Sustainability by Projects: Rethinking Stakeholder Engagement, Legacy, and Impact

Editors

  • Kirsi Aaltonen, University of Oulu
  • Siavash Alimadadi, King's College London
  • Marina Bos-de Vos, Delft University of Technology
  • Ermal Hetemi, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Description

Projects increasingly serve as platforms for translating sustainability goals into concrete actions, yet the relationship between stakeholder engagement and sustainability outcomes is complex and multifaceted. This special issue examines how projects and programs generate, mediate, and shape sustainability outcomes and legacies through stakeholder engagement across their entire lifecycle, extending beyond traditional project success metrics to encompass long-term societal and environmental impacts.

The special issue identifies five central tensions: the paradox of inclusion and exclusion in stakeholder participation; the mismatch between global sustainability ambitions and local contextual realities; conflicts between project temporal constraints and extended sustainability time horizons; tensions between managerial control approaches and emergent sustainability dynamics; and the reconfiguring influence of artificial intelligence on stakeholder engagement processes. These tensions reflect competing demands and values that cannot be fully resolved simultaneously but require careful conceptual and empirical examination.

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Potential topics

  • Inclusion, exclusion, and stakeholder voice in projects and how these dynamics shape legitimacy and sustainability outcomes
  • Global ambitions and local realities: how global sustainability goals are interpreted, translated, and contested in local project contexts
  • Project temporality and sustainability time horizons: tensions between short-term delivery pressures and long-term sustainability objectives
  • Managerial control and emergent sustainability dynamics: control-oriented approaches versus emergent and value-laden aspects of sustainability
  • Artificial intelligence and the reconfiguration of tensions: how AI shapes stakeholder engagement, participation, bias, accountability, and legitimacy in sustainability-oriented projects
  • Sustainable project legacy: long-term value and lasting impacts that projects leave for communities and the environment
  • Stakeholder engagement mechanisms through which sustainability outcomes are negotiated, contested, and realized
  • Power asymmetries and their role in shaping sustainability outcomes and project trajectories
  • Temporal work and how actors mobilize visions of futures to coordinate action across divergent timeframes
  • Portfolio governance, intermediary organizational structures, and their mediation between strategic sustainability ambitions and project delivery practices