Research of the Environmental Policy group
The globalization of environmental problems is more than ever shaping our world. Production and consumption practices around the world have driven climate change, biodiversity loss and natural resource depletion. Learn how our research at the Environmental Policy group contributes to tackling these problems.
Research themes, concepts & contexts
Our research is organised around five research themes—Energy, Food, Circularity, Biodiversity, and Climate—; four key research concepts—Mobilities, Practices, Regimes, and Technologies—; and three research contexts—Terrestrial, Marine, Atmospheric.
Research themes
Circularity
Circularity research at ENP contributes to understanding circularity transformations with a focus on how circular social practices emerge and scale up, and with what social and environmental implications.
Biodiversity
Global efforts to combat biodiversity loss are deeply social and political, reflecting not a uniform approach to nature, but a plurality of approaches to protecting, rebuilding, rewilding, and caring for natures in the 21st Century. Our research examines these diverse approaches and their implications for governing human-nature relations in the Anthropocene.
Food
Food, an essential part of everyday human life, involves critical sustainability challenges from production through to processing, trade, consumption and waste. Our research ranges from local practices to global value chains, contributing critical sociological and political analysis with the purpose of driving positive change.
Climate
Climate change is one of the primary challenges of our time. Our research focuses on architectures, networks, and technologies of present and future climate governance, taking a transformative perspective that emphasizes questions of equity and effectiveness.
Energy
A transition towards a renewable energy system brings new roles for users, communities and providers, creating challenges for inclusive governance. Our research asks what transitions towards renewable energy mean for everyday citizen engagement, for the social organisation of energy infrastructures and for sustainability transitions in water and food systems.
Research concepts
Regimes
We examine the connections and contradictions in current environmental regime-making.
Practices
We focus on social practices, as opposed to structures or individuals, to study sustainability transformations and environmental governance.
Technologies
We examine how technologies, as part of socio-material practices and regimes, mediate and influence how we interpret and govern environmental challenges.
Mobilities
We examine the multiple and uneven relations between environmental mobilities and governance.
Research contexts
Terrestrial
The terrestrial environment spans urban and rural areas. Our research focuses on energy and food transitions in cities. Im¬plications of large-scale tree plantation projects or water-en¬ergy-food networks crosscut urban-rural boundaries
Marine
The marine environment encompasses seas and oceans and coastal regions. We research sustainable fisheries and aqua¬culture, deep sea mining, offshore energy, clean shipping, and marine conservation and restoration.
Atmospheric
The atmospheric environment encompasses the earth-space interface. We research the mitigation of climate warming gasses through social and environmental governance as well as critical perspectives on geoengineering.