PROJETS

BRAINPOoL – a project funded by the European Commission through its FP7 research programme – is one of several initiatives designed to advance this process. More specifically it is designed to work with two key groups. First, it will help the users of quantitative data – policymakers, journalists, NGOs, members of political parties and informal social networks - to specify what will best help them achieve their goals and then to use that effectively. Typically the data will be indicators, although sometimes users will create their own indicators from data raw material. Second, it will help the suppliers of these data meet the needs of users in the way they design, and communicate about, what they produce.

CEECEC représente un projet européen visant une collaboration active entre chercheurs et ONG à propos de thèmes touchant à la résolution de conflits environnementaux. Ainsi, au niveau international, six centres de recherche et huit ONG travaillent ensemble sur des études de cas pour mettre en place des méthodologies d’analyse des conflits liés aux ressources naturelles et d’aide à la médiation environnementale, à la lumière des théories de l’économie écologique.

Within the policy and science community concerned with sustainable development, it is widely accepted that the first decades of the 21st century are a crucial turning point for the world community. Widespread poverty, growing inequality between and within a lot of countries, increasing pressures on vital ecosystems and ecosystem services combined with an intensive process of economic and cultural globalisation present enormous challenges for a world which aims for some form of sustainable development. Policy-makers, civil society organisations and scientists alike are looking for tools, concepts, approaches, theories… which can help in orienting policy in a way that a more sustainable development would become possible. It could be that the challenges of sustainable development are translated into equally important challenges with regard to the governance of sustainable development. Transition approaches - and among them ‘Transition management’ (TM) - have been increasingly popular alternative ‘tools’ in Northern Europe to conceive such shift in the governance of sustainable development. CONSENTSUS (“CONstruction of ScENarios and exploration of Transition pathways for SUStainable consumption patterns”) focuses on 2 crucial aspects – and moments - of Transition Management approaches: - Phase 1 was dedicated to an exploration of the significance and the conduct of scenario constructions identifying and discussing alternatives to the current food consumption regime. Phase 1 allowed - via a case study in the realm of food consumption - to identify and order the avenues towards a sustainable consumption mode of our societies; - during Phase 2, we worked on one of these prospectively identified transition pathways and tried to understand the mechanics, dynamics and governance of a specific ‘niche’ of food consumption patterns. The objective was, once that a particular transition pathway was identified, to comprehend how alternative consumption behaviour could be “up-scaled” (i.e. generalized).

Le projet COSY-food se fixe deux objectifs pour répondre au constat précédent : Objectif n°1 : co-construire une vision fédératrice de l’alimentation durable à travers la co-production d’un outil d’évaluation multicritères des systèmes de production-distribution-consommation alimentaires Objectif n°2 : sur base de cette vison fédératrice et des résultats de l’évaluation, le projet vise à faire travailler ensemble les différents acteurs pour identifier les freins communs au développement du secteur tout en garantissant sa durabilité. Une innovation majeure sera produite, et son implication sur le système alimentaire durable (SAD) de la RBC discutée. Concrètement cela veut dire de co-créer un espace où les acteurs pourront travailler ensemble pour identifier les freins et leviers au développement de l’alimentation durable. L’outil d’évaluation permettra de mettre en évidence les forces et les faiblesses en termes de durabilité. Cet outil permettra aussi d’évaluer sur des critères objectifs si les nouvelles initiatives alimentaires qui se développent peuvent prétendre au label « alimentation durable ». Les espaces de co-création spécifiques serviront à adapter les grands types de système de distribution (du panier à la grande distribution) qu’ils représentent, ces deux innovations majeures.

EASY-ECO est un réseau de centres de recherche actifs dans le domaine de l'évaluation du développement durable. Il vise à partager et diffuser les connaissances liées à cette thématique de recherche à travers des formations et des conférences. Le Centre d'Etudes du Développement Durable fait partie de ce réseau et est chargé de l'organisation de la conférence qui se déroulera à Bruxelles en novembre 2010.

The political world and public services are under pressure. Citizens increasingly reject traditional political actors, and new societal challenges arise. A prominent example of the latter is the transition to a sustainable economy. Various network governance constellations are being developed for the stimulation, co-creation and institutional anchorage of sustainability-oriented innovation and grassroots initiatives. Beyond this bright and mobilizing side of transitions governance, this project deliberately targets its crucial but hitherto relatively neglected counterpart of exnovation. Exnovation refers to the phasing out of outdated, redundant modes of production and consumption. Focusing on exnovation challenges, the project does not shy away from the politics of transitions: their winners and their losers, and their multiple (often unforeseen) socio-economic side-effects. Beyond the aforementioned cultivation of innovation, exnovation reminds of the challenge for current regulative frameworks and governance arrangements to create contexts and incentives in which the various sustainable innovations can thrive, and become mainstream. At the same time, it reminds of the importance to protect rights, to ensure continuity, and to guarantee a level and transparent economic playing field. This calls for forward-looking governance and institutional design – and the legitimacy for this needs to be actively gained. Our central research question is therefore: How can the existing governance arrangements and regulatory frameworks in the Brussels Capital Region be supported in dealing with the sustainable economy transition and its exnovation challenges? The project confronts this question through a quite unique interdisciplinary combination of expertise in transitions governance, sustainability assessment and legal studies. It is aimed to a) analyse the main exnovation challenges for BCR governance actors, assessing the portée and magnitude of the environmental, social and economic impacts involved; b) develop strategies and institutional design of adequate, forward looking responses in governance and regulatory frameworks and c) organize broad and inclusive societal debate on exnovation challenges.

This FP7 (EU) project addresses gaps in the current understanding of the complexity of the contexts of individual behavior and how these should be taken into account when devising policies for transitions to sustainable development. InContext distinguishes two strands of contexts determining the opportunities (drivers) and constraints (barriers) shaping individual behaviours related to sustainable development: a° the external context to individual behaviour: politics, policies, infrastructure, social institutions, culture, habits, lifestyles (societal or structural factors). b° the internal context to individual behaviour: knowledge, personal interests, values, priorities and basic needs as the motivational factors for any behaviour (individual or agent-based factors).

Cette étude et le rapport qui s’en est suivi constitue en quelques sorte une introduction aux méthodes de prospective et de planification à long terme. Cette étude débouche sur l’élaboration d’une grille d’analyse qui est ensuite appliquée à une série d’exercices de prospective et de planification, comme autant d’étude de cas qui contribueront à consolider et valider notre grille d’analyse.