InContext – Individuals in Context: Supportive Environments for Sustainable Living

Why do policies aimed at initiating local and individual transition pathways towards sustainable development all too often not achieve the expected level of change? How should people be addressed to make them change? These questions will be addressed in the InContext project in theory and practice.

It will do so by addressing the complexity of the contexts of individual behaviour and how these should be taken into account when devising policies for transitions to sustainable development. InContext distinguishes two strands of contexts determining the opportunities (drivers) and constraints (barriers) shaping individual behaviours related to sustainable development:

•          the external context to individual behaviour: politics, policies, infrastructure, social institutions, culture, habits, lifestyles (societal or structural factors).

•          the internal context to individual behaviour: knowledge, personal interests, values, priorities and basic needs as the motivational factors for any behaviour (individual or agent-based factors).

InContext will study external contexts and the way individuals respond to them (drivers and barriers), but also acknowledge the internal context by looking at settings needed to allow individuals to shift their perspectives (values, priorities, way they fulfil their needs). Moreover, it will look at interactions between structural (external context) and agent-based (internal context) factors. The findings will lead to policy recommendations for the EU and local levels that can help addressing the internal context. SERI will lead one of the pilot studies, where the findings will be put in a real-world context.

SERI will conduct one of the three pilot projects that will incorporate the theoretical findings into a transition management process at local level in the community of Finkenstein (Carinthia). Finkenstein is one of the biggest Carinthian communities – in regard to population and area. It is situated near the Italian and Slovenian border.