This DFG network brings together early career scholars in Germany to exchange research approaches, synthesize existing research, and to develop agendas for future research around three core areas: (1) Re-Connect, (2) Re-Structure, (3) Re-Think.

(1) Re-Connect focuses on fostering material and non-material interlinkages between humans  and nature. The non-material contributions of nature to people are a central aspect of human wellbeing. This includes a focus on values in transformation, and how values influence (perceived) options for action.

(2) Re-Structure is concerned with institutional reform, collapse and renewal, including measures targeting systemic and structural changes. Institutions (including lack of them) are the rules, norms, social and decision-making structures that exist in society and guide actions. 

(3) Re-Think emphasizes the need for knowledge co-production, especially through  transdisciplinary processes. Western knowledge systems, which often form the basis of  (inter)national top-down interventions, can reproduce systemic problems, especially in the  Global South, instead of resolving them. Re-thinking – for example, how community and place-based knowledge can open up new intervention points for sustainability transformation.