The focus of our work is on participatory, cooperative and network-like communication and decision-making processes in the context of sustainable development. Problem-oriented, inter- and transdisciplinary research investigates structures, processes, context and results of governance. Our activities contribute to current conceptual debates and develop new methods of empirical research with a focus on the integration of knowledge through comparative and meta-analytical methods.

• The effectiveness of participation in environmental decision-making processes
• Collective leraning and social network analysis
• Environmental and sustainability conflicts: mediation and consensus building
• Issues of complexity and uncertainty os sustainability
• Environmental information: monitoring and evaluation
• Global and multi-level governance and institutional scaling processes
• Public discourse and the role of the media
• Transformation and decay of social-ecological systems
• water resources management, coastal protection and management, land use and reuse of brownfield sites.