Team

Dr. Thomas Jahn

Associate Research Scientist
Transdisciplinarity
+49 69 7076919-0 thomas.jahn@isoe.de

Thomas Jahn is co-founder of ISOE and was scientific director and spokesperson of the institute’s executive board until March 2021. He is part of the research unit Transdisciplinary Methods and Concepts, which he headed until 2015. Amongst other areas his research focusses on societal relations to nature, transdisciplinary methods and concepts, and social-ecological science research. At the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F) Thomas Jahn was the spokesperson of the Research Activity “Ecosystem Services and Climate”. He studied sociology, political science, German studies, and history at the University of Freiburg and Goethe University Frankfurt. At the latter he received his doctorate in 1989 with a thesis on “Crisis as a Mode of Societal Experience: Outline of a Social-Ecological Conception of Society”. 

ResearchGate

Focus of research

  • Societal relations to nature
  • Transdisciplinary methods and concepts
  • Social-ecological science research

Publications

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Current Publications

Projects

  • Biodiversity and Climate: Socio-ecological Biodiversity Research
    Biodiversity

    Biodiversity and Climate: Socio-ecological Biodiversity Research

    In cooperation with the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), ISOE is investigating what reduced biodiversity means for the provision of ecosystem services to society.
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  • Transdisciplinarity in biodiversity research
    Biodiversity

    Transdisciplinarity in biodiversity research

    The project is developing new approaches to comprehensively research biodiversity, ecosystem services and human interventions on ecosystems.

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  • Dilemmas of sustainability – Meta-criteria for sustainability
    Knowledge and Participation

    Dilemmas of sustainability – Meta-criteria for sustainability

    The project sheds light on the dilemmas of sustainability that arise from incompatible goals, interests and types of knowledge and develops guidelines for sound sustainability knowledge.

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  • Cognitive integration and innovation
    Knowledge and Participation

    Cognitive integration and innovation

    The aim of the project is to dynamically integrate current advances in socio-ecological research in relevant scientific fields.

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  • TransImpact – Effective Transdisciplinary Research
    Knowledge and Participation

    TransImpact – Effective Transdisciplinary Research

    The TransImpact project analyzes how and with which methods transdisciplinary research can achieve the desired social and scientific effects.

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  • Accompanying research for ‘Real-World Laboratories’ in Baden-Württemberg
    Knowledge and Participation

    Accompanying research for ‘Real-World Laboratories’ in Baden-Württemberg

    A consortium consisting of Leuphana University Lüneburg, ISOE and the Wuppertal Institute is carrying out the accompanying research for seven existing real-world laboratories in Baden-Württemberg.

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  • Scientific coordination of the funding initiative „An environmentally and socially compatible transformation of the German energy system”
    Sufficiency

    Scientific coordination of the funding initiative „An environmentally and socially compatible transformation of the German energy system”

    Since 2013 a total of 33 collaborative research projects are dealing with various aspects of an “Environmentally and socially compatible transformation of the German energy system”. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has included this initiative into the funding priority Social-Ecological Research (SÖF) and has assigned the Öko-Institut together with the ISOE with the coordination of the funding initiative.
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  • Transdisciplinary Cognitive Integration

    Transdisciplinary Cognitive Integration

    Scientific staff at ISOE developed the Social Ecology research programme, and, after a process of critical reflection, published the results as a book.

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  • Knowledge Communication

    Knowledge Communication

    In the "Knowledge Communication" project, the team developed an essential basis for the effective and target-group-related communication of scientific findings at ISOE.
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  • Concept for the Framework Programme "Social-ecological Research" SÖF

    Concept for the Framework Programme "Social-ecological Research" SÖF

    The intention was to supplement the BMBF "Research for the Environment" programme with a new funding programme by the name of 'Social-Ecological Research". ISOE was commissioned to devise the conceptual framework. On this basis, 2000 saw the start of the 10-year funding period for all three funding programmes in three areas (integrated research, infrastructure funding, and the promotion of young scientists). It was the aim of this particular funding programme to strengthen Germany's expertise in social-ecological research and thus – taking special account of the potential available at non-university, independent research institutes – in transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability research as a whole.
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  • CITY:mobil – Viable Ways of Urban Mobility
    Mobility

    CITY:mobil – Viable Ways of Urban Mobility

    Within the joint project, the scientists worked out concepts and strategies for sustainable traffic and mobility development in towns and cities. It was while working on this project that ISOE developed, tested and scrutinised the first empirically validated concept for mobility style analysis.
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  • Social Dimensions of Sustainability

    Social Dimensions of Sustainability

    ISOE developed perspectives for the further specification and operationalisation of the social dimension of sustainability. To this end, scientists identified five core elements to be monitored. The team subsequently formulated rules for social sustainability. For each core element, they proposed a set of indicators to describe the respective stages of social (non-)sustainability achieved.
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  • Water Cycle an Urban-Ecological Development
    Water

    Water Cycle an Urban-Ecological Development

    The project team investigated the connection between the social, technical and ecological aspects of a future approach to urban water usage. It focused its research on the water cycle in the cities of Dresden and Frankfurt am Main. The scientists came up with sustainable strategies to form a scenario capable of tackling the water-related problems and socio-ecological hot spots in urban industrial regions.
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  • Sustainability as a Concept in the Social Sciences

    Sustainability as a Concept in the Social Sciences

    In this project, representatives from 11 countries contributed jointly on the concept of sustainability in the social sciences. The aim was to initiate an international process of discussion and reflection. One aspect concerned how to go about formulating sustainability as a viable, transdisciplinary social science concept. The other main concern was the extent of reorientation required in the social sciences in order to conduct interdisciplinary, problem- and actor-related sustainability research.
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