Research areas
Environment, nature, biodiversity, climate, resources and society
Thematically, the professorship focuses on the analysis of environmental change as an increasingly pressing social challenge; social change leading to change in the environment, nature, biodiversity; societal responses to environmental degradation; and (promising) theories, methods, practices for facilitating improved social-environmental outcomes, particularly in relation to nature and biodiversity, but also related to social-ecological systems such as climate, forests, land, water.
Understanding behavioral and institutional change
Theoretically, the professorship addresses the need to better understand change: at the individual level, particularly, by applying theories and methods of sociology at the intersection with behavioural sciences; and at the broader societal and institutional levels, particularly by applying theories and methods of sociology at the interface with political sciences and institutional economics.
Inter- and transdisciplinarity for solving social-environmental problems
Methodologically and in practice, the professorship applies problem-tailored approaches. Causes of most social-environmental problems are complex in ways that intertwine explanations from social sciences, natural sciences, and knowledge beyond academia, and adequately understanding and solving them often necessitates a matching level of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary analyses.