Central Asia Forecasting
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Action towards socially inclusive and environmentally-neutral societies is one of the most urgent tasks of this decade. Achieving sustainability is a complex endeavour, requiring appropriate political action as well as technological and nature-based innovations. It will also depend on social innovations, and societal support and involvement. These all require international cooperation at every level of society.
Achieving sustainability requires political action as well as technological, nature-based and social innovations.
The SPCE Hub was created to bring together sustainability innovators from all spheres of society in the Central Eurasian and European regions, to analyse problems, experiment with possible solutions, and promote knowledge and practices demonstrating progress towards sustainability.
We pursue cross-sector, multi-actor approaches with a focus on renewable energy and other sectors. These goals will often be examined in the context of sustainable urban development. We combine a ‘possibilist’ approach with sound understanding of local and international realities.
Our general goals:
- We co-create visible, stimulating, successful outcomes in various sustainability sectors.
- As we aim to co-create and enact visions of sustainability in our projects, we appreciate the historic and cultural diversity of every region and recognise the wide-ranging effects of various inequalities.
- We strive to overcome knowledge hierarchies and one-way knowledge transfers, by focusing on shared problems and enabling learning processes in all directions, while also considering the inequalities present in these interactions.
- As social scientists, area studies experts, and intercultural facilitators, we share our intimate knowledge and experience of societies and cross-cultural cooperation.
- We communicate our work results in clear, positive ways that non-academic audiences will understand.
- We provide analysis and advice to policymakers.
Knowledge services we offer
Cross-sectoral projects for transformative learning
We co-create and co-implement transnational cooperation projects that pursue the following goals:
- Promote transformative learning about pathways and objectives of social and environmental sustainability, and achieving visible, replicable outcomes.
- Demonstrate the value and feasibility of sustainability.
Sustainability start-ups and social entrepreneurs
- We serve as a European contact point for change agents from Central Eurasia, such as sustainability start-ups and social entrepreneurs.
- Together with our network partners, we offer training for start-ups and social entrepreneurs.
- We advise on and co-implement projects promoting ecosystems for sustainability start-ups and social entrepreneurs.
- We organise Track 1.5-type international processes with governmental and non-governmental actors on various issues related to start-ups and social entrepreneurs.
Historical and cultural aspects of sustainability
- We design and implement projects to promote debate on historical and contemporary cultural sources and representations of sustainability with artists, historians, and civil society.
Engaging with historians and artists to debate sources and representations of sustainability
Research and publishing for academic and non-academic audiences
Teaching at universities in Europe and Central Eurasia
- We collaborate with partners like the Institute for East European Studies (OEI) at Freie Universität Berlin.
Our vision
The Central Eurasian and European regions include Central Asia and Afghanistan, the Caucasus, and Eastern and Western Europe. These diverse regions share centuries of cultural and social links, and are also shaped by the various economic and political changes of the last century. In particular, the former political divisions between the West and the Eastern bloc continue to have a significant impact in many ways.
Green transformations towards sustainability are emerging across Central Eurasia and Europe. Central Eurasian countries are beginning to demonstrate their commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These include increased investment in renewable energy and the establishment of many sustainability-oriented start-ups with positive results, while citizens and societies are increasingly prioritising deeper connections to nature and the environment.
The European Union has also adopted the Green Deal, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. While we believe that the European Union can and should become a powerful engine for the global transformation towards sustainable societies, sustainability must also be “de-Westernized” and based on both diverse European and non-European funds of knowledge.
We work to make sustainability a more present reality in peoples’ minds and hearts.
Our vision is that human and planetary well-being continue to be a growing priority for governments and societies, and also shape international relations between societies, industries, and states. In line with this vision, we promote problem solving, hands-on learning, and dialogue through cross-sectoral sustainability projects, addressing topics such as energy, agriculture, food, consumption, and climate change adaptation. We work to make sustainability a more present reality in peoples’ minds and hearts.
