Wuppertal Institut’s Research Focus
on Sustainability Transition
Sustainable developments require integrated policy and economy approaches.
Questions regarding developments that are fit for the future can most likely not fully
be answered or addressed within departments or individual science disciplines.
That’s where the Wuppertal Institut’s research programme with its transdiciplinary
and system knowledge oriented approach begins. As part of a transformative science, it is aimed at designing transitions towards a sustainable development.
Transformative research contributes to solving societal problems and is characterized by an explicit aspiration to get involved: The aim is to catalyse processes
of change and to actively involve stakeholders in the research process. In this way,
transformative research generates “socially robust” knowledge needed for sustainability transitions. Research at the Wuppertal Institut thus follows a transdisciplinary concept of knowledge: it does not only serve to generate “systems
knowledge” (e.g., technological or resource-oriented systems analysis), but also
integrates stakeholders in the process of generating “target knowledge” (visions and
guiding principles) and “transformation knowledge” in concrete settings of urban or
sectoral transitions to sustainability.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
M. Göpel, The Great Mindshift, The Anthropocene:
Politik—Economics—Society—Science 2, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43766-8
179
on Sustainability Transition
Sustainable developments require integrated policy and economy approaches.
Questions regarding developments that are fit for the future can most likely not fully
be answered or addressed within departments or individual science disciplines.
That’s where the Wuppertal Institut’s research programme with its transdiciplinary
and system knowledge oriented approach begins. As part of a transformative science, it is aimed at designing transitions towards a sustainable development.
Transformative research contributes to solving societal problems and is characterized by an explicit aspiration to get involved: The aim is to catalyse processes
of change and to actively involve stakeholders in the research process. In this way,
transformative research generates “socially robust” knowledge needed for sustainability transitions. Research at the Wuppertal Institut thus follows a transdisciplinary concept of knowledge: it does not only serve to generate “systems
knowledge” (e.g., technological or resource-oriented systems analysis), but also
integrates stakeholders in the process of generating “target knowledge” (visions and
guiding principles) and “transformation knowledge” in concrete settings of urban or
sectoral transitions to sustainability.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
M. Göpel, The Great Mindshift, The Anthropocene:
Politik—Economics—Society—Science 2, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43766-8
179