Negotiating Sustainability: The Role of Joint, Interactive Decision-Making Processes towards Sustainable Solutions

Dear Colleagues,

Although individual decision-making has been proven to play a critical role in sustainable development, in this transition, many barriers must be resolved through joint decision-making processes. It is noteworthy that most of the challenges humanity faces in the transition towards sustainability involve conflicts of interests and/or conflicts of values (e.g., migration on the social level, digital transformation on the economic level, or climate change on the ecological level). In light of the manifold forms of conflicts, negotiation as a socially interactive process of joint decision-making can turn out to be a powerful tool for preventing or solving conflicts in the context of sustainability. Indeed, sustainable solutions can be characterized by a number of aspects including but not limited to socially just, integrative, and future-oriented solutions both on an intersectional (i.e., at a certain period of time) and on an intergenerational level (i.e., across certain periods of time). This Special Issue is dedicated to fostering a richer understanding of the diverse drivers of and barriers to negotiations that aim at promoting sustainable development across all societal domains such as ecology, culture, or economy. In accordance with sustainability science as an inter- and transdisciplinary field of studies, we seek to bring together research from different disciplines such as psychology, sociology, economics, law, education science, or other social sciences to address drivers of and barriers to sustainable conflict resolutions through negotiations. Thus, submissions may address various factors of sustainability relevant negotiations, for instance, on the level of the negotiating parties, the negotiation process, cultural conditions, or other contextual relevant factors. Submissions are particularly welcome that extend current knowledge on the drivers and barriers in negotiations and how to leverage negotiations for the transformation towards sustainability. In this Special Issue, we seek to stimulate an innovative collection of empirical, quantitative, qualitative, conceptual, or review articles that all aim at resolving conflicts, reconciling interests, and overcoming inequalities via negotiation within planetary boundaries.

Prof. Dr. Roman Trötschel
Dr. Johann M. Majer
Guest Editors

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