The Department of Social Processes and Sustainability (SPS)

The Department of Social Processes and Sustainability (SPS) is an interdisciplinary research group that critically examines how social, political, and economic systems drive, and can resolve sustainability crises. We contribute to global sustainability debates on how to advance transformative change for just and sustainable futures and we enrich this debate from a local Central and Eastern European perspective. We focus on key outcomes such as conducting cutting-edge research, contributing to science-policy interfaces, fostering international collaborations, engaging the public, and amplifying Central and Eastern European voices in global sustainability debates.

Our mission

We conduct high-quality, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on social and political change for sustainability, integrating insights from social sciences, humanities, and systems thinking. Our research challenges dominant problem framings and examines the power structures shaping sustainability transformations.

We are committed to open science, and we publish in leading academic journals while actively engaging with policymakers, practitioners, and the public to co-produce knowledge and contribute to real-world change. We foster international collaborations, utilizing our broad network of global research partners to enrich interdisciplinary perspectives and advance sustainability solutions. Our work strengthens the representation of Central and Eastern European perspectives in global sustainability research and policy communities.

Our values

We uphold integrity, critical inquiry, and evidence-based research while embedding sustainability and equity in our practice and impact. We champion plurality and inclusion, recognizing that sustainability-focused academic work requires collaboration across disciplines, cultures, and worldviews. We cultivate an open intellectual community that challenges conventional wisdom and power asymmetries in sustainability research and practice.

Terms of Reference

Guided by our values, we collaborate across CzechGlobe and beyond, while maintaining a strong focus on our interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research mission. Our work integrates perspectives from social sciences, humanities, and sustainability science to critically examine how people, policy and politics shape sustainability challenges and solutions.

While respecting academic disciplinary traditions, we also recognize that climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are deeply interconnected crises that call for inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration. Our research addresses their shared social underlying causes, exploring approaches to create just and equitable sustainability transformations.

Our approach is both generative and critical: we co-create knowledge that contributes to action, while also interrogating the political and institutional structures that shape sustainability decision-making. Power, justice, and contested problem framings are central themes in our work.

We are more than a collection of researchers – we are an intellectual community committed to deep collaboration, mutual support, and co-creation. Embedded within CzechGlobe, we work collectively to drive real-world, evidence-based impact in policy, practice, and public discourse.

By reviewing and updating our strategic scope we aim to remain responsive to the rapidly evolving sustainability challenges and global developments, ensuring our research and initiatives remain relevant and impactful.

Key disciplines that contribute to our work:

• Sustainability Science

• Systems thinking

• Social Psychology

• Political Science (including governance and institutions)

• Sociology

• Science and Technology Studies

Priority topics included within our scope of work

• Transformative change for sustainability

• Scaling behaviour change for sustainability

• Decision-making and governance transformations

• Justice in urban and landscape planning

• Epistemic justice and problem framings

• Community action for sustainability

Our current projects

PLUS Change: Planning Land Use Strategies: Meeting biodiversity, climate and social objectives in a changing world (Horizon Europe): The project develops land-use strategies that tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and human well-being. It engages actors across all levels of decision-making to support transformative change toward sustainability.

AGRI4POL: Promoting Sustainable Agriculture for Pollinators (Horizon Europe): The project’s ambition is to assist the transition of agriculture from being a pressure on pollinators to becoming a positive force for managing and restoring pollinator biodiversity, crop pollination services, and co-benefits to ecosystems and people.

ENABLElocal: Enabling use of biodiversity monitoring data in local conservation management (Biodiversa+): The project aims to enable data flows among conservation management actors, biodiversity monitoring schemes and national, European and global data infrastructures, and to evaluate data usefulness for supporting decision-making in local land-use and conservation management contexts.

SSH Centre: Social Sciences and Humanities for Climate, Energy and Transport Research Excellence (Horizon Europe): A capacity and support action improving the visibility of SSH research in European research and action.

FoSTA Health: Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (Horizon Europe): A participatory project in Zambia, South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania using systems thinking approaches for sustainability transformation.

PLANET4B: Understanding Plural values, intersectionality, Leverage points, Attitudes, Norms, behaviour and social lEarning in Transformation for Biodiversity decision making (Horizon Europe): Exploring, with case studies across Europe, how different social-cultural factors intersect and shape biodiversity decision-making.

HODEZ: The project compares the ecosystem services provided by conventional agriculture and organic agriculture. Results should inform strategies to support the uptake of organic agriculture in the Czech Republic.