1. Understanding sustainability as a cyclical process: insights from social innovation and the adaptive cycle.
- Author
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Dare, Alexa M., Dittrich, Ruth, Schondel, Macey, Lowney, Molly, and Hill, Gregory
- Subjects
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SOCIAL innovation , *SUSTAINABILITY , *TECHNOLOGICAL innovations , *UNIVERSITIES & colleges , *SEMI-structured interviews - Abstract
Purpose: This paper aims to understand why higher education institutions (HEIs) struggle to become sustainable institutions themselves despite providing relevant teaching and research on sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: Using 17 open-ended, semistructured interviews to determine common themes (codes) regarding sustainability, the authors mapped those codes to the adaptive cycle from social innovation theory. Findings: Using the adaptive cycle offered a framework for understanding sustainability at HEIs as a cyclical process where innovation occurs in ebbs and flows. Differing perceptions of power by students and faculty slow down the process, and cross-collaboration is the key to further sustainability. Practical implications: Insights from the adaptive cycle can contribute to HEI assessment of its sustainability initiatives by identifying the stage of the adaptive cycle relevant to the institution's present sustainability work. Originality/value: Applying the adaptive cycle is an original way of understanding the process of anchoring sustainability at HEIs providing concrete insights into advancing this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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