Sociology of Sustainability

Project: Research

Project participants

  • Henkel, Anna (Project manager, academic)
  • Lindemann, Gesa (Project manager, academic)
  • Lüdtke, Nico (Project staff)
  • Neckel, Sighard (Project manager, academic)
  • Kaldewey, David (Project manager, academic)
  • Block, Katharina (Project manager, academic)
  • Barth, Thomas (Project manager, academic)
  • Besio, Cristina (Project manager, academic)
  • Böschen, Stefan (Project manager, academic)
  • Dickel, Sascha (Project manager, academic)
  • Rödder, Simone (Project manager, academic)
  • Schloßberger, Matthias (Project manager, academic)
  • Wendt, Björn (Project manager, academic)
  • Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
  • Leibniz University Hanover
  • University of Münster

Description

The debate on sustainability has been a politically induced, public discourse in which sociological perspectives have been playing only a marginal role. This may be because sociology is generally cautious of engaging in discussions of normative connotations. Responses to issues related to sustainability from relevant subfields of sociology such as participation and acceptance research, environmental sociology and science and technology studies are largely confined to the margins of the sustainability discourse. The aim of the network is to make sustainability a specifically sociological issue and to give sociology a voice in this debate.Recently, there has been an increasing call for such a decidedly sociological perspective. Measures and strategies that have been recognized as useful in achieving sustainability always raise the question of how they can be implemented on the various different levels of action involved, especially if they entail calls for fundamental transformations such as energy transition. By addressing social aspects in their specific societal contexts, sociology can make meaningful contributions in this area. It can also approach the political and the implicitly and explicitly normative character of the debate on sustainability from a scientific perspective, which is necessary given the possible limitations and impediments to an action-oriented policy towards sustainability. Therefore, there is no need for sociology to suspend its scepticism about the normative implications of sustainability; on the contrary, it can be made productive. In fact, by addressing sustainability from the perspective of social theory and locating the issue in the field of the theory of society, sociology is particularly suitable for providing a solid theoretical basis for a practice-oriented debate on sustainability.The multi-paradigmatic character of sociology is both a strength that should be developed and utilized and a challenge that should be met. The strength of the multi-paradigmatic character of sociology is that different analyses focus on different aspects depending on the perspective taken, and given that addressing questions of sustainability typically involves multiple heterogeneous approaches, being able to change perspectives is a major benefit. The challenge is to make sociology an original and independent voice in the discourse on sustainability in the first place. The network will bring together proponents of differing sociological perspectives on sustainability to utilize the strength of the heterogeneity of positions and develop a common integrative perspective. The network will draw on recent debates on specific relevant issues (energy, climate change, mobility, soil) and on an analysis of differences and similarities to outline a sociological sustainability strategy, which will then be introduced to the scientific debate and, if at all possible, the political debate as well.
StatusFinished
Period01.10.1630.09.19

Activities

Research outputs

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
  2. Grauzonen der Feldforschung
  3. Virtuelles Experimentieren mit PhET Simulationen
  4. Online CSR communication by listed companies: a factor for enthusiasm or disappointment?
  5. The roughness of neural networks. Jimi hendrix, holly herndon, GPT-3, timbre transfer and the promising failure aesthetics of musical AIs
  6. Grundlagentraining - Sprung : Die Gretchenfrage: Flop oder Schere?
  7. Beyond Digital vs. IT
  8. Musical Interface Agendas. Musical Appropriation via Technological Pre-configuration
  9. Living at night in times of pandemic
  10. Experimentieren mit Modellen
  11. Towards more sustainable curricula
  12. Inside honeybee hives
  13. Three source-partitioning of CO2 fluxes based on a dual-isotope approach to investigate interactions between soil organic carbon, glucose and straw
  14. Cross-cultural differences in consumers' perception of the credibility of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns
  15. Introduction
  16. Negative effects of forest gaps on dung removal in a full-factorial experiment
  17. Assessment of key competencies
  18. You could be lucky
  19. Öko-Controlling
  20. Remote Sensing Data
  21. Happy just because. A cross-cultural study on subjective wellbeing in three Indigenous societies
  22. Learning Soccer in Elementary School: Using Teaching Games for Understanding and Digital Media
  23. Insect decline in forests depends on species’ traits and may be mitigated by management
  24. Paradigmawechsel
  25. Reinventing the Politics of Knowledge Production in Migration Studies
  26. Integration von Gender-Aspekten in gestufte Jahrgänge - eine Handreichung
  27. Trembling Time
  28. Digitisation and Sustainable Development
  29. Systemwechsel in der globalen Systemkonkurrenz