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Research at the Chair Group of Environmental Governance

The Chair of Environmental Governance focuses in research and teaching on the conditions and drivers of structural innovation processes for sustainable development, resp. ecological modernization of regions, markets, economic sectors and value chains.

Thereby the assumption of a central authority, which can autonomously steer and be responsible for the development in a desired direction – e.g. as the state with its environmental policy – must be abandoned. Regions, markets, economic sectors and value chains - like socio-ecological systems in general - can be clearly delimited for analytical purposes only, but in reality are characterized by blurred territorial, functional and structural boundaries.

Rather, it is assumed that in the complex interplay of the coordination mechanisms of hierarchical (state) regulation, competitive markets and societal self-organization (= governance) archetypical patterns in development emerge, that can be activated in the sense of sustainable development, resp. ecological modernization,

In principle interdisciplinary, the chair group is open to all methods, with a focus on qualitative, longitudinal-oriented methods of empirical social research.

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