Profile area Societal Transformations

If we are to achieve a peaceful world in balance with the planet's resources, we must change the way we live, work, produce and consume. In our research we study these ongoing changes and want to ensure that they lead to sustainable and democratic societies.

A sustainable world in balance

A sustainable world in balance with the planet's limits, where people do not fall into poverty or are forced to move because of environmental degradation, climate change, war, conflict or persecution, implies profound changes - societal transformations. To meet the sustainability challenges of today and tomorrow, research is needed both on and for such transformations.

With the profile area Societal Transformations, LiU contributes to understanding both ongoing and insidious changes as well as conscious, active societal transformations. We study symptoms and solutions to unsustainability, and how such solutions can be democratic and inclusive while considering intergenerational perspectives. We also analyze what happens when policy makers and citizens are forced to make difficult trade-offs between the conflicting interests that may exist between different generations and social groups.

Societal Transformations brings together researchers from several research environments at LiU. The focus is on four areas that are crucial for future societal development:

environmental and climate change
migration
digitalization and democracy
environmental technology and production systems.

LiU currently conducts internationally prominent research and education in each of these areas. The profile area will further deepen knowledge and identify problems, solutions and areas of collaboration that we do not yet fully understand. To achieve this, we use interdisciplinary approaches that combine social, cultural, technological, political, economic and ecological perspectives. The sustainability challenges we investigate are so multidimensional and involve so many parts of society that they cannot be addressed in isolation. With this profile area, we also develop LiU's strong tradition of collaboration with the surrounding society.

Calendar

News about societal transformations

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Workshop at Wadströmska villan

On April 29th, a full-day workshop was organised at Wadströmska villan in Norrköping. The day offered lively and interesting conversations covering discussions on recent challenges in the international research landscape and for the profile area, as well as on the possibilities of joint research applications and other future activities. On the agenda was also the upcoming practice-based research studios that will be initiated by the profile area during the autumn. Moreover, the participants received information about the LiU Humanities conference that will take place in October.

We were also (virtually) visited by a representative from Umeå Transformation Research Initiative (UTRI), telling about their organisation and the activities they offer. The interdisciplinary network offers possibilities to apply for funding, organises special events for early career researchers and have initiated an annual conference, this year on the topic of “Dealing with the polycrisis”. Very inspiring! In comparison to Societal Transformations, UTRI was started as a grassroot initiative, but there are several similarities and many promising possibilities for future collaborations.

Grants

The call for seed money, launched by the profile area in April, attracted many applicants, all with good and interesting project proposals. Five of them were awarded.

The grants were all considered to have met the criteria set for the call, i.e. that they involve collaboration between at least two research environments at Linköping University and that they are of relevance to the profile area, specifically to the four areas of ”environment and climate change”, ”migration”, ”digitalization and democracy” and/or ”environmental technology and production systems”. All five are innovative projects that were considered to have the potential to achieve set goals within the given time- and financial frameworks and that aim to contribute with something more than project applications, such as major program applications, method development and/or developed collaborations with external actors. When the decision was taken, it also considered whether the applicants who included salary costs in their budgets already have research funding in their position and/or already existing funding for the same project.

Overall, the selection of grants awarded together represents a breadth of research environments at Linköping University and cover all four extra relevant areas identified by the profile area mentioned above.

Reading recommendation

The future of crisis management should be built on openness and transparency

A research group at Linköping University has examined the pandemic response in Nordic municipalities. The findings are summarised in the book Crisis Management, Governance and COVID-19, offering insights for future crises.