The Institute’s Research Areas:
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about the research area I staff members I Projects I DownloadsWhat characterizes ecological behavior in everyday life? How can it be altered? How must sustainable products and services be produced in order to be successful with consumers? Is there really a “gap” between the environmental consciousness expressed in surveys and actual behavior? Why don’t consumers buy naturally grown and raised foodstuffs, although they themselves describe these in surveys as environmentally friendly and healthy? These questions are addressed by the institute research area Everyday Life Ecology, Energy, Consumption. Here consumer surveys are conducted that look at the motives of various consumer groups and how these aid or hinder the implementation of a sustainable consumption with respect to various products and services. The goal of these empirical surveys is to develop either sustainable consumer products themselves (in cooperation with producers or marketers) or the communication resources of specific groups, to be used to demand such a sustainable consumer products. At the same time researchers in this institute research area examine procedures for designating a product or consumption behavior as sustainable or not, and for measuring the degree of sustainability. In this regard calculations using analytical tools from the natural sciences and engineering which measure material flows – for example, the water use during washing of a particular wash machine – can be used to determine the degree of environmental impact. Such calculations are useful for determining the environmental relevance of products or behavior. Material flow calculations, however, are by far not enough to meet the challenge of developing sustainable modes of consumption. In order to be able to develop strategies for considering environmental aspects of everyday life, the logic peculiar to the daily behavior of different social groups in society must be considered. A precondition for this is research on the ecology of everyday life, which researchers within this institute research area systematically carry out, both as a form of a social scientific research into everyday life and as a form of natural scientific material flows research. In laying the scientific foundations of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the ecology of everyday life, special emphasis is given to integrating results obtained from feminist research into gender-specifically differentiated modes of life and biographical models, as well as from feminist critiques of technology and the natural sciences. At present this institute research area is also responsible for preparing the way for establishing a new institute research area, Ecology, Democracy and Development. Research Focal Points:
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updated 2008-07-17 |
