Track Chairs

Peter Dobers, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden
peter.dobers@sh.se

Malin Gawell, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden
malin.gawell@sh.se

Sebastian Thomas, Sustainable Engineering Group, Curtin University, Australia
sebastian.thomas@curtin.edu.au

Gyula Zilahy, Department of Sustainability Management and Environmental Economics, Institute of Sustainable Development, Corvinus University of Budapest
gyula.zilahy@uni-corvinus.hu

Goals and objectives and areas of the track

The goal of this track is to discuss principles, programs, key concepts, methods and applications of collaboration and co-creation between universities, the public sector, industry, civil society in general, and in the field of sustainable development in particular.

We encourage contributions that address issues including:

• enablers of and barriers to collaboration and co-creation between societal actors
• skill sets for successful collaboration and co-creation
• thematic areas where collaboration and co-creation are most important
• empirical cases of collaboration and co-creation
• mobility across sectoral borders between universities, the public sector, industry, civil society
• strategic partnerships between quadruple helix partners
• theoretical perspectives on collaboration and co-creation
• presenting research methods enabling collaboration and co-creation between actors
• identifying and analysing different scales of governance in collaboration and co-creation

Efforts to achieve sustainability require many actors to collaborate in projects and co-create knowledge. For actors in the Higher Education sector it has become increasingly important to collaborate with stakeholders from other societal fields including the public sector, industry, and civil society, and to operate effectively across different scales of governance.

Academic knowledge has grown explosively and the number of graduates has increased greatly. This has created a plurality of knowledge perspectives with the potential for development through meetings of unlike minds, both within and outside of academia. Inter- and transdisciplinary approaches are recognized as important ways to achieve inclusive, equitable, and enduring outcomes. Other labels such as action research, enactive or activist research, or citizen science are also being used and set focus on slightly different aspects within this emerging field.

This track is focused on partnerships across different scales or levels of governance and between stakeholders in different sectors, geographies, and cultures. It links especially to SDG 17 “Partnerships for the Goals”.

Length and content of the proposed abstract to the track

Each proposed abstract (in connection to an area pointed out above) of between 300 and 500 words (including all aspects),

1. shall be best organized (without headlines) along usual structures (e.g. intro/method/findings or results/ discussion/conclusions)
2. does not need to, but can include references
3. shall provide in a final section
   a. to which SDG(s) and SDG-target(s) their proposed abstract especially relate to (e.g. “SDG+Target: 14.1.”).
   b. a brief indication how the proposed contribution relates to the topic of the Conference ‘Sustainability and Beyond’

Abstracts which do not outline points 3.a.) AND 3.b.) might be considered less relevant in the Review.

Potential publication channels

With regard to potential publications, depending on the number and quality of contributions the following publication opportunities can be envisaged:

1. Business Strategy and the Environment (see also http://isdrs.org/journals-test/) and Journal of Cleaner Production (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-cleaner-production)
2. Routledge ISDRS series (http://isdrs.org/routledge/)