Empowering People to Act for a Better Life for All: Psychology's Contributions to a Social Science for Sustainability

Abstract

The ongoing intensification of the socio-ecological crisis requires a "Great Transformation"(WBGU, 2011) of central societal systems involving aspects such as mobility, energy production, and nutrition. Thus, from a scientific point of view, the Great Transformation is a highly normative topic with a strong focus on societal and political processes of change. We are convinced that psychology can play a fruitful role in creating the social science for sustainability transformation that is needed for this purpose. However, for this to happen, psychology needs a shift toward a more impact-oriented research perspective, focusing on how people can effectively influence their ecological footprint and/or foster societal change as consumers, producers, or active citizens and community members. As starting points for developing such transformation-oriented psychological research perspectives, the present paper shows how a multilevel perspective on societal transfor-mation processes can be combined with the vision of a solidarity-based lifestyle. Against this theoretical backdrop, we see an important role for psychology in studying how people cope with an ecological crisis by inventing new environmental lifestyles and identities, despite being locked into the currently unsustainable socio-technical systems.