Working Groups

The working group aims to map the potential of Feminist thought to tackle the polycrisis and shape a sustainable international society and aims to spell out what feminist thought envisions as a sustainable society and thereby fills the gap left by analytical endeavours on polycrisis by viewing Feminist thought as a moral compass embracing normativity in order to coherently navigate through a diverse set of interrelated crises.

The working group explores the ‘backpackers perspective’ by focusing on the three themes of knowledge production, networks, and sustainability. It aims at unpacking the ‘encounter’ in these travels at the intersections of positionality, privilege and identity; ideas and potentialities on sustainability; and academic data collection and politics of legitimacy.

The working groups pursues the overarching questions of how and by whom a sustainable and equitable or convivial use and governance of the commons can be practically infrastructured and under which infrastructural conditions new forms of commoning emerge. Analytically, it follows a relational perspective that views both infrastructures and commons as processual, fragile, and often contested webs of relationships between people and their non-human environment.

The working group aims to address the economic, political and social dimensions of the European Green Deal from an economic, sociological and political science perspective. Net zero transition efforts in the EU member states will be examined from a comparative perspective.

The working group particularly tries to answer the following research questions: what drives food choices and how are they influenced by ideas and discourses related to more sustainable lifestyles?

The working group "Biodiversity and Financial Markets" investigates the relationship between arising biodiversity risks, biodiversity impact disclosures in companies’ nonfinancial reporting and the perceived risk by equity and debt investors.

The working group “A Pandemic Peace? Narrative Shift in Discursive Disarmament Strategies” is interested in exploring the role and effects of a narrative shift within international disarmament and anti-militarism social movements with the COVID-19 pandemic as a symbolic event.

The working group “Corporate Social Responsibility” is dealing with the impact capital market participants have onto the CSR activities of their investments and examines the determinants for the investors to start this engagement.

The working group "Sustainable Finance" focuses on companies and capital markets under changing social and political conditions.

The working group (WG) explores the role, relevance and ongoing changes of international academic travel in the field of climate and sustainability sciences. A young researchers’ group within the WG will focus on identifying pathways forward for action to reduce academic air travel.