2026-03-12
Jair Campfens, Mert Duygan, Claudia Binder
Achieving sustainable energy transitions is complex due to interactions between technology, society, and diverse stakeholders with differing interests. Scenario approaches often fail to capture these complexities. Participatory modelling (PM) addresses this by involving stakeholders in energy scenario development, integrating multiple perspectives for better policy decisions. This paper reviews 48 studies using PM in energy transitions, focusing on two key aspects: when stakeholders are involved and their level of participation. We identify six PM techniques and analyze their application using Davidson’s Wheel of Participation. Findings show that while a co-construction approach is common is common, most participation remains at the consulting level. This means stakeholders provide input but have limited decision-making power. The paper recommends future research directions as well as strategies for adapting PM techniques.
2026-01-13
David Spenger, Leah Burgard
The concept of Planetary Health, building on the premise that the vitality of ecosystems is fundamental to human health, entails conceptual readjustments and changes priorities in urban planning. This article considers the added value Planetary Health can contribute to urban planning contexts, highlighting its potential to serve as a means of academic decolonization, and advocates for an ethics of care as a central guide to urban planners and researchers drawing up transdisciplinary research designs.
2025-12-17
Bastian Lange, Henning Nuissl
This article wants to demonstrate how geographical research perspectives on health and care can both inform the debate on planetary health and link it to the regional and local level. We develop our arguments on a few empirical cornerstones from research in East Brandenburg as well as debates in social sciences and social geography on social innovations and new governance arrangements.
2025-12-17
Klaus Geiselhart
The concept of planetary health is based in ecological research on planetary boundaries, with the objective of identifying points at which human impacts exceed the Earth's capacity. Perceiving the global biosphere as a vital system of diverse species working together to stabilise the planet’s habitability, the concept reaches its full potential when combined with the biopsychosocial model of health. A critical mode of knowledge integration for sorting the highly fragmented landscape of scientific disciplines working incrementally, is suggested with the aim of gaining political impetus for societal transformation.
2025-12-17
Laura Müller, Max Czymai, Petra Döll, Birgit Blättel-Mink
Interdisciplinary collaboration is fundamental to addressing sustainability problems, such as climate change adaptation, in transdisciplinary projects. In this contribution, we, sociologists and hydrologists, reflect on effects and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration in transdisciplinary processes for 1) early-career researchers and 2) the process design. Based on our experiences in a transdisciplinary project, we discuss career effects through interdisciplinary negotiations and method development on early career researchers. Challenges for the researchers have arisen due to disciplinary qualification regulations influencing the research modes and different paradigms of natural and social scientists. To satisfy the paradigms and involve the needs of stakeholders at the same time, methods were developed and applied that effectively supported knowledge integration. However, negotiations are time-consuming and limit time for designing the process. Overall, reflexive interdisciplinary collaboration in transdisciplinary processes offers opportunities for personal development and careers, and facilitates identifying comprehensive societal solutions.
2025-07-04
Herbert Brüning, Jasmin Jossin, Busso Grabow
Die Initiative den Transformationsraum N stellt hiermit einen Vorschlag zur Diskussion, um die Große Transformation mit der notwendigen Konsequenz und Dringlichkeit insbesondere vor Ort voranzubringen. Die bisherigen Fortschritte auch unserer Arbeit sind zu klein und in Summe nicht ausreichend. Es fehlt an einem systemischen Vorgehen – von Forschung bis zur Umsetzung -, das den komplexen Problemen gerecht werden kann. Dieses skizziert der Transformationraum N unter Berücksichtigung von acht leitenden Prinzipien.
2025-04-09
Hugo Caviola, Andrea Sabine Sedlaczek
Viele gängige Bezeichnungen öffentlicher Straßenräume behindern den Wandel in Richtung einer nachhaltigen Mobilität, indem sie die Normalität des Autos festigen. In einem ersten, historischen Schritt zeigt der Beitrag, wie die Ausdrücke Parkplatz, Spielplatz und Fahrbahn den Siegeszug des Autos mitprägen. Er stellt dann vor, wie das Verständnis der Straße als Auto-Transitraum die Normalität des Autos bestärkt und dessen gewalttätige Wirkung ausblendet. Der neue Fokus auf Flächengerechtigkeit erlaubt es, ökologische Belange im knappen städtischen Raum voranzubringen. In sog. Zonen entstehen zudem Entschleunigungsinseln, welche die Dominanz des MIVs kompensieren und zugleich stabilisieren. Der Beitrag schließt mit Folgerungen, die aus der linguistischen Analyse für die Förderung einer nachhaltigen Verkehrswende gezogen werden können.
2025-04-09
Annmarie Crosse, Mary Jo Lavelle, Frances Fahy, Margaret Barry
Health is interdependent upon the Earth’s ecosystems. An increasing body of research recognises the importance of incorporating indigenous and community knowledge into understanding and valuing local ecosystems. This study actively engaged with community participants to demonstrate the potential of integrating community knowledge systems within transdisiplinary approaches to planetary and population health. This paper outlines findings from a community-based participatory research study on community awareness, knowledge and understanding of the interconnections between ecosystem services, health benefits, and sustainability. This innovative research study employed participatory methods involving active participation, critical reflection and knowlege co-production with participants (N=121) from a rural community in Ireland. Drawing on data collated from interactive community discussion and validation workshops (n=9), the paper reports on participants' reported levels of awareness, knowledge and understanding of nature-based health and wellbeing and ecosystem services. The potential of community participatory processes, and the imperative of including community knowledge within an EcoHealth response, are highlighted. Local places and habitats are identified as important settings for exploring socio-ecological health and wellbeing connections.
2025-03-30
David Kreis, Martin
Ecosystem-strengthening coastal protection is a complex task that not only poses technical challenges but also involves many diverse stakeholders. Apart from human interests, the interests of animals and plants, whose habitats require preservation and enhancement, are also at stake. This paper discusses the representation of these spatio-temporal relationships and their value in participatory processes, focusing on the mapping method of Gaiagraphy . Recently developed by Alexandra Arènes, Jérôme Gaillardet and Bruno Latour, this method is based on the Gaia hypothesis proposed by Lynn Margulis and James Lovelock, and it visualizes the spatiotemporal interactions between humans, animals, plants, and even non-living things such as sand or water. We tested the potential of the method in a coastal research project during workshops with stakeholders and residents on the island of Spiekeroog and in the coastal town of Dornumersiel. It turned out that Gaiagraphy is a promising tool for communicating socio-ecological processes, yet it needs to be adapted when used in short-term participatory workshops.
2025-03-12
Kerstin Mayer, Jadwiga Slezak
To overcome the complex challenges of our time and prepare for a more sustainable future, we must break new ground and find new strategies for collaboration. In this experimental case study, we show how industrial design and materials science worked together on an equal footing to design public luxury . Since both disciplines are practice-oriented, the focus was on creating a specific object: a seat for a public bus as a pars pro toto for enhancing the value of public mobility . We illustrate our process and highlight differences between the approaches of the two disciplines while showing how they enrich each other. Although a specific case study , it underlines the importance of self-reflection, communication and shared learning in interdisciplinary projects. The most important experimental findings include the identification of mesh structures as a common denominator in which both disciplines were realized as co-designer. The emphasis on haptic , ergonomic, and aesthetic qualities serves as basis for turning public mobility into a public status symbol.
2025-03-12
Claudia Keller
Um die Lücke zwischen der Dringlichkeit des Biodiversitätsverlusts und einem noch immer mangelnden gesellschaftlichen Bewusstsein für diese Krise zu schließen, ist es wichtig mehr Grundlagenforschung zu verschiedenen Formen von Biodiversitätsnarration zu betreiben, bestehende Narrative kritisch zu reflektieren und das Potenzial von literarischen und audiovisuellen Erzählungen besser zu nutzen. Eine stärkere Integration der Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften in die Biodiversitätsforschung kann dies leisten.