The focus professorship in ‘Economic and Social Sustainability’

The aim of the professorship is to investigate the role that digital tools and infrastructures play in everyday social practices, and how these findings can be used to make our collective consumption behaviour more sustainable in terms of sustainability. To this end, approaches from the social and consumer sciences, such as practice theory, will be combined with those from socio-informatics, with a view to harnessing them for social transformation by examining collective consumption patterns. Thematic priorities here lie in the areas of sustainability in mobility and digitised household consumption habits – particularly in relation to food – which play a key role in the sustainability transformation of our society.

Key research questions

• What roles do digital tools and infrastructures play in the sustainability of everyday practices, particularly in the areas of mobility and nutrition?
• How can digital tools and infrastructures be designed to effectively support people in the sustainability of the transformation of everyday practices?
• Based on these findings, how can socially viable and, at the same time, economically viable solutions be developed that have a positive impact on the sustainability of collective consumption patterns?

Integration and cooperation

The focus professorship is based at the Institute for Consumer Informatics within the Department of Management Sciences and works closely with other departments and institutes at the university. In particular, the aim is to intensify collaboration with the Institute of Technology, Resource and Energy-efficient Engineering (TREE), the International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE) and the Centre for Ethics and Responsibility (ZEV). External partners include, in particular, the University of Siegen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT, as well as industry partners such as REWE Digital, open.INC and Reboot Mobility GmbH.

A strong signal in support of research and development that promotes sustainability

“I am a focus professor at the H-BRS because we urgently need answers to the escalating climate crises, and digitisation plays a central role in this – both in a positive and a negative sense. This professorship enables me to conduct in-depth research into these interrelationships,” says Prof. Dr Alexander Boden.

With this specialised professorship, the H-BRS is supporting research that promotes sustainability and the development of forward-looking solutions in the field of responsible consumption.