Key Subject Areas

At Leuphana, five key subject areas for the further development of transformation research have emerged within the interdisciplinary research topics of digital cultures, democracy, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and organization. In these areas, researchers examine key questions about change in today’s societies to develop new knowledge for future-oriented solutions:

Climate Futures in Digital Cultures

Scenarios for a sustainable future are designed in close connection with digital media technologies in science, industry, politics and cultural production. Leuphana researchers investigate how these climate futures are constituted, imagined and shaped in digital cultures. They explore their medial, social and technological situatedness under the premise that digital media technologies contribute to the climate crisis and, at the same time, provide solutions. In this way, they update the research field of digital cultures with transformation knowledge regarding anthropogenic climate change and futurity as a (media and socio-) cultural ability.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Armin Beverungen, Prof. Dr. Jan Müggenburg and Prof. Dr. Christina Wessely

Companies as drivers of sustainability transformation:

Creating positive sustainability impact in markets and for society

The key role of companies and entrepreneurship in sustainability transformations of markets and society is widely acknowledged. While companies cause ecological and social problems, they can also drive and shape sustainability transformations beyond their organizational boundaries. Leuphana researchers investigate what positive impact contributions organizations can make to transform markets and society most effectively towards sustainability. They integrate research perspectives on how companies can successfully contribute to sustainable consumption and lifestyles, business relationships, societal developments, and changes in the natural environment.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Michael Gielnik, Prof. Dr. Monika Imschloß, Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaltegger and Prof. Dr. Roman Trötschel

Democratic Resilience:

Democracy's Sustainability in the Global Multi-Crises Era

In the face of multiple crises (pandemic, mass migration, climate change, terrorism and war), attacks from outside and challenges from within, democracies must prove to be robust and capable of performing and developing. Leuphana researchers investigate the question of whether democracies are inherently more resilient than alternative, autocratic counter-concepts. Through analyses on an individual, social, systemic and international level, they examine the resilience conditions of social models of order and develop transformation knowledge about how western liberal democracies can continue to generate legitimacy and support their resilience.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Jens Newig, Prof. Dr. Astrid Séville and Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel

Organizing in Times of Crisis

Established approaches to understanding and managing crises build on the idea that crises are temporary, seemingly enabling a return to a state of order. Yet, environmental catastrophes, health crisis, wars, and other disasters severely disrupt routines and infrastructures in both public and private spheres. Leuphana researchers develop transformation knowledge for understanding the nature of organizing in times of crisis as a multilevel, systemic phenomenon instead of a temporary condition. They foster research on organizational processes and practices as well as their impact on social change and, furthermore, propose new models of crisis management.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Elke Schüßler and Prof. Dr. Matthias Wenzel

Towards a Regenerative Society

Economic, social, and ecological processes are increasingly unsustainable, causing trends of degeneration in a wide range of socio-ecological systems. In this light, notions of regeneration have entered discourses in diverse disciplines. Leuphana researchers work to deepen and strengthen the conceptual and theoretical foundation of regeneration, and to explore its potential to bring about real-world change. In this way, they generate transformation knowledge about how regenerative dynamics can be enabled, supported and maintained in specific systems and contexts as well as in social practices.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Jörn Fischer and Prof. Dr. Vicky Temperton