Cross-sector collaboration on climate change mitigation as a communicative challenge. What are the key success factors?

This project is primarily funded by the Climate Council of the County Administrative Board of Jönköping, Sweden (https://www.klimatradet.se/english-summary/) and School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University, but also co-funded by the School of Education and Humanities at Örebro University. The project will produce novel knowledge about the challenges of cross-sector collaboration in the area of climate change mitigation. Peter Berglez at Örebro University is the project leader, while the research is primarily conducted by Otto Hedenmo, doctoral candidate at the School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University. 

The Climate Council includes all municipalities in the region, NGOs such as the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, and businesses such as Husqvarna and IKEA. The promotion of cross-sector collaboration generates more extensive climate change mitigation work and projects than the efforts of a few actors would have achieved. But how do these activities develop and what make some actions more successful than others? What are the success factors and what are the challenges, viewed from a communication point of view? In which contexts does communication pave the way for successful collaboration? When do communication-related barriers appear, and why? Achieving a climate conversion within society is a matter of urgency, and there is a need for studies – regionally, nationally and internationally – that focus on what happens when actors with different knowledge backgrounds seek to collaborate in relation to climate change. 

In this research project, different examples of cross-sector collaboration within the region are examined, as are activities in other parts of Sweden. The aim is to contribute knowledge which is relevant for the County Administrative Board of Jönköping and could make their Climate Council more successful, but also to deliver valuable knowledge for ongoing climate conversion activities elsewhere, including internationally. For more information, see Otto Hedenmo.