Page 27 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

10 J. Godemann and G. Michelsen

types of rationality as well as the consequences of one’s own actions, which are an
intrinsic part of such an engagement. The use of a variety of different communicative
planning and participation instruments plays a role here, from future workshops to
future conferences as well as round tables and mediation or advocacy planning and
eParticipation.
A broader context of sustainability communication involves examining education
processes. Education has the medium and long-term goal of assisting learners to
acquire the basic knowledge and competencies needed to actively shape a sustainable
future for life and work as well as enabling them to participate and empowering them
to take action. The goal of an education for sustainable development (ESD) is to help
create the conditions for self-determined and autonomous action and not just to train
changes in behaviour. ESD aims at developing and enhancing the creative potential
in the individual, his competencies in communication and cooperative work as well
as problem-solving and taking action. Learning processes need to be initiated that
allow an individual to sharpen his awareness in both private and working life of what
is ecologically responsible, economically feasible and socially acceptable as well as
enabling him to make the corresponding changes in his behaviour. Such ESD pro-
cesses take place in both the formal and informal educational sector.

Places and Contents of Sustainability Communication

Sustainability communication takes place on a number of different levels in the
public sphere. The discussion involves arguments, possibilities to take action and
positions on societal development, is derived from economic, ecological, social and
cultural perspectives, and is found in a field of discourse that includes all social
systems. This communication among different social systems, such as politics, law,
science, business or education, works to prevent sustainability problems and their
causes from being separated from economic or socio-cultural developments and
encourages potential solutions to be examined in a holistic fashion.
Sustainability communication also addresses issues like biodiversity, climate,
mobility or consumption, to name only a few examples. Two types of communica-
tion can be distinguished here. On the one hand there is societal discourse as com-
munication about a specific topic and on the other there is the communication of a
specific topic in order to achieve specific effects. Communication about a specific
sustainability topic requires an inter- or transdisciplinary approach in order to com-
prehend both the breadth and the depth of a problem and its possible solutions. In
communication of a specific sustainability topic the issue of communication meth-
ods and their effects is of greater interest.
When new topics, concepts and modes of sustainability communication are being
developed and implemented it is important to also evaluate the specific measures and
interventions so as to ensure and improve the quality of the concepts and programmes.
The use of evaluation tools is however not always considered an integral part of sus-
tainability communication. In sustainability communication, evaluation processes
must also be adapted to the level action and the related communication processes.