Changing things - moving people

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This book emerges from an innovative initiative to establish a productive interdisciplinary research program focused on sustainable development policy in a small country not typically recognized for its contributions to environmental social science. The outcomes are promising, especially given the short timeframe and significant challenges, such as differences in concepts, disciplinary narrowness, and the complexity of the issues at hand. In the USA, similar barriers have persisted for over 30 years, while Switzerland has made notable strides in just five. This work aims to initiate a long-term effort in problem-oriented interdisciplinary collaboration among Swiss researchers and practitioners. The Swiss team has developed a unifying framework that significantly enhances environmental policy analysis. This framework expands policy thinking by addressing underutilized strategies involving communication and informal influence alongside established methods focused on technological change, regulation, and economic forces. By providing a broad typology, it helps analysts avoid the assumption that the currently popular policy instrument—be it market-based or voluntary measures—is universally applicable. It also encourages discipline-specific analysts to explore how their preferred strategies can be integrated with less familiar approaches, fostering the development of comprehensive strategies that leverage the strengths of various p