Ownership that is apportioned a value by society arranges social relations in regard to objects. It defines a bundle of rights and duties of the owner with respect to a property and towards third parties. Definition and transformation of this bundle of rights and duties as well as the practice in dealing with property are central aspects of the ecological transformation of the society.

In the field of land utilization the conservation of practical knowledge represents a real challenge. The displacement of traditional land use systems often leads not only to negative ecological consequences but also threatens the practical knowledge which is of particular invaluable importance in correlation with protection strategies.

Social discourses, where it is struggled for dominant interpretations of the reality and the definition of guiding concepts (sustainability, ecological modernization, etc.) precede political decisions. In the eco-political debate different understandings of nature collide, and the question rises if and how to develop a new consensus despites these differences.

Even technical projects normally aim at changing social conditions by e.g. helping to improve the living conditions of particular target groups. The realization of projects is a social process which success is determined by the communication of the involved parties, the acceptance of all the persons concerned and the solution of conflicts. Despite this perception the analysis of the social effects and of the condition of success in the actual planning often gets a raw deal. Our interest is to apply and develop further social processes such as stakeholder analysis and social impact assessment.

The evaluation of the effectiveness of political measures is an interdisciplinary, scientific challenge. Political programs aim at an attitude change of individual and collective actors. They base upon the assumption of social coherences. Evaluation research is therefore in a large part applied, social science research.

Industrial environmental management systems are social systems. They presume a specific value orientation and motivation; furthermore they are designed by humans, are communicated between actors and are translated by (other) humans. We approach these issue from an organizational-sociological perspective and investigate why some firms establish environmental management systems while others do not. Additionally, how are these systems practiced if at all they are implemented? Finally, we assess which social mechanism has influence on such systems.

Environmental movements are driving forces of ecological transformation in the society. Therefore, it is not possible to imagine socio-environmental research without environmental movements. We are studying their methods and their role in the political process and we consider the question 'which forms of campaigns are successful for what reasons?'