Görg, Christoph

Görg, Christoph

University Professor Dr.

Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), Department of Economic and Social Sciences BOKU - Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

Research interest

I am working since more than 25 years on issues of multi-scalar environmental politics and critical state theory. In this context, I developed an approach to societal relations with nature (see my Habilitation Görg 2003), building on the Critical Theory of the so-called Frankfurt School, but with a strong link to inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and methods. In my empirical research, I have focused on biodiversity and ecosystem services, on landscape governance and on climate change and climate adaptation politics. Further, I was engaged in improving the Science-Policy-Interface, in particular concerning ecosystem service assessments at several levels, and I have been involved in the establishment of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). 

More recently, since I joined the Institute of Social Ecology in 2015, I became familiar with socio-metabolic research and synthesized my former work with research on socio-metabolic transitions and colonization of nature towards an innovative approach on Social-Ecological Transformations. I am currently also involved in the ERC Advanced Grant MatStocks, led by my colleague Helmut Haberl, focusing on the nexus between recourse flows, the building of stocks (infrastructures) and the services they provide for human societies, co-leading a module on social-ecological transformations.

Websites

https://boku.ac.at/en/personen/person/D12F23DDAA7ECC5E

Contact information

Institute of Social Ecology (SEC) 
Schottenfeldgasse 29
1070 Vienna

Recent publications

Görg, C., A.Mayer, M.Pichler, C.Plank, A.Schaffartzik, D.Wiedenhofer and F.Krausmann (2020): Scrutinising the Great Acceleration. The Anthropocene and its analytic challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations. Anthropocene Review https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019619895034. 

Brand, U., C.Görg, M.Wissen 2020: Overcoming neoliberal globalisation. Social-ecological transformation from a Polanyian perspective and beyond; Globalizations, 17:1, 161-176 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2019.1644708  

Pichler, M.; Brand, U.; Görg C. 2020. The double materiality of democracy. Reflecting on the implications of the ecological crisis, capitalism and democracy for sustainability transformations", Environmental Politics, 29:2, 193-213, https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2018.1547260  

Kalt, G., D.Wiedenhofer, H.Haberl, C.Görg 2019: The Energy Service Cascade: A reference system for analysing the relationship between energy use and wellbeing, in: Energy Research and Social Sciences 53, 47-58 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.02.026

Niedertscheider, M.; Haas, W.; Görg, C. 2018. Austrian climate policies and GHG-emissions since 1990: What is the role of climate policy integration? Environ. Science & Policy, 81: 10–17. doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.12.007

Görg, C., Brand, U., Haberl, H., Hummel, D., Jahn, T., Liehr, S., 2017. Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology. Special Issue “Social Ecology. State of the Art and Future Prospects”. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1045. doi:10.3390/su9071045 

Haberl, H., Wiedenhofer, D., Erb, K.-H., Görg, C., Krausmann, F. 2017. Interrelations between material stocks, flows and services: A new approach for tackling the decoupling conundrum. Special Issue “Social Ecology. State of the Art and Future Prospects”. Sustainability 9, 1049. doi:10.3390/su9071049 

Pichler, M., Schaffartzik, A., Haberl, H., Görg, C., 2017. Drivers of society-nature relations in the Anthropocene and their implications for sustainability transformations. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 26, 32-36. doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.017

Görg, C., 2011. Societal relationships with nature – a dialectical approach to environmental politics, in: Andrew Biro (Ed.), Critical Ecologies. UofT-press, Toronto, CA, 43-72. ISBN 9780802095657

Görg, C., Brand. U., 2008. Sustainability and globalisation: A theoretical perspective, in: Park, J., Conca, K., Finger, M., (Eds): The Crisis of Global Environmental Governance: Towards a New Political Economy of Sustainability. Routledge: Environmental Politics, London/New York, 13-33. ISBN 9781134059829

Brand, U., Görg, C., 2008. The Clash of Global Regulations. Internationalisation of the State and Post-Fordist Governance of Nature: The Case of Genetic Resources, in: Review of International Political Economy (RIPE) 15 (4), 567-589. ISBN 0-203-92850-4

Görg, C., 2007. Landscape Governance. The “politics of scale” and the “natural” conditions of places. Geoforum 38 (5), 954-966. doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2007.01.004 

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