In view of escalating multiple crisis phenomena, i.e. the interplay of social, economic, political and ecological crises, the question is no longer whether a socio-ecological transformation will take place, but how. The transgression of planetary boundaries, such as the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity or pollution of the oceans, requires far-reaching changes in production, consumption and lifestyles. At the same time, however, there are enormous socio-economic inequalities and undersupply in the areas of health, education, political participation and equality at both national and international level. In the SET Research Group, we are therefore researching the prerequisites and various socio-economic scenarios for a sustainable socio-ecological transformation.

In particular, the SET-Lab focuses on the role of the currently prevailing economic thinking in this process. It examines the extent to which mainstream economic thinking, which analyzes economic activity largely in isolation from social and ecological implications, represents an additional and central obstacle to the necessary far-reaching transformation and how alternative socio-economic approaches can make a positive contribution to socio-ecological transformation by holistically embedding the economy in society and ecology. The effects of economic thinking are located and analyzed in the area of knowledge production and knowledge transfer, but also in the area of political reform debates and public discourse. We are clearly committed to the social responsibility of science and rely on diverse collaborations with partners from science and civil society.