Finite world and sustainable action-as-politics: On the ecological transformation of society

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Tine Stein
• Subject Area: Political Science ; Practical Philosophy
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423920618

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The research project “Finite World and Sustainable Behavior as Politics. On the Ecological Transformation of Society" dealt with the contemporary phenomenon of practical-ecological citizen engagement and the question of its political content. To this end, three specific examples of this engagement (urban gardening, community-supported agriculture, and citizen energy cooperatives) were inquired: first, qualitative-empirically examined with regard to their practice and (political) self-understandings, and second critically discussed against the background of theoretical understandings of politics. Based on the political-sociological and political-theoretical analysis, the project was able to elaborate criteria that enable a theoretical classification of the engagement and thereby point to a further development in the understanding of politics and political engagement in the light of ecological transformation. Thus, the project offers a political-theoretical perspective on the phenomenon of practical ecological citizen engagement that has been lacking to date, and points to the possible potentials with regard to questions about the political shaping of the transformation. The combination of empirical and theoretical analysis makes a clarifying contribution and provides relevant impulses for current debates in political and transformation theory.

Publications

• Bewahren oder Erneuern, Gemeinschaft oder Menschheit, Endlichkeit oder Offenheit – Wie geht konservativ heute?, in: Michael Kühnlein (Hrsg.), konservativ?! Miniaturen aus Kultur, Politik und Wissenschaft, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2019, S. 359-362
  Stein, Tine
  
• Moral in Zeiten der Klimakrise, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung v. 24.06.2019, S. 6 (Die Gegenwart)
  Stein, Tine
  
• Hypermoral, die Grenzen der Individualethik und die Bedeutung für die Theologie, in: Pastoral im Kapitalismus, hrsg. v. Rainer Bucher, Echter: Würzburg 2020, S. 161-169
  Stein, Tine
  
• Nachhaltigkeit und Politische Theorie. Kommentar „Zur Idee einer Nachhaltigen Politischen Theorie“ von Andreas Busen. Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie, 11(1-2020), 121-125.
  Stein, Tine