How to integrate youth in regional sustainability transformation processes: Tools, structures, and effects.

This study examines young people's involvement in regional sustainability transformation processes based on a real-world experiment in a community of 5700 inhabitants on the southern outskirts of city of Vienna, Austria. The eight-month experiment aimed to explore methods and tools for transdisciplinary co-creation with youth, the impact of structural conditions on their participation and the effects of their integration. Findings highlight the crucial roles of topics relevant to youth, a trusted intermediary like a youth worker, and structural conditions such as political support and resource allocation in enhancing youth engagement success. Collaborative decision making with policymakers and direct communication were also key to effective participation. The real-world experiment laid the groundwork for future participatory methods and had an impact on youth-community relations. It affirmed the role of youth in regional development, with effects that extended beyond the immediate scope of the experiment in terms of time, space, and topic.

Different perspectives on a common goal? The Q-method as a formative assessment to elucidate varying expectations towards transdisciplinary research collaborations.

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) collaborations are considered effective when they yield relevant results for science and practice. In this context, the different expectations, experiences, skills, and disciplines of the team members involved determine TDR collaboration. Using the example of 13 team members involved in the 3-year TDR project 'Römerland Carnuntum 2040' (Austria), we aim to identify and compare diverse expectations regarding TDR collaboration. In doing so, we question the often emphasised dichotomy between science and practice as the main challenge of TDR collaboration and aim towards making individual expectations regarding TDR collaboration visible and tangible. The contribution of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand, we provide statements for a formative assessment to externalise implicit expectations, assumptions, and epistemologies of TDR project team members regarding TDR collaboration and results. On the other hand, we present the Q-methodology as a viable approach to uncover diverging viewpoints as visible, tangible, and enunciable differences that need to be acknowledged in early stages of TDR projects when allocating resources and planning further project steps. Our investigations result in two viewpoints: one emphasises learning, collective reflection, and knowledge exchange as the main TDR expectation. The second focuses on 'changing practices', assuming that the project supports the introduction of new practices for (sustainable) regional development. These diverging expectations reveal subconscious tensions, which have to be addressed when allocating resources and defining project success within the TDR project.

What influences universities' regional engagement? A multi-stakeholder perspective applying a Q-methodological approach.

This paper argues that rather than being a process that can be objectively planned or predicted, regional engagement on the part of universities is a learning activity featuring characteristics of a subjective deliberation process. This subjective deliberation process is simultaneously influenced by factors operating at the intra-organizational and regional level, as well as the field in which the university is located. A model that takes this multilevel environment into account is applied to a single case study region: Kaiserslautern (Germany). A Q-methodological approach is employed to reveal and analyze the aforementioned subjective perspectives regarding drivers of universities' regional engagement. Two key viewpoints emerge from this analysis: one perspective reflects a highly institutionalized reading of regional engagement, and can be traced to the strong policy push to create universities as drivers of regional development in the Palatinate. The second perspective recognizes greater diversity among the various engagement activities pursued by universities beyond this narrow institutional engagement, driven through individual interaction with regional partners. These insights question the widespread pipeline-dominated perspective on universities' regional engagement and argue for a more systemic understanding of the role of higher education institutions within their region.