The Interdisciplinary Research Group 'Environment' (IFG Umwelt/Environment) is a network for the analysis of interactions between the environment, the individual and society. Uncertainties and discourses play a central role in the identification and analysis of environmental risks and scientific uncertainties (environmental sciences), their classification in public discourse (social and communication sciences) and the experience and behavior in the population (psychology) related to risks.
We are guided by the concept of planetary boundaries. Furthermore, the IFG is oriented towards transformation research. Social challenges on the way to a sustainable socio-ecological society should be analyzed and evaluated. In addition to their research projects, the members of the IFG contribute their expertise to the Bachelor's program in Human and Environment and the Master's program in Environmental Challenges and Human Responses. In addition, IFG promotes and supports the development of interdisciplinary structures on the Landau campus and with the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau.
Specific goals are:
- Joint development of questions, implementation of interdisciplinary research projects and mutual advice in disciplinary projects
- Completion of habilitations and doctorates (during which qualified scientists can develop into interdisciplinary personalities)
- Promotion of interdisciplinary synergies within the Landau campus and with the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
- Expansion of an interdisciplinary network and sustainable positioning of the group inside and outside the university
- Development and expansion of subject-specific and interdisciplinary skills
Conception and structure of an interdisciplinary Master Degree program in addition to the Bachelor of Arts Degree, "Humans and the Environment"
History and Development
IFG Umwelt was founded in September 2011 at the University of Koblenz-Landau. Until 2020, it was funded by the Women's Promotion Program of the German Federal Higher Education Pact. The aim was to support qualified female researchers in developing into scientific personalities with the ability to work interdisciplinarily on problem-oriented questions. In the first funding phase from July 2011 to December 2015, the focus was on the relationship between scientific uncertainty, public discourse about uncertainty, and its impact on attitudes and behavior in the population. In the second funding phase from January 2016 to December 2020, the IFG Umwelt focused on transformation research and investigated social processes of change from a consumer society to a sustainable and socio-ecological society.
Since 2021, the IFG has been established as an interface between the disciplines of communication science, psychology, and environmental sciences to intensify interdisciplinary cooperation between the natural, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as to further develop interdisciplinary teaching concepts in the degree programs “B.Sc. Human and Environment” and “M.Sc. Environmental Challenges and Human Responses.”