Research

The Sustainable Village Project is scientifically accompanied by researchers from the universities in Göttingen, Bogor and Jambi. The aim is not only to initiate sustainability transformation at village level, but also to document and analyse it.

We investigate local sustainability preferences and dynamics that emerge during the planning and implementation of project activities within the community arena in order to identify success factors for sustainability transformation. In doing so, we use methods of participatory action research, which brings together the components of action (changing the real world), research (generating new scientifically and socially relevant knowledge) and participation (collaboration between science and practice, mutual learning processes). This creates an interactive space for alternative ideas (visions, knowledge, discourses), practices (experimentation, learning, transformative action) and social relations between actors.