| Diskussionspapiere / Discussion Papers | Price |
|---|---|
| SRE-DISC.2024/03 Gunther Maier, Katarzyna Reyman, Michał Głuszak: The Diffusion of Green Building Certifications in Europe - A preliminary descriptive analysisABSTRACT: This paper provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of the spatial and temporal diffusion of green building certifications in Europe. The analysis is preliminary because it does not include all the major green building certification schemas in Europe; just BREEAM and LEED. The main aim of this analysis is to show that there is a strong diffusion process of green building certifications in Europe and that this process has marked spatial and temporal dynamics. The paper also aims to demonstrate that this process can be analyzed at different spatial scales from countries to NUTS3 regions to municipalities., 2024 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2024/02 Clive L. Spash, Adrien O.T. Guisan: Social Ecological Economies and Nature Based ValuesABSTRACT: Modern market economies are fundamentally unsustainable for a complex of reasons that include reliance on institutions promoting hedonistic individualism and the exploitation of others: both human and non-human. While environmental concerns, or at least climate change, have now become more common topics in economic debates, the mainstream reliance on consequentialism, and specifically preference utilitarianism, proves highly limiting and exclusionary of plural values. The approach excludes incommensurable values, denies irreconcilable value conflicts and limits the moral considerability of non-humans to human interests. Mainstream economics reduces values and choice to a matter of preference as if buying commodities in a market place. Social ecological economics identifies and emphasise social relations distinct from market institutions, including: female labour power, non-humans and natural systems. We contrast the mainstream approach with the two other major ethical systems in Western philosophy: deontology or rights based ethics and neo-Aristotelian approaches as in virtue ethics. We argue that Nature based values entail an environmental ethics that recognises the ability of non-humans to flourish autonomously and that caring for others is a constitutive of human wellbeing. We concluded that maintaining and reproducing economies as social-ecological provisioning systems requires developing institutions and social arrangements that acknowledge the ethical context of choice. In turn this means rethinking Nature based values to avoid the failings of current economies and mainstream economics., 2024 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2024/01 Katarzyna Reyman: ‘Ziemia jeść nie woła!’ – behavioural and institutional factors affecting delays in land development. The GZM Metropolis in PolandABSTRACT: Underutilised land produces negative externalities in cities. The literature suggests several reasons why land remains vacant. The real option literature explains this phenomenon by the value of the option to wait with development. As this stream of literature has already examined market and general institutional factors affecting the timing of land development, the behavioural reasons have not yet been fully uncovered. Especially in the institutional framework of post-transition countries, with the peculiar remnants of formal and informal institutions from the previous system, this topic gains additional interest. I use a mixed methods approach, building on the quantitative results of Reyman and Maier (2023), which show that investors typically delay land development in The Metropolitan Union of Silesia (GZM MA) by an average of 3.4 years. Land with a perpetual usufruct title is developed more slowly (relative to ownership), as are land with zoning (relative to those without), and land bought or sold by a government agency (relative to individuals and commercial investors). In this research, I report on a grounded theory research methodology to elicit the values, attitudes, and behaviours of investors and city officials that guide their decisions about the timing of land development. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 investors and city officials allowed respondents to explore their values and learn about the informal rules that frame their environment. The analysis of the coded transcripts suggests that the institutional background of the GZM MA terrain (dozens of competing municipalities, post-industrial land) influences the behaviour of market participants, and remnants of institutions from the previous system add uncertainty to the land development process. Fierce competition between cities affects the pro-investor attitude of city officials. Many institutional causes of delays in land development, such as poorly written procedures, lack of procedures and bureaucracy, mean that much is discretionary and land development is less predictable. In addition, officials act conservatively for fear of being accused of negligence, which could be a feedback loop of too much legislation and too few proper procedures. As a consequence of the institutional reasons, there is a tacit acceptance of delays in land development, with investors exploiting the legal loopholes. This creates a feedback loop with an established system (lock-in). As many of the reasons for delays in land development stem from 'fuzzy' institutions, the results of this research should be applicable in the other post-transition countries., 2024 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2023/01 Katarzyna Reyman, Gunther Maier: Property rights regime and the timing of land development in a post-transition country (Poland)ABSTRACT: The system of property rights, the way it is organised, protected and executed affects the land development process and the timing of land development. Real options literature that explains impact of additional uncertainties connected with organisation of property right system on timing of land development concerns mostly western countries. Poland and other CEEC have some unique issues relating to ownership right system that come from post-war, communists, and transition times (previous owners, specific property titles derived from a communist era, reprivatisation, communalisation, etc.). Ownership right is perceived as a very strong right by society, what results from long time of collective ownership, and have some implications on executing property rights. Thus, this paper explains on an example of Poland, CEEC specific property right issues and analyses how it can affect the timing of land development basing on western solutions from real option theory. The topic is important because land markets are strongly influenced by institutions which may vary even in countries with the same economic and political systems like unified EU countries. Therefore, it is essential to understand past historical influence and societal background that have an effect on those institutions., 2023 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2022/05 Andreas Novy, Nathan Barlow: Transformative Climate ActionsABSTRACT: This article scrutinizes the potential of transformative climate actions (TCAs) to contribute to social-ecological transformations. It considers the limitations of past climate actions and distinguishes transformative climate actions from the broad array of climate actions that have so far been insufficient to address the multiple crises. We define TCAs as having three key elements: desirable, effective, and feasible. This builds on the IPCC AR6 definition of âsolutionsâ and our past work on transformative innovation. Furthermore, we describe six characteristics that transformative climate actions are likely to have, they include: broadening climate targets to include social-ecological goals, shaping framework conditions, linking pragmatic and radical actions, ensuring basic provisioning while limiting over-consumption, prioritizing avoiding harm, be it emissions or excessive resource use, and lastly acting on multiple levels. We elaborate on each of these characteristics with an example and support from climate literature., 2022 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2022/04 Maja Hoffmann: The Social Value of WorkABSTRACT: Coronavirus pandemic, war-induced gas shortages, residual emissions, droughts and other ecological constraints: the political decisions taken to cope with these phenomena have been (and likely will continue to be) justified on the basis of distinguishing and prioritising different kinds of work as to what is regarded essential or dispensable for society. However, it is unclear how such decisions have been taken. This corresponds to a profound gap in the literature that usually focuses indiscriminately on aggregate growth, job creation and full employment. The social value of work, its substantial variation regarding different kinds of work and how this can be assessed, has not been researched before. This paper therefore investigates the social value of work and on what basis it can be evaluated. It distinguishes the two key categories of sustainable work and essential work, and identifies and discusses criteria for assessing these categories based on empirical data. While for un/sustainable work relatively unambiguous biophysical assessment criteria can be developed, assessing in/essential work is less straightforward due to its contextual and political character, and because it depends on the specific aims of a given political unit that determine its vital needs and functions. Overall, not only a structured, science-based approach is lacking, but also democratic institutions for deliberating, organising, and discontinuing in/essential and un/sustainable work, based on principles of rationing and non-market allocation. Modern societies are thus likely to remain stuck in the structural and increasingly disastrous impasse of jobs at all costs as main political goal., 2022 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2022/03 Richard Bärnthaler: Lebensweisen und Infrastrukturen des Alltäglichen Lebens: Transformative Innovationen für eine Zukunftsfähige Alltagsökonomie in Wien am Beispiel AtzgersdorfABSTRACT: Der Beitrag untersucht innovative und kontextspezifische Strategien für eine zukunftsfähige Stadtentwicklung in Wien. Dabei skizzieren wir zuerst eine kurze Geschichte des Innovationsbegriffs und plädieren für ein neues Innovationsverständnis. Transformative Innovationen verknüpfen einen alltagsökonomischen Zugang zu Innovation, d.h. die qualitativ hochwertige und inklusive Befriedigung kurzfristiger Alltagsbedürfnisse (insbesondere durch kollektiven Konsum), mit langfristigen ökologischen Notwendigkeiten. Vermeintlich âökologischeâ Umweltpolitik wird so zur sozialökologischen Mitweltpolitik. Nur als solche kann eine Politik der sozialökologischen Transformation mehrheitsfähig, d.h. hegemonial, werden. Daran anknüpfend untersucht der Beitrag Ansatzpunkte für transformative Innovationen am Fallbeispiel Atzgersdorf. Die Analyse dieses Fallbeispiels zeigt (1) wie die Befriedigung von, in der Nachbarschaft kollektiv definierten Alltagsbedürfnissen, insbesondere die Stärkung der erweiterten Nahversorgung, zu einem sozialökologisch besseren gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnis im Sinne einer Nachbarschaft der kurzen Wege beitragen kann. Um dieses Potenzial zu realisieren (2) problematisieren wir strukturelle Hindernisse, insbesondere die Dominanz des motorisierten Individualverkehrs, und (3) erkunden konkrete Pfade um diese Hindernisse effektiv zu überwinden und neue Lebensformen zu etablieren., 2022 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2022/02 Brian Buh, Stefanie Peer: Environmental Concern and the Determinants of Night Train Use: Evidence from Vienna (Austria)ABSTRACT: This paper investigates which factors determine the intention to take a night train, emphasizing the role of environmental concern. We employ a Theory of Planned Behavior framework. We built a survey based on elicitation study, which resulted in an online survey being conducted on a convenience sample in Vienna (Austria). Our results show that in particular environmental concern and familiarity with night train services play a significant role in the formation of the intention to take a night train. Among the significant factors that are associated with a high intention to take a night train are the belief that night trains are comfortable, that one can save the cost of a night in a hotel, and that night trains tend to arrive at and depart from the city center. Factors that deter travelers from taking a night train include a high price, the sharing of cabins, and long travel times., 2022 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2022/01 Andreas Novy, Nathan Barlow, Julia Fankhauser: Transformative InnovationABSTRACT: This article scrutinizes the potential of transformative innovations to contribute to social-ecological transformations. It problematizes the positive connotation linked to innovations in tackling contemporary social and environmental challenges by giving an overview of theories of innovation, with a focus on social innovations, and systematizing the multiple meanings of the term transformation. We define transformative innovations as innovations that contribute to those transformations that are desirable and feasible in a specific conjuncture. Desirable are innovations that enable a good life for all within planetary boundaries, feasible are those that can be implemented here and now, given specific constellations of actors, power relations and structural constraints and possibilities. Furthermore, we describe the current conjuncture, dwell on collective and political actions and explore one promising transformative innovation: creating and strengthening sustainable and inclusive provisioning systems, that are feasible in the short term and effective in the long-term., 2022 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/10 Maja Hoffmann, Clive L. Spash: The impacts of climate change mitigation on work for the Austrian economyABSTRACT: Climate change mitigation â reducing emissions to zero and substituting fossil fuels through renewable energy within a maximum of two decades â entails major consequences for modern industrial societies and economies. Industrial societies are structurally centred and dependent on work, however, the implications for work are insufficiently studied. We conduct an empirical analysis of the impacts of climate mitigation on work across all sectors of the Austrian national economy. Using a mixed methods approach, we investigate all NACE-classified branches of economic activity, the respective number of persons employed, CO2 emissions, fossil fuel use, renewable energy potential, and the societal importance of work. We find that the impacts of climate mitigation on work are far more substantial than the literature usually suggests. Required are significant reductions of work across all sectors, and its structural reorganisation based on an altered energy basis. Yet, potential for deployment of renewable energy technologies is currently not given for many fields of work that are dependent on fossil fuels. While the category of essential work further indicates the kinds of work that may be prioritised in transformation processes, particularly problematic are those deemed both essential for society and incompatible with climate mitigation. The study provides an initial empirical basis for substantiated differentiation of kinds of work regarding these key aspects of climate change mitigation and structural transformation. It also points to the need for institutions to address these challenges and the problematic ways in which work is organised and held sacrosanct in modern society., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/09 Andreas Exner, Carla Weinzierl, Livia Cepoiu, Stephanie Arzberger, Clive L. Spash: Smart and Edible: How Edible Cities Create Smart Public SpacesABSTRACT: Edible cities enable the public to harvest produce on public land, supported by public governance arrangements between city administrations and civil society. The main goal of such initiatives is to transform food systems. The project investigated edible cities by comparing cases in Austria, Germany and France. Impacts of edible city initiatives were assessed by expert interviews. The project aimed to generate policy knowledge on the process, outcomes, and good practices of edible city initiatives, which are potentially relevant for the Vienna Smart City strategy and its possible further development towards smart food and public spaces. Edible city initiatives that are jointly driven by the municipality and civil society actors are most promising with regard to citizen engagement, collective empowerment, and the transformation of urban food systems. To this end, all actors involved have to develop a shared vision of edible city, and implement it cautiously, though consistently and in a committed, participatory, and transparent way. This report outlines concrete policy recommendations for successfully transforming Vienna into an edible city., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/08 Tone Smith: Financialisation of NatureABSTRACT: The âfinancialisation of natureâ is related to a shift in environmental governanceâfrom regulation to marked-based approachesâinvolving strong state support to facilitate the establishment of âinnovative financial instrumentsâ and markets related to nature. Although innovative finance got a bad reputation after the 2008 financial crisis, they are strongly encouraged in the environmental policy domain and supported by actors such as UNEP or the CBD. This paper explains the theoretical underpinning and the process of establishing such financial instruments, focusing in particular on offsetting and related ideas such as ânet-zeroâ calculations and ânature-based solutionsâ. It explains how natural entities are converted into abstract units of equivalence to allow the establishment of schemes for tradable ânature creditsâ (supposedly) compensating damage across time and space. The financialisation of nature is then analysed and critiqued with respect to its lack of environmental effectiveness, its problematic socio-economic consequences and its impact on human-nature relationships. Instead of dealing with the environmental problems at hand, the conversion of nature into financial assets simply turns nature into objects of investment and speculation, while simultaneously creating a potential for financial bubbles., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/07 Ernest Aigner: Global dynamics and country-level development in academic economics: An explorative cognitive-bibliometric studyABSTRACT: The structure of academic economics has received a fair amount of attention within and beyond the discipline. Less focus has been given the interdependencies of country and global dynamics. Building and advancing this tradition, this explorative study examines geographic variation and country specific developments in research practices in academic economics. More specifically I investigate the interdependencies of global dynamics with country-level developments in the US, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland and Austria. To that purpose the study investigates a large-scale data set using inequality measures and social network analysis. The dataset analysed in this study comprises 453,863 articles published in 477 journals citing each other a total of 3,807,289 times. This exploratory study confirms the high level of concentration and finds similar trends on the country level. Further, an international convergence in the discipline can be observed, possibly limiting the place-specific relevance of knowledge created in academic economics., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/06 Clive L. Spash: Social Ecological EconomicsABSTRACT: Ecological economics has developed as a modern movement with its roots in environmentalism and radical environmental economics. Divisions and conflicts within the field are explored to show why material claiming to fall under the title of ecological economics fails to be representative of progress or the vision which drove socio-economic specialists to interact with ecologists in the first place. The argument is then put forward that ecological economics, as a social science engaging with the natural sciences, is a heterodox school of modern political economy. This is a paper from the Socio-Economics and Environment in Discussion working paper series edited by Clive L. Spash which ran from 2007 to 2009. This particular paper appeared in June 2009 and a revised version was published as a journal article: Spash, C. L. 2011. âSocial ecological economics: Understanding the past to see the futureâ. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 70 (2): 340-375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2011.00777.x., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/05 Anthony Ryan, Clive L. Spash, Thomas G Measham: Motives Behind Domestic Greywater and Rainwater Collection: Evidence from AustraliaABSTRACT: Policy has traditionally focused on increasing water supply by investing in large scale and centralised projects. However, demand for water can be substantially decreased if households reuse greywater and/or install rainwater tanks. We investigate water use based on an internet survey of 354 households in the Australian Capital Territory and examine the relationship between socio-economic and psychological variables and the likelihood of the garden being irrigated with greywater and/or rainwater. Income, gender, age and education could not differentiate residentsâ by such water use. Residents who used tank water on the garden had higher self reported understanding of water supply options. Female participants and lower income residents were more likely to use greywater on their garden. Concerns about water collection and reuse, which have lead to some large scale projects being politically unacceptable, were not found to predict the use of tank water or greywater on the garden. This is a paper from the Socio-Economics and Environment in Discussion working paper series edited by Clive L. Spash which ran from 2007 to 2009. This paper appeared in February 2009 and was later published as: Ryan, Spash and Measham. 2009. âSocio-economic and psychological predictors of domestic greywater and rainwater collection: Evidence from Australiaâ. Journal of Hydrology 379 (1-2): 164-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.10.002., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/04 L Reisch, Clive L. Spash, Sabine Bietz: Sustainable Consumption and Mass Communication: A German ExperimentABSTRACT: How to change economic behaviour and achieve sustainable consumption? This paper reports on using television and internet communication as a means of engaging the least interested sections of society with respect to environmental problems and sustainability issues. The theory behind developing such communication is described and the importance of social psychological factors brought to the fore. Initial results indicating the success of the approach employed in actual broadcasts on television in Germany are then reported. Some concerns over use of the media and public engagement are also discussed. This is a paper from the Socio-Economics and Environment in Discussion working paper series edited by Clive L. Spash which ran from 2007 to 2009. This particular paper appeared in August 2008 and was later published as a book chapter: Reisch, L., C. L. Spash and S. Bietz. 2010. âThe Socio-Psychology of Achieving Sustainable Consumption: An Example Using Mass Communicationâ. In R. F. Holt et al. (eds), Post Keynesian and Ecological Economics: Confronting Environmental Issues, pp.178-199. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/03 Clive L. Spash, Tone Smith: The Values of NatureABSTRACT: The values of Nature are today ever more contested in attempts to reduce them to a narrow economics calculus and financial metrics. The crisis of modernity is evident is that the concept of Nature itself has been subject to post-modern deconstruction as archaic Romanticism while simultaneously being made into a modernist capital form by economists, bankers and financiers. In this paper we start by defining the meaning of Nature before moving to its values, the two being inseparable. Nature is seen as combining three aspect: (i) being âotherâ than human, (ii) a biophysical structure and (iii) a quality which humans commonly and intuitively reference but struggle to specify. When turning to the values of Nature we describe the three major meta-ethical systems of Western philosophyâutilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics. The contestation especially between utilitarian and rights-based approaches is explored. The role of intrinsic value in these systems is outlined. Modern mainstream economic valuation is then placed in context of the forgoing discussion and critically reviewed as a misguided but hegemonic approach to valuing Nature. The terrain of debate is laid out, briefly covering recent developments of rights to Nature and Natureâs contribution to people. That Nature cannot be dismissed as a concept (something attempted by some post-modernists and strong constructionists), but remains importantly contested in terms of its values, is central to understanding the on-going social-ecological conflicts created by modern economies., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/02 Felix Windegger, Clive L. Spash: Reconceptualising Freedom in the 21st Century: Degrowth vs. NeoliberalismABSTRACT: The hegemonic role of neoliberal ideas in todayâs political-economic thought and practice has shaped the common way of thinking about freedom in Western society and more generally in the international community. This involves a negative, individualistic and market-centred interpretation of the concept. In contrast, visions of a degrowth society offer a radical alternative based on Cornelius Castoriadisâ notion of autonomy. This paper outlines how this formulation of freedom can be conceptualised relative to the predominant neoliberal theory. We present an overview and contrast of both positions and then follow this up with an empirical study. More specifically, we probe the extent to which the degrowth movement actually follows the Castoriadian theory of freedom as opposed to the hegemonic neoliberal conception. Results are reported from a survey conducted at the 2018 Degrowth Conference in Malmö, Sweden. While survey participants were found to hold positions consistent with the Castoriadian theory, we also identify problematic and under-conceptualised aspects in their understanding of freedom. This points to the need for the degrowth movement to directly address its theoretical foundations, and elaborate on and strengthen its vision of freedom compatible with a future degrowth society., 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2021/01 Clive L. Spash: The History of Pollution 'Externalities' in Economic ThoughtABSTRACT: Today, environmental economics is the response of the neoclassical economic school to the ecological crisis, but at one time its leading contributors regarded it as a revolutionary development that would change the conduct and content of economics as a discipline. Understanding and addressing environmental pollution was core to that potential paradigm shift. In tracing the history of conceptualising pollution as an externality and market failure this paper covers the development of ideas by Marshall, Pigou, Pareto, Coase, Stigler, Samuelson, Ciciacy-Wantrup and Kapp. Pollution externality theory is shown to have incorporated an elitist ethics and liberal market ideology. As a market failure pollution was deemed a minor correctible error of the price system. Monetary valuation of social and environmental harm became the means of justifying optimal levels of pollution. Neoliberal theories of spreading property rights further watered down potential interventionist aspects. Bio-physical realism, in the work of Kneese, Ayres and dâArge, and social realism in Kappâs theory of cost shifting were lost once environmental economics adopted a deductivist mathematical formalism. Kappâs alternative theory is based on a classic institutionalists economic understanding of cost shifting and power relations. It advocates a public policy response in the form of objective social minima achieved via regulation and planning. This theory has until now been successfully supressed to prevent a potential revolutionary paradigm shift in economic price theory, 2021 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/07 Clive L. Spash: Time for a Paradigm Shift: From Economic Growth and Price-Making Markets to Social Ecological EconomicsABSTRACT: Ecological economics has ontological foundations that inform it as a paradigm both biophysically and socially. It stands in strong opposition to mainstream thought on the operations of the economy and society. The core arguments deconstruct and oppose both growth and price-making market paradigms. However, in contradiction of these theoretical foundations, ecological economists can be found who call upon neoclassical economic theory as insightful, price-making and capitalist markets as socially justified means of allocation and economic growth as achieving progress and development. The more radical steady-state and post-growth/degrowth movements are shown to include confused and conflicted stances in relation to the mainstream hegemonic paradigms. Ecological economics personally challenges those trained in mainstream theory to move beyond their orthodox education and leave behind the flawed theories and concepts that contribute to supporting systems that create social, ecological and economic crises. This paper makes explicit the paradigmatic struggle of the past thirty years and the need to wipe away mainstream apologetics, pragmatic conformity and ill-conceived postmodern pluralism. It details the core paradigmatic conflict and specifies the alternative social ecological economic paradigm along with a new research agenda., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/06 Clive L. Spash: Making Pollution into a Market Failure Rather Than a Cost-Shifting Success: The Suppression of Revolutionary Change in EconomicsABSTRACT: This paper explores core failures of environmental economics as a scientific attempt to understand the ecological crises. The case of environmental pollution is used to show how neoclassical externality theory evolved to establish commitment to, and dogmatic support for, an elitist ethics and liberal market ideology. The public policy response to pollution then recommended is to internalise externalities by correcting market prices based on monetary valuation of the social costs (i.e., damages). Pollution as a market failure is deemed a correctible error of the price system. This is contrast with an alternative theory of pollution based on a classic institutional economic theory of cost-shifting that instead requires a public policy response involving regulation and planning. Reflection on the history of thought related to these two theories of pollution reveals how environmental economics became a marginalised field supporting the neoclassical economic orthodoxy with full commitment to its core paradigms. Why the critical and realist institutional approach had to be suppressed is explained as denying the potential for a revolutionary paradigm shift in economic price theory., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/05 Clive L. Spash: Substantive Economics and Avoiding False Dichotomies in Advancing Social Ecological EconomicsABSTRACT: The proposal has been put forward that ecological economics seek to become substantive economics (Gerber and Scheidel 2018). This raises important issues about the content and direction of ecological economics. The division of economics into either substantive or formal derives from the work of Karl Polanyi. In developing his ideas Polanyi employed a definition from Menger and combined this with Tönnies theory of historical evolution. In this paper I explore why the resulting substantive vs. formal dichotomy is problematic. In particular the article exposes the way in which trying to impose this dichotomy on history of economic thought and epistemology leads to further false dichotomies. Besides Polanyi, the positions of other important thinkers informing social ecological economics (SEE) are discussed including Neurath, Kapp and Georgescu-Roegen. The aim is to clarify the future direction of ecological economics and the role, in that future, of ideas raised under the topic of substantive economics., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/04 José A. Tapia Granados, Clive L. Spash: Policies to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Fallacies and Evidence from the United States and CaliforniaABSTRACT: Since the 1990s, advocates of policy to prevent catastrophic climate change have been divided over the appropriate economic instruments to curb CO2 emissionsâcarbon taxes or schemes of emission trading. Barack Obama claimed that policies implemented during his presidency set in motion irreversible trends toward a clean-energy economy, with the years 2008-2015 given as evidence of decoupling between CO2 emissions and economic growth. This is despite California being the only state in the USA that has implemented a specific policy to curb emissions, a cap-and-trade scheme in place since 2013. To assess Obamaâs claims and the effectiveness of policies to reduce CO2 emissions, we analyze national and state-level data from the USA over the period 1990-2015. We find: (a) annual changes in emissions strongly correlated with the growth conditions of the economy; (b) no evidence for decoupling; and (c) a trajectory of CO2 emissions in California which does not at all support the claim that the cap-and-trade system implemented there has reduced CO2 emissions., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/03 Clive Spash, Tone Smith: Of Ecosystems and Economies: Re-connecting Economics with RealityABSTRACT: This discussion paper looks at the connections between economies and ecosystems, or more generally biophysical reality. The term âeconomiesâ is used, rather than âthe economyâ, because of the prevalent false claim that there is only one type of economic system that is possible. We outline how the ecological crises is linked to the dominant drive for economic growth and the tendency to equate growth with progress and development; common even amongst those apparently critical of the need for continued growth in the materially rich countries. The unreality of mainstream economics is epitomised by the accolades given to those justifying mild reformist policy in response to human induced climate change in order to continue the pursuit of economic growth. We emphasise the structural aspects of economies as emergent from and dependent upon the structure and functioning of both society and ecology (energy and material flows). Finally, that the structure of the global economy must change to avoid social ecological collapse, poses the questions of how that can be achieved and what sort of economics is necessary? We explain the need for: (i) a structural change that addresses the currently dysfunctional relationships between economic, social and ecological systems, and (ii) an economics that is interdisciplinary and realist about its social and natural science relations., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/02 Ryan Wilson: The Myth of Political Reason - The Moral and Emotional Foundations of Political Cognition and US PoliticsABSTRACT: The current ascendancy of right-wing populists across western democracies is a concerning trend, and so far, the left has not managed to mount an effective counterstrategy to arrest its momentum. Much of the rhetoric of these right-wing populists has focused on evoking fear and suspicion, verging on hatred, of outsiders and fellow countrymen and women with opposing political ideologies, to great effect. The importance of understanding why certain rhetoric is effective cannot be understated, and the works of George Lakoff, Jonathan Haidt, and Drew Westen that illuminate the moral and emotional factors behind how individuals interpret and respond to inputs of a political nature are reviewed and synthesised. Individualsâ underlying moral mental structures and the emotional responses that they can trigger must be understood in order to generate political messaging that resonates strongly with its target audience and consequently increases the likelihood of their actuation to vote. The recent phenomenon of individualisation, stemming from the current era of reflexive modernity is analysed within the context of divergent conservative and liberal moral matrices, and is found to be disproportionately ailing the liberal side of politics. In delineating the key elements of liberal and conservative morality, the existence of liberal moral tenets that are discordant with longstanding liberal communitarian ideals were revealed. In contrast, conservative morality appears to exhibit an inherent coherence that may contribute to conservatismâs resilience in the face of reflexive modernity and disparate policy priorities of its constituents. The importance of understanding the moral and emotional foundations of political cognition is emphasised not only for its potential to bolster the efficacy of left-wing political parties, but also to provide an avenue by which the increasing hostility across the political spectrum can be subdued., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2019/01 Petra Biberhofer: The economization of education and the implications of the quasi-commodification of knowledge on higher education for sustainable developmentABSTRACT: This paper analyses an ongoing economization trend in the sphere of higher education (HE) and discusses its implications on higher education for sustainable development (HESD). The sources of this trend are connected with neoliberalism understood as a political project that seeks to extend competitive market forces, consolidate a market-friendly constitution, and promote individual freedom. In global HE neoliberalism, decision-makers, be it educational, scientific, or other, are pressured to assess how their activities impact financially on the individual, organizational, and institutional levels and/or the imperatives of an internationally competitive economy. The paper provides a contemporary analysis of the rise of neoliberalism in HE, understood as the specific trend of an academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime explained by Jessopâs six analytic distinct and potentially overlapping stages of economization. This analysis is based on a review of European policies from 2006 until 2017 and explains characteristics of current economization strategies. Their core principles relating to higher education are about improving economic performance based on knowledge and innovation. Smart growth is defined politically as the main purpose of HE and positioning students as future workers, with the right higher skills, as the means. The relevance of studentsâ skills higher education institutions (HEI) are urged to develop highly depend on business demands. European policies are driven by a comprehensive entrepreneurial agenda restructuring the organizational mechanisms in HE. Accountability towards the labour market and skills performance of students set this agenda. Funding strategies rest on strong industry ties and diversification of revenue streams depend on HEI capability to establish tech-driven knowledge alliances between research, education and business. These new intermediary and powerful alliances drive economization strategies, influence curriculum development and decide on relevant higher level skills. Respective learning practices are oriented strongly towards developing entrepreneurial and digital skills based on personalized learning environments. Currently HESD adapts towards a neoliberal education agenda rather than preventing further shifts from a capitalist towards a competitive financialized economy. A profound critique would have to question the dominant economization trends in higher education i.e. the very purpose of education and the current raison dâetre of HEI. The core of the critique might build on new institutionalized learning environments allowing deep, social learning and, hence, the potential of HEI to act as social catalysts empowering collective and disruptive agency., 2019 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/08 Roman J Seidl, Wolfgang J Fellner: Mobilitätsverhalten, Alltag und Lebensstile in Wien und Wien-UmgebungABSTRACT: In einer innovativen Erhebung am Institut für Verkehrswesen der Universität für Bodenkultur (Mobility-Activity-Expenditure-Diary; MAED) wurden erstmals für Wien und Wien-Umgebung in Kombination Zeitnutzung, Konsumausgaben und Mobilität erhoben. Dadurch ist es möglich Ansätze der Mobilitätsforschung mit Methoden aus der Zeitnutzungsforschung und Lebensstilforschung zu kombinieren, zwei Forschungsbereichen, die sich intensiv mit dem Lebensalltag der Menschen befassen. Die Analyse der Daten aus der Perspektive der Zeitnutzungs- und Lebensstilforschung soll relevante Unterschiede in Alltagsgestaltung und Lebensstilen finden und aufzeigen inwieweit diese mobilitätsrelevant sind. Auf Grundlage dieser Ergebnisse soll schlieÃlich beurteilt werden, inwieweit die so gewonnenen Daten zu Verbesserung der Erklärung des Mobilitätsverhaltens beitragen können., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/07 Katarzyna Gruszka, Andreas Novy: Sharing the liberal utopia. The case of Uber in France and the USABSTRACT: This article takes the case of Uber, a global platform specialized in transport technologies, to reappraise the claims of the sharing economy. The case presents a chronology of the struggles over the regulation of these digital markets in the US and France, using Uber's self-description and web discourse for additional illustrative purposes. It exposes Uber's business model, the key driving actors and their strategies as well as multi-scalar counter movements. The analysis is framed from a Hayekian and a Polanyian perspective, and the potential of the sharing economy to go beyond market fundamentalism. The Polanyian utopia of sharing as more than market relations based on self-interest is mobilized for legitimizing the platform. The Hayekian utopia of a market society which transforms social relations of friendship and community service into market activities is describing actual development. Finally, Polanyian "counter movements" are described and their potentials are discussed., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/06 Mikael Stigendal, Andreas Novy: A critical realist knowledge production: Enhancing a Potential-oriented ApproachABSTRACT: This article explores the implications of founding transdisciplinary collaborations of knowledge production in critical realism. We call such equal partnerships of researchers and practitioners knowledge alliances. Using the distinction between the referents that we refer to (what our research is about) and our references (our research about that), we show that practitioners can contribute to the process of knowledge production by providing access to referents and producing references but also by achieving relevance. Researchers and practitioners bring different types of knowledge. To become excellent, knowledge production should be organized in ways, which engage these different types in a constructive interplay. We call this approach potential-oriented, which we put in contrast to the empiricism of evidence-based research and policy-making. Our deliberate choice of the term potential-oriented reflects the shifts in philosophy suggested by critical realism, but also a sensitivity for how practitioners communicate and express themselves., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/05 Andreas Exner, Livia Cepoiu, Carla Weinzierl, Viviana Asara: Performing Smartness Differently - Strategic Enactments of a Global Imaginary in Three European CitiesABSTRACT: In the scholarly literature on smart city, normative and prescriptive approaches dominate. Most publications with analytic goals focus on transnational corporations, the related global imaginary of a smart city, and on associated new technologies. In comparison, actually existing smart cities have seldom been investigated. This is even more the case for public governance arrangements of smart city policies. Our study compares three EU cities in this regard, which are attempting to take a lead in smart city development. In addition, urban agriculture and citizens? participation are specifically investigated in their relation to smart city policy-making. Based on policy document and media discourse analysis, interviews, and participant observation, three governance arrangements of smart city policies are identified: hierarchical governance by the government in Barcelona between 2011 and 2015, closed co-governance by the city executive and non-governmental actors in Vienna and since 2015 in Barcelona, and open co-governance in Berlin. Citizens? participation is in the center in Barcelona since 2015, and is potentially important in Berlin. The Viennese smart city governance arrangement is characterized by non-hierarchical bargaining within the administration and signals innovative meta-governance, without citizens? participation. In all three cities, international dynamics play a crucial role for engaging with smart city, but it is enacted in particular ways according to place-specific history, social forces, and economic and political conditions. The meaning of smart city varies thus considerably: a comprehensive urban sustainability strategy focused upon climate policy goals in Vienna; a comprehensive internationalization strategy in Barcelona between 2011 and 2015; a limited technology- and business-oriented approach in Berlin; and a limited digital city frame geared to participatory democracy and technological sovereignty in Barcelona since 2015. Contrary to the literature, we highlight the agency of city executives, and the place-specific enactments that global smart city imaginaries undergo. Current smart city policies express more continuity than rupture with regard to urban development policies in our case study cities., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/04 Viviana Asara: Untangling the radical imaginaries of the Indignados' movement: Commons, autonomy and ecologismABSTRACT: The 'movements of the squares' involved first and foremost an awakening or re-discovering of the radical imagination both in the square encampments, and in later projects created with the movements' decentralizations. The new alternative projects born after the square have materialized the movements' radical imaginaries in urban environments, extending and deepening concerns of broad political change over everyday life. Based on ethnographic work on the Indignados' movement in the city of Barcelona, this paper delves more particularly into three Indignant urban projects. It untangles three common and interlinked radical imaginaries both embodied and actualized in participants' social practices, and further orienting their future visions: commons, autonomy and ecologism. Scrutinizing their meaning, it also sheds light on connected issues such new ways of interfacing with local state authorities and redefining the boundaries between the public and the common. It shows that the ecologism imaginary cannot be properly grasped if disconnected from the other two imaginaries, and argues that a transformative eco-politics can only be claimed as such if it is able to articulate such an integrated vision typical of 'socio-environmental movements'., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/03 Viviana Asara, Giorgos Kallis: Fertile soil: The production of Prefigurative Territories by the Indignados movement in BarcelonaABSTRACT: Social movements do not only protest and demand political change â they produce new spaces too. Why and how? If we understand this, we can appreciate better the specificity and potential of the last cycle of mobilizations involving the encampment of citiesâ squares. This paper shows how the Indignados movement in Barcelona evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city after. We find that people in alternative projects re-appropriate and transform urban space because they want to live differently and produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as âprefigurative territoriesâ, integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist theory of prefiguration with Lefebvreâs Marxist theory of space production. Prefigurative projects have strategic horizons and struggle with conflicts when opening up. Against those charging the Indignados with a fetishization of the occupied square and a failure to achieve political goals, we argue for the continuing relevance of the movement as it moved from the production of differential, to the production of counter-spaces. Further research should investigate how these counter-spaces feed into processes of political change., 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/02 Frank Moulaert: Everything I had wished to know about Walter Stöhr but I missed outABSTRACT: Frank Moulaert commemorating Walter Stöhr, 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2018/01 Andreas Novy: Illusionen grenzenloser Globalisierung, 2018 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/08 Franz Tödtling, Alexander Auer: Knowledge bases, innovation and multi-scalar relationships - Which kind of territorial boundedness of industrial clusters?ABSTRACT: Innovation is nowadays a highly interdependent process where firms rely on distributed knowledge sources at various spatial scales. It has been argued that innovation interactions are shifting increasingly from local/regional towards global scales and that the region as a space for supporting innovation and competitiveness of firms is losing in importance. We suggest, however, that firms and clusters rely on various kinds of knowledge bases and factors for their development that differ in their geographical mobility and territorial boundedness. Whereas codified knowledge as well as many kinds of goods and services, investment capital, and people have become mobile at a global scale due to improvements of transport- and communication technologies and a lowering of trade barriers, we find other factors that are still territorially bound, such as tacit knowledge that is exchanged in local and social networks, and certain kinds institutions and regulations that are territorially confined. We investigate therefore for different types of industries to what extent and which kind of driving factors for cluster development and innovation have become non-local or foot-lose, or remain territorially bound to regions or countries. This also has relevance for regional and innovation policies that try to enhance the competitiveness of clusters and regional economies., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/07 Wolfgang Fellner, Benedikt Goehmann: Human Needs and the Measurement of Welfare, 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/06 Heidi Leonhardt, Maria Jutschen, Clive L. Spash: To Grow or Not to Grow? That is the Question: Lessons for Social Ecological Transformation from Small-Medium EnterprisesABSTRACT: While research on alternatives to growth at the level of the economy as a whole is accumulating, few studies have related the criticism of growth to the business level. This paper starts to address this gap by investigating mechanisms of growth for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), presenting a case study that applies Q methodology and interviews with owner-managers of both growing and non-growing SMEs in Austria. Some mechanisms stimulating growth are identified across SMEs including contributing to innovativeness and motivation of employees. Others are only of relevance for some SMEs: competition, financial stability and a desire for market power. The owner-managers of non-growing SMEs hold values and pursue goals that free them from mechanisms of growth or prevent them from being triggered. Moreover, they exhibit a strong identification with their SME, operate in niche markets and strive for financial independence. This illustrates that a growth imperative is neither inevitable nor are growth mechanisms always operative, but depend upon structures and institutions., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/05 Andreas Novy: Transformative Social Innovation, 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/04 Clive L. Spash, Karin Dobernig: Theories of (Un)sustainable ConsumptionABSTRACT: In this discussion paper we review and contrast alternative theories of consumption in terms of the intellectual basis they provide for understanding sustainable behaviours. A defining aspect of the modern literature in this field is the emphasis on the individual as a volitional agent who engages wilfully in the decision to consume. This is in stark contrast to earlier literature that concentrated on the structural lock-in of individuals to undesirable consumption patterns and the powers of corporations in creating consumer demand for their products and services. We argue that, in order to unravel consumption in its full complexity, and as a matter of utmost importance, understanding must include both the buy-in of individual agents, whose consumption activities contribute to their self-identity, and the structure imposed by the institutions of society, that frame the context of actors' decisions. More than this, any move away from the current unsustainable consumption patterns prevalent in modern societies requires a richer conceptualisation of consumption that involves an awareness and examination of the political economy in which humans live., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/03 Ann Hartell: Performance Measures and the Uncertainties of Planning: Current Practice at Transportation Planning OrganizationsABSTRACT: Transportation planning in the United States is moving to widespread use of performance-based planning methods as new federal requirements for Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are implemented. In addition to requirements for measures of safety and infrastructure, many MPOs are adopting performance measures for other issues. This study explores current planning practice in using a performance-based approach to tackle a complex planning issue: location affordability, defined as the combined household cost burdens of housing and transportation. A review of long-range transportation plans at 20 large MPOs provides information on how location affordability is represented in regional transportation plans, how it is defined and measured, and how it is integrated into the planning process. Using Christensen's (1985) matrix of planning and policy problems as a theoretical framework, appropriate application of performance measures in connection with location affordability is identified. For challenging planning issues where solutions are uncertain or infeasible, performance measures are more appropriate if used in project or program evaluation, supporting a search for more effective solutions rather than holding MPOs accountable for outcomes., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/02 Clive L. Spash: The Need for and Meaning of Social Ecological EconomicsABSTRACT: Ecological economics has arisen over a period of three decades with a strong emphasis on the essential need to recognise the embeddedness of the economy in the biophysical. However, that element of realism is not matched by an equally well informed social theory. Indeed the tendency has been to adopt mainstream economic concepts, theories and models formulated of the basis of a formal mathematical deductivist approach that pays little or no attention to social reality. Similarly mainstream economic methods are employed as pragmatic devices for communication. As a result ecological economics has failed to develop its own consistent and coherent theory and failed to make the link between the social and the economic. In order to reverse this situation the social and political economy must be put to the fore and that is the aim of social ecological economics. This paper provides a brief overview of the arguments for such a development. The prospect is of unifying a range of critical thought on the social and environmental crises with the aim of informing the necessary social ecological transformation of the economy., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2017/01 Clive L. Spash: Environmental Values in Conservation: Ethics, Economics and PragmatismABSTRACT: Conservation today is facing the challenges of neoliberal world political forces dominated by bankers, financiers and multinational corporations who care little for protecting anything that does not pay them a personal reward. The standard counter to such a utilitarian economic philosophy is to point out alternative ethical approaches, which have for sometime been central to conservation arguments. However, in recent times, environmental non-governmental organisations, including conservation biologists, have increasingly pushed a narrow economic rhetoric, and converted themselves into allies of the 'economic growth at any cost' school of thought, in an attempt to win the favour of corporations under a new environmental pragmatism and New Conservation. This discussion paper critically analyses these topics as given in a lecture to the international conservation community. Presented here is the full transcript of the plenary presentation given to 2000 conservation biologist at their international meeting in Montpellier in 2015. The talk received an unprecedented standing ovation from the audience. It was given as a counter position to that of Peter Kareiva who presented immediately preceding this lecture, and was followed by a debate between Kareiva and Spash. The central topic was the New Conservation being championed by Kareiva and his boss, Mark Tercek, at The Nature Conservancy. As this lecture notes, this is part of a broader ideological move towards neoliberalism in conservation biology, and more generally the environmental movement, in the guise of a pragmatic use of economics. The arguments presented here are more fully understood when accompanied by the original presentation overheads (available online from http://www.clivespash.org/lectures-and-presentations/conference-papers/). However, the transcript on its own makes clear the bias, flaws and contradictions in the logic being presented as New Conservation. The structure of argument covers: the motivations behind the increasing use of economic valuation and policy instruments, the economics of optimal extinction that lies behind this, the implications that appealing to individual preferences for creating money numbers, why this does not provide protection or lead to conservation, how corporations are using the environmental movement for their own ends, and the implicit ideology of the New Conservation as a conservative technocracy. Some references have been added to the transcribed talk., 2017 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2016/05 Arne Isaksen, Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl: Innovation policies for regional structural change: Combining actor-based and system-based strategies, 2016 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2016/04 Clive L. Spash, Hendrik Theine: Voluntary Individual Carbon TradingABSTRACT: In recent years, the search for regulatory regimes in order to effectively address human iinduced climate change have become a prominent political and academic issue. Emission trading schemes have risen in popularity and are widely believed to be an effective, as well as economically efficient, measure and have become a favoured government strategy. On the individual level, many individuals in the industrialised nations now undertake actions to offset their personal direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by voluntarily purchasing carbon credits, normally in association with product or service purchase. While this is a fast growing market, advertised as creating a carbon neutral consumer society, the voluntary carbon credit sector raises fundamental problems with respect to verification and credibility of the claimed offsets and associated projects. Lack of regulation and legal oversight leads to the impossibility of actually obtaining or verifying information on the consequences of voluntary credit purchases. Providers of offset credits who are driven by greed and easy profits will underfunded emissions abatement projects and pay little attention to quality standards. Corporate âgreen washingâ is also likely through voluntary offsets marketed as going carbon neutral. This paper connects voluntary offsets to psychological and behavioural impacts on the individual. We identify three specific issues: the psychology of marketing and purchasing of voluntary offsets, commodification and crowding out of intrinsic motivations and the implicit ethics with its own psychological implications. We also discuss the political economy of voluntary carbon markets and their geo-political implications in terms of the global North-South divide and ethical responsibility for action on human induced climate change. This raises serious concerns over the individualisation of a collective problem, what can and should be expected of individuals as ethical consumers and how markets operate in practice. Such aspects place individual behaviour within a broader social and institutional context that questions the trend in market environmentalism and its impacts on the capability of humans to relate to nature., 2016 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2016/03 Franz Tödtling, Tanja Sinozic, Alexander Auer: Knowledge bases, multi-scale interaction and transformation of the Vienna medical cluster, 2016 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2016/02 Clive L. Spash, Clemens Gattringer: The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate ChangeABSTRACT: Human induced climate change poses a series of ethical challenges to the current political economy, although it has often be regarded by economists as only an ethical issue for those concerned about future generations. The central debate in economics has then concerned the rate at which future costs and benefits should be discounted. Indeed the full range of ethical aspects of climate change are rarely even discussed. Despite recent high profile and lengthy academic papers on the topic the ethical remains at best superficial within climate change economics. Recognising the necessary role of ethical judgment poses a problem for economists who conduct exercises in cost-benefit analysis and deductive climate modelling under the presumption of an objectivity that excludes values. Priority is frequently given to orthodox economic methodology, but that this entails a consequentialist utilitarian philosophy is forgotten while the terms of the debate and understanding is simultaneously restricted. We set out to raise the relevance of a broader range of ethical issues including: intergenerational ethics as the basis for the discount rate, interregional distribution of harm, equity and justice issues concerning the allocation of carbon budgets, incommensurability in the context of compensation, and the relationship of climate ethics to economic growth. We argue that the pervasiveness of strong uncertainty in climate science, incommensurability of values and non-utilitarian ethics are inherent features of the climate policy debate. That mainstream economics is ill-equipped to address these issues relegates it to the category of misplaced concreteness and its policy prescriptions are then highly misleading misrepresentations of what constitutes ethical action., 2016 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2016/01 Clive L. Spash: The Paris Agreement to Ignore RealityABSTRACT: At the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris, France, 30 November to 11 December 2015, an Agreement was reached by the international community including 195 countries. The Agreement has been hailed, by participants and the media, as a major turning point for policy in the struggle to address human induced climate change. The following is a short critical commentary in which I briefly explain why the Paris Agreement changes nothing. I highlight how the Agreement has been reached by removing almost all substantive issues concerning the causes of human induced climate change and offers no firm plans of action. Instead of substantive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as soon as possible, the intentions of the parties promise escalation of damages and treat worst case scenarios as an acceptable 50:50 chance. The Paris Agreement signifies commitment to sustained industrial growth, risk management over disaster prevention, and future inventions and technology as saviour. The primary commitment of the international community is to maintain the current social and economic system. The result is denial that tackling greenhouse gas emissions is incompatible with sustained economic growth. The reality is that Nation States and international corporations are engaged in an unremitting and ongoing expansion of fossil fuel energy exploration, extraction and combustion, and the construction of related infrastructure for production and consumption. The targets and promises of the Paris Agreement bear no relationship to biophysical or social and economic reality., 2016 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/07 Ann Hartell: Sprawl and Commuting: Exploring New Measures of United States Metro Regions, 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/06 Ann Hartell: Contextualizing Location Affordability: Urban Sprawl and Foreclosure, 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/05 Wolfgang Fellner, Stefan Humer, Roman Seidl, Thomas Sonnleitner: Zeitverwendung und Lebensqualität in WienABSTRACT: Neue Forschungsergebnisse: Erwerbsarbeit hat eine besondere Relevanz für die Lebensqualität. Die Ergebnisse sprechen eindeutig gegen die in der ökonomischen Theorie übliche Vorstellung, dass Erwerbsarbeit ein notwendiges Ãbel sei. Wenn die Befragten ihren Lebensunterhalt verdienen müssen wird als häufigster Wert eine gewünschte Erwerbsarbeitszeit von 30 Stunden/Woche angegeben. Die gewünschte Erwerbsarbeitszeit liegt damit deutlich niedriger als die aktuelle Normalarbeitszeit in Ãsterreich. Die häufigste gewünschte Erwerbsarbeitszeit ohne das Erfordernis seinen Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen liegt bei 20 Stunden. Daran wird sichtbar, dass Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Erzielung eines Einkommens eine wichtige Rolle für die Lebensqualität der Befragten spielt und intrinsische Arbeitsmotivation weit verbreitet ist. Auf die Frage ob für die gewünschte Zeitverwendung viel mehr, mehr, gleich viel oder weniger als das aktuelle Einkommen benötigt wird geben rund 33% der Befragten an, dass sie gleich viel oder weniger Einkommen benötigen. Wenn die Personen dieser Gruppe sich Verringerungen der Erwerbsarbeitszeit wünschen wären diese gegenüber Reallohnsteigerungen zu bevorzugen, da die Reallohnsteigerungen zu keiner Steigerung der Lebensqualität anhand der Zeitverwendung führen würden, Verringerungen der Erwerbsarbeitszeit jedoch schon. Anhand der deutlichen Ergebnisse zu den gewünschten Erwerbsarbeitszeiten lässt sich für eine Verringerung der Normalarbeitszeit auf bis zu 30 Stunden/Woche argumentieren. Anhand der Veränderungswünsche der Aktivitätszeiten konnten deutlich unterscheidbare Gruppen (Cluster) identifiziert werden. Der gröÃte Cluster repräsentiert 51% der Personen und ähnelt sehr stark den Ergebnissen der gesamten Stichprobe. Darüber hinaus wurden drei weitere Cluster beschreiben die deutliche Unterschiede dazu aufweisen. 13% der Befragten gehören zum Cluster der âErwerbsarbeitsverringererâ. Diese haben eine vergleichsweise starke Tendenz zur Verringerung der Erwerbsarbeitszeit und entsprechend ausgeprägteren Ausweitung vieler anderer Aktivitäten. 10% gehören zum Cluster der âunzufriedenen Verändererâ. Diese sind durch eine ausgeprägte Tendenz zu starken Umschichtung der aktuellen Zeitverwendung gekennzeichnet. 16% gehören zum Cluster der âzufriedenen Beibehalterâ. Sie sind durch einen groÃen Anteil von Personen gekennzeichnet, die für viele Aktivitäten ihre aktuellen Aktivitätszeiten beibehalten wollen. Methoden: Die im Rahmen dieser Studie verwendete Methode ist in vielfacher Hinsicht innovativ. Sie unterscheidet sich von üblichen Erhebungen gewünschter Aktivitätszeiten (z.B.: der Erwerbsarbeistzeit) dadurch, dass Aktivitäten nicht isoliert betrachtet, sondern als Teil eines gesamten Lebensentwurfes (also aller möglichen Aktivitäten) verstanden werden. Dadurch können die Wechselwirkungen und Abtauschbeziehungen zwischen Aktivitäten erfasst und die begrenzte Verfügbarkeit von Zeit berücksichtigt werden. Wien-Bezüge: Es wurde eine nach Geschlechtern, Bezirken und Altersgruppen repräsentative Stichprobe für die Wiener Bevölkerung erhoben und ausgewertet. Darüber hinaus wurde das Stadtgebiet abhängig von der Bevölkerungsdichte in drei Bereiche unterteilt: dicht, durchschnittlich und dünn besiedelte Bezirke. Die Auswertungen der Veränderungswünsche nach der Bevölkerungsdichte ergibt keine wensentlichen Unterschiede., 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/04 Tanja Sinozic, Mete Basar Baypinar, Edward M. Bergman, Miklos Hornyak, Ferenc Kruzslicz, Attila Varga: A Policy Research Method Case-Study: Generating and Extracting Evidence-based Policy Inferences from a large EC Framework Programme ProjectABSTRACT: In 2004 the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was instituted following the greatest single enlargement of the European Union (EU), to support security and peaceful relations between the EU and neighbouring countries with a unified governance approach to economic, social and political aspects of international cooperation. This paper reports on an effort to develop and test a methodology for bridging social science research and policy communities on an important policy question that concerns comity between the EU and its Eurasian, Middle Eastern and North African neighbouring countries1, although the approach applies to any broad policy issue for which multiple sources and types of research evidence are present. Five evaluative elements are developed and implemented whose complementary application result in a large set of policy inferences, a strategy of implementation, and researcher insights concerning the method. This case study suggests that the recommended evidence synthesis methodology has good potential for informing policy that is comprised of multiple elements, studied by large research teams, and enacted by diverse agents. The suggested methodology requires engagement by active researchers and policy experts in the formulation of policy options. It is put forward that improving the quality of evidence-informed policy will depend upon institutions and practices in the research and policy making communities., 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/03 Andreas Novy: A Good Life for all - A European development modelABSTRACT: This working paper analyses the potentialities of an eco-solidarian development model for Europe by mobilising theories and experiences from Latin America. The argument is based on a didactical analysis in three parts: Is-Shall-Do. In a first step, the dysfunctional neoliberal regulation in Europe will be analysed. In a second step, the good life for all is presented as a concrete utopia, inspired from Latin America. This utopia polarizes movement, classes und proposals especially with respect to a decision on whether the good life shall be realized âfor the fewâ or âfor allâ. In a third step, the challenges for a pluralistic search movement to implement this great transformation will be analysed., 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/02 Andreas Novy: Die gegenwärtige Krise, 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2015/01 Clive L. Spash: Bulldozing Biodiversity: The Economics of Optimal ExtinctionABSTRACT: Many conservationists have become enamoured with mainstream economic concepts and approaches, described as pragmatic replacements for appeals to ethics and direct regulation. Trading biodiversity using offsets is part of the resulting push for market governance that is promoted as a more efficient means of Nature conservation. In critically evaluationg this position I start by explaining the assumptions behind biodiversity and ecosystem valuation and how economic logic legitimises, rather than prevents, ongoing habitat destruction and treats species extinction as optimal. Biodiversity offsets provide a means for operationalising trade-offs that are in the best interests of developers and make false claims to adding productive new economic activity. Contrary to the argument that economic logic frees conservation from ethics, I expose the ethical premises required for economists to justify public policy support for offsets. Finally, various issues in offset design are raised and placed in the context of a political struggle over the meaning of Nature. The overall message is that, if conservationists continue down the path of conceptualising the world as in mainstream economic textbooks they will be forced from one compromise to another, ultimately losing their ability to conserve or protect anything. They will also be abandoning the rich and meaningful human relationships with Nature that have been their raison dâêtre., 2015 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/08 Alexander Auer, Franz Tödtling: Driving factors and spatial scales for cluster development - The case of environmental technologies in Upper AustriaABSTRACT: The environmental technology industry is considered generally as a growing industry driven by urging climate-, energy- and waste problems, regulations and increasing environmental consciousness, among others. Upper Austria often referred to as an industrial region features a heterogeneous group of environmental technology firms that are outperforming other regions in Austria in terms of firm numbers and employees in this sector. Following the main theoretical approaches on cluster life cycles and cluster evolution this paper examines factors on firm and cluster level on different spatial scales that have affected the emergence and evolution of individual environmental technology enterprises and its cluster in Upper Austria. The aim of the paper is to get a profound understanding of the relevance of these factors and to evaluate their development over time. The paper uses primary data from 30 face-to-face firm interviews with managerial staff. Preliminary results suggest that factors relevant for the development of Upper Austrian environmental technology firms geographically shift and change over. Location factors that caused firms to settle in Upper Austria show a rather strong connectivity of the company founder to the region. Hence, personal factors and partners in the region are more relevant compared to other factors. At a later stage, factors such as skilled labour and networks become more important on regional level whereas other factors such as demand, regulations and public support initiatives are more relevant on national and international levels. From an evolutionary perspective factors such as demand and corporate partners become nationally and internationally more important over time, others that are mostly associated with knowledge transfer remain on the regional scale. Overall, we find tendencies of growth and geographically enlarged interaction scales of the Upper Austrian environmental technology cluster as well as a certain persistence of related ties to the regional and national innovation system., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/07 Franz Tödtling, Markus Grillitsch: Does combinatorial knowledge lead to a better innovation performance of firms?ABSTRACT: The knowledge base concept in the past has often been applied in its âpureâ form, i.e. it was assumed that there are dominant knowledge bases in particular sectors and firms, that shape the knowledge- and innovation process and related networks. For example, it has been argued that in the case of âanalytical sectorsâ such as biotech codified knowledge generated by universities and R&D organisations are key for radical innovation, and that such knowledge is often transmitted by formal R&D cooperations and university-firm links. âSynthetic sectorsâ such as machinery on the other hand were assumed to innovate more incrementally by recombining existing knowledge that was often drawn from suppliers or service firms. Empirical literature partly has confirmed these basic patters, but also has demonstrated that more complex knowledge processes are underlying these overly schematic expectations. In addition, there have been arguments by Asheim, Boschma and Strambach, among others, more recently that combinations of different but related knowledge bases and -assets might be of high relevance for understanding innovation processes of firms in particular sectors and regions. This implies that innovation of firms e.g. in âanalytical sectorsâmight benefit not just from new and basic knowledge generated by research, but also from recombining existing and applied knowledge or by drawing on symbolic knowledge assets. The same argument for the relevance of combinatorial knowledge bases applies for âsyntheticâ and âsymbolic sectorsâ, but in different forms. The paper investigages if the reliance on combinatorial knowledge bases leads to a better innovation performance and more radical forms of innovation than the use of more narrow knowledge assets. The paper investigates the relevance of combinatorial knowledge bases for innovation at first conceptually and based on respective literature. In the second part we analyse this question empirically by drawing on findings for the ICT sector in three regions of Austria (Vienna, Upper Austria, and Salzburg)., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/06 Franz Tödtling, Alexander Auer, Tanja Sinozic: Driving factors for cluster development - Which kind of spatial rootedness and change?ABSTRACT: Driving factors and mechanisms for cluster development have often been investigated based on the standard cluster approach as conceptualised e.g. by Michael Porter. These studies have revealed certain insights regarding the role of local entrepreneurship, factor conditions, demand, and related industries in supporting clusters. However, such factors were analysed often from a static competitiveness perspective, and they were often seen as rooted in a region or part of an overly schematic local-global pattern. We suggest instead that driving factors of cluster development coexist at several spatial scales such as regional, national, European and global levels. We also argue that specific factors change in their importance for firms and for clusters over time, and that these changes are industry- and knowledge base specific. Relying on insights from cluster life cycle-, evolutionary- and knowledge base approaches among others we investigate changes in driving factors for cluster development and their relationship to different geographical scales. We provide some answers to these questions by comparing the environmental technology sector of Upper Austria and the New Media sector of Vienna, industries that differ in their knowledge bases and their spatial rootedness., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/05 Clive L. Spash, Iulie Aslaksen: Re-establishing an Ecological Discourse in the Policy Debate over How to Value Ecosystems and BiodiversityABSTRACT: In this paper we explore the discourses of ecology, environmental economics, new environmental pragmatism and social ecological economics as they relate to the value of ecosystems and biodiversity. Conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services that can be represented by monetary values in policy processes is an economic discourse being increasingly championed by ecologists and conservation biologists. The latter promote a new environmental pragmatism internationally as hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystems services into finance. The approach adopts a narrow instrumentalism, denies value pluralism and incommensurability, and downplays the role of scientific knowledge. Re-establishing an ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial role for biophysical indicators as independent policy targets, exemplified in this paper by the Nature Index for Norway. Yet, there is a recognisable need to go beyond a traditional ecological approach to one recognising the interconnections of social, ecological and economic problems. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative ecologically informed discourses, including an ecofeminist perspective, in order to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from and domineering over Nature., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/04 Clive L. Spash: Better Growth, Helping the Paris COP-out? Fallacies and Omissions of the New Climate Economy ReportABSTRACT: The debate over how to address greenhouse gas emissions reduction remains unresolved. The basic conflict between the environment and economic growth is fundamental to the problem but is something now being denied. Green Growth has been put forward as resolving the issue in a report backed by people working at the highest levels in international community from organisations such as the World Bank, United Nations, OECD, and IEA, who combine their knowledge with five ex-heads of state, experts from the banking and finance world and a committee of economics professors. This powerful elite has stated that all the countries of the world can have better growth and a better climate, and indeed strong growth is how to reduce poverty. This paper analyses the synthesis report proposing this ânew climate economyâ and exposes how the climate issue is framed in a narrow reductionist fashion that fails to address the fundamental contradictions of a growth economy and its model of development. The paper covers the framing of the debate, getting the prices right, energy and material throughput, growth versus human health and the environment, the ethics of a growth society, and the conflicts between corporate interests, government and civil society. One conclusion is that planning is back on the agenda, but this raises serious questions of governance that are not being addressed. Another is that little can be expected from the Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change as long as they ignore the wider implications of the growth society, its institutions and structure., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/03 Clive L. Spash: The Politics of Researching Carbon Trading in Australia, 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/02 Wolfgang Fellner, Clive L. Spash: The Illusion of Consumer Sovereignity in Economic and Neoliberal ThoughtABSTRACT: Contemporary economic policy discourses are heavily oriented towards competition and efficiency using modern conceptualisation of the market as an institution for resource allocation and governance. Market based policy approaches are considered necessary and sufficient instruments to achieve environmental goals while leaving individual freedom largely unaffected. This neoliberal position crucially depends upon the concept of consumer sovereignty. It encapsulates the idea that individual consumption is the only source of value and consumers are able to enforce their interests on producers via their power in the market place. Despite the concept of consumer sovereignty having huge importance in contemporary economic theory and policy, its meaning remains opaque. We explore how consumer sovereignty has been employed for political instrumental, market ideal and economic instrumental reasons by classic liberals, neo-Austrian and Neoclassical economists respectively. We go on to show that the concept of consumer sovereignty depends upon a series of problematic assumptions and fails to bear much relationship to reality. The theoretical basis of consumer sovereignty on individual preferences proves problematic, not least due to its ethical presumptions. Environmentalists search for what makes a just and sustainable society and neoliberalism is answering with the rhetoric of consumer sovereignty. This paper shows why that answer needs to be rejected and why environmentalism actually means critically rethinking the role of markets in society., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2014/01 Tanja Sinozic, Franz Tödtling: Adaptation and change in creative clusters: Findings from Vienna's New Media sectorABSTRACT: This paper explores cluster change using the case example of New Media in Vienna. It addresses the question of how cluster elements (such as firms and institutions) interact to shape and transform the thematic and spatial boundaries of clusters as they shift along their developmental stages. Clusters go through different phases underpinned by technical change, renewing and destroying previous cluster specialisations. Creativity is a key feature in modern economies underlying competitiveness in a range of sectors which cluster in urban areas. Sectors such as software and computer services, advertising and market research, printing and reproduction of recorded media, motion pictures, creative arts and entertainment are supported by regional conditions that enable creative processes in local interacting firms, and the translation of ideas into innovative products and services. These perspectives are used to explore the New Media cluster in Vienna based on 25 semi-structured interviews with firms specialising in New Media technology areas. When analysed using a life cycle perspective of clusters, the findings in this paper suggest that cluster thematic boundaries are shaped by change in technological variety via complex processes such as inter-disciplinary problem-solving in projects, re-activation of latent local and global networks, and firm capabilities to respond to rapidly changing client needs in devices, communication and design., 2014 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2013/03 Ann Hartell: Path dependence in economic theory and research, 2013 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2013/02 Clive L. Spash: The Ecological Economics of Boulding's Spaceship EarthABSTRACT: The work of Kenneth Boulding is sometimes cited as being foundational to the understanding of how the economy interacts with the environment and particularly of relevance to ecological economists. The main reference made in this regard is to his seminal essay using the metaphor of planet Earth as a spaceship. In this paper that essay and related work is placed both within historical context of the environmental movement and developments in the thought on environment-economy interactions. The writing by Boulding in this area is critically reviewed and discussed in relationship to the work of his contemporaries, also regarded as important for the ecological economics community, such as Georegescu-Roegen, Herman Daly and K. William Kapp. This brings out the facts that Boulding did not pursue his environmental concerns, wrote little on the subject, had a techno-optimist tendency, disagreed with his contemporaries and preferred to develop an evolutionary economics approach. Finally, a sketch is offered of how the ideas in the Spaceship Earth essay relate to current understanding within social ecological economics. The essay itself, while offering many thought provoking insights within the context of its time, also has flaws both of accuracy and omission. The issues of power, social justice, institutional and social relationships are ones absent, but also ones which Boulding, near the end of his life, finally recognised as key to addressing the growing environmental crises., 2013 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2013/01 Clive L. Spash: The Shallow or the Deep Ecological Economics Movement?ABSTRACT: Ecological economics and its policy recommendations have become overwhelmed by economic valuation, shadow pricing, sustainability measures, and squeezing Nature into the commodity boxes of goods, services and capital in order to make it part of mainstream economic, financial and banking discourses. There are deeper concerns which touch upon the understanding of humanity in its various social, psychological, political and ethical facets. The relationship with Nature proposed by the ecological economics movement has the potential to be far reaching. However, this is not the picture portrayed by surveying the amassed body of articles from this journal or by many of those claiming affiliation. A shallow movement, allied to a business as usual politics and economy, has become dominant and imposes its preoccupation with mainstream economic concepts and values. If, instead, ecological economists choose a path deep into the world of interdisciplinary endeavour they will need to be prepared to transform themselves and society. The implications go far beyond the pragmatic use of magic numbers to convince politicians and the public that ecology still has something relevant to say in the 21st Century., 2013 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/09 Tanja Sinozic: SEARCH Project Delphi, 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/08 Wolfgang Fellner, Roman Seidl: The Relative Importance of Time and Money for Consumer Behavior and Prosperity, 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/07 Christoph Höglinger, Tanja Sinozic, Franz Tödtling: Emergence, growth and transformation in local clusters - Environmental industries in the region of Upper Austria, 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/06 Armon Rezai, Lance Taylor, Reinhard Mechler: Ecological Macroeconomics: An application to climate change, 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/05 Clive L. Spash, Iulie Aslaksen: Re-establishing an Ecological Discourse in the Debate over the Value of Ecosystems and BiodiversityABSTRACT: The approach of conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services to be represented by monetary values in policy is being championed not just by economists, but also by ecologists and conservation biologists. This new environmental pragmatism is now being pushed forward internationally under the guise of hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystems services into finance. This conflicts with the realisation that biodiversity and ecosystems have multiple incommensurable values. The current trend is to narrowly define a set of instrumental aspects of ecosystems and biodiversity to be associated with ad hoc money numbers. We argue that ecosystem science has more to offer the policy debate than pseudo-economic numbers based on assumptions that do not reflect ecological or social complexity. Re-establishing the ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial role for biophysical indicators as policy targets e.g., the Nature Index for Norway. Yet there is a recognisable need to go beyond the traditional ecological approach to create a social ecological economic discourse. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative ecologically informed discourses (e.g. intrinsic values, deep ecology, ecofeminism) in order to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from and domineering over Nature., 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/04 Clive L. Spash: Towards the integration of social, economic and ecological knowledgeABSTRACT: Integration of knowledge has become a contentious issue in an age where increasing specialisation creates boundaries and division. Yet, there is an identifiable need for integration across social, ecological and economic understandings if we are to address ever more threatening crises and alarming potential scenarios. This paper relates to the work of K. William Kapp and in so doing raises questions about how integration might be achieved. A core idea that arises is the role of common denominator concepts., 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/03 Clive L. Spash: Ecological Economics and Philosophy of Science: Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology and IdeologyABSTRACT: Ecological economics has been repeatedly described as transdisciplinary and open to including everything from positivism to relativism. I argue for a revision and rejection of this position in favour of realism and reasoned critique. Looking into the ontological presuppositions and considering an epistemology appropriate for ecological economics to meaningfully exist requires rejecting the form of methodological pluralism which has been advocated since the start of this journal. This means being clear about the differences in our worldview (or paradigm) from others and being aware of the substantive failures of orthodox economics in addressing reality. This paper argues for a fundamental review of the basis upon which ecological economics has been founded and in so doing seeks improved clarity as to the competing and complementary epistemologies and methodologies. In part this requires establishing serious interdisciplinary research to replace superficial transdisciplinary rhetoric. The argument places the future of ecological economics firmly amongst heterodox economic schools of thought and in ideological opposition to those supporting the existing institutional structures perpetuating a false reality of the world's social, environmental and economic systems and their operation., 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/02 Sabine Sedlacek, Gunther Maier: Green Building Councils: Their Economic Role as Governance InstitutionsABSTRACT: Green Building Councils (GBCs) have been established in many different countries in recent years. This paper discusses the role such organizations can play in the respective construction and real estate industry and under what circumstances a GBC can contribute positively to the development of a ''greener'' or ''more sustainable'' stock of buildings. The paper investigates the main informational problem of the industry by looking at the relation between a developer and an investor from an economic point of view. We argue that the investor's uncertainty about the true quality of a building and the corresponding incentive for the developer to cheat may lock them into a prisoners' dilemma trap. The corresponding barriers for a transition toward a ''greener'' buildings market are analyzed. GBCs are described as institutions of economic governance that can assist the economy in overcoming these problems. They can act as third party institutions in transactions between developers and investors. By certifying the quality of a building, they can reduce the risk for the investor to be cheated by the developer and also increase the incentive to develop good quality buildings for the developer. This task, however, raises some severe management challenges for the GBCs., 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2012/01 Gunther Maier, Michaela Trippl: The Pitfalls and Booby Traps of Cluster PolicyABSTRACT: Over the past two decades, cluster policies have become a standard instrument of public authorities and economic development practitioners in many parts of the world. This paper takes a critical stance on this phenomenon and provides theoretical arguments that challenge the widespread application of cluster initiatives to promote long-term regional development. We distinguish between and compare two main bodies of thought: the neoclassical view and the agglomeration view. We show that there are no rationales for cluster policy from the perspective of neoclassical theory. The agglomeration view, in contrast, provides a convincing conceptual basis for justifying economic policies implemented in form of cluster initiatives. At the same time, however, it points to major problems related with the cluster policy approach. We identify and elaborate on three essential difficulties, i.e. the proper (1) targeting, (2) dosing, and (3) timing of cluster policy actions. We highlight that the problems related with these fundamental issues of each public initiative constitute powerful pitfalls and booby traps of cluster policies., 2012 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2011/05 Franz Tödtling, Markus Grillitsch, Christoph Höglinger: Competencies of firms, external knowledge sourcing and types of innovation in regions of EuropeABSTRACT: Many innovation studies have been focusing on a narrow concept of innovation such as the generation of patents or new products. The performance of companies, however, often depends on innovation defined from a broader perspective. This includes process, organisational and market innovations as was pointed out already by Schumpeter. Drawing on the concept of knowledge bases and innovation networks we argue that these different types of innovation require both internal competencies, and technological and market knowledge from various kinds of external sources. These can be located at regional, national and international levels. In the present paper we are going to analyse evidence from eight European countries in this respect. Based on a multivariate model we are able to show that product, process and organisational innovations indeed rely on quite different types and sources of knowledge, and that in addition also the institutional characteristics of regions and countries matter., 2011 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2011/04 Julia Lechner: Urban CGE Modeling: An IntroductionABSTRACT: Cities are usually confronted with a large variety of economic development choices. With growing environmental concern as well as rising income and wealth inequalities, assessment of the impacts of such choices is likely to gain in importance. Consequently, the demand for adequate assessment tools will grow. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models analyze issues of resource allocation and income distribution in market economies. They have become a widely accepted tool for policy assessment over the past two decades but are currently still primarily a field for specialists. This is particularly distinctive in the case of urban CGE models, which are the focus of this paper., 2011 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2011/03 Gunther Maier: Immobilienbewertung - theoretische Konzepte und praktische Anwendungen, 2011 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2011/02 Richard Lang, Andreas Novy: Housing Cooperatives and Social Capital: The Case of ViennaABSTRACT: Drawing on the case of Vienna, the article examines the role of third sector housing for social cohesion in the city. With the joint examination of an organisational and an institutional level of housing governance, the authors apply an interdisciplinary, multi-level research approach which aims at contributing to a comprehensive understanding of social cohesion as a contextualised phenomenon which requires place-based as well as structural (multi-level) solutions. Using a large-scale household survey and interviews with key informants, the analysis shows an ambiguous role housing cooperatives play for social cohesion: With the practice of âtheme-oriented housing estatesâ, non-profit housing returns to the traditional cooperative principle of Gemeinschaft. However, community cooperatives rather promote homogenous membership and thus, encompass the danger to establish cohesive islands that are cut off from the rest of the city. Furthermore, given the solidarity-based housing regime of Vienna, fostering bonding social capital on the neighbourhood level, might anyway just be an additional safeguarding mechanism for social cohesion. More important is the direct link between the micro-level of residents and the macro-level of urban housing policy. In this respect, cooperative housing represents a crucial intermediate level that strengthens the linking social capital of residents and provides opportunity structures for citizen participation. However, the increasing adoption of a corporate management orientation leads to a hollowing out of the cooperative principle of democratic member participation, reducing it to an informal and non-binding substitute. Thus, it is in the responsibility of both managements and residents to revitalise the existing democratic governance structures of cooperative housing before they will be completely dismantled by market liberalization and privatization. In contrast to other European cities, third sector housing in Vienna has the potential to give residents a voice beyond the neighbourhood and the field of housing., 2011 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2011/01 Bernhard Leubolt: Staat und politische Ökonomie in BrasilienABSTRACT: The transformation of the Brazilian state during the presidency of Lula (2003-2010) will be dealt with in historical perspective. First, the theoretical background will be elaborated: Theories based on Max Weber will be employed to highlight institutional factors, while approaches of political economy will introduce questions of societal power relations. Specifics of semi-peripheral statehood will be demonstrated by approaches inspired by dependency theory. On this basis, Brazilian historical legacies will be identified: slavery and patrimonialism in an externally dependent state, which was conservatively modernized in the wake of import substituting industrialization during the 20th century into a ''developmental state''. After a short liberal intermezzo during the 1990s, the Lula administration has readopted the developmentalist approach. In contrast to the ''developmental state'' of the 20th century, stronger republican and socially inclusive tendencies prevail now., 2011 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2010/05 Shanaka Herath: The Size of the Government and Economic Growth: An Empirical Study of Sri LankaABSTRACT: The new growth theory establishes, among other things, that government expenditure can manipulate economic growth of a country. This study attempts to explain whether government expenditure increases or decreases economic growth in the context of Sri Lanka. Results obtained applying an analytical framework based on time series and second degree polynomial regressions are generally consistent with previous findings: government expenditure and economic growth are positively correlated; excessive government expenditure is negatively correlated with economic growth; and an open economy promotes growth. In a separate section, the paper examines Armeyâs (1995) idea of a quadratic curve that explains the level of government expenditure in an economy and the corresponding level of economic growth. The findings confirm the possibility of constructing the Armey curve for Sri Lanka, and it estimates the optimal level of government expenditure to be approximately 27 per cent. This paper adds to the literature indicating that the Armey curve is a reality not only for developed economies, but also for developing economies., 2010 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2010/04 Karl-Johan Lundquist, Lars-Olof Olander: Growth cycles: transformation and regional developmentABSTRACT: Departing from the renewed interest within economic history and neo-Schumpeterian perspectives on growth and economic transformation, we will suggest a theoretical framework for analyzing long term regional economic growth and transformation. Emphasis will be given to different driving forces and their various roles over time, lead-lag relations between industries and how divergence and convergence between regions shift cyclically as consequences of technological change, market integration and economic growth. We claim that systemic approaches in general have been neglected in regional science in favor of âneoregionalismâ in the sense that the study of regional growth has been focusing for years on regional innovation systems and cluster theories without any regard to systemic relations at all. Using detailed time series data and applying a systemic approach we will follow Swedish regions from the structural crises in the mid 1970s to the starting point of the present financial crises. Our results suggest that there are time lags as well as systemic spatial asymmetries between industries and regions leading to changing patterns of divergence and convergence in the regional system. Furthermore, there are indications that the regional disparities between centre and periphery have increased compared to the situation in the mid 1970s., 2010 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2010/03 Shanaka Herath, Gunther Maier: The Hedonic Price Method in Real Estate and Housing Market Research: A Review of the LiteratureABSTRACT: The Hedonic Price Method (HPM), also known as hedonic regression, is used for estimating the value of a commodity or the demand for a commodity. The HPM has been extensively used in real estate and housing market research in the recent past. In this paper, we discuss theoretical and methodological developments related to hedonic regression and undertake an examination of use of this methodology in the recent real estate and housing literature. We first define the HPM, and explain the fundamentals behind the methodology. The idea behind the HPM is that the commodities are characterized by their constitute properties, hence the value of a commodity can be calculated by adding up the estimated values of its separate properties. In the second part of the paper, we emphasise that the heterogeneous nature of real estate property justifies the use of HPM for estimating their value or demand. We also take a stock of most cited empirical studies on real estate and housing using the HPM, and classify those into several categories. The classification indicates that neighbourhood characteristics of real estate are relatively over-researched as a determinant of price or rent. It also shows that implicit value of structural characteristics is under-researched. In general, implicit value of environmental amenities in the neighbourhood and air pollution are relatively overresearched. The effect of social factors, i.e. racial segregation and crimes on real estate value is under-researched., 2010 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2010/02 Michaela Trippl: Low_Tech Innovation in a High-Tech Environment? The Case of the Food Industry in the Vienna Metropolitan RegionABSTRACT: This paper explores the opportunities for low-tech innovations in regional high-tech contexts. The literature suggests that traditional sectors tend to be only weakly integrated in such socio-institutional environments, because the specific innovation mode of low-tech industries is not compatible with the institutional framework of high-tech. Focusing on the empirical case of the food industry situated in the Vienna metropolitan region, the paper provides evidence that the link between old industries and their high-tech contexts may be more complex than commonly thought. Drawing on 20 face-to-face interviews with local companies, knowledge providers (universities and other research organisations) and industry experts it is highlighted that strong and weak forms of integration in the regional innovation system (RIS) co-exist, depending on the specific RIS dimension under consideration. Innovative companies in the local food sector, thus, embed themselves in a selective way in their regional institutional context. They make use of the scientific competences available within the RIS whilst at the same time they tend to âbypassâ the RIS and tap into knowledge sources located outside the region., 2010 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2010/01 Christian Reiner: Which policy options for Europe in the global competition for talent? Brain competition policy as a new breed of locational policy with positive externalitiesABSTRACT: The emerging knowledge economy has led to an increase of demand and locational competition for highlyskilled labor. Brain competition policy (BCP) is the reaction from national and regional policymakers. In short, BCP refers to the attraction, education and circulation of talent in and between regional and national economies. This new focus on human capital instead of physical capital indicates a paradigmatic shift in innovation policy and regional policy. While most of the contributions to this new policy approach come from the US, it can be demonstrated that different institutions in Europe prevent the simple copying of those strategies. The article contributes to the ongoing paradigmatic shift by conceptualizing a coherent framework for BCP from a European perspective., 2010 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/08 Shanaka Herath: The Size of the Government and Economic Growth: An Empirical Study of Sri Lanka, 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/07 Gunther Maier, Shanaka Herath: Real Estate Market Efficiency: A Survey of LiteratureABSTRACT: In this paper, we discuss the question whether or not the real estate market is efficient. We define market efficiency and the efficient market hypothesis as it had been developed in the literature on financial markets. Then, we discuss the empirical evidence that exists concerning the efficiency or inefficiency of financial markets, usually seen as the reference markets as far as market efficiency is concerned. In a separate section, we turn to the real estate market. There, we define the real estate market and discuss various aspects that are decisive for the efficiency of that market. As it turns out, the result found in the literature is inconclusive. Majority of studies provide evidence supporting inefficiency of the real estate market while several studies maintain the notion of real estate market efficiency., 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/06 Michaela Trippl: Islands of Innovation and Internationally Networked Labor Markets: Magnetic Centers for Star Scientists?ABSTRACT: Top researchers and outstanding scientists are an essential source of science-based innovation and regional development. The location pattern and international movements of the scientific elite, are, thus, of fundamental importance. However, despite a growing interest, there is only little empirical evidence about these core issues. Drawing on the results of a world-wide survey of 720 ?star scientists? (identified by the number of citations they generated in journals in the ISI databases in the period 1981-2002) this paper seeks to explore the role of islands of innovation in providing employment opportunities for stars. It is shown that US and European islands of innovation and their regional labor markets are at the forefront when it comes to produce (i.e. to educate) and to employ star scientists and to exchange them with other places. Furthermore, the paper provides evidence for the formation of a network among innovative regional labor markets based on international movements of the best and brightest scientific minds., 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/05 Karl-Johan Lundquist, Michaela Trippl: Towards Cross-Border Innovation Spaces: A theoretical analysis and empirical comparison of the Öresund region and the Centrope areaABSTRACT: Due to strong regionalization tendencies in many parts of the world, the political collapse in Central and Eastern Europe and the continuing enlargement of the European Union crossborder regions have grown considerably in number and importance in the last years. There is a widespread agreement in the academic literature that in the emerging globalized knowledge economy the competitive strength of these areas increasingly rests on their capacity to create an integrated innovation space. The focus of this paper is on a theoretical analysis of different stages in the development of cross-border regional innovation systems and on a comparative analysis of the innovation capabilities of two cross-border areas in Europe, the Ãresund region, composed of Southern Sweden and Eastern Denmark, and the Centrope area, which is located at the intersection of Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. Departing from the regional innovation system approach, in a first step we will identify conceptually crucial preconditions and key determinants for the rise of transfrontier innovation systems. From an evolutionary perspective cross-border regional innovation systems could be seen as the last and most advanced form of cross-border integration building on the success of previous incremental but less advanced modes of integration. We will discuss a conceptual framework describing the different stages of such a process and we will examine how the prospects for a successful development vary between different geographical settings. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the innovation capacity of the Ãresund region and the Centrope area. A special emphasis will be given on comparing the interplay of critical economic, socioinstitutional and political factors, and the main barriers for establishing a cross-border regional innovation system. Our results suggest that the Ãresund region and the Centrope area differ enormously regarding their capacity to develop an integrated innovation space., 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/04 Eva Nussmüller, Lukas Lengauer, Franz Tödtling: Motives and influencing factors of corporate regional engagement: industry and company specific patternsABSTRACT: Traditionally, regional endowments are viewed as external variables when it comes to location choices of companies. In most concepts on location choices and regional economics companies are thought to view the local labour market, the local innovation system or the general quality of life in a region as given and chose the location that best suits the companyâs needs. Increasingly however, scholars from different research fields are providing arguments to reverse that view and show that there can be good reasons for a company to engage in improving its location despite implicit externalities. In this paper we try to systematically analyse issue of corporate engagement in regions. We will show how strong and in which fields companies engage in their respective region, how this engagement can be related to their existing regional integration and what differences appear between industries and types of companies in this respect. In this study we draw upon extensive interviews with over thirty companies from three industrial sectors in the Austrian region of Styria: the metals industry, which dates back to medieval times and has gone through a deep process of economic restructuring, the automotive industry, the first industry in which a comprehensive cluster policy approach was applied in Austria and the software industry, a rather young industry that experienced high growth rates in the past years. We will conclude that even though there are differences between the industries and types of companies in terms of scope and scale of regional integration and regional engagement, there is a strong correlation between the two: the higher the regional integration, the higher corporate regional engagement and vice versa., 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/03 Julia Lechner, Gunther Maier: Sprawl or No Sprawl? - A Quantitative Analysis for the City of ViennaABSTRACT: Urban sprawl has been a hotly debated issue in urban development policy in recent decades. The discussion originated in the U.S.A. and has been transferred to Europe in recent years. In this paper we use existing quantitative measures that have been applied to other cities as well to generate indicators for whether or not urban sprawl is an important problem for the city of Vienna. The analysis clearly shows that the city has become less densely populated in the last 30 years. However, when comparing our results with those of other cities we see that Vienna scores quite favorably on practically all sprawl indicators., 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/02 Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl: Innovation and Knowledge Links in Metropolitan Regions - The Case of Vienna, 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2009/01 Andreas Novy, Barbara Beinstein: Transdisciplinarity and Social Innovation Research, 2009 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/08 Andreas Novy, Lukas Lengauer, Daniela Coimbra de Souza: Vienna in an emerging trans-border region: Socioeconomic development in Central Europe, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/07 Andreas Novy, Lukas Lengauer: Analysing Development to Shape the Future, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/06 Michal Gluszak: Land Acquisition in Development Projects: Investment Value and Risk, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/05 Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl, Lukas Lengauer: Towards Regional Knowledge Economies: Routes and Policy Options, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/04 Lukas Lengauer, Eva Nussmüller, Michaela Trippl, Franz Tödtling: Innovation and Knowledge Sourcing in the Vienna ICT Manufacturing Sector, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/03 Karl-Johan Lundquist, Lars-Olof Olander, Martin Svensson Henning: Creative destruction and economic welfare in Swedish regions: Spatial dimensions of structural change, growth and employment, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/02 Gunther Maier, Alexander Kaufmann, Michael Vyborny: Is Regional Science a Scientific Discipline? Answers from a Citation Based Social Network Analysis, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2008/01 Franz Tödtling, Patrick Lehner, Alexander Kaufmann: Do Different Types of Innovation Rely on Specific Kinds of Knowledge Interactions?, 2008 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/07 Michaela Trippl, Franz Tödtling, Lukas Lengauer: The Vienna software cluster: Local buzz without global pipelines?, 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/06 Ronald Kauper, René Steinbauer: Regionalprofil der Region "Wien - Bratislava", 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/05 Edward M. Bergman, Gunther Maier, Patrick Lehner: Banning the Bahn: Transport Infrastructure Effects on Austrian Cluster Firms, 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/04 Edward M. Bergman: Cluster Life-Cycles: An Emerging Synthesis, 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/03 Bernhard Kurka, Gunther Maier, Sabine Sedlacek: Breaking the vicious cycle in peripheral rural regions: the case of "Waldviertler Wohlviertel" in Austria , 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/02 Michaela Trippl, Lukas Lengauer, Franz Tödtling: Innovation und Wissensnetze im Wiener Informations- und Kommunikationtechnologiecluster, 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2007/01 Michaela Trippl, Gunther Maier: Knowledge Spillover Agents and Regional Development, 2007 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/08 Gunther Maier, Jouke van Dijk: Co-authorship in Regional Science: A Network Approach, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/07 Michaela Trippl, Franz Tödtling: From the ivory tower to the market place? The changing role of knowledge organisations in spurring the development of biotechnology clusters in Austria, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/06 Lukas Lengauer, Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl: Der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien-Sektor in Österreich: Struktur, Entwicklungsdynamik und räumliche Muster, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/05 Michaela Trippl: Cross-Border Regional Innovation Systems, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/04 Herta Andiel, Carmen Cayuelas Franco: José Martís Denken über Wirtschaft, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/03 Gunther Maier: Product Differentiation or Spatial Monopoly? The Market Areas of Austrian Universities in Business Education, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/02 Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl, Joshua von Gabain: Clusterentwicklung und -politik im Biotechnologiesektor Wien im Kontext internationaler Erfahrungen, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2006/01 Michaela Trippl, Joshua von Gabain, Franz Tödtling: Policy agents as catalysts of knowledge links in the biotechnology sector, 2006 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/06 Edward M. Bergman: Sustainability of Clusters and Regions at Austria's Accession Edge, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/05 Andreas Novy: Wege zur Befreiung: Option für die Armen und Volksbildung, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/04 Gunther Maier, Michael Vyborny: Internal migration between US-states - A Social Network Analysis, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/03 Gunther Maier: What do WE think are the most important journals in regional science?, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/02 Lukas Lengauer: Die Gemeindeebene im österreichischen Bundesstaat, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2005/01 Andreas Novy: Didaktische Anregungen der Befreiungspädagogik Paulo Freires für die Entwicklungsforschung, 2005 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/06 Lukas Lengauer: Sozioökonomische Veränderungen in der Vienna Region 1971-2001 - Ausgewählte Ergebnisse, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/05 Ana Silvia Vilker: La crisis Argentinia. Causas y fundamentos, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/04 Andreas Novy: Entwicklungsforschung als Beitrag zu einer anderen Welt, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/03 Andreas Novy, Bernhard Leubolt: Das Partizipative Budget in Porto Alegre: Die Dialektik von staatlichen und nicht-staatlichen Formen sozialer Innovation, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/02 Franz Tödtling, Patrick Lehner, Michaela Trippl: Knowledge intensive industries, networks, and collective learning, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2004/01 Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl: One size fits all? Towards a differentiated policy approach with respect to regional innovation systems, 2004 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2003/02 Gunther Maier: The Market Areas of Austrian Universities, 2003 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2003/01 Andreas Novy: Sozialräumliche Polarisierung: Raum, Macht und Staat, 2003 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2002/03 Ana Silvia Vilker: Resultados de la comparación de la Encuesta Nacional de Gastos de los Hogares (ENGH) 1996-1997 de Argentina y la Encuesta de Gastos 1993-1994 (Konsumerhebung) de Austria, 2002 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2002/02 Ana Silvia Vilker: Descripción y comparación de las metodologías de la Encuesta Nacional de Gastos de los Hogares 1996/97 de Argentina y la Encuesta de Gastos 1993/94 de Austria, 2002 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2002/01 Andreas Novy: Die Methodologie interpretativer Sozialforschung, 2002 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2001/01 Patrick Lehner, Gunther Maier: Does Space Finally Matter? The Position of New Economic Geography in Economic Journals, 2001 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2000/05 Joachim Becker, Werner G. Raza: Theory of Regulation and Political Ecology: An Inevitable Separation?, 2000 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2000/04 Andreas Novy: Unmasking Globalisation: From Rhetoric to Political Economy - The Case of Brazil, 2000 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2000/03 Joachim Becker: Gegen den Strom: Alternative Kommunalpolitik im Cono Sur, 2000 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2000/02 Johannes Jäger: Soziale Auswirkungen, Ursachen und Funktionsweise des neoliberalen wirtschafts- und sozialpolitischen Modells in Lateinamerika, 2000 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.2000/01 Werner G. Raza: Recht auf Umwelt oder Umwelt ohne Recht? Zu den Auswirkungen des neoliberalen Modells auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft in Lateinamerika - eine Einführung, 2000 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.76 Alexander Kaufmann, Franz Tödtling: SME Innovation and Support in Upper Austria, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.75 Andreas Novy, Christof Parnreiter, Karin Fischer: Globalisierung und Peripherie, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.74 Werner G. Raza: Politische Ökonomie und Natur im Kapitalismus Versuch der Synthese eines antagonistischen Verhältnisses, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.73 Andreas Novy, Christine Mattl: Globalisierung als diskursive Strategie und Struktur Das Beispiel Brasilien, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.72 Andreas Novy, Ana C. Fernandes: Krise als Normalzustand? Kleine und große politökonomische Veränderungen in Brasilien, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.71 Johannes Jäger: El rol de la renta de la tierra en la economía urbana e implicaciones para las políticas locales en Montevideo, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.70 Joachim Becker, Werner G. Raza: Great Crisis or Permanent Crisis? Some reflections on a comparative periodisation of Austria and Uruguay, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.69 Joachim Becker, Andreas Novy, Vanessa Redak: Austria between West and East, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.68 Joachim Becker, Andreas Novy: Chancen und Grenzen alternativer Kommunalpolitik in Wien - ein historischer Überblick, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.67 Johannes Jäger: Pionier der Globalisierung: Chile, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.66 Joachim Becker, Andreas Novy: Divergence and convergence of national and local regulation: the case of Austria and Vienna, 1999 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.65 Edward M. Bergman, Patrick Lehner: Industrial cluster formation in European regions: U.S. cluster templates and Austrian evidence, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.64 Edward M. Bergman, Patrick Lehner: Industrial Cluster Learning Platforms: Methodology and Case Studies Of Four Local Austrian Industry Clusters, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.63 Gunther Maier: History, Spatial Structure, and Regional Growth: Lessons for Policy Making, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.62 Joachim Becker: Regionale Integration und Regulation: EU und Mercosur im Vergleich, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.61 Andreas Novy, Joachim Becker: Da desviação ofensiva à desviação defensiva: o governo local em Viena/Austria de 1867 a 1997, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.60 Johannes Jäger: Die Privatisierung des Pensionssystems in Lateinamerika: Ursachen und Folgen des Experiments in Chile, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.59 Andreas Novy, Ana C. Fernandes: A real supremacia do dinheiro do Plano Real brasileiro, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.58 Gunther Maier, Alexander Kaufmann: The Development of Computer Networks: First Results from a Microeconomic Model, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.57 Andreas Novy: Raum-Macht: Eine vergessene Kategorie der Weltstadtforschung, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC.56 Franz Tödtling, Alexander Kaufmann, Sabine Sedlacek: The State of a Regional Innovation System in Styria: Conclusions and Policy Proposals, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC. 56a Michael Hähnle: R&D Collaboration between CERN and Industrial Companies: Organizational and Spatial Aspects, 1998 | free download |
| SRE-DISC. 55 (Research Report) Edward Bergman, Edward Feser, Stuart Sweeney: Targeting North Carolina Manufacturing: Understanding A State Economy Through National Industrial Cluster Analysis, 1998 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 54 : Becker Joachim, Andreas Novy, Territorial Regulation and the Vienna Region: a historical-geographical overview, 1996 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 53 : Franz Tödtling, Firm Strategies and Restructuring in a Globalising Economy, 1995 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 52 : Andreas Novy, "What about organizations in regional science?" Organisationsbezogene Elemente der Stadt- und Regionalentwicklungstheorie, 1995 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 51 : Andreas Birner, Hermann Fried, Andreas Novy, Walter B. Stöhr, Local Development Initiatives - an Intercultural Comparison: Life Strategies and Global Structural Change, 1995 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 50: Edward J. Malecki, Franz Tödtling, The New Flexible Economy: Shaping Regional and Local Institutions for Global Competition, 1994 | *) |
| IIR-DISC. 49 Franz Tödtling, Regional Networks of High-Technology Firms - The Case of the Greater Boston Region, 1993 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 48: Ewan Sutherland, Silicon Glenn; a technological Brigadoon? an analysis of the electronics and IT industries in Scotland, 1993 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 47: Gunther Maier, Andreas Wildberger, Wide Area Networks and Regional Science: Recent Developments and Future Prospects, 1992 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 46: Franz Tödtling, The Uneven Landscape of Innovation Poles: Local Embeddedness and Global Networks, 1992 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 45: Walter B. Stöhr, Richard Pöninghaus, The Effect of New Technology and Organizational Infrastructure on Urban and Regional Development: The Case of the Japanese Technopolis Policy, 1991 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 44: Richard N.L. Andrews, The Environment: Why should Business Schools Care? (And how should they respond if they do?), 1990 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 43: Peter Roberts, The Origins and Recent Experience of Public-Private Partnership in Local Economic Development in the United Kingdom, 1990 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 42: Herwig Palme, Das neue weltwirtschaftliche Entwicklungsmodell und die Rolle des geographischen Raumes, 1989 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 41: Michael I. Luger, Harvey A. Goldstein, Research (Science) Parks as Public Investment: A Critical Assessment, 1989 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 40: Franz Tödtling, Regional Differences and Determinants of Entrepreneurial Innovation - Empirical Results from an Austrian Case Study, 1989 |
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| IIR-DISC. 39: Gunther Maier, The Estimation of Discrete Choice Models by use of the SAS Procedures Bdels by use of the SAS Procedures BPORBIT and MNLOGIT, 1989 |
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| IIR-DISC. 38: Hannes Hoffmann, Umweltfolgen des Straßenverkehrs, 1988 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 37: Walter B. Stöhr, On the Theory and Practice of Local Development in Europe, 1988 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 36: Gunther Maier, Peter Weiss, Rationality and Qualitative Choice in an Institutionalist Framework: Will Much 'Cruder and Simpler Arguments' Really Suffice?, 1988 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 35: Gunther Maier, Uwe Schubert, Environmental Quality And Urban Development: A Simulation Approach, 1987 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 34: Gunther Maier, Uwe Schubert, Long Run Urban Change: Selected Results From A Simulation Framework, 1987 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 33: Walter B. Stöhr, The Spatial Dimension of Technology Policy: A Framework for Evaluating the Systematic Effects of Technological Innovation, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 32: Franz Tödtling, Betriebliche Reorganisation und regionale Industrie-Entwicklung bei veränderten Rahmenbedingungen 1973-1981 in Österreich, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 31: Gunther Maier, Peter Rogerson, Discrete Choice, Optimal Search and Spatial Interaction Models: Some Fundamental Relationships, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 30: Peter Weiss, Gunther Maier, Shelby Gerking, The Economic Evaluation of Job Safety. A Methodological Survey and some Estimates for Austria, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 29: Gunther Maier, The Impact of Optimal Job Search Models on the Modelling of Migration Behavior, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 28: Walter Stöhr, Territorial Innovation Complexes, 1986 | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 27: Gunther Maier, Die Schätzung diskreter Entscheidungsmodelle mit Hilfe der SAS Prozeduren BPROBIT und MNLOGIT, 1985. | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 26: Walter Stöhr, Regional Technological and Institutional Innovation. The CaseTechnological and Institutional Innovation. The Case of the Japanese Technopolis Policy, 1985. | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 25: Ewald Brunner, Uwe Schubert, Labor Demand, Capital Mobility and R&D Investment in a Multiregional Context, 1985. | free download |
| IIR-DISC. 24: Herwig Palme, Peter Hampapa, Regional Differentiation in India's Rural Economy. A Statistical Analysis, 1985 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.23: Gunther Maier, Franz Tödtling, Regionale Arbeitsplatzentwicklung nach Qualifikationsintensität und organisatorischem Status von Betrieben bei veränderten Rahmenbedingungen (1973-1981) in Österreich, 1985 | *) |
| IIR-SEPARATA 22: Jörg Flecker, Luise Gubitzer, Franz Tödtling, Betriebliche Selbstverwaltung und eigenständige Regionalentwicklung am Beispiel der Genossenschaften von Mondragon, 1985 |
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| IIR-DISC.21: Walter Stöhr, Industrial Structural Change and Regional Development Strategies. Towards a conceptual framework, 1985 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.20: Gunther Maier, Uwe Schubert, Energy Use, Environmental Quality and Urban Population Change, 1984 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.19: Walter Stöhr, Selective Self-Reliance and Endogenolter Stöhr, Selective Self-Reliance and Endogenous Regional Development - Preconditions and Constraints, 1984 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.18a: Franz Tödtling, Organisatorischer Status von Betrieben und Regionale Innovationsdisparitäten in Österreich, 1983 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.18: Franz Tödtling, Organisational Characteristics of Plants in Core and Peripheral Regions of Austria, 1983 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.17: Walter Stöhr, Changing External Conditions and a Paradigm Shift in Regional Development Strategies?, 1983 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.16: Gunther Maier, Migration Decision with Imperfect Information, 1983 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.15a: Walter Stöhr, Franz Tödtling, Quantitative, qualitative, and structural variables in the evaluation of regional development policies in Western Europe (English version of IIR-DISC.15), 1982 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.15: Walter Stöhr, Franz Tödtling, Quantitative, qualitative und strukturelle Aspekte der Regionalpolitik aus europäischer Sicht, 1982 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.14: Walter Stöhr, Einflüsse der Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarktlage auf die räumliche Entwicklung, 1981 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.13: Walter Stöhr, Structural Characteristics
of Peripheral Areas and the Relevance of the stock-in-trade Variables of
Regional Science |
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| IIR-DISC.12: Uwe Schubert, Capital mobility and labor demand in urban agglomerations during the suburbanisation process, an econometric approach, 1981 | free download |
| IIR-SEPARATA 11: Walter Stöhr, Evaluation of Some Arguments Against Government Intervention to Influence Territorial Population Distribution, 1981 | free download |
| IIR-SEPARATA 10: Walter Stöhr, D.R.F.Taylor, Development from Above or Below? The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Countries, 1981 | free download |
| IIR-SEPARATA 9: Walter Stöhr, Towards 'Another' Regional Development? In Search of a Strategy of Truly 'Integrated' Regional Development, 1980 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.8: Johann Baumann, Uwe Schubert, Regional Labor Force Participation in Austria, 1980 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.7: Uwe Schubert, Walter Stöhr, Ansätze für eine koordinierte Wirtschaftspolitik in der Länderregion Ost, 1980 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.6: Walter Stöhr, Development from Below: the Bottom-up and Periphery-inward Development Paradigm, 1980 (die Periphery-inward Development Paradigm, 1980 (dieses Papier ist eine weiter entwickelte Version von IIR-DISC.4; this paper is further developed from IIR-DISC.4) | free download |
| IIR-DISC.5: Uwe Schubert, Peter Hampapa, A Simultaneous Model of Regional Investment and Labor Demand, 1979 | *) |
| IIR-DISC.4: Walter Stöhr, Center-down-and-outward Development vs. Periphery-up-and-inward Development: A Comparison of two Paradigms, 1978 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.3: Walter Stöhr, Franz Tödtling, Spatial Equity - Some Anti-Theses to Current Regional Development Doctrine, 1978 | free download |
| IIR-DISC.2: Uwe Schubert, Einkommens- und Beschäftigungsmultiplikatoren öffentlicher Investitionen Wiens auf die Bundesländer, 1977 | *) |
| IIR-DISC.1: Walter Stöhr, Franz Tödtling, Evaluation of Regional Policies: Experiences in Market and Mixed Economies, 1977 | *) |
| Forschungsberichte / Research Reports | Price |
|---|---|
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 13: Franz Tödtling, Regionale Unterschiede und Einflußgrößen der betrieblichen Innovation: Ergebnisse regionaler Fallstudien für Österreich, 1988 | free download |
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 12: Gunther Maier, Eric Sheppard, Franz Tödtling, Economic Restructuring and theanz Tödtling, Economic Restructuring and the Geography of Organizational Control: Austria 1973-1981, 1988 | free download |
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 11: Franz Tödtling, Regionale Unterschiede der Forschungs- und Entwicklungstätigkeit der österreichischen Industrie 1981 und ihre Zusammenhänge mit der regionalen Betriebsstruktur, 1984 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 10: Gunther Maier, Franz Tödtling, Betriebs- und Arbeitsmarktentwicklung in österreichischen Regionen in der Periode der Wachstumsverlangsamung, 1984 | free download |
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 9: Gunther Maier, Peter Weiss, The importance of regional factors for the income distribution in Austria, 1981 | free download |
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 8: Hubert Herzog, Konjunkturelle Entwicklung der Nachkriegszeit in Österreich 1950-1980, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 7: Hubert Herzog, Regionalpolitik für periphere wirtschaftsschwache Gebiete in Österreich auf Bundes- und Landesebene, 1955-198O, dargestellt am Fallbeispiel Niederösterreich, 1983 | free download |
| IIR-FORSCHUNG 6: Jörn Kaniak, Die Entwicklung des kommunalen Steueraufkommens in zentralen und peripheren Gebieten Österreichs zwischen 1961-1973, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 5: Jörn Kaniak, Tendenzen der Veränderung zentralörtlicher Strukturen in peripheren Gebieten Österreichs, 1959-1977, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 4: Gunther Maier, Bildungs- und Altersspezifische Migration in Österreich, 1966-1977, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 3: Gunther Maier, Ausgewählte Charakteristika der österreichischen Gebietstypen in Bezug auf Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft, 1971-1981, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 2: Gunther Maier, Regionale Verteilung und zeitliche Entwicklung der Indikatoren des Entwicklungsstandes und des Erreichbarkeitspotentials der österreichischen Bezirke, 1961-1981, 1983 |
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| IIR-FORSCHUNG 1: Jörn Kaniak, Theorie und Methode zur Abgrenzung peripherer Gebiete und zur Messung des regionalen Entwicklungsstandes in Österreich, 1961-1973, 1983 | free download |
*) vergriffen / out of print
Most publications are available for free download (see column Price). Where prices are given, they are all in EURO. Prices as specified plus postage. Orders can be placed by E-mail.