Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions - Narratives and Values and the transformative potential of walking-based interventions with UniNEtZ beWEGt (Moving Universities)

SUPERVISOR: Verena RADINGER-PEER

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Eva-Maria HOLZINGER

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly expected to contribute to addressing global socio-ecological crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality. While HEIs are recognized as key actors in shaping sustainable development through education, research, third mission and societal engagement, their ability to act as transformative agents depends on internal institutional change (Jasanoff 2004b, Hoover and Harder 2015, Baker-Shelley et al. 2020). Despite growing research on sustainability in higher education, empirical insights into how sustainability is socially and culturally understood within HEIs remain limited. In particular, the narratives and values through which sustainability is interpreted and enacted in academic contexts remain underexplored (Holst et al. 2024).

This dissertation investigates how sustainability is understood, narrated, and practiced within Higher Education Institutions, with a focus on the values and narratives that shape institutional sustainable transformation. Using the Austrian intervention UniNEtZ beWEGt (Moving Universities) as a central case study, the research explores how walk based interventions can open transformative spaces within academia. The project combines physical movement with artistic and participatory formats to foster reflection, dialogue, and institutional learning around sustainability.

The dissertation consists of two empirical studies and a complementary book chapter. The first study examines walking as a methodological intervention for sustainability transformation in HEIs. Drawing on qualitative data from nine walking events across Austria, including participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups, it analyzes how shared movement and place based engagement foster dialogue, trust building, emotional and sensory experiences, and the temporary dissolution of hierarchical boundaries. These dynamics enable the emergence of transformational in between spaces that support interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exchange and encourage new perspectives on institutional change.

The second study investigates how sustainability is narrated and valued across Austrian HEIs using a documentary film produced during the UniNEtZ beWEGt initiative as both research object and methodological intervention. 

The Film: UniNEtZ beWEGt – Verein forum n

Through eleven film screenings followed by group discussions with different members of HEIs the research explores the guiding question of what constitutes a sustainable Higher Education Institution. Applying narrative analysis and value theory, the study examines how participants articulate diverse interpretations of sustainability and reveals both shared visions and tensions shaped by institutional contexts and structural constraints.

The dissertation is complemented by a book chapter on the Climate Walk project, an inter and transdisciplinary research initiative in which researchers walked across seventeen European countries to explore how people experience climate change and societal transformation in their everyday lives. Using walking as an embodied and relational research practice, the chapter demonstrates how participatory and place based methods can connect scientific inquiry with lived experiences and civic engagement. It also illustrates how such alternative methodological approaches can stimulate reflection and learning within HEIs themselves.

Overall, the dissertation contributes to transformative science by demonstrating that sustainability transformation in HEIs is shaped by shared experiences, narratives, and values. The findings highlight the potential of experimental research practices such as walking interventions to create reflective spaces in which institutional routines can be questioned and new imaginaries for sustainable HEIs can emerge. By integrating empirical analysis with methodological innovation, the dissertation advances a more nuanced understanding of how Higher Education Institutions can become active agents of sustainability and societal transformation.

Bibliography 

Baker-Shelley, A., Van Zeijl-Rozema, A. and Martens, P. (2020) ‘Pathways of organisational transformation for sustainability: a university case-study synthesis presenting competencies for systemic change & rubrics of transformation’, International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 27(8), pp. 687–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2020.1762256 

Holst, J., Grund, J. and Brock, A. (2024) ‘Whole Institution Approach: measurable and highly effective in empowering learners and educators for sustainability’, Sustainability Science, 19, pp. 1359–1376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-024-01506-5 

Hoover, E. and Harder, M.K. (2015) ‘What lies beneath the surface? The hidden complexities of organizational change for sustainability in higher education’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, pp. 175–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.01.081 

Jasanoff, S. (ed.) (2004) States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order. London/New York: Routledge (International Library of Sociology).