Changing Society

A global sustainable transformation needs social, cultural, and institutional change

How can our society transition from an unsustainable to a sustainable human-environmental system respecting planetary boundaries? Substantial changes are necessary in our relationship with the natural environment under climate change to ensure equity of access to water, energy, food, housing, healthcare, and mobility for the global population as well as future generations.

The focus area on changing society includes all scientists at the ECH that analyze facets of the socio-ecological transformation through the lens of the public sphere, economic factors, governance, and human behavior. Their unique interdisciplinary background fosters new and innovative research at the cross-section between nature, ecosystem services, and human society.

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News and Stories

26.09.2024

Apply for the Science for Policy Hackathon

Are you interested in how to create effective solutions for pressing environmental[...]

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12.09.2024

ECH-Direktorin Sabine Pahl beim größten wissenschaftlichen Psychologie-Kongress im DACH-Raum

Am 16. September 2024 startet der 53. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft[...]

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12.09.2024

ECH Director Sabine Pahl at the Largest Scientific Psychology Congress in the DACH Region

On September 16, 2024, the 53rd Congress of the German Psychological Society[...]

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25.06.2024

Event: Podiumsdiskussion zu Sustainable Development Goals im urbanen Raum

„Der Kampf um globale Nachhaltigkeit wird in den Städten verloren oder gewonnen”,[...]

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19.06.2024

Event Empfehlung: Claus Lamm bei der Wiener Vorlesung

ECH-Mitglied, Psychologe und Gehirnforscher Claus Lamm hält im[...]

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06.06.2024

(DE) Nachbericht: 11. Umwelt im Gespräch: Klimawandel und urbaner Hitzestress: Wie können Städte der Zukunft begegnen?

„Klimawandel und urbaner Hitzestress: Wie können Städte der Zukunft begegnen?“[...]

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04.06.2024

Event Recommendation: Thilo Hofmann at “From Pollution to Solution”

ECH co-director Thilo Hofmann will be member of a[...]

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22.05.2024

Lecture: Groundwater-Surface Water Exchange Processes

Lee Slater, professor of Geophysics at the Rutgers University Newark, expert[...]

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16.05.2024

The Future of Global Environmental Negotiations: Assessing the Role of Science and Technology

Program Global environmental negotiations have become central sites for studying the interaction[...]

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09.05.2024

Lecture: the Challenges of the Green Deal

Have you ever tried and failed to achieve a holistic understanding of[...]

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10.04.2024

First Sustainability Day at the Department of Sociology

Panel discussion with ECH members at the Sustainability Day of the Department[...]

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10.04.2024

Workshop: Carbon Dioxide Removal as a Building Block of Climate Policy

On the 17th of April, ECH members Alina Brad[...]

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12.03.2024

The Public is Ready for Climate Reform – so What now? A Talk With Kimberly Doell

If climate change is to be tackled, we need both individual behavior[...]

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24.01.2024

Review: ECH in Discussion With Viennese Students

On 24 January, ECH member Katrin Attermeyer and coordinator Timo Bühler, together[...]

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13.11.2023

The Power of Neuroscience to Fight Against Climate Change

Today an international research team, including scientists from the Environment and Climate[...]

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11.10.2023

Report: 10th Environmental Dialogue: Our life with waste: between consumption and environmental protection.

At the beginning of this calendar year, the Austrian recycling guidelines for[...]

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11.10.2023

What the Future Is Made Of

New materials are considered very promising for solving the acute challenges of[...]

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25.09.2023

Thilo Hofmann Selected for the Wiener Klimateam

This year, the Wiener Klimateam of the City of Vienna started[...]

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11.09.2023

Bicycle, Politics, and Social Transformation in Indonesia

ECH member Sanderien Verstappen was a guest on PolgovTalks by PARES, an[...]

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25.07.2023

1st Sustainability Idea Challenge Award

On Monday the 24th of July the Sustainability Idea Challenge Award,[...]

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10.07.2023

Kinderuni Goes Into 21st Edition

What is energy, anyway? Where do young trees come from? Children can[...]

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20.06.2023

Review: Semester Question Panel Discussion – “Can We Still Be Saved?”

On the question of planetary health and future, science researcher Ulrike Felt,[...]

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15.06.2023

Vodcast: Sabine Pahl and Andreas Stohl on #microplastics and #climateaction

What still needs to happen for us to finally change our behavior?[...]

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02.06.2023

Podcast: The Climate Between Politics and Science

Why aren’t governments doing everything in their power to stop climate change?[...]

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31.05.2023

Report: 9th Environmental Dialogue – Agriculture and planetary health – Opportunities for a healthy and sustainable diet

Numerous public and academic debates focus on the subject of a healthy[...]

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24.05.2023

For a Healthier Planet: Climate Activism Must Be Rewarded

The current discussion about climate protests reveals that the public perception of[...]

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04.05.2023

Initiative to Establish a Climate Audit Office

A key demand of the 2020 climate referendum was the establishment of[...]

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19.10.2022

Report: 8th Environmental Dialogue – “Environmental policy in crisis?”

In times of acute crises such as the Ukraine war, inflation, or[...]

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Projects

20.03.2024

The Many Labs Megastudy to Promote Climate Action Across the Globe

Kim Doell from the Faculty of Psychology was co-leading one of the[...]

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01.10.2023

FOCAL-Points: Leverage Points for Demand-Side Mitigation

Alina Brad from the Department of Political Sciences and Etienne Schenider from[...]

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01.06.2023

RESONATE: Resilience Through Nature-Based Therapies

Mat White at the Cognitive Science Hub is leading “RESONATE”  Horizon Europe[...]

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01.04.2023

GetCOheSive: Governance Enhancement for Cohesive Societies

Yuri Kazepov at the Department of Sociology is part of the “GetCoheSive”[...]

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07.01.2023

Permanent Latin American Working Group “Alternatives to Development”

Ulrich Brand at the Department of Political Sciences is part of the[...]

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01.01.2023

Beyond Development. Toward Systemic Emancipatory Transformations

Ulrich Brand at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of[...]

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27.09.2022

SOS-ZEROPOL2030: Source to Seas – Zero Pollution 2030

Sabine Pahl at the Department of Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods[...]

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06.01.2022

MUNEX: Municipal Neighborhood Experiments

Yuri Kazepov at the Department of Sociology is leading the case study[...]

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06.01.2022

Air and Environmental Health in the (Post-)COVID-19 World

Tatiana Konrad at the Department of English and American Studies is leading[...]

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01.11.2021

Talking Charts

Laura Koesten from the Faculty of Computer Sciences at the University of[...]

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01.10.2021

ZeroPM: Zero Pollution of Persistent, Mobile Substances

Sabine Pahl from the Department of Cognition, Emotion and Methods in Psychology[...]

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01.09.2020

Landscape, Life, Form: Anthropocene Poetics in Contemporary German Fiction

Eva Horn at the Department of German Studies leads the “Landscape, Life[...]

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06.01.2020

PECCK: Pre-Enacting Climate Change Knowledge

Alexa Färber at the Department of European Ethnology is leading the „PECCK“[...]

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01.01.2020

Utilizing Environmental Social Neuroscience to Investigate the Reciprocal Relationship Between Humans and the Environment

Claus Lamm from the Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology[...]

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01.01.2020

Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change

Mark Coeckelbergh from the Department of Philosophy is leading the project. Description:[...]

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Our Focus Areas

Latest news and projects from our focus areas:

Clean Environment

Climate Resilience

Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Changing Society