Chair Group of Environmental Governance
- How are environmental sustainability issues addressed and regulated in the economy, politics and society?
- To what extent can ecological innovation processes – such as energy transitions, mobility transitions or food system transitions - be steered at local, regional and national levels?
- How can regions, economic sectors and value chains be aligned with environmental sustainability goals?
Research and teaching in the Chair of Environmental Governance focuses on the impact of governance interventions in spatially or functionally bound systems (such as regions, sectors and organizations) to achieve normative goals of sustainable development.
The aim of the research is to understand dynamic interactions between the social, economic and political characteristics on the one hand and ecological conditions on the other hand and commensurate to complexity. In turn, appropriate methodologies for their regulation can be developed.
Current focal points in empirical research are on the role of markets in transitions, based on recent theories of economic sociology and on the importance of mission statements (Leitbild) in strategic planning processes.
In principle interdisciplinary, the chair group is open to all methods, with a focus on qualitative, longitudinal-oriented methods of empirical social research, Social Network Analysis (SNA) and qualitative System Dynamics –structure models.
The Chair Group of Environmental Governance contributes significantly to teaching in the MSc-program "Environmental Governance" (MEG). In addition, we contribute to the major "Land Use and Nature Conservation" in the MSc-program "Environmental Sciences" and to the minor "International Forestry" in the BSc-programs "Forestry and Environment" and "Environmental Natural Sciences".