ABSTRACT
Sustainability is neither anchored within academic systems nor comprehensively implemented in science and in teaching in Germany. In combining sustainability with the academic world, one point becomes very clear: Humans have gained so much knowledge about the world and cause-effect relations but are not able or willing to transfer it into practice and action accordingly and comprehensively. This limitation is not only caused by existing structures but influenced by previous or systemic factors. Thus, new methodologies and tools should be integrated into academia in order to foster sustainability and address a whole-institution approach. Even higher education institutions act more and more in multicausal and interand transdisciplinary contexts (Schneidewind et al. 2016) that require new and innovative methods. The integration of systemic structural constellations in research and teaching, as well as in administration, for initiating change processes allows new understanding, interventions and effective governance. How can systemic structural constellations foster change in academic systems towards sustainability? Academia can integrate sustainability challenges within two areas (Müller-Christ, 2014): (1) diverse contributions to a sustainable development (like science, education and higher education, transfer and consulting) and (2) sustainability of the academic institution and system itself (social, environmental and economic impact, organisational change and monitoring). The whole-institution approach “explicitly links research, educational, operational and outreach activities and engages students in each” (McMillen and Dyball, 2009: 55). Changing academic systems is always assigned a whole-institution approach and orientated on participation. Different stakeholder groups can work with this method as chairpersons, sustainability coordinators or sustainability change agents, student groups, researchers or administrative
departments, and so forth. Systemic structural constellations provide a new approach, making reflexive and systemic elements tangible and creating transformational processes actively.
