New doctoral research programme launched: The social side of the climate crisis
Who contributes most to the climate crisis, who is hardest hit by its consequences – and how are the costs and benefits of the green transition distributed? These are some of the questions at the heart of the new doctoral research programme “The Political Economy of the Social-Ecological Transformation” at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). Funded by the Hans Boeckler Foundation, the programme runs until September 2029 and is based at the Institute for Socio-Economics and the Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ).
From solar panels on private homes and heat protection in cash-strapped municipalities to the transformation of entire industries, the green transition affects everyone – but not everyone equally. The doctoral researchers will explore the links between climate action and social inequality and ask how climate and social policy interact.
“The climate crisis is always a question of distribution: people, municipalities, and countries contribute to it to varying degrees. At the same time, some are more severely affected by its consequences and have fewer resources to respond,” says Professor Miriam Rehm, PhD. The programme’s spokesperson and Professor of Socio-Economics for Empirical Inequality Research at UDE’s Institute for Socio-Economics (IFSO) adds: “We want to explore where the green transition exacerbates existing inequalities, where new ones emerge and what scope there is for policy to address them.”
The doctoral projects approach the topic from a range of perspectives: How does the economy shape climate action? What role do power and competing interests play? And what can cash-strapped municipalities do to address the effects of climate change? Other projects explore how social and environmental goals can be better aligned. The research spans from individual industries and regions to international comparisons.
The new programme builds on the completed doctoral research programme “The Political Economy of Inequality”. One of its key findings was that many questions surrounding social inequality cannot be separated from climate policy. Two doctoral projects explicitly explored this relationship and it emerged in several others. The new programme therefore puts this connection centre stage: How does the green transition affect existing inequalities – and where might new ones emerge?
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof.in Miriam Rehm, Ph.D., Institut für Sozioökonomie, Tel. 0203 379-4324, miriam.rehm@uni-due.de
Weitere Informationen:
https://www.uni-due.de/soziooekonomie/promotionskolleg
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