Research project GREENTRANS -The Great Green Transformation- Politics, Markets, and Civic Society in the Anthropocen

Natural science has developed a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the changing global environment, but we are still very much in the dark with regards to how societies have responded to the rapidly evolving environmental crisis. The GREENTRANS project represents a first comprehensive, systematic, and large-scale mapping of political, social, and market transformations in response to processes of global environmental change. This project aims to understand the changing relationship between society and nature by studying the extent, causes and effects of the Great Green Transformation in a comparative and longitudinal perspective. Three overarching research questions structure data collection as well as analytical activities in three corresponding sub-projects:

1.    How have societies responded to environmental degradation?
2.    What explains variation in political, social, and market responses to environmental problems?
3.    What are the consequences of the green transformation?

In order to address these questions the GREENTRANS project will create a unique dataset of political, social, and economic responses to environmental problems in 37 developed and developing countries 1970-2020. Original data will be collected for key variables measuring political (environmental policy outputs, the structure of green public administration), civic society (formal environmental rights and duties for citizens, the number of environmental NGOs, environmental protest events), and market responses (the size of the green jobs sector, green patents, number of eco-certified firms).