Research Group Social Complexity and System Transformation

We strive to understand which actors and actor constellations have the agency to implement the crucial interventions that are needed to reach a rapid decline in global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We analyze structural changes that are needed to increase the agency of crucial actors and social groups.

We analyze nonlinear mechanisms that are needed to spark rapid social change processes and disruptive system changes. In the decarbonization context, social tipping elements refer to subdomains of the planetary socioeconomic system where the required disruptive change may take place and lead to a sufficiently fast reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We develop research methods, data gathering techniques, and new approaches in data analysis that can help us understand these dynamics. This understanding leads us to new solution approaches to focus on successful pathways for a low carbon future.

The climate crisis cannot be solved without addressing global inequalities. Many data sources show that top emitters with carbon-intensive lifestyles are responsible for a disproportionately large proportion of global life-style emissions. Carbon intensive lifestyles of top emitters are driving aspirations of other social groups. We analyze socio-metabolic profiles of different social groups and study policies and institutional changes that support low carbon life-styles.

We develop new modelling approaches that help us understand the above dynamics, intervention opportunities, and their short- and long-term impacts. We are particularly interested in multiscale modelling that links `micro’ dynamics at the individual level to `macro’ dynamics at the global level via the spectrum of intervening mesoscopic levels. We aim to share the learnings from our models with the general public and policymakers, such that they might help to guide more sustainable behaviour from the individual to the global level.