Research areas
Environment, nature, biodiversity, climate, resources and society
Thematically, the department 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 transformations as intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional change
Theoretically, the department addresses the need to better understand transformations as social change: at the individual level, particularly by applying theories and methods of sociology at the intersection with behavioural sciences; at the interpersonal level, particularly by applying relational and practice theories; 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. Of special interest are the dynamic social processes involving pressures to change, path dependencies that resist change, conflicts resulting from change, and interventions for pathbreak.
Inter- and transdisciplinarity for solving social-environmental problems
Methodologically and in practice, the department 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.