While the notion of autarky is often contested in terms of feasibility and desirability, art and design projects that deal with autarky seem to moreover suggest positive socio-cultural and ecological effects of autarkic living. A social network model of autarky is introduced to unify these seemingly …

Video is everywhere. With YouTube becoming one of the biggest social media websites and the explosion of viral video, it has become a very important factor for big brands. With millions and millions of people dancing to ‘Gangnam Style’ and everyone humming ‘Dumb Ways to Die’, video really is able to …

There is growing realisation amongst local communities that the organizations and societies within which they live and work need to become more sustainable in order to secure their social, environmental and economic futures (Coyle 2011, Müller et al. 2011). The underlying motivations vary but are often …

The case traces the story of Henk Van Houtum’s journey and his desire to turn a small, traditional, family business into a professionally-run company. In June 2011 a Dutch Private Equity company, Friesland Bank Investments (FBI), a subsidiary of the Friesland Bank, announced that it was buying a controlling …

The Convention on Biodiversity has developed the concept of ‘ecosystem services’ and ‘natural resources’ in order to describe ways in which humans benefit from healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity, conceived through the economic approach, was recognized to be of great social and economic value to both present …

New attitudes is about the new role of the designer with respect to (re) programming and (re) development. Architecture, architects must now adopt ‘a sober-minded, enterprising, inventive and self-critical attitude in redefining [their positions] within the design field and within a social and physical …

Because understanding sustainability does not automatically lead to sustainable acting, we feel that additional awareness building should be necessary. Therefore a project is started in which a very old method, namely the Socratic dialogue, is borrowed from the founders and customized for the use in …

Corporate Social Responsibility is an emerging term often used in the globalizing world. The concept CSR has many definitions. The general idea is that companies involved in CSR improve their activities on economic, social and environmental level. This theory is called the Triple Bottom Line. Thus, a …

Initiatives in the field of local renewable energy appear to be very successful in several countries. Because of their activities, the share of renewable energy and the involvement of citizens and civil society organizations in energy transition have increased. Examples form Denmark are well known, but …