CESSS - Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science Research

Environmental and climate problems pose serious challenges to contemporary society. Scientific research and policy institutions, such as the United Nations, have emphasized the need for social change and sustainable transformation. Social science research contributes to this movement with crucial knowledge and expertise necessary for the transformation of society towards a sustainable future.

The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science (CESSS) constitutes a platform that brings together and creates synergies between environmental and sustainability researchers within sociology, psychology, and political science. We also collaborate with adjacent social science disciplines to strengthen social science research about environmental and sustainability issues. CESSS emerges from a long history of initiatives and collaborations within the social sciences at Örebro University which laid a solid foundation for the platform’s multidisciplinary collaboration.

CESSS works to enable a constructive and inclusive research environment that facilitates long-term research collaboration and development across disciplinary boundaries. CESSS is led by Karin Gustafsson (sociology), Erik Hysing (political science), and Maria Ojala (psychology).

The research at CESSS is divided into three interrelated themes.
- Theme 1: Public engagement concerning environmental and sustainability issues
- Theme 2: Environmental governance and the state
- Theme 3: Knowledge production, environmental expertise, and learning

CESSS’s work includes:
- Supporting the development of multi-disciplinary research projects and high-quality programs.
- Facilitating research collaborations in the field of environmental and sustainability studies, among both university researchers and external actors.
- Arranging internal CESSS conferences and international research workshops.
- Organizing a multi-disciplinary seminar series open to researchers from disciplines other than sociology, psychology political science, as well as for practitioners with an interest in environmental and sustainability social science. More information on this will be posted here later.