Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Zademach Katrin Wycik, Wycik/upd
Professor Zademach’s expertise will also benefit the new Bachelor’s program “Sustainability in Business and Economics”, in which he will be responsible for the specialization “Spaces and Politics for Sustainable Futures”. The degree program will begin in the winter semester at the Business and Economics Faculty of the KU - the Ingolstadt School of Management (WFI).
“Solar batteries for homes are in itself just a technical innovation. It will be exciting to see how society and the business world will co-evolve in a world of changing technologies. This is one reason why the battery market offers an opportunity to take a closer look at the interaction of technical and organizational innovations while they are still budding,” says professor Zademach. New provider-customer relations are coming into existence. Some of them communities that digitally connect a large number of photovoltaic systems with home batteries to create a crowd network. This makes it possible to distribute the energy generated by one household among the network’s members. Car manufacturers have realized the potential market benefits and are offering green energy in combination with electric cars.
Zademach sees one big question for the 21st century: “How do we organize and regulate our society on a global scale in a way it is kind to future generations and yet worth living? In view of limited resources, the idea of permanent growth and efficiency has to be coupled with that of sufficiency. “There are a lot of people who are ready to do good and pay more for fair products. Valuing such business ventures can only be the first step. In addition, it is important to question and reflect on social action as a whole. Do I really need to own an electric drill that I only need a few times a year, or would it do to share it with neighbors? We want to fundamentally discuss such questions and the connections between sustainability and justice in our degree program,” says Zademach.
In doing so, he says, it is important to keep in mind spatial and political perspectives that go beyond purely economic aspects. Zademach continues: “There is no business transaction that takes place in a vacuum. We always operate in space. Places are connected to other places by social and economic transactions. Our actions have an impact on completely different places! This is the viewpoint that professor Zademach champions. Besides holding the professorship of Economic Geography, he also heads the Bavarian working group of the Academy for territorial development in the Leibniz Association. With the support of many co-signatories he advocated for a Bavarian development program whose cross-thematic and cross-departmental spatial concept could be the only guarantee of a successful transformation.
Sustainability is often described as a concept that is inherently able to build bridges between different groups. It is necessary, however, to face up to conflicts arising from different interests that are not always easy to overcome. It is these conflicts that Zademach is going to address in his new Bachelor’s degree program in order to promote a basic understanding of questions of sustainability in the context of business, economics and society.
Applications for the six-semester Bachelor’s program “Sustainability in Business and Economics” (with admission restriction) are open until July 15. For more information please go to www.ku.de/en/study-offer/sustainability-bsc.
Contact for scientific information:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Zademach
www.ku.de/en/the-ku/faculties/mgf/geography/economic-geography/staff/prof-dr-hans-martin-zademach
