Workshops Workshops 2004   Workshop Four Workshop Five Workshop Six Workshop Seven Workshop Eight Workshop "Sustainability and Private Households - Between Consumption and (Re-) Production" The goal of this workshop is to identify research needs in economics on the role of private households in sustainable development. The workshop consists of two sections. Section 1 deals with the role of private households in sustainable consumption. Guiding questions are: What relationship exists between consumption, individual ways of living (living conditions, life styles) and sustainability? What conclusions for policy design can be drawn from economic research on sustainable consumption? Section 2 looks at the contribution of private households to (re-)producing the productive potential of society. Its guiding questions are: In how far can economic research on private households - that goes beyond their role as consumers - contribute to explaining household decisions and behavior in the context of sustainable development? What conclusions for policy design with respect to "sustainable household behavior" can be drawn from the discussed research approaches? Programme Proceedings Conclusions _back to top Workshop "Innovation and Sustainability" The importance of innovation for sustainable development arises particularly from its potential to increase economic and or ecological efficiency by reducing existing "trade-offs" and creating "win-wins" between the ecological, economic and social sustainability goals. How sustainability innovations can be characterized using operational criteria remains to a large extent unclear. Many innovations also have ambivalent effects on different sustainability goals, so that the question arises about the possibility of directing innovation towards sustainability. The first day of the Workshop investigates the level of actual knowledge and the research needed regarding: the demarcation of sustainability innovations and the steering of innovations towards integrated sustainability. The following points will be discussed in depth on the second day of the workshop: the role of organizational and behavioral innovations for sustainability and the empirical modelling of sustainability innovation. The workshop will conducted together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe. Programme Proceedings _back to top Workshop "Sustainability and Uncertainty - Challenges for an Interdisciplinary Theory" This workshop deals with the pervasive issue of uncertainty that surrounds the concept of sustainability as any long-term economic or social policy. Based on a systematic review of cutting-edge approaches of decision theory and ethics on the rational treatment of uncertainty, the workshop discusses theories of learning and how they affect optimal decision making in the face of uncertainty. Participants will also consider issues of valuation of natural and social capital and the role of insurance in the face of growing risk of natural catastrophes. This workshop will be jointly organized with the Interdisciplinary Institute for Environmental Economics of the University of Heidelberg Programme Background Paper Proceedings _back to top Workshop "Sustainability and Development - Empirical and Theoretical Challenges" This workshop addresses selected issues of global sustainable development. They include: I) Conceptional issues regarding environment and development taking the perspective of development economics, II) Implications stemming from the empirical analyses of growth, development and resource depletion using new theoretical approaches (growth theory and development economics). III) Possible integration of empirical concepts on unequal exchange in physical terms into economic modelling, esp. trade modelling. IV) Effects of so-called forerunner or precursor positions of single nations on competitions and implications for sustainable development. Programme Background Paper Proceedings _back to top Workshop "Sustainability Impact Assessement - Challenges for an Integrated Ecological-Economic Modelling" This workshop addresses sustainability impact assessment by means of integrated ecological and economic modelling. Following the recommendations of the workshop on "Measuring Sustainabilty" in 2003, this workshop investigates actual and potential areas in which integration of economic and ecological models could lead to a better understanding of sustainability impacts of policy measures. As examples for successful integrated models, workshop participants present models on climate change, biodiversity, and protection of water reservoires. Also, general methodological issues are part of the workshop programme. Programme Background Paper Proceedings _back to top	Workshops 2003 Workshops 2004