Acknowledgement
Writing a book while having babies and switching your job into a new sector is, as I
know now, a pretty unwise idea. So these acknowledgements are also something of
an apology. My amazing family was often confronted with a person I had aspired
not to be: absent-minded, frustrated and irritable when lack of proper sleep or the
next kiddie sickness once again destroyed all routines and told my mental capacities
that there indeed are limits to exploitation. My partner Christian and my mother
Ulla deserve admiration for continued loving and granny-support, and my little
daughters Jospehina and Juna huge hugs for being so wonderful that despite all the
stress, I felt like the luckiest mother around.
So where did this unwise idea come from in the first place? In itself, it was
actually a fantastic offer and my big thank you goes to Armando Garcia Schmidt
of the Bertelsmann Foundation. As part of the jury for the Reinhard Mohn Prize on
Sustainable Development Strategies (2013) I challenged him to put more definition
behind what the foundation means when speaking of the need for a paradigm shift.
So I got a grant to write down what it could amount to and delved into transformation research while keeping my critical political economy hat on. I found great
potential for complementary insights.
My boss, Uwe Schneidewind, lent his support to developing this into a full-on
book with a scientific publisher. He enabled official working time for it, some staff
assistance and also the Open Access publication. Theresa König was fantastic in her
research and editing skills and Nikola Berger much more than a graphic designer.
I am indebted to Kate Raworth, Wolfgang Sachs, Katherine Trebeck, Paul
Raskin, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Mark Drewell, Karoline Augenstein and
Alexandra Palzkill for their willingness to read comment and provide
xiii
Writing a book while having babies and switching your job into a new sector is, as I
know now, a pretty unwise idea. So these acknowledgements are also something of
an apology. My amazing family was often confronted with a person I had aspired
not to be: absent-minded, frustrated and irritable when lack of proper sleep or the
next kiddie sickness once again destroyed all routines and told my mental capacities
that there indeed are limits to exploitation. My partner Christian and my mother
Ulla deserve admiration for continued loving and granny-support, and my little
daughters Jospehina and Juna huge hugs for being so wonderful that despite all the
stress, I felt like the luckiest mother around.
So where did this unwise idea come from in the first place? In itself, it was
actually a fantastic offer and my big thank you goes to Armando Garcia Schmidt
of the Bertelsmann Foundation. As part of the jury for the Reinhard Mohn Prize on
Sustainable Development Strategies (2013) I challenged him to put more definition
behind what the foundation means when speaking of the need for a paradigm shift.
So I got a grant to write down what it could amount to and delved into transformation research while keeping my critical political economy hat on. I found great
potential for complementary insights.
My boss, Uwe Schneidewind, lent his support to developing this into a full-on
book with a scientific publisher. He enabled official working time for it, some staff
assistance and also the Open Access publication. Theresa König was fantastic in her
research and editing skills and Nikola Berger much more than a graphic designer.
I am indebted to Kate Raworth, Wolfgang Sachs, Katherine Trebeck, Paul
Raskin, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Mark Drewell, Karoline Augenstein and
Alexandra Palzkill for their willingness to read comment and provide
xiii