Dr. Ernest Aigner
Fon +49.4131.677-2307 (Sekr.), ernest.aigner@leuphana.de
Vita
Dr. Ernest Aigner is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Leuphana University Lüneburg. His research bridges questions of social justice and environmental sustainability from a political-economic perspective. Drawing on socioeconomic theory and empirical analysis, he investigates barriers, enabling conditions, and pathways for social-ecological transformations across multiple scales.
In the research project MaSES – Mainstreaming Social Ecological Sufficiency, he examines perceptions and determinants of “enough” in consumer goods and services, combining social science approaches with input–output-based modeling techniques.
Previously, he worked as an expert at the Centre for Climate and Health of the Austrian Public Health Institute (GÖG), where he focused on the challenges and potentials of low-income households in climate and health policies. Before that, he co-edited the APCC Special Report on Structures for Climate-Friendly Living and contributed to interdisciplinary projects on post-growth monetary and financial systems, climate-social policy integration, sustainable work, and poverty in the context of inflation and climate action.
He serves as a board member of the International Society for Ecological Economics and as an advisory board member of Kontext – Institute for Climate Issues. Dr. Aigner earned his PhD in 2022 at the Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). His dissertation analyzed a large bibliometric dataset of economic publications with regard to pluralism, concentration, paradigmatic orientation, and geographical distribution. He holds a Master’s degree in Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy from WU Vienna and also studied at the University of Illinois and Uppsala University.
Teaching
Ecological Economics, Sustainability Science, Sufficiency, Sustainable Work, Climate Action and Policy, Alternative Monetary and Economic Systems, Global Political Economy.
Research Interests
Social Ecological Sufficiency
Economic Sociology and Plural Economics
Climate and Social Policy
Sustainable Work
Alternative Economic Systems and Utopias
Publications
Journal contributions
- Interweaving systems, embedding practices: Multi-system practice constellations in just sustainability transitions
Astrid Krisch (Author) , Christina Lampl (Author) , Andrea Schmidt (Author) , Ernest Aigner (Author) , 01.03.2026 , in: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 59 , 17 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
- Conceptualizing transformative climate action: insights from sufficiency research
Bärnthaler Richard (Author) , Barlow Nathan (Author) , Novy Andreas (Author) , Ernest Aigner (Author) , 01.01.2026 , in: Climate Policy, 26, 1 , p. 159-178 , 20 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research
- The global distribution of authorship in economics journals
Ernest Aigner (Author) , Jacob Greenspon (Author) , Dani Rodrik (Author) , 01.05.2025 , in: World Development, 189 , 18 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
- Food poverty as a barrier for a healthy and climate-friendly nutrition in Austria
Christina Lampl (Author) , Ernest Aigner (Author) , Annika Schmidt (Author) , 28.10.2024 , in: European Journal of Public Health, 34, SP_3 , p. 317-317 , 1 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Conference abstract in journal › Research › peer-review
- „Es ist wie in einer Sauna“: Die Betroffenheit armutsbetroffener Kinder und ihrer Familien durch die Klimakrise und sozialpolitische Antworten
Ernest Aigner (Author) , Hanna Lichtenberger (Author) , Judith Ranftler (Author) , Sonja Schmeißl (Author) , 15.12.2023 , in: soziales_kapital, 27 , p. 79-99 , 21 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
- Money and finance: An overview of strategies for social-ecological transformation in the field of money and finance and the case of the Austrian Cooperative for the Common Good
Ernest Aigner (Author) , Christina Buczko (Author) , Louison Cahen-Fourot (Author) , Colleen Schneider (Author) , 01.01.2022 London , p. 351-374 , 24 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review
- Pflege: Sorglos?: Klimasoziale Antworten auf die Pflegekrise
Ernest Aigner (Author) , Hanna Lichtenberger (Author) , 13.10.2021 , p. 175-183 , 9 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research
- Die deutsche Ökonomik im internationalen Vergleich: Globalisierung, Konzentration und Pluralismus
Ernest Aigner (Author) , 11.12.2019 Marburg , p. 123-148 , 26 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research
Courses
by reducing the material intensity (efficiency) or material throughput (consistency) of economic activity.
None of these approaches, however, addresses the question of how much economic activity is
really necessary in the face of a global ecological overload.
Here, the innovative concept of socio-ecological sufficiency - ensuring a socially satisfactory standard
of living while using natural resources in an ecologically sustainable manner - represents an important
third (integrative) strategy to achieve an economy within a "safe operating space for humanity".