a final judge. Third, internal and external constraints exist throughout the process of justifying branding activities, including technology limitations, loss of other’s branding sense, and limited budget and resources.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better under-standing of the roles libraries have during crises and the types of crises that libraries encounter. The thesis will do this by exploring the experiences of library managers and coordinators, and how the work of libraries is perceived during crises, with the purpose of investigating libraries' relationship to wicked problems. The research material used in this study is collected using semi-structured qualitative interviews. In total, nine interviews with managers and coordinators from different types of libraries have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to understand and explain the collected data consists of wicked problems, crises typology, and resilience. The results of the study show that libraries encounter both slow and fast burning crises with the Covid-19-pandemic being the most significant and comprehensive crisis. The majority of the encountered crises can be understood as wicked problems. The role that libraries play during crises depends on the type of the library and its proximity to the public. Based on the collected material, I was able to identify seven general themes that characterize the libraries' roles during societal crises: information and information literacy, the last public outpost, democracy and freedom of expression, safe spaces and well-being, culture and free time, education and development, and support for other public and private utilities. A key finding is that libraries show a high capability to adapt their spaces and services to a changing context, and to help build resilient communities.

Abstract not available.

The amount of global greenhouse gas emissions needs to be significantly reduced in order to reach the Paris agreement target of 1.5°C by 2050. Contemporary representative political systems have failed so far in adequately addressing the complex problem of climate change. This study looks at potential alternative or complementary decision-making and knowledge producing methods, more specifically the deliberative democratic method of citizens’ assemblies. The three core concepts discussed in this thesis are citizens assemblies, wicked problems and sustainable transformation. By critically discussing and combining these three concepts, this thesis sets out to analyze a specific Citizens’ Assembly, namely the one held in Ireland 2016-2018. The thesis analyzes both the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model proper and its recommendations. The model is analyzed through the theoretical lens of wicked problems, in order to determine to what extent the salient characteristics of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model address complexity. In addition, the theoretical concept of sustainable transformation is used to analyze the Assembly’s recommendations, in order to determine how strong or weak they are in relation to this theory. A directed content analysis was used to help categorize the recommendations. The result of the study shows that the Irish Citizens’ Assembly model exhibited positive aspects in relation to appropriately addressing complexity. The transdisciplinary approach to knowledge production and the deliberative aspect of the Assembly process enhanced the reliability of the knowledge produced. The Assembly’s recommendations are, however, concluded to be weak as seen from a sustainable transformation perspective. The limited amount of time given to the topic of climate change by the Irish Citizens’ Assembly as well as the narrow focus of the information provided to the Assembly members are important factors in influencing this finding. Additional research is needed on the link between citizens’ assemblies, wicked problems and sustainable transformation. On the basis of the research presented in this thesis it is argued that the citizens assembly model might play a crucial part in how people and communities can deal with complex problems in the future

Increased participation in decision-making has been identified as crucial in order to develop sustainable societies. The Water Framework Directive aims to increase water quality in the European Union. However, measures for water management can have a negative effect on cultural values. The Swedish National Heritage Board describes that over 10 000 cultural sites near watercourses are in danger due to intended water restorations. One of these sites is the millpond in Järle, were proposed changes have caused conflicts to arise between stakeholders. Previous research argue that classical top-down planning is not fit to solve these problems, and that we must stop looking for the best solutions and instead create joint ones. By operationalising Innes and Boohers collaborative rationality framework, DIAD, this thesis shed light on how collaboration is utilized to solve complex situations. The results show that the process have not utilized the possibilities for collaboration, and that current policies do not provide incitements for stakeholders to engage in genuine dialogue. Even though consultations are part of the process, stakeholders are involved too little and too late. More research is needed in order to deepen our understanding concerning how institutional settings can become more adaptable, and thus stimulate reciprocity.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie är att utveckla en fördjupad förståelse kring möjliggörande och hindrande faktorer för elevers analysförmåga om en samhällsfråga i relation till en visuell modell. Närmare bestämt är frågeställningarna hur elevers förståelse av innehåll respektive en visuell modell, i detta fall ett punktdiagram, påverkar mellanstadieelevers analysförmåga i en samhällsfråga. Vi valde också att använda kunskapsformerna episteme, techne och fronesis för att identifiera hur och om eleverna använder sitt kunnande i innehållskunskaper, teknisk förståelse av modellen och förmåga att analysera en samhällsfråga. 24 elever i årskurs 6 deltog i studien och två forskningslektioner studerades där eleverna deltog i såväl helklassdiskussion som i gruppdiskussioner. Materialet bestod av filmat, ljudinspelat, transkriberat material från forskningslektionerna, samt skriftligt material i form av elevernas för- och eftertest. En textanalys gjordes på materialet och resultatet delades in i tre kategorier – elevernas förståelse för innehållet respektive modellen samt elevernas förmåga att analysera – och slutligen identifierades flera teman under respektive kategori. Vi använde oss av variationsteori och design based research för att slutligen göra en tematisk analys av innehållet. Resultaten av denna studie har diskuterats i form av möjliggörande och hindrande faktorer för att eleverna ska kunna analysera komplexa samhällsfrågor med hjälp av en visuell modell. Möjliggörande faktorer för eleverna att kunna analysera svåra samhällsfrågor var att ta hjälp av aktuella händelser, men att läraren behöver vara medveten om att det styr eleverna. Vidare var att explicit peka på mönster och avvikelser, hålla mängd och jämförelser i fokus samt stötta eleverna till mer strukturellt baserade analyser möjliggörare för eleverna att ta sig an de svåra samhällsfrågorna. Hindrande faktorer för eleverna att kunna analysera svåra samhällsfrågor var bland annat osäkerhet kring kunskapsinnehållet, att missförstånd kring huvudbegreppen även påverkade övriga begrepp i diskussionen samt variabler som inte används. Även när modellen och diskussionen skapar en känsla av overklighet är hindrande för eleverna i sina analyser. Sammanfattningsvis ställde samhällsfrågan som undersöktes, sambandet mellan BNP och koldioxidutsläpp, höga krav såväl på elevernas epistemiska kunskaper samt technekunskaper och utmanade eleverna i deras fronesiska kunskaper, det vill säga att värdera och analysera ett komplext samhällsfenomen.

Since the 1980s, approaches to managing forest resources in the US and around the world have been shifting from the conventional sustained yield approach towards ecosystem management. Ecosystem management is a resource management paradigm that seeks to employ a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to landscape scale conservation, as well as the integration of socio-economic and biophysical considerations with the overall goal of enhancing the health and resilience of coupled social-ecological systems. While the role of natural resource conflicts as drivers of the transition towards ecosystem management has received some research attention, the potential roles of ecosystem management in emerging natural resource conflicts have not been adequately explored. The effective implementation of ecosystem management requires adaptive governance mechanisms capable of integrating diverse stakeholder values and knowledge systems across scales. The absence of such institutional mechanisms could contribute to the emergence of wicked problems – a class of problems that defy clear definitions and definitive solutions. Using the Shawnee National Forest as a case study, the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the role of natural resource conflicts in the transition towards ecosystem management, as well as the consequences of ecosystem management on emerging resource conflicts. The study also aimed to assess the extent to which the approaches and strategies used in managing natural resource conflicts meet the institutional requirements for managing wicked problems. In this regard, semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2021 among 24 key informants representing the US Forest Service and relevant stakeholder groups, such as environmental groups, recreationists, and local businesses. The interviews were preceded by a review of documents to understand the context of changing forest policies and evolving conflicts in the Shawnee National Forest since the 1980s. The data were analyzed with the NVivo software using a deductive coding approach. The results showed that the transition towards ecosystem-based forest management in the Shawnee National Forest was primarily triggered by conflicts between environmental groups and the US Forest Service over timber harvesting. Although the institutional framework for alternative dispute resolution existed at the time, these conflicts were largely managed through the national legal system. Since the transition to ecosystem management with the adoption of the 2006 Forest Plan, new conflicts have emerged, this time, mostly among various recreational groups. The lifting of the injunction on timber harvesting and the increased focus of the US Forest Service on active forest management as part of forest restoration efforts appear to have set the stage for the potential re-emergence of conflicts over timber harvesting. Regarding conflict management, the use of alternative conflict management techniques, such as negotiation and mediation have received increased attention since the adoption of the 2006 Forest Plan, although the effectiveness of these processes has been hampered by various institutional and attitudinal constraints, including conflicting procedural requirements, limited capacity, and lack of agency commitment towards meaningful stakeholder engagement. Meanwhile, the fear of lawsuits continues to shape forest management decisions on the Shawnee National Forest. These findings highlight the inadequacy of the national legal system in managing wicked problems and they highlight the need for investments in effective institutional mechanisms for conflict management, such as adaptive governance.

No description available.