Abstract
The present paper investigates the role of the located Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the transformation towards sustainability of the city of Linz as well as the region of Upper Austria. We argue that HEIs have the potential to spur a regional transition towards sustainability via the channels of teaching, research and outreach. We furthermore take into account that organisational- and field-level drivers influence the role of HEIs within the regional transition paths towards sustainability (RTPS). We chose an explorative research design in order to give a realistic picture of the potentials and limitations of HEIs’ involvement in regional transitions to sustainability. The role of the five HEIs located in the city of Linz is studied through in-depth expert interviews and a comprehensive document analysis. The investigation reveals that there is no contribution of HEIs as a whole to RTPS, but that the impact is dependent on individual highly engaged “frontrunners” enacting change and at the same time on leadership from the university management. Moreover, regulative drivers at the field-level and normative as well as cognitive drivers at the organisational-level affect HEIs’ contribution.
Highlights
Various political agendas, programmes and supra-national initiatives have emphasized the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in spurring sustainability and sustainable development throughout the last decades
The present paper investigates the role of the located Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the transformation towards sustainability of the city of Linz as well as the region of Upper Austria
The present paper aims at shedding light on the role HEIs play in the regional transformation towards sustainability using the example of Linz (Austria) and the five HEIs located therein
Summary
Programmes and supra-national initiatives have emphasized the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in spurring sustainability and sustainable development throughout the last decades. Launching several new principles such as: a) increasing significance of the local and regional level, b) public and stakeholder participation and c) integrative, holistic approaches to regional and local challenges (Peer and Stoeglehner 2013), the concept of sustainability confronts considerable complexity and emphasizes the need for systemic, multi-dimensional and transdisciplinary approaches. Sustainability transition research integrates technological, market and behavioural perspectives by considering the co-evolutionary development of these different elements in specific socio-technical systems (STRN 2010). The latter fulfil basic human needs such as energy supply, mobility, and housing, and are referred to as ‘sociotechnical regimes’. How to break up these path dependent structures and initiate a fundamental change in the architecture of these systems is the central question in sustainability transition research and receives increasing political attention
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