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PD Dr. Basil Bornemann

Department of Social Sciences
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Projects & Collaborations

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Food coalitions beyond the local scale: spaces for a democratic sustainability transformation

Research Project  | 5 Project Members

Food production and consumption have a significant impact on the environment and often promote social inequalities. Globalization has led to a concentration of economic and political power that makes the food system vulnerable to crises.

Despite these challenges, there is an increasing recognition of the importance of international trade and new technologies that connect people worldwide. New ways to engage in international trade emerge, focusing on environmental protection, social welfare, transparency, and democratic decision-making in economic activities. However, it is still unclear whether these alternative approaches actually contribute to a more democratic and sustainable global economy or simply promote new forms of ‘green growth’. This knowledge gap is addressed by the project.

Content and objectives

The project investigates alternative forms of globalized commodity chains. It focuses on Trans-Local Food Coalitions (TLFCs), organizations of different forms (cooperatives, companies, etc.) that strengthen relationships between producers and consumers in different geographical areas. Examples include Teikei Coffee, an organization practicing international community supported agriculture that sources fair trade coffee directly from farmers in Mexico, and Choba Choba Chocolate, a company that empowers cocoa farmers. Using TLFCs as an example, the project will identify opportunities and limitations of alternative forms of governance to support democratic and sustainable transformations of food chains.

Research approach

The research project combines mapping, a survey, and qualitative case studies in a comparative perspective. To enable comparisons, the focus of the empirical analysis is on TLFCs that start (production) or end (consumption) in the German-Swiss-Austrian (GSA) region. Based on a transdisciplinary approach, this empirical study will provide a typology of TLFCs in the GSA region and a consolidated conceptual framework of governance, democracy, and sustainability. As a result of a comparative analysis of selected TLFCs, practical individual and comparative case study reports will be generated and recommendations for optimized governance co-created.

Project consortium

The project is a collaborative effort between the University of Basel, the Technical University of Berlin, and the BOKU Vienna. It is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (total funding amount: CHF 993.000). 

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TrAnsformative StädTische Ernährungsprojekte: Was bewährt sich wo und wie? (TASTE)

Research Project  | 2 Project Members

Die Debatte über eine nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Weiterentwicklung von Agrarsystemen in der «Fläche» wird seit vielen Jahren breit und konstruktiv geführt. Die Erreichung der SDGs im Zusammenhang mit Ernährungssystemen hängt aber massgeblich auch vom Verhalten der Akteure - Bürger*innen und Verbraucher*innen. Produzent*innen, Händler*innen, Policy-Maker - in Städten ab. Dementsprechend ist seit Kurzem eine verstärkte Hinwendung der wissenschaftlichen und politisch-praktischen Aufmerksamkeit in Richtung städtischer Ernährungssysteme zu beobachten. In städtischen Kontexten haben sich in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche neue (staatliche, zivilgesellschaftliche und privatwirtschaftliche) Initiativen und Projekte formiert, die ihrem Selbstverständnis nach zu einer nachhaltigkeits-orientierten Transformation urbaner Ernährungssysteme beitragen möchten. Dazu gehören etwa alternative Formen der städtischen Nahrungsmittelerzeugung (urban farming bzw. gardening), neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit von lokalen Erzeugern und Verarbeitern, aber auch Food Sharing-Initiativen. Die Projekte in diesem Bereich sind sehr divers, kaum systematisch erfasst und hinsichtlich ihrer transformativen Potentiale nur ansatzweise verstanden, geschweige denn einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit bekannt. Das Projekt zielt auf die Erfassung, das Sichtbarmachen und die kommunikative Verbreitung besonders erfolgreicher Projekte zur Transformation städtischer Ernährungssysteme in der Schweiz. Es schafft die Möglichkeit, dass städtische Ernährungsakteure (in Stadtverwaltungen, Zivilgesellschaft und Wirtschaft) von positiven Beispielen lernen und Handlungskapazitäten im Hinblick auf die Ausgestaltung und Umsetzung nachhaltigkeitsorientierter Ernährungsprojekte im städtischen Kontext aufbauen. Im Rahmen des Projekts fokussieren wir auf Ernährungspraktiken in vier grossen (Basel, Zürich, Lausanne, Bern) und vier mittelgrossen (Biel, Chur, Schaffhausen, Schwyz) Schweizer Städten. Während die Klärung besonders erfolgreicher Projekte im Rahmen der Solution Initiative selbst erfolgen wird, wird es aller Voraussicht nach um Projekte in den folgenden Bereichen gehen: 1) Produktion: Alternative städtische Lebensmittelproduktion vor allem in kooperativen Formaten (z.B. Urban Farming, Urban Gardening, Aquaponic) 2) Verarbeitung: Neue Formen der Lebensmittelverarbeitung in städtischen Kontexten (z.B. Umstellung auf Lebensmittel mit kleinerem ökologischen Fussabdruck in Grossküchen, kooperative Küchen, lokale Wertschöpfung) 3) Verteilung: Neue Formate des städtischen Vertriebs von Lebensmitteln (z.B. städtische Tafeln, Lebensmittelkooperativen, Foodsharing-Projekte)

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Mapping Sustainability in Swiss Nutritional Guidelines

Research Project  | 5 Project Members

Our modern food system is fundamentally undermining the environment, health, and social justice. It is multifaceted, with many actors and contested interests. When it comes to consumption, the voices become even more diverse, as diets are highly personal and related to many factors such as culture, affordability, taste, and environment. Individuals and organizations might want to look for reliable and clear guidance on how to better consume. Nutritional Guidelines can be influential instruments to offer such direction. Not surprisingly, the context of these guidelines might not be uniform and lead to varying diet stories, especially in the case of sustainability. Considering this context, in our research project, we propose to map sustainability in the existing Swiss Nutritional Guidelines (NGs) to clarify questions such as: What are the dominant NGs in Switzerland? How arethey approaching Sustainability? What are the trade-offs and synergies that are rising from different dimensions within NGs? Our research aims are the following: (1) To review the NGs in Switzerland and asses them through five dimensions: economic, social, environmental, health and governance; (2) To analyse the emergent key trade-offs and synergies within these dimensions; (3) To engage with stakeholders to complement the findings; (4) To generate a Sustainable-Diet Map.

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The sustainabilization of the state. Forms, Functions and Formation of Sustainability Governance in Swiss Cantons

Research Project  | 3 Project Members

This project builds on emerging practices of states to establish institutional capacities for coping with commitments related to sustainable development on the one hand, and on existing scientific claims demanding that states have to transform themselves in order to play a decisive role in sustainability governance on the other hand (e.g. claims on policy integration, participation etc.). We want to capture this perceived and claimed "differentness" theoretically and by analyzing the states' concrete endeavors to sustainabilize themselves. Accordingly, the project strives for contributing to an improved understanding of the self-transformation of the political-administrative system toward sustainability.Hereby, the project builds on the results of an explorative pre-study. To substantiate this preliminary work, we will approach the overall question on three levels. First, we look at the generic aspects of "sustainabilization" on a conceptual level. We especially want to elaborate a framework of the sustainable state with regard to its own internal and external governance functions. Second and based on the according conceptual basis, we will empirically analyze the practical efforts of sustainabilizing Swiss cantonal administrations. An important reason for choosing the subnational level is that the pre-study revealed a diversity of already developed practices. Hence, the framework could be applied to different cases and an informative comparison can be established. Third, the project includes a practice-oriented level by collaborating with cantonal representatives in an accompanying focus group not only to disseminate research results, but also to ensure a mutual learning process between the practitioners and the research team. The latter builds on the dialogue between scholars and sustainability administrators from Swiss cantons already established in the pre-study.The scientific part is composed of a theoretical part and an empirical part. We first develop an analytical framework of the sustainable state, based on a critical discussion of concepts from transition, sustainability, and governance theory. The empirical part will be guided but what we take to be a new and innovative framework. Based on a documentary analysis to reveal existing forms of the sustainable state in all Swiss cantons, we will select distinct cases for further in-depth inquiries. We will employ a qualitative case study approach to investigate the working of sustainability governance arrangements in selected Swiss cantons and we will assess their capacities to bring forth functions of sustainable governance with reference to the analytical framework. To do so, we will conduct interviews with key actors in the public administration as well societal actors. We will analyze the data using methods of qualitative content analysis. Finally, and employing the method of process tracing, we will capture the formation of sustainability governance arrangements in the selected cases.With the project, we add innovative knowledge to the sustainability governance literature in mainly four respects. First, it establishes an informed notion of the governance functions of the sustainable state. Second, it provides empirical knowledge on sustainable transformation processes within the state along the studied Swiss cantons. Third, it illuminates the role of key sustainability actors in transforming governance. Fourth, the project adds practical, socially robust knowledge to improve the capacities for sustainability governance in Swiss cantons.

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Sustainability governance in Swiss cantons - making sense of principles and practices (SusGovPrincPrac)

Research Project  | 3 Project Members

Sustainability governance (SG) is supposed to be integrative, adaptive, reflexive and participatory - just to name a few of the principles that are currently discussed by scholars. These principles imply fundamental changes in the way policy makers and public administrators approach and solve societal problems in terms of governance. However, the concrete practical implications of SG principles remain mostly unclear. Instead of systematically reflecting on the precise meaning of these principles, practitioners tend to operate in a "learning-by-doing" manner when they "do" SG in their everyday practice. Conversely, scientists mostly focus on formal institutional settings and instruments when they analyze SG, but do not take account of actual SG practices and practical settings. Our project aims at a more reflected scholarly discourse and a more effective practice of sustainability governance in Switzerland. It starts from the assumption that science and practice can learn from each other to improve both the practical effectiveness of SG and the quality of scientific analysis. For this purposes, we will launch a transdisciplinary dialogue on SG-related principles and practices in Swiss cantons. Through "transdisciplinary meaning making", we will develop a framework of SG understandings that juxtaposes scientific perspectives with practical understandings of cantonal administrators. This framework will be used to facilitate a process of "transdisciplinary problem framing", which will set the agenda for a larger follow-up research project, which will comprehensively analyze the political-administrative practice of SG.

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Sustainable Development, Governance and Democracy - The Theory and Practice of Transitions Towards Sustainable Democracies

Research Project  | 2 Project Members

Against the backdrop of persistent problems of unsustainability, there is lively debate both in politics and in science on how to govern societies towards more sustainable pathways. In conceptual terms this debate increasingly builds on the notion of 'governance' which highlights both theoretical limits to classical models of political steering and the empirical insight that governments are not the only relevant actors when it comes to the management of societal issues. Instead, at least within the context of modern democracies, the contested, interdependent and dynamic nature of contemporary policymaking has given rise to less hierarchical but more collaborative and polycentric forms of governance. Accordingly, for theoretical and empirical reasons, the governance of modern societies is more and more understood as a shared responsibility of the state, the market and the civil society. This 'new governance complexity' is assumed to entail potentials and threats for sustainable development and democracy throwing up some fundamental questions regarding the relationship between all three concepts: How can societies be governed towards sustainable development in a democratic way? What are the normative and functional requirements of sustainability governance in democratic societies? And what are the empirical conditions as well as prospects and barriers of democratic forms of governance for sustainable development within various political contexts? The project addresses the relationship between governance, sustainable development and democracy in theoretical and empirical respects. First, it will lay a theoretical fundament by elaborating on the concepts of governance, sustainable development and democracy as well as their relationships. Secondly, specific approaches of governance for sustainable development will be critically discussed particularly with regard to their democratic implications. Thirdly, a number of case studies of sustainability governance in different fields such as energy, agriculture and transport (or others) will produce evidence on the democratic problem-solving capacity of different governance arrangements in various contexts. Finally, further theoretical and practical perspectives of democratic governance for sustainable development are sketched out.