We aim to describe the interaction between social and natural systems, which we see as co-evolutionary, in scientifically sound theoretical and methodological terms.

The two concepts of social metabolism and the colonization of natural systems constitute the core of our socio-ecological theory. These concepts draw from quite differing scientific traditions - biology, sociology, economics, technical sciences, history, geography and cultural anthropology - and offer a coherent perspective on the society-nature relationship.

This perspective guides us conceptually and practically in developing information systems for the environmental consequences of human activity ("pressures upon the environment"). It also orients us in our research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of sustainable development at the local, national and global levels.

Our methodological spectrum includes material and energy flow analysis (MFA and EFA), geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing methods, systemic actor-oriented and organizational analyses, and the use of historical sources. We make increasing use of modelling techniques for data simulation, a synthetic presentation of results and as a basis for scenarios. Our culture of stable interdisciplinary cooperation and intensive teamwork make this spectrum possible.

Thematic Areas

  • Social Metabolism
  • Land Use and Colonizations of Ecosystems
  • Long-term socio-ecological research and environmental history
  • Social-Ecological Transformations
  • Integrated Socio-Ecological Modelling

Latest Projects

Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-01-01 - 2024-12-31

A number of important initiatives at European, national and local level aim to mitigate climate change and set binding targets and measures. In order to prevent the climate crisis from turning into a climate catastrophe, it is necessary to understand the interplay between individual contributions and ambitious climate and sustainability policies and to recognise and stimulate opportunities for change at both levels. Based on work for APCC Special Reports (Haas et al. 2018, Görg et al. 2023), we have started to analyse the relationships between climate-friendly living in everyday life, time use and health-promoting activities. This analysis includes the calculation of emission intensities of time-use activities and the evaluation of time use and CO2 emissions per groups differentiated by gender and caring responsibilities.
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-01-01 - 2026-06-30

Episodes of heat, sudden rises in temperature or increased exposure to allergens pose a particular threat to the health of older people. This particularly affects older people who are already a vulnerable group due to health impairments such as cardiovascular diseases (high blood pressure, heart failure, ischemic heart disease) or lung diseases (asthma, COPD). Pollen-triggered diseases such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and allergic bronchial asthma each affect around 5-11% of the population aged 65 and over. The consequences of asthma are also much more serious in older people and more often lead to death. The KliMate project therefore aims to design a system that uses weather and environmental data to provide individual recommendations for increasing active mobility, physical activity in general, social participation and general climate adaptation in older people. At the same time, individual and collective approaches are being developed to help promote climate-friendly physical activity. In addition to increasing active mobility, this also has the advantage of reducing loneliness and social isolation, the psychological and physical consequences of which can range from anxiety, depression, loss of sleep and cognitive decline to a deterioration in cardiovascular health.
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Duration : 2024-03-01 - 2027-02-28

The modern history of European forests is characterized by long-term recovery of forest biomass stocks and increasing regulation and rationalization of forest management and use. This history is often told as a success story, and as the paradigmatic example of sustainable resource management. However, recent research has pointed out that conceptions of sustainability in rational forest management adhered to a narrow economic understanding of the term, and that its implementation often came at the expense of local populations and forest ecology. The project INFEST therefore develops a novel and nuanced narrative of forest change. INFEST adopts the perspective of interdisciplinary environmental history to study the industrialization of forests in Austria from 1766 to 1914. The project tackles forest change as a process shaped by both socio-cultural (e.g., power relations, practices) and ecological dimensions (e.g., nutrient availability, plant growth), and their relations over time. INFEST hypothesizes that this period, during which Austrian forests underwent a shift from forest depletion to recovery, also marked a regime shift from a multifunctional towards an industrialized forest regime, characterized by distinct changes in sociocultural and ecological forest characteristics, and a reduction in diversity across these dimensions. INFEST links methodological approaches form cultural and political environmental history (i.e., qualitative analyses of historical sources) with material environmental history (i.e. quantitative biogeochemical accounting and modelling). The project analyses (1) cultural programs underlying legal regulations of forest use at national and provincial levels, based on analyses of legal documents and discourses surrounding them; (2) social practices of forest use and ensuing conflicts, based on analyses of archival sources in two local case studies (e.g., forest management plans, “Servitute”, court records); and (3) biogeochemical stocks and fluxes of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in forests, based on forest inventories, maps and model reconstructions. Ultimately, INFEST aims at identifying (4) a socio-ecological regime shift in the course of the industrialization of forests. INFEST develops the first history of socio-ecological forest change in Austria that consistently links sociocultural and ecological forest dynamics. It establishes novel insights about how different social actors and their interests interacted with forest ecosystems in the long 19th century. Databases developed in the project will be made available through research infrastructures and foster future research in the history of forests and woodlands and on legacies of forest use. By enriching the historical understanding of the emergence of “sustainable forest management”, the project also contributes to current debates on sustainable resource use.

Supervised Theses and Dissertations