Interdisciplinary sustainability research, e.g., land-use or adaptation to climate change, is increasingly confronted with the difficulties of embracing complexity while building and testing theories that synthesize such complexity into actionable theories. Comparative case studies are frequently employed for this task. However, rigorous comparative approaches are yet frequently hampered by (i) a high heterogeneity of cases…
On the occasion of Alexander von Humboldt’s 250th birthday and in light of his famous Kosmos lectures, IRI THESys and the Geography Department staged the KOSMOS Conference at HU Berlin. Termed ‘Navigating the sustainability transformation in the 21st century’ this conference provided a landmark for today’s great challenges towards sustainability. A critical and constructive debate…
Human-environment research is the interdisciplinary study of how humans live in, affect, govern, reflect upon and perceive their natural environment, and how, in turn, that environment supports or constrains human life and culture. This research draws much of its legitimacy from being relevant for the very organisation of human-environment relations themselves. Considerable effort is thus…
Migration under the conditions of socio-ecological change The event explored how socio-ecological factors such as climate change and political instabilities are threatening livelihoods and forcing migration across the world. Increased vulnerability, conflict and insecurity are only some of the consequences as individuals move within their own nations or across borders in search of new forms…
To celebrate the anniversary of the the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Greater Berlin, THESys member Prof. Dr Timothy Moss released his book ‘Remaking Berlin: A History of the City through Infrastructure, 1920–2020’ which examines the city’s turbulent history through the lens of its often invisible water and energy infrastructures. At the online book…
At the event, Theresa Frommen from Humboldt University (formerly Freie Universität Berlin) and freelance filmmaker Katalin Ambrus screened their two documentary films about a participatory and interdisciplinary hydrogeological project in India. The films were a result of the close cooperation between the filmmaker and scientist and includes the full-length documentary ‘Pani Check – The Sisterhood…
