National Sustainability Outreach Assessment Based on Human and Social Capital: The Case of Environmental Sciences in Switzerland

Harald A. Mieg, Ralph Hansmann and Peter M. Frischknecht
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Harald A. Mieg: Institute of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, Berlin D-10099, Germany
Ralph Hansmann: Department of Environmental Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETHZ CHN, Universitätsstrasse 8, Zurich CH-8092, Switzerland
Peter M. Frischknecht: Department of Environmental Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETHZ CHN, Universitätsstrasse 8, Zurich CH-8092, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2011, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: This paper reports on a sustainability outreach study based on an assessment of human and social capital. The aim was to capture the national sustainability outreach of twenty years of Environmental Sciences education, centered at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. The study contained two lines of research, one being a human capital assessment with a survey among graduates from the years 1992 to 2005 (n = 542) and the other being a social capital analysis based on interviews with institutions that represent the Swiss social systems of economy, politics/public administration and civil society (20 institutions). Our analyses reveal several functional forms of both human capital (specialists, pioneers, leaders) and social capital (qualification profile, internalization, networks, standardization, professionalization) that trigger and channel sustainability outreach.

Keywords: sustainability outreach; environmental sciences; human capital; social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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