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Department of Environmental Sociology

To what extent can and should a society change the environment? Photo from field research on Fridays for Future in Halle (c) Soliev.

Welcome to the Department of Environmental Sociology

The Department of Environmental Sociology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research studies environmental change from social sciences perspectives – social drivers, processes, and outcomes of such change – and therewith is dedicated to addressing some of the most pressing academic, policy, and practical societal challenges of our time.

Highlights

On 3 July 2026, Julian Jäger presents at the Long Night of Science Halle    his creative project on music as a cultural bridge to gain attention to societal challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

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On 4-5 June 2026, Ilkhom Soliev presents key outcomes of PLANET4B and DAISY at the Transformative Change for Biodiversity Cluster Conference in Brussels. More information is available here   .

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On 18-22 May 2026, Sven Grüner joins over 200 authors from the IPCC’s Working Group II in Nassau to work on the draft of the next scientific report assessing climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities. Read more here   .

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On the evening of 4 May 2026, Henrique Pereira and Ilkhom Soliev joined the kick off of the “TransformationsFORUM Hochschulstadt   ,” where projects and organizations from Halle and the surrounding region that operate at the intersection of science, urban society, and local government practices presented their work at the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences. They presented iDiv's projects that study and engage with societal transformations.

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On 23 April 2026, the team of the Deparment of Environmental Sociology met with the Division on Economy, Science, and Digitalization of the Halle City Hall and discussed ongoing and future cooperation of the department with the City of Halle and surrounding areas, including in the strategic areas transformations and green city, Halle international, social cohesion, and (digital) innovations.

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The Institute of Sociology invites all faculty, students, and other interested parties to this year's colloquium series featuring presentations from prominent speakers on the theme of (Un)desired Transformations. Additional information and updates will be posted on the Institute's webpage here – please stay tuned and join us!

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On 8-10 April 2026, Edit Hunyadi presented the research “Out of Water, into Reflexivity: Habitus Clivé and the Stratification of Transformative Imagination” at the British Sociological Association’s 75th Anniversary Conference in Manchester. Based on an analysis of 344 EU-funded projects, the study identifies a "structural gap" where institutional goals for transformation often fail to integrate equity and biodiversity. The research explores how the emotional tensions of social mobility shape the capacity of environmental professionals to imagine and sustain alternative socio-ecological futures.

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On 24-26 March 2026, the DAISY consortium gathered in Budapest for a three-day meeting to discuss project outcomes and future goals. The meeting featured status updates on work packages and tasks, presentation of the TRD2, technical workshops on the TIMS framework, and field trips in Budapest, allowing partners to align on next steps for amplifying the impact of socio-ecological innovations.

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Tobias Haller and Ilkhom Soliev publish their research on commons and SDGs in the Book Decolonizing the Sustainable Development Goals: Community Perspectives, Social Justice, and the Challenges of Pluralism edited by Reetta Toivanen, Vladislava Vladimirova, Carl-Gösta Ojala and published by Palgrave Macmillan Cham, available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-14263-4_14   

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On 18 February 2026, Ilkhom Soliev, Edit Hunyadi, and Sven Grüner join the TransformERS Workshop, held in Lisbon, Portugal.

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On 2 February 2026, Richard Völker successfully completed his PhD at the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The title of his monograph is "The interplay between animal husbandry and animal welfare issues - a media frame analysis of German print media" (in German: „Der Zusammenhang zwischen landwirtschaftlicher Nutztierhaltung und Probleme beim Tierschutz - Eine Medien-Frame-Analyse deutschsprachiger Printmedien“).

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On 2 February 2026, Ilkhom Soliev has been nominated and voted in to join the Board of Directors of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre iDiv-Halle (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research).

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Ilkhom Soliev publishes his research on social-technological dimensions of land use in agriculture with particular focus on advancing understanding of transformations in the Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-15976-3.00090-8   

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As part of the Horizon Europe DAISY project, Richard Völker conducts a case study workshop “Social Innovations: Current Dynamics and Future Perspectives” with the representatives of Community-Supported Agricultural Cooperatives based in broader Halle-Leipzig area. Read more about DAISY at http://mydaisy.eu/   .

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The contribution “Out of water, into reflexivity: Mapping habitus clivé in environmental professionals” by Edit Hunyadi and Ilkhom Soliev has been accepted for presentation at the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association dedicated to 75 Years of Sociology, to be held on 8-10 April 2026 in Manchester, UK, https://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-bsa-events/bsa-annual-conference-2026-75-years-of-sociology/   

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Ilkhom Soliev, Sven Grüner, Richard Völker, and Edit Hunyadi join the global research of the Talking to Machines project on social-political experiments and the Artificial Intelligence. Read more about the project at https://talkingtomachines.org/   .

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Alongside Henrique Pereira, Ilkhom Soliev is nominated to co-chair the topical committee on transdisciplinarity for strategic development of research, teaching, networking, and third-party funded projects at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). Read more about iDiv at www.idiv.de   .

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In a Mongabay article, Ilkhom Soliev discusses the rapidly growing global use of Rights of Nature and related opportunities and challenges for locally grounded and community-engaged transformations. The full article is available at https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rights-of-nature-concept-creates-room-for-life-but-its-still-fuzzy-study/   

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Agnes Zolyomi together with partners in the BioAgora project publish on implementing the European Union Biodiversity Strategy: Interlinked challenges and a potential way in the journal People and Nature, available at https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70106   

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Sven Grüner, Ilkhom Soliev, and Frauke Pirscher publish “Multiple Challenges in Mind, Biodiversity out of Sight: Insights on the Need for Structural Transformations” in the International Journal of the Commons, available at https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1477   

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On 29 September – 1 October 2025, Richard Völker, Sven Grüner, and Ilkhom Soliev organize workshop on iDiv Flexpool PrioDiv project at the iDiv Annual Conference held in Halle. More information about the conference is available at https://conference.idiv.de/event/3/   

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Sven Grüner has been invited to contribute to the IPCC's Seventh Assessment Report. The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. In his role as a lead author, he will address the topic of adaptation options and conditions for accelerating action. More information about the IPCC reports is available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/   

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On 16-20 June 2025, Ilkhom Soliev chairs two panels at the 2025 Global IASC Conference on societal transformations and biodiversity and the meeting of the Regional Chapter of IASC for Europe and CIS. More information available at https://2025.iasc-commons.org/   

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Ilkhom Soliev, Frauke Pirscher, and Marie Schreiber publish “The making of rights of nature: nine patterns in a decade of empirical research on social-ecological drivers and actors” in the journal Environmental Research Communications, available at https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ade5f2   

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Sven Grüner together with Oliver Mußhoff publish “Behavioral climate change: does thinking about future consequences of climate change affect risk preferences and cooperation?” in the journal Climatic Change, available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-03968-7   

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Ilkhom Soliev, Agnes Zolyomi, and Alex Franklin introduce the Reflexivity-Situatedness Matrix - a new analytical framework for understanding and enabling (or preventing) (un)desired transformations in the journal Earth Stewardship, available at https://doi.org/10.1002/eas2.70020   

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On 11 September 2025, Horizon Europe Project PLANET4B holds its fourth Consortium Meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Sixteen partners across Europe and globe gather to:

• showcase PLANET4B’s main research advances, key findings and innovative tools developed across three years of collaborative research;
• exchange in a panel discussion to discuss the legacy of PLANET4B’s research and findings and outlook for the future;
• and celebrate the three years of research and partnership on the PLANET4B project during the networking event with a panoramic view over Brussels.

The event is made available also via livestream (with limited interaction). The detailed information about the event and how to join is available here   .

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On 4 July 2025, Ilkhom Soliev delivers the keynote on the 19th Halle Day of Sociology (Tag der Halleschen Soziologie) entitled "Response-Able Social-Environmental Transformations: Why and How?". He introduced examples from Horizon Europe Projects PLANET4B and DAISY as well as iDiv Flexpool Project PrioDiv arguing for 1) the need to take the term "transformations" seriously; 2) being concsious about what kind of transformations we want as a society; and 3) the importance of seeing intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional change as integral parts of response-able transformations.

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New Job Opportunity: Doctoral Scholarship on Rural Community "Resilience in Central Asia: Understanding Perceptions, Responses, and Adaptation Needs" hosted by IAMO, MLU and CAREC. If interested, please apply by 31 August 2025, you can find more details here   .

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On 3 June 2025 in Brussels, a high-level workshop—hosted by the European Commission’s REA, ERCEA, and DG RTD, with support from BioAgora—brought together EU-funded research and innovation projects focused on Transformative Change for Biodiversity.

It convened European Commission services, IPBES experts involved in the 2024 Transformative Change Assessment, and key initiatives like Biodiversa+ and NetworkNaturePlus. The workshop aimed to map and assess the progress and findings of current R&I projects; identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration; pinpoint remaining knowledge gaps in the transformative change landscape; provide input to policy and funding priorities; and explore possibilities for clustering and co-developing joint activities to amplify impact. Alex Franklin, Coventry University, co-coordinator of PLANET4B and DAISY represented the two projects and introduced the results and upcoming plans.

(c) BIOTraCes

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European Research Executive Agency showcases PLANET4B and sister projects. Read the full article here   .

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The IPBES Plenary has adopted Transformative Change    and Nexus Assessments   . PLANET4B partners have contributed to these milestone reports both as authors and by sending in review suggestions.

Image source: IPBES media release

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A new postdoctoral research project on biodiversity prioritisation (PrioDiv) that will use innovative experimental methods and text analysis has been approved for funding.

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Our new Horizon Europe proposal - "DAISY: DigitAl, technologIcal and Social innovation mixes enabling transformation for biodiversity and equitY" - has been approved for funding by the European Commission.

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On 28 June 2024 Ilkhom Soliev has been nominated and voted in to join the board of directors at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies (ZIRS). He will serve as a director of ZIRS for the next five years.

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On 26 June 2024, Ilkhom Soliev gives a seminar talk on transformative interventions at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig   .

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From 19 April to 7 June 2024, Ilkhom Soliev, together with Tobias Haller of University of Bern, organise 3rd IASC Europe and CIS Colloquium Series on Commons and Policy   .

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On 25-26 January 2024, Ilkhom Soliev chairs the panel on environmental rights at the conference organised by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology   .

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On 24-26 October 2023, Ilkhom Soliev, together with Alex Franklin of Coventry University and Agnes Zolyomi of UNEP-WCMC, chairs the special panel on transformative interventions for biodiversity prioritisation at the 2023 Radboud Conference on Earth System Governance   .

Presenters included representatives of:

• Institute of Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CzechGlobe
• IFZ – Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, Graz, Austria
• University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
• Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland
• Utrecht University, the Netherlands
• Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany
• Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands

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