Researcher: Laura Mainetti. University of Innsbruck, Austria.

Description: This project was based on a series of interviews conducted at different UNESCO Biosphere Reserves over the summer of 2019.

The aim was to identify projects and initiatives within and around the Dublin Bay Biosphere, an urban biosphere reserve, that are counteracting plastic pollution in a variety of ways. Challenges and opportunities, both of the biosphere reserve and the initiatives, were looked at. A social network analysis helped to detect differences and similarities in structure and cooperation.

Finally, the project tried to answer how the initiatives and the biosphere reserve can contribute to a global sustainability transition, especially regarding plastic pollution.

See also: Armin Kratzer, Laura Maria Mainetti, Nils Unthan, ‘Geography of grassroots innovations in the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve’, Geoforum, Volume 136, 2022, pp161-172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.09.016.