Institute’s Executive Officers

Managing Director:
Thomas Jahn

Shareholders’ Committee:
Egon Becker

Advisory Council: Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Bernd Hansjürgens

The Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE): Our Profile The ISOE founded in 1989 in Frankfurt/Main has been a pioneer in the field of social-ecological research in Germany. The institute’s uniqueness lies in its ability to combine approaches to environmental research drawn from the social sciences with those from the natural and engineering sciences, and to link this knowledge with that of various social actors and groups. The institute is thus one of the few research facilities that promotes transdisciplinary knowledge of the conflictual interactions between nature and society both from a theorectical and a practical perspective.

Currently there are 28 employees, 19 of them researchers. They are assisted by further external staff members. Their scientific competencies range across numerous disciplines, from sociology to biology, from nutrition science to economics and physics. The research projects are conducted in various research foci by project teams that usually involve different disciplines. Meanwhile the institute focusses on the following research areas: Water and Social-Ecological Planning, Transdisciplinary Concepts and Methods, Everyday Life Ecology, Energy, Consumption, Mobility and Lifestyle Analyses, Demographic Trends, Needs and Supply Systems, as well as Gender & Environment.

The institute pursues an integrative transdisciplinary research approach. Essential for the research work is the interdisciplinary cooperation between social science and natural and engineering sciences. Since the founding of the institute the analysis of gender relations with regard to social-ecological issues has been an integral part of research. Within the last years demographic issues have become increasingly influential on the institute’s research topics. The institute developed the social-ecological lifestyle approach, which is being applied to a large number of projects. We now offer our competencies in empirical social research and market research in the field of "Sustainable Consumption and Products" systematically as service to others. Scientific methods, formal modellings and computer simulations finally constitute an increasing part of our research.

As transdisciplinary social-ecological research requires a broad range of specialised knowledge and scientific requirements vary from project to project networks have had a special significance ever since the institute was founded. Only by cooperating with other research facilities is it possible to apply and intensify the potentials for innovation of social-ecological research. The cooperation in the context of the research network ökoforum is especially significant. The ökoforum is an association of the seven leading, ecologically oriented, non-profit research institutes in the German-speaking countries. Equal significance appertains to the cooperation with the J.W. Goethe University Frankfurt.

As an independent, non-profit research facility the institute is financed primarily by competitively granted public research funds and contracts from private clients and environmental organisations. In addition the institute receives basic funding from the State of Hesse and the City of Frankfurt. The non-profit association Förderverein Soziale Ökologie e.V. (Associated Friends for Social Ecology) supports the activities of the institute:

GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
IBAN: DE 34 430 609 678 014 877 600

A charitable donation receipt will be issued.

More information on the development of the institute can be obtained from our current Report 2007.