Search

My considerations about the connection between sustainability and family pursue two perspectives, which can be distinguished from an external and an internal perspective. On the one hand, the outside perspective, I ask what the features of a sustainable family policy are. How can family life be integrated into other social sub-areas and systems so that it meets the requirements of sustainability? In this respect, my considerations are primarily guided by sociological descriptions that understand sustainability as an integration of systems, e.g. the economy on the one hand and ecological systems on the other. Integration here means learning from one another and limiting or complementing one another. In the second part, the internal perspective, I consider the question how family life can be organized so as to support sustainable goals. In this part, my remarks are guided primarily by philosophical reflections on what it means to grow up and to ensure success in life. Here, too, the idea of a limitation plays an important role, namely the limitations of one`s own life by failure, loss and death. The idea of a border connects the two parts of this essay, which can also be read as a reflection on (physical and mental) borders and how we can benefit from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to make interdisciplinarity work? In the present paper, two possible preconditions are discussed, on the hand interdisciplinarity within one person, on the other hand a recognized and admitted problem within a discipline that could be addressed or even solved with knowledge from a different discipline. Interdisciplinarity within one person can not be fostered through double degrees or pleas for openness, but by the independent pursuit of a question or topic across disciplinary borders. Similarly, fruitful exchange among disciplines can not be forced, but needs a pressing problem within one discipline that could be solved from another discipline's perspective. However, a person with inner interdisciplinarity is needed to make the connection: to know about the problem in one discipline and find the solution in another. These travelers across discipline borders, however, might feel like failures on their way as the social system of science rewards staying at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]