In the face of escalating multiple crisis phenomena, i.e. the interplay of social, economic, political and ecological crises, it is no longer a question of whether socio-economic transition (SET) or socio-ecological transformation will take place, but how. Overshooting planetary boundaries, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or ocean acidification, requires far-reaching changes in production, consumption, and lifestyles. At the same time, however, enormous socioeconomic inequalities and shortfalls in health, education, political participation, and gender equality persist, both nationally and internationally. Thus, on the one hand, the SETER project deals with the preconditions and different scenarios of sustainable socio-economic transition.

On the other hand, the project focuses on the role of the currently prevailing economic thinking (ER) in this process. More specifically, it will examine in detail how mainstream economic thinking, which largely analyzes economic action in isolation from social and environmental implications, is an additional and central obstacle to the necessary profound transformation. The impact of economic thinking will be located and analyzed in the field of knowledge production and transfer, but also in the field of political reform debates and public discourses. In recent years, it has become clear that (i) a narrow understanding of economic rationality, (ii) the unquestionability of economic growth, (iii) the sole focus on competitively organized markets as the superior form of economic interaction, and (iv) the associated primary focus on individual incentive structures significantly limit the possibilities and scenarios of sustainable socio-economic transformation.

Against the background of the absolute necessity of socio-ecological transformation as a central social and economic challenge of the 21st century, the main question is whether this transformation will be structured or disruptive. SETER addresses the interactions and interdependencies between economic thinking and models and practices of socio-ecological transformation from an interdisciplinary perspective and contributes to a better understanding of the obstacles and potentials in this field. Through a series of collaborations with institutions and research networks, different formats and methods will be developed to complement political decision-making processes and public debates with alternative and sustainable economic ways of thinking, based on concrete examples and scenarios.