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Completed research programs |
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Research Professorship
Environmental Policy |
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Research Concept |
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Work, technology, and the natural environment interact closely in
many different ways. In principle, these interactions can be
mutually beneficial; however, they also can be seriously detrimental
to each other. By establishing a special research professorship, the
WZB aims to improve the ability to identify these interactions and
to learn how to manage them through environmentally sound and
sustainable development of society.
Two strands of interactions are being studied in some detail. One
concerns the influence that local, national, and international
environmental policies have on the development and use of technology
("clean technology") and forms and content of work ("ecologically
sound work"). The other strand involves detecting and investigating
the environmental effects of pending or likely changes in the use of
technology and labor deployment ("environmental damage or
environmental relief").
This research approach demands a specific methodology by which the
interlinkages of economy, technology, and ecology can be recognized.
It requires a comprehensive policy analysis that integrates
standard-setting (goals), regulation (instruments) and organization
(institutions), taking into account various actors (individuals,
non-governmental organizations, governments, and international
institutions) and their interdependencies. Thus both the
impacts of and the future design for modern society are being dealt
with.
In actual research work, special attention is given to the
international dimension of the aforementioned interactions because
it seems that there are still major shortcomings in the
internationalization of environmental policy and because
far-reaching environmental effects, both positive and negative, are
expected to result from the world’s ever wider use of technology and
intensification of work. In that sense, the professorship conceives
of social science research as a chance and an obligation to actively
promote international communication on environmental issues. |
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Last change: 2002-04-17 19:14 |
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