In Vienna and Berlin, Vermont and Montevideo, the 1970s and 1980s were the heydays for establishing research centers on social ecology. In response to the environmental crisis and social inequalities, researchers and activists came together to develop new perspectives on human-environment relations, aiming to inform political practice and policies. Drawing on Ludwik Fleck’s concept of »thought collectives« and »intercollective knowledge exchange,« Lisa Cronjäger examines the following questions: How did the Institute for Social Ecology in Klagenfurt and Vienna shape knowledge regarding the environmental crisis? How did the members relate to their socio-political environments? The research project Thought Collectives of Environmental Knowledge examines the founding phase of socio-ecological research centers with regard to the collaboration of scholars from the humanities and sciences, media professionals and activists.

Associate Researcher at ifk

Lisa Cronjäger is a media scholar and historian of science with a research focus in environmental history. After her studies in Berlin and Helsinki, her doctorate in Basel and a research stay in Lausanne, she is an Associate Researcher at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies of the University of Art and Design Linz in Vienna.

In her monograph Umtriebszeiten (2025), she investigates the visualization techniques of forest maps that were intended to facilitate sustainable resource management. In general, her research focuses on knowledge production in the context of resource conflicts and political movements: from the forestry academies founded in 19th century Europe, to socio-ecological research centers during the environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, to humanities and activist perspectives on the climate crisis in the present.