Heinz Schandl, Walter Hüttler and Harald
Payer
Delinking of Economic Growth and Materials Turnover
Abstract
National
material flow analyses and materials balances are
indispensable sources of information with respect to the
operationalization of sustainable development. Both of these
instruments are already employed in official statistics in
Germany and Japan, and other countries – especially member
states of the European Union – are likely to follow suit.
Because of the preparatory stages of work that have already
been carried out, Austria is in an excellent position
to assume a leading role in international concerted action.
From
1970 to 1990 total materials flow through Austrian society has
approximately increased by one third. As can be seen from
changes in the amount of primary energy used during this
period, economic growth in physical terms and value added in
production decoupled slightly, and the same is true for the
use of materials. Since 1970, materials input per unit of GDP
(material intensity) decreased by 25%. This implies that
relative gains in efficiency are compensated by the annual
increases in the use of materials which, by and large, are
caused by few yet massive „strategic“ material flows of
steel, cement, wood, paper/pulp, sand, gravel and crushed
stone.
The
empirical findings suggest that delinking of economic growth
from the metabolism of human society should be discussed
more carefully. The concept of
„delinking“ involves two alternative perspectives of
development differing from each other with respect their
ecological effects. The analysis may either focus upon
absolute changes in materials throughput or on the relative
changes of materials throughput per unit of output. It is
strongly recommended, therefore, to distinguish clearly
between relative and absolute productivity of resources.
Branch
analyses confirmed, once again, that the information contained
in material indicators related to value-added concepts is
relatively insignificant when it comes to evaluation of the
social „pressures upon the environment.“
Kai Hafez
International News Coverage and the Problems of Media
Globalization. In Search of a ‘New Global–Local Nexus’
Abstract
A
variety of counter trends seem to call the idea of a linear
process of media globalization into question. Much of the
arguments against it have concentrated on the growth on
national media markets throughout the world or on the
information gap between developed and developing countries.
Amazingly though, the topic of foreign reporting has not
attained a very prominent place in the globalization debate,
although numerous content analyses of international news show
that foreign reporting in all media systems is usually heavily
influenced by particularist views. The content level of the
media globalizes much slower than technical and economic
aspects of media development make us think. The system of
foreign reporting is not an integrated part of the
international system of political and societal relations but
is still closely connected to the nation-state. Further
international and intercultural conflicts and crises might be
reinforced by a growing gap between globalization and
particularization of international mass communication. A new
‘global-local nexus’ is needed, based on a new culture of
international media criticism and a reform of the system of
foreign reporting.
Paul Timms
The Interface Between Transport Policy-making and Science:
A ‘Two-person’ Model
Abstract
The
paper attempts to build a qualitative “two-person” model
which encapsulates the complex relationship between transport
policy-making and science, by personifying the relationship as
a dialogue between “the politician” and “the scientist”.
The approach is illustrated by making references to the
methods and results of the research project OPTIMA, which has
attempted to find optimal urban transport policies in a number
of European cities. Whilst finding much usefulness in the
model, the paper recognises its limitations and makes
recommendations of a number of extensions that could be made.
