The summer of 2022 was a memorable and unique experience for all participants and organisers of the 28th annual conference of the International Sustainable Development Research Society – ISDRS 2022 in Stockholm.

On the same turf of the United Nations conference in Stockholm in 1972 and its Stockholm +50 sibbling, and after two annual online versions of the conference forced upon us, it was with great joy and pleasure we met up again in Stockholm, Sweden. With 35+ re-occurring tracks, a hybrid set-up of both on campus and online conferencing, and with six collaborating universities in Stockholm: Marie Cederschiöld University, Stockholm School of Economics, Swedish Defence University, Stockholm University of the Arts, Södertörn University and University College Stockholm, the conference committee truly took us on a complex challenge. The participants successfully navigated between five different campi while enjoying the this years conference with the overall theme ”Sustainable Development and Courage. Culture, Art and Human Rights”.

We were proud to accommodate over 400 delegates from 50+ countries and all six continents around the world, all of which engaging in the important endeavour of creating more knowledge to make our world a more sustainable one. The six key note panels can be view in its full length on the ISDRS YouTube channel launched in August 2022 with playlists for a few of the recent conferences.1 For this particular conference panels, please view the playlist for ISDRS 2022.2.

The problematic and contestable nature of discourses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has driven the commissioning of this special issue on discourses, narratives, and communication about CSR. While CSR may be seen as sharing normative goals with the concept of sustainable development, there are fundamental questions to be asked about the nature and purpose of CSR, how it has been constructed and framed, and whether it promotes the normative goals of sustainable development in order to effect change to the business-as-usual model. The teasing out of the different discourses of CSR has become an important theme in academic research in recent years. In this issue, that discourse is developed. The authors discover gaps between CSR as understood by civil society groups and radical non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the CSR norms promoted at corporate level. The latter fail to impact on business-as-usual, even though the same lan- guage may be used. The link between Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting and market-value is explored; and CSR principles and actions promoted by business are cri- tiqued from the perspective of the norms of sustainable development, one conclusion being that the parameters of sustainable development as a concept need to be extended to include the dimension of culture.

In this text we merge two fields of interests that have been both important and focal to us during our years in academia. The firstis sustainable development in the wider sense of the word, including but not being limited to ecological, economic and social sustainability. The second field iscollaboration and co-creation between universities and other actors in society – that is civil society, the public sector and industry (four set of actors commonly referred to as the quadruple helix). We are convinced that a sustainable development will lead to major societal changes and must build on people that want to change and will be changed. Additionally, we view quadruple helix collaboration and co-co-creation as key instruments to boost efforts to ensure sustainability. With this as a background, we join the growing number of people, that in the challenges of sustainable development and the 17 sustainable development goals, see hope and possibilities, and an energy and will to change.

The impact work leading to the in-depth understanding of quadruple helix co-creation in social sciences and humanities is based on the ACCOMPLISSH project, that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693477. This paper is based on one of the reports written up there, shows illustrations of co-creation as discussed in focus group interviews of quadruple helix partners at 14 European universities and presents first-hand excerpts of the report. Our ambition is to rewrite the paper into an article publishable in peer-reviewed academic journals and based on previous studies published in other academic journals.

In the corporate quest for sustainable development, production- and product-related environmental impacts of a company can form a basis for de fining the corporate environmental profile, as well as for de fining environmental leaders. Awareness of the production- and productrelated dimensions of the environmental profile varied among companies. This paper studied descriptions and reporting of environmental issues among 19 companies ranked as Global Supersector Leaders in 2009/2010 by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The results show that all of these companies are aware of production- and product-related environmental aspects. There are also examples, both as headings on websites and as sections in sustainability reports, where companies structure their environmental initiatives separately with respect to production (or their own operations) and the product. The paper ends with a proposed modelof corporate environmental profile.

Our purpose is to explore the concept of “sustainability” when understood from a performative perspective, i.e. as a concept that is filled with meaning across time. Drawing on a 10 year-long study of the digital footprint of Stockholm Royal Seaport, claimed to be northern Europe's largest sustainable urban development district, we show that “sustainability” emerged as the project became associated with particular places, projects, histories, and technologies. This means that “sustainability” was local in that it was situated in the particular spatial context of the project; temporal in that it was situated in a particular time; and political in that it expressed particular values and perspectives. The study contributes to explaining why “sustainability” remains—and always will remain—a contested concept, which is why sustainability transitions are complex. Consequently, we suggest that the transition towards sustainability always involves the transition of sustainability, something that needs to be acknowledged in order for a transition to actually become sustainable.

The aim of this article is to explore the relation between place and its representations through a comparative discourse analysis of two different guided tours of Stockholm. The comparison sheds light on what may otherwise remain blind spots of mainstream guided tours. Applying Lefebvre's notion of representations of space and Bourdieu's ideas on symbolic power the contribution of this article is to show how all guided tours, regardless of their intention, create political, conceived spaces. Hence this article opens up for a debate on a critically aware reading of the verbal (re) presentation of the particular character of sites in and through guided tours.

The involvement of stakeholders in large scale urban sustainable development projects (LSUSDP.s) has proven difficult. The stakeholders are distributed across the geographical area, and they have stakes not only in the LSUSDP, but in the geographical location where the project takes place. To understand stakeholder management in "distributed projects", we propose abandoning the "inside-out" perspective where the project is the point of departure, and focus on the emergence of stakeholders across time. Adopting such a performative, "outside-in," perspective on the longitudinal and digital study of a LSUSDP, we are able to map how actors became stakeholders in the project through their actions. The paper makes four contributions. First, we reconceptualize stakeholder involvement by adopting a performative perspective, whereby "stakeholders" are envisaged as emergent and non-fixed. Second, we demonstrate how such a reconceptualization may be applied to the analysis of an empirical case. Third, we show that stakeholder involvement is not merely the result of stakeholder management but something that happens over time, through the material and discursive actions of those that become stakeholders. Finally, the paper contributes with an illustration of how the online, digital footprint, of a project may be useful to understand the emergence of a project.

Vi, 1 620 forskare samt lärare vid universitet och högskolor, är eniga med de unga bakom Auroramålet: De drabbas och riskerar att drabbas allvarligt av klimatkrisen under sin livstid. De klimatåtgärder vi vidtar i närtid avgör deras framtid. Sverige måste ta ansvar och göra sin rättvisa andel av det globala klimatarbetet. 

I strid med Parisavtalet ökar utsläppen av växthusgaser i en takt som gör att 1,5-gradersmålet kan överskridas om några år. De globala effekterna blir allt mer synliga med ständiga temperaturrekord, smältande isar, havshöjning och extremväder som torka, förödande bränder och skyfall med enorma översvämningar, som i Pakistan nyligen. Försörjningen av befolkningen utsätts för allvarliga hot i många länder.

Minskningen av den biologiska mångfalden är extrem. Klimatkrisen är enligt WHO det största hotet mot människors hälsa i hela världen och barn utgör en särskilt sårbar grupp. Med Sveriges nordliga läge sker uppvärmningen här dubbelt så fort som det globala genomsnittet. Det förskjuter utbredningsområden för växtlighet och sjukdomsbärande insekter och ökar förekomsten av extremväder såsom värmeböljor, skogsbränder och översvämningar samt av många olika sorters infektioner och allergier. När extremväder ökar, ökar även stressen och risken för mental ohälsa. Värmeböljor ökar risken för sjukdom och död hos sårbara grupper som äldre, små barn och personer med kroniska sjukdomar. De negativa effekterna på hälsan kommer att öka i takt med klimatkrisen och barn riskerar att drabbas av ackumulerade negativa hälsoeffekter under hela sina liv. Redan i dag är mer än hälften av unga mellan 12 och 18 år i Sverige ganska eller mycket oroliga för klimat och miljö. Detta är förståeligt när våra beslutsfattare inte gör vad som krävs.

Den juridiska och moraliska grunden för arbetet mot klimatförändringarna är att varje land måste göra sin rättvisa andel av det globala klimatarbetet. Centralt i det internationella klimatramverket är att rika länder med höga historiska utsläpp, däribland Sverige, måste gå före resten av världen. Dessa länder måste också bidra till att finansiera klimatomställningen i länderna i det Globala Syd, som är minst ansvariga för klimatkrisen men drabbas hårdast. Denna rättviseprincip är tydlig i Parisavtalet och var en het diskussionsfråga under COP27 i Sharm el-Sheikh, men lyser med sin frånvaro i det svenska klimatarbetet. 

Sverige har satt mål för att minska sina utsläpp. Men de är helt otillräckliga: minskningstakten är för låg och målen tillåter samtidigt att åtgärder skjuts på framtiden. Dessutom exkluderas merparten av Sveriges utsläpp från de svenska nationella utsläppsmålen; bland annat utelämnas utsläpp som svensk konsumtion orsakar utanför Sveriges gränser, utsläpp från utrikes transporter och utsläpp från markanvändning och skogsbruk, exempelvis utsläpp från förbränning av biobränslen eller utsläpp från dikade våtmarker (Prop. 2016/17:146 s.25-28).

Sverige saknar dessutom ett eget mål för att öka upptaget av växthusgaser genom utökat skydd och restaurering av ekosystem, något som krävs för att begränsa de värsta konsekvenserna av klimatkrisen (IPCC s.32). Trots dessa låga ambitioner misslyckas Sverige med att nå sina utsläppsmål, konstaterar både Klimatpolitiska rådet och Naturvårdsverket. En klimatpolitik i linje med Parisavtalet kräver både att alla typer av växthusgasutsläpp minskar samtidigt som – inte i stället för – upptaget av växthusgaser maximeras: i dag misslyckas Sverige på bägge fronter.

Slutsatsen är tydlig. Sverige vidtar inte de åtgärder som krävs för att skydda barns och ungdomars rättigheter enligt Europakonventionen till skydd för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Detta medför allvarliga risker för liv och hälsa för unga generationer, människor i andra länder och särskilt utsatta grupper. Detta kan inte fortsätta. Därför ställer vi oss bakom Auroras krav att Sverige börjar göra sin rättvisa andel och omedelbart sätter igång ett omfattande och långtgående klimatarbete som vilar på vetenskaplig grund och sätter rättvisa i centrum.

The past 15 years have seen a fresh approach to management training. One of the areas that has generated the most interest around Europe is how to improve project creation and co-creation, based, among other things, on 4H innovation models (quadruple helix comprising academia, government, industry and civil society) has become firmly established as one of the most important tools. Below is a description of three current cases that illustrate how different 4H actors are tackling the challenge of providing management training for co-creation in context.

Europe 2020, the European Union’s ten-year growth strategy, aims at delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The strategy sets targets in the areas of employment, research and development, climate change, education and poverty, and social exclusion for the coming decade. It is within this context that the Horizon 2020 scheme highlights impact, co-creation, and quadruple helix cooperation vehicles for innovation and in response to societal challenges. It is also here that the knowledge and research results of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) play a crucial role. At the same time, definitions and understanding of such concepts are ambiguous if not even contradictory, which makes it difficult to determine their applicability and effectiveness. This being said, there is a need for clearer definitions and viable and measurable valorisation processes to determine the value and outcomes of such processes. By the same token, there is a need to move beyond concepts and models into the actual work with these matters: to talk to the people from academia, government, industry and societal partners about their experiences with co-creation and the considerations these experiences have involved and the lessons that have been learned. To move beyond traditional and linear valorisation approaches (i.e. from academia to society), it is frequently claimed that quadruple helix actors need to be committed to and actively engaged in co-creation. Yet, due to its being boundary transgressive, co-creation is multifaceted and seldom naturally occurring. Also, collaboration and co-creation are often obstructed by differences in organisational culture, organisational logics and ideological disagreement among the actors involved. For all the reasons above, the ACCOMPLISSH consortium, made up of 14 universities from 12 countries (representing a range of SSH sub-disciplines), is engaged with a variety of quadruple helix partners from government, industry and society.

The identity concept has emerged as a key analytical concept in the social sciences in the past decades. In both scientifi c accounts and everyday use, the identity concept has tradi- tionally been seen as something that individuals possess. This view has however been heavily criticized by a social identity strand of social science, where identity is a matter of a negotiation where different social roles are learned in relations with others. The relational view of identities creates some serious problems for the sustainability challenge. In a world of relational identities, individuals are engaged in identity-creating interactions every day. Key problems are that the interactions, in urban environments, are highly commercialized; consumption cues are emotionally based and speak to our senses, and outnumber the competing cues several times over. Sustainable lifestyles are thus very fragile.