Projekt

An unanswered question in the study of sustainability-oriented transformations is how specific ideas of the future are narratively constructed and to what extent processes of narrating the future affect concrete action towards societal transformation. The project team approaches this question from a novel perspective: because the future is fundamentally uncertain, the central challenge is to understand how future-oriented transformation paths are constructed through narratives and narrative processes and how they must be designed in order to enable collective action. The project team wants to introduce this perspective to the field of transformation research and at the same time to create a basis for enabling practitioners to reflect their narrative strategies. The team studies narratives of the climate movement and in the field of urban transformation and applies a mixed-methods approach utilizing novel techniques in the field of quantitative and computer-based text mining, qualitative narrative analysis and transdisciplinary methods of knowledge integration. With this, it aims to generate innovative theoretical insights for transformation research, practical impact for societal stakeholders and new methods for action-oriented transdisciplinary research in real-world labs.

• Prof. Dr. Karoline Augenstein

  Universität Wuppertal
  Zentrum für Transformationsforschung und
  Nachhaltigkeit (TransZent)
  Wuppertal