Robert Orzanna edited Wageningen.tex  over 9 years ago

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\section{Strategic communication Wageningen}  \subsection{Motivation}  As outlined in the previous sections, I support the hypothesis that, in order to achieve sustainable development, technical innovations need to be accompanied by behavioural change. This dualism is dealt with by Theme 2 of the COM research group: \textit{Strategic communication and behaviour change}. Sustainable lifestyles, however, are a difficult subject. Amongst others, it involves people with a very low awareness for sustainability issues, people with intention-­behaviour gaps (e.g. failing to meet one’s own sustainability aspirations), or people who perceive sustainability primarily as a burden, thus not willing to commit deliberate efforts. Additionally, sustainability as a term has been misused in the past by firms in their communication for solely commercial purposes. purposes at the expense of the environment.  \subsection{Research group summary}  The research activity of the group is linked to multiple social science  disciplines such as communication sciences, psychology, health sciences, and behavioural economics. It aims at generating novel insights into effective communication strategies that successfully create change while avoiding without provoking  defensive reactions. As such, the group tries to extend and improve society’s possibilities for dealing with problems in primarily  food, health and the living environment. The group's predominant focus Within its communication research, the group  is focussing  on communication research in different domains, e.g.:  \begin{itemize}  \item multiple domains such as  climate change communication to create awareness and collaboration for climate change mitigation and adaptation;\item  conflict resolution, e.g. around agricultural practices, landscape planning or environmental issues;\item  communication and sustainable consumer consumption  behaviour;\item  communicating biodiversity to consumers, farmers and society;\item  forest communication, in particular sustainable forests;\item  online communication strategies  related to food, agriculture and health (e.g.the  online campaign for healthy school meals);\item  communication and on  animal welfare, e.g. citizen initiatives against large-scale animal husbandry; \item and the  interplay of virtual and real life communication, e.g. social media and material practices;  \end{itemize} practices.    \subsection{Choice of research subject & group}  I got in contact with Peter Feindt, head of the COM group, In the context of their current research, I would like to better understand the characteristics of effective communication strategies that can inspire people for adopting  sustainable lifestyles: lifestyles, in particular sufficiency. In the context of sustainability research, sufficiency is defined as the deliberate decision-making to limit consumption under the consideration of long-term environmental risks and social insecurity of the under-represented \footnote{http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/152638003763336374#.VG83in_-9PY}.  \begin{enumerate}  \item What type of feedbacks work best and provide positive stimuli for susfficiency sufficiency  lifestyles while avoiding without provoking  defensive reactions? \item In particular, what is the potential of smartphone technology and gamification to help people performing sustainable actions whilst receiving enjoyable reinforcements?   \end{enumerate}