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This article introduces Fairkauf, a charitable thrift store, in Stuttgart, Germany and analyzes its work and participation in alternative economies of reuse, repair, repurposing, sharing, and care, and the store's contributions to ecological and social sustainability. Thrift stores are contemporary responses to overproduction, hyper-consumption, social inequality, and ecological degradation. This article provides a nuanced ethnographic description of a thrift store. Such stores are often overlooked, yet they play a crucial role in individual and urban sustainability efforts. They are spaces of incidental sustainability that do not loudly advertise their work, but quietly help thrifters pursue more ecological lifestyles and help cities divert huge quantities of materials from landfills and incinerators. Thrift stores' labor connects thrifters to activities and networks of often similarly hidden sustainability efforts by ordinary people across the world. Theoretically, I engage the role of thrift stores in alternative economies that contribute to more ecologically and socially sustainable lifeworlds and futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising energy costs have led to increased discussion about the social impact of the energy transition in Germany in recent years. In 2021, a gradually increasing CO2 tax was introduced. This paper analyzes the question of whether a CO2 tax can be socially just. Using data analysis and desk research, correlations between income and energy consumption in Germany are shown. In a short analysis, it is investigated which additional burdens different types of private households have to expect in the coming years due to the introduction of CO2 pricing on energy. In particular, the introduction of a per capita flat rate fed by CO2 tax revenues could be a suitable way to reduce the burden on low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of SWS - Rundschau is the property of Verein fur interdisziplinare sozialwissenschaftliche Studien und Analysen and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The adoption of digital technologies is expected to impact the social sustainability of agriculture, in particular in the case of small and mid-sized family farms in Western Europe. Goal of this research was to assess these impacts, however widely accepted impact assessment schemes of social sustainability are missing. Against this background, a qualitative, two-stage Delphi survey was conducted in order to identify relevant impact categories of the adoption of digital technologies in family-operated small-scale farms of South-West Germany. The participating experts stated, for example, that the adoption of digital technologies on the farm could mean that new business models can be based on the use of digital technologies. However, they also stated that digital technology could overburden farmers, which could hinder digitization in this sector as a whole. Data protection and data security were also issues ranked highly important by the participants in the Delphi Process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that overcoming the social-ecological crises we face requires major changes to the food system. However, opinions diverge on the question whether those 'great efforts' towards sustainability require systemic changes or merely systematic ones. Drawing upon Brand and Wissen's concept of "imperial modes of living" (Rev Int Polit Econ 20:687–711, 2013; The imperial mode of living: everyday life and the ecological crisis of capitalism, Verso, London/New York, 2021), we ask whether the lively debates about sustainability and 'ethical' consumption among producers and consumers in Germany are far reaching enough to sufficiently reduce the imperial weight on the environment and other human and nonhuman animals. By combining discourse analysis of agri-food businesses' sustainability reports with narrative consumer interviews, we examine understandings of sustainability in discourses concerning responsible food provision and shed light on how those discourses are inscribed in consumers' everyday food practices. We adopt Ehgartner's discursive frames of 'consumer sovereignty', 'economic rationality', and 'stewardship' to illustrate our findings, and add a fourth one of 'legitimacy'. Constituting the conditions under which food-related themes become sustainability issues, these frames help businesses to (1) individualise the responsibility to enact changes, (2) tie efforts towards sustainability to financial profits, (3) subject people and nature to the combination of care and control, and (4) convey legitimacy through scientific authority. We discuss how these frames, mirrored in some consumer narratives, work to sideline deeper engagement with ecological sustainability and social justice, and how they brush aside the desires of some ostensibly 'sovereign' consumers to overcome imperial modes of food provision through much more far reaching, systemic changes. Finally, we reflect on possible paths towards a de-imperialised food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing agricultural sustainability is one of the most challenging tasks related to expertise and support methodologies because it entails multidisciplinary aspects and builds on cultural and value-based elements. Thus, agricultural sustainability should be considered a social concept, reliable enough to support decision makers and policy development in a broad context. The aim of this manuscript was to develop a methodology for the assessment of the sustainability of soil improving cropping systems (SICS) in Europe. For this purpose, a decision tree based on weights (%) was chosen because it allows more flexibility. The methodology was tested with data from the SoilCare Horizon 2020 study site in Germany for the assessment of the impact of the integration of cover crops into the crop rotation. The effect on the environmental indicators was slightly positive, but most assessed properties did not change over the short course of the experiment. Farmers reported that the increase in workload was outweighed by a reputation gain for using cover crops. The incorporation of cover crops reduced slightly the profitability, due to the costs for seeds and establishment of cover crops. The proposed assessment methodology provides a comprehensive summary to assess the agricultural sustainability of SICS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current animal-based food systems are being challenged by environmental, social and economic sustainability issues. A systemic transformation from conventional agriculture to a more sustainable cellular agriculture utilising cell-cultivation technologies to produce animal products has been proposed. The aim of this study is to explore the political and policy stakeholders' perceptions about cellular agriculture; how they perceive of the current food system and its potential transformation into a cellular agricultural system. The qualitative data comprises 13 interviews conducted with representatives of German stakeholders. The data were analysed with the Transformative Innovation Policy approach. Perceptions of the transformative potential of cultured products were classified into drivers and bottlenecks that either advance or hinder the progress of cellular agriculture in Germany. The results show that the political and policy stakeholders are aware of the changes that are needed, but anticipate that large-scale transformation to the cellular agriculture system may not be a plausible solution in the near future. • Political and policy stakeholders' perceptions of cellular agriculture and cultured meat tend to be ambiguous. • The Transformative Innovation Policy approach was used to assess the transformative potential of cellular agriculture. • The stakeholders addressed 22 themes that could be utilised for or against cultured meat. • The themes were further classified as hindering bottlenecks and advancing drivers of the development of cultured meat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents results from a research on the relevance and challenges of collaboration for the long-term sustainability of rural community enterprises. The study relies on Communities of Practice and Degrowth theories. Methods include semi-standardised interviews and focused ethnography in two community enterprises in rural areas in Germany and Portugal. Main results confirm the relevance of collaborative relations with residents, public sector, peer organisations and within the teams for both stability and transformative power of the organisations' work. Respectful handling of privileges and balance in participation and professionalisation support sustainability, whereas institutional stagnation and involuntary degrowth may risk it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an innovative grassroots movement connecting consumers with a local farm, has rapidly spread across Germany and other industrialized countries. An increasing number of consumers who are dissatisfied with conventional food supply chains have signed up to receive fresh produce, support a local community and protect the environment. So far little is known, though, about the underlying value structures of CSA. Nevertheless, identifying factors influencing consumers' interest in CSA is regarded as a major aim of contemporary CSA research. This research aims to provide insights into CSA members' value structures, and delineates CSA members by comparing their value structures to those of the German population in general. Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire was used in a standardized online survey of CSA members to mirror the dataset which is available to the German public via the European Social Survey. A total sample of 205 CSA members was used to examine common value structures by comparing them with the German public. This study's findings strongly indicate that a CSA membership goes along with a characteristic value pattern: CSA members highly appreciate self-transcendence and openness to change, but tend to reject conservation and self-enhancement values. Addressing members' preference for openness to change and self-transcendence may help CSAs to reduce fluctuation rates. It might also enhance CSA marketing strategy by addressing potential members' interests more precisely. Therefore, identifying and communicating common values of a CSA might be a key factor in determining its long-term success and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The analysis of innovations and technologies aimed at improving the sustainability of mining activity has become important in recent decades. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the dynamics of this line of research worldwide between 1998 and 2017. A bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of a sample of 2,562 articles was developed along with an analytical framework based on the mine life cycle and the three areas of sustainability (economic, social and environmental). The results show that sustainability research has grown at a much higher rate than that of mining and minerals research. The three journals that have published the most articles on this line of research are Journal of Cleaner Production, Environmental Science and Technology, and Gornyi Zhurnal , and the three countries with the highest number of published articles are the USA, China, and Germany. Some 60.9%, 30.9%, and 8.2% of the analysed mining innovations impact environmental, economic, and social sustainability, respectively, and some 7.1% affect the exploration phase, 84.8% the exploitation phase, and 8.1% the closure phase. The analysis of issues related to environmental sustainability becomes more relevant as the exploration phase moves on to exploitation and closure. The primary challenges and future lines of research are in reducing energy use and increasing the use of renewable sources, analysing the social sustainability of current mining activities, and achieving clean production in the development of new mining activity environments (ice-covered areas and the ocean floor). This work provides new perspectives on the analysis and integral assessment of innovations and technologies aimed at making mining activity more sustainable, particularly where the contributions to the environmental, economic, and social fields are valued. Graphical abstract Image 109 Higlights • Innovation and technology are key factors for mining sustainability. • A systematic review and bibliometric analysis have been performed on 2562 articles. • Mining expansion to icy and ocean soil presents challenges to cleaner production. • The pending subject of mining activity related to sustainability is social field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lack of transparency and the relative invisibility of social and environmental issues in supply chains render the implementation of sustainability without the involvement of suppliers difficult. For this, buying companies apply different sustainable supply chain management practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether buying companies' assessment and cooperation practices enable suppliers to adopt similar practices and thereby further cascade social sustainability requirements to sub-suppliers. While both practices' effects on suppliers' sustainability performance have been investigated, this question has not yet been adequately addressed. To ensure social sustainability along the entire supply chain, we need a deeper understanding of the relationships between the sustainable supply chain management practices of buyers and suppliers. We respond to calls to further investigate the role of inter-organizational learning in the context of sustainability in supply chains. As the supplier perspective remains under-researched in the literature, we conducted a survey among manufacturing sector suppliers in Germany. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships between buying companies' assessment and cooperation practices and suppliers' adoption of sustainable supply chain management practices. Our findings reveal that there is a trickle-down effect of sustainable supply chain practices from buying companies to suppliers, and from suppliers to sub-suppliers. Only cooperation practices prove to be effective for the development of suppliers' sustainability capabilities, in contrast to assessment practices. Our findings contribute to the literature on sustainable supply chain management by providing a key building block for understanding the effects of assessment and cooperation practices. We are among the first to provide insights on the mechanism of cascading sustainable supply chain management practices in supply chains. [Display omitted] • Suppliers' adoption of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. • Trickle-down effect of sustainable supply chain practices from buyers to suppliers. • Size matters for suppliers' SSCM capabilities and practices. • Cooperation practices enable suppliers to build SSCM capabilities. • Assessment practices have no effect on suppliers' SSCM capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First application of policy mix thinking to social innovation. • Exploration of top-down ('design') and bottom-up ('real-world') policy mix delineation. • Development of field of participatory incubation and experimentation in energy in Germany. • Assessment of policy mix elements against creative destruction functions. • Suggestions for conceptualizing policy mixes for accelerating socio-technical change. So far, the emerging literature on policy mixes for sustainability transitions has paid little attention to social innovation. This seems at odds with recent claims that transformative policies should promote a wide range of innovation, and social innovation in particular. In this paper, we explore whether and how policy mix delineation and analytical approaches that were developed primarily with technological innovation in mind can be usefully applied to social innovation. We examine empirical case study evidence, and proceed in two steps: after an initial top-down mapping of the focal policy mix for social innovation in energy in Germany, we conduct a bottom-up mapping of the policy mix relevant for the social innovation field of 'participatory incubation and experimentation' in Germany's energy sector. Based on our insights we discuss the relevance and recognition of social innovation in sustainability transition policy mixes, and offer research and policy implications for accelerating socio-technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a first year doctoral research regarding the current state of knowledge in environmental sustainability, energy economics and their impact on European enterprises. As the current changes and modifications of the German energy economics system are observed by people all around the globe, the current paper analyzes what has been said until now in the scientific literature on character of the new strategy for energy consumption and production in Germany and its impact on environmental and social sustainability. With the help of two questionnaire-based surveys conducted in 2013 and 2014 through the German DIHK1, German enterprises were surveyed in order to: identify potential differences and similarities between the two periods, identify the effects of the energy transition on companies' profitability, and analyze these effects and compare the results in terms of potential trend developments. The research findings confirmed that changes in the energy system affect not only the environmental sustainability only, but also the economy, in some cases even independent of the stage in which the changing system of the economy presently is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social sustainability remains a relatively underdeveloped and contested field. Recalling older notions of social mixing and 'balanced neighbourhoods' two concepts of 'sustainability of community' and 'social equity' have recently emerged as core social sustainability principles, but uncertainty remains over the spatial scale at which the principles should be applied. The aim of this paper is to broaden the existing literature by means of detailed case study research on neighbourhood development in the German city of Freiburg, where demographic concentration has led to ageing in place and the undermining of community infrastructure and services. Although new car-reduced neighbourhoods of Vauban and Rieselfeld look likely to replicate this pattern, the city has shifted policy towards smaller 'fresh cell' developments designed to inject younger residents into ageing neighbourhoods to create a more even social balance, viable services and community infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]