Our Research

Hereby we provide a non-exhaustive, indicative list of our research fields and ongoing research projects. 

We are part of a Horizon Europe project starting in June 2024 entitled Models, Assessment & Policies for Sustainability (MAPS). The project aims to broaden the range of policy options, modelling tools, and assessments for sustainability. MAPS will use participatory processes to develop new policy packages and scenarios, with a focus on post-growth visions, and then assess these using state-of-the-art simulation models, drawing on recent work in the interdisciplinary field of ecological macroeconomics. The work package Corvinus is responsible for applies a range of qualitative methods from desk-based research and intersectionality-based policy analysis, through to foresight methods and participatory processes. The goal is not only to provide policy options, but also to test their acceptability to different stakeholders. The policy options generated will be included in the quantitative modelling within the assessment part of the project, and results from the quantitative assessment will feed back to the processes that assess acceptability. This cooperation is with the University of Barcelona; University of Pisa; University of Surrey; ZOE Institute for Future-Fit Economics; IST-ID Portugal; University of Leeds; Autonomous University of Barcelona; Tampere University; and Vienna University of Economics and Business. On behalf of Corvinus, the work package leader is Alexandra Köves; two task-leaders are Judit Gáspár and Gabriella Kiss. Other colleagues working on this project include Éva Hideg, Máté Fischer, Tamás Veress, Attila Szathmári. 

Another policy-oriented participatory project is related to building local narratives through the Degrowth Doughnut. The Degrowth Doughnut is a modification of the original doughnut created by Kate Raworth. It also enables the visualisation of the safe and just space of an entity supporting strategic goal setting, but the composition of its environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural components is flexible to allow for the building of specific narratives by its users. We use this framework to assess Hungary’s environmental and social capacity and evaluate the contemporary social and ecological state of the city of Budapest. Our goal is to compile a city level analysis and a package of policy proposals with the involvement of a sufficiently wide range of stakeholders including civil organizations representing the residents of Budapest, experts, policymakers, and the economic actors. This project is in close cooperation with Croatia. While we can use the tools devised by the Croatian Institute for Political Ecology, our results feed into a project called SocAsKLIMA (Sociological aspects of climate change) run in cooperation with the Institute for Social Sciences in Croatia. Our colleagues working on this research from within the University are Máté Fischer, Gabriella Kiss, Alexandra Köves. Our partners are Veronika Kiss, Mladen Domazet and Jelena Pudak. 

One of the fundamental principles of ecological economics is to promote participatory decision-making and ecological citizenship. Our research has focused on the practice of participatory democratic processes for many years. Based on this focus, we have developed partnerships with local governments, civil organizations, and fellow researchers. Our previous research has centered on implementing deliberative practices through citizen assemblies and citizens’ juries. Since 2019, we have been studying and supporting participatory budgeting processes in Budapest at both district and city levels. We incorporate the findings from our research and collaborations into our educational activities. Our activities place special emphasis on including marginalized groups in participation processes and reducing inequalities. We also utilize participatory methods and action research tools such as the PhotoVoice methodology to achieve these objectives. Gabriella Kiss is actively involved in participatory research in strong cooperation with Dániel Oross political scienetist (HUN-REN). 

The last few years have seen many research projects that used participatory foresight methods such as backcasting, horizon-scanning, scenario-building to see what different areas of social life could look like in a beyond growth scenario ranging from topics like sustainable employment, cosmo-local manufacturing, economic higher education, sustainable business, marketing communications, sustainable sports, and artificial intelligence. The Horizon Europe project MAPS will also draw up different economic, technological, and societal futures using a combination of horizon scanning and scenario-building. Based on both desk-based research and participatory workshops involving a wide range of expert stakeholders, we will identify trends, tendencies, weak signals, wildcards, and hypes that may influence the future. The scenario-building phase will use the Delphi-methodology as a way to iterate the opinions of experts with many different backgrounds, disciplines, and regions to help reach consensus. The forerunners of these projects include two OTKA projects. This line of research also includes theoretical work on the role of visions in ecological transformations, one of which is research conducted by Zoltán Bajmócy with Alexandra Köves on the role of normative socio-technological visions in building degrowth futures. 

Ecological economics is primarily about transforming current economic and social practices to stay within planetary boundaries whilst guaranteeing social justice. These transformations involve processes of immense size and changes of radical intensity both on individual and collective levels, globally and locally, and in the physical and the conceptual world. Our mechanistic understanding of social change demands the flowless assessment of current realities; a common vision of desired future states; comprehensive blueprints, and clear strategies on how to transform one into the other; as well as able and responsible individual and institutional actors who perform the intervention steps. However, none of this is available in a highly complex, and arguably entangled system of social interactions and ecological materiality. Our research on systems-view being applied to understanding social transformation involves research in liaison with other disciplines such as physics or network ecology. Much theoretical research has been done with a previous CIAS senior research fellow, Mladen Domazet with a background in physics-philosophy that can be continued within the project entitled Ethics and Social Challenges, conducted at the Institute of Philosophy in Zagreb in the period 2024–2027, reviewed by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia and financed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. (About the project (ifzg.hr) We are preparing a similar cooperation with the network biologist, Ferenc Jordán applying the systems view of ecologists to social transformations. A PhD student from ELTE, Nikolett Kormos under the co-supervision of Alexandra Köves will also conduct research of systems thinking appearing in entrepreneurial attitudes.  

The members of the research centre offer courses in Ecological Economics, Degrowth, and Participation. There are elective master-level courses available at various departments of Corvinus University. We also provide special courses for colleges on participatory action research, public participation, and ecological economics. Our educational approach involves innovative and creative teaching methods such as participatory education, experiential learning, and deliberative course settings. Concurrently, we are conducting research on pedagogical innovations and their impact on participants in terms of ecological transformation.  

The Urban Sustainability Research Group is an informal group of researchers and educators who are dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability through lifestyle changes. This group is integrated into our research centre. The founding members are Gabriella Kiss, Orsolya Lazányi, Ágnes Neulinger, and Tamas Veress. They have developed a participatory research and educational concept called ecoclub. Through the use of cooperative inquiry and transformative learning principles, they aim to study how ecoclubs can encourage university students to adopt sustainable living practices by fostering a shift in their knowledge, attitudes, and daily routines.