Socioecology
Social-ecological research is an emerged in the last 20 years of research and one existing since 1999 funding priority in the framework program " Research for Sustainable Development " ( FONA ). the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF) in the field of sustainability research.
Basics
Social-ecological research aims to develop strategies to solve social problems of sustainability. It combines social, ecological and economic perspectives. In Germany, the Social-Ecological Research since 1999 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the sustainability science within the framework of the program is funded " Research for Sustainable Development ( FONA ) ".
A research with this objective requires, according to programmatic documents of the research towards a multidisciplinary and problem-oriented collaborations between researchers from different natural and social sciences. The objective is to gain knowledge about the structure and dynamics of social-ecological systems ( system knowledge ), knowledge of methods and concepts to their goal-oriented change ( transformation knowledge ) as well as a knowledge of adverse social conditions in the present and a desired future ( contextual knowledge ). This is a sustainable orientation of the Company or their ecological restructuring scientific support, without losing sight of the social justice and economic concerns in mind.
The socio-ecological approach is the underlying view that have emerged mainly due to the consequences of technology new, complex problems that are solvable but not from a classic scientific research nor of the social sciences. The transdisciplinary approach presupposes the natural and social scientific knowledge and focuses on the interdependencies and interactions between them.
Social -Ecological Research is operated under the claim, transdisciplinary research to be. It shall be guided special attention to experiences of practitioners and stakeholders outside of science. The transition to policy advice and social development strategy is therefore fluent. It is a research approach that starts from concrete social problems and directly seeking their solution. Society actors - eg consumers, municipalities, companies and NGOs - should therefore be involved in the research process. The approach is in contrast to " classical " basic scientific research, which is at least ideally guided by more abstract knowledge interests. The problem solution is to arise indirectly from the in-depth insight into the reasons and contexts in the case of classical basic research.
Under this name, Social-Ecological Research in German-speaking countries was propagated mainly by non-university institutions. Social base were the "ecological" motivated citizens' movements of the seventies and eighties. For their support institutions and facilities have been established, which should support and promote their concerns with scientific and technical expertise. With the former actors intertwined ( or in direct continuity to them) are essential vehicles of today's socio-ecological research in Germany. Examples would be the Ecolog Institute for Social-Ecological Research and Education ( Hannover ), the Institute for Social- Ecological Research ISOE (Frankfurt), the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, or the Öko Institute for Applied Ecology (Freiburg).
An attempt to establish social-ecological research at universities, presented the of 1990-1997 is based at the Humboldt University in Berlin, led by Rudolf Bahro Institute for Social Ecology dar. Even in modern times there are efforts, the Social-Ecological Research stronger binding to the universities.
Actors and institutions of social-ecological research come largely from already traditionally cross-section oriented social sciences, especially Environmental economics and empirical social research. This can be explained that the focus of interest is on the society and its transformation, with technical and ecological approaches and purposes should be considered, but they seldom directly represent the approach to action by it. More scientifically oriented is mainly the field of climate research. Points of contact to the classical ecological research are few.