Welcome

The Environmental Social Sciences department (ESS) aims at conducting cutting edge environment-related research from the background of several social science disciplines, with a particular focus on water related societal processes like governance, innovation, management, assessment and decision making.

Water related problems have only recently started to gain increasing attention in a wide range of social science disciplines. Researchers in the department therefore aim at being at the forefront of researching water related issues in their respective social science disciplines.

Research of the department focuses on three fundamental social science topics: (i) the analysis of individual behavior and decision making related to environmental and health problems, (ii) the analysis of institutions, networks, and governance structures that regulate and address environmental problems, and (iii) the understanding of sustainability oriented socio-technical transformation processes in major industry sectors. Based on these competences, ESS research contributes to better understanding, assessing and managing water related problems such as acceptance and use of health-related water technologies, sustainability oriented reforms of urban water management sectors, aquatic ecosystem services, or the design of new policy approaches for handling pollutants in aquatic environments.

The department hosts a portfolio of disciplinary competences such as economics, political sciences, business management, innovation studies, economic geography, decision analysis, and psychology. Water related problems can therefore be assessed in an interdisciplinary way drawing upon a broad set of complementary perspectives. Besides disciplinary excellence, researchers are competent in formulating and implementing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects together with colleagues from technical engineering and natural sciences.