CESSS - Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science
About
Environment information
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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.
Researchers
- Monika Berg
- Sofia Bergbom
- Magnus Boström
- Ingemar Elander
- Carina Green
- Karin Gustafsson
- Erik Hysing
- Sammyh Khan
- Rolf Lidskog
- Martin Lind
- Erik Löfmarck
- Joakim Norberg
- Maria Ojala
- Jan Olsson
- Adam Standring
- Ylva Uggla
- James White
- Carolin Zorell
- Viktor Hedermo, PhD student
- Alessandra Paiusco, PhD student
- Sebastian Svenberg, PhD student
- Oskar Waara, PhD student
Research teams
Research projects
- Social (im)possibilities of the formation of ethical consumption: A comparative study of Sweden and Iran
- (Un)sustainable lifestyles: social (im)possibilities to consume less
- A wicked problem occupation: exploring how climate change scientists identify and cope with their professional work
- Conceptual development of environmental sociology
- Divine Ganges, Profane Development: Sacred Geographies and the Governing of Pollution
- Does the ecosystem services approach matter? Evaluating its political and practical implications for Swedish biodiversity
- Learning to consume less: Can experiences during the C ovid-19 pandemic trigger lifestyle transformation?
- Preconditions for communication about healthy and sustainable food with youths
- Prefiguring sustainable futures through food activism: How young people deal with border tensions between the sustainable and unsustainable in everyday life
- Reconciling safe and circular material flows - a case study of PFAS in the lifecycle of food packaging
News
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Climate-friendly food choices among late adolescents: Facing border tensions as a path to transformational change?
How should everyday pro-environmental behaviors such as climate-friendly food choices be looked upon in the context of transformational change: As something that hides the need for structural change, or as a starting point for a profound transformation?...
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Special call collection in the journal Sustainability
A special call collection Urban Renewal, Governance and Sustainable Development: More of the Same or New Paths? is now completed and published in the journal Sustainability. It includes eight contributions and one brief Editorial. Guest editor for the...
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How should ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ be used in environmental science?
Concepts such as ‘traditional ecological knowledge’, ‘indigenous and local knowledge’ and ‘local environmental knowledge’ (summarised as TEK), have become increasingly popular among environmental scientists. But is this usage entirely unproblematic?
