Professorship

The Mercator Endowed Chair of Sociology researches the social, i.e. not primarily technological, preconditions, drivers and dynamics of deep transformations in complex societies. Empirically, the focus is firstly on the role of social movements and diverse forms of societal engagement and participation in the German low-carbon transformation. The professorship coordinates the production of an annual study on the status of the German climate transformation, which examines central social drivers of decarbonisation and carries out a social plausibility analysis of its long-term goals, as well as the development of a web-based database on its societal dynamics. This will also involve a diverse range of civil society actors. Secondly, the professorship researches and teaches on questions of global environmental governance and here in particular on the global dynamics of the climate crisis. To this end, ethnographic observations are carried out at global climate conferences within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS) and analyses are conducted on the global transition to climate neutrality. Thirdly, the professorship pursues the research programme of a sociology of limitation. Within the framework of the Advanced Humanities Centre “Futures of Sustainability”, we are investigating attempts to anchor global ecological limits in various social and political subfields.