The EU-funded project RESPONDER aims at disclosing and discussing the contradictions between sustainable consumption and economic growth. The project seeks to inform policy-making by exploring novel ways of knowledge brokerage. The challenge is linking four communities: linking science and policy on the one hand, and on the other hand what could be called the “pro-growth community” (mostly economists and policy makers oriented towards the EU Lisbon Strategy) and the “beyond-growth community” (mostly scientists highlighting biophysical limits to growth, social movements and policy makers involved in the sustainable development debate). The method of participatory system mapping will be employed in a series of EU dialogues and multinational knowledge brokerage events to reveal the system dynamics and to facilitate a structured organisation of relevant knowledge. An online platform (www.scp-responder.eu) will support the stakeholder dialogue between these events and contribute to community building among scientists and policy-makers.

www.scp-responder.eu

Publication of the project:

Topic: Environmental Policy and Governance, Products and Consumption, Participation and Communication

Research field: Ecological Consumption, Ecological Product Policy