GROVAINITY

The project GROVAINITY examinated how officials in International Organisations perceive the goal conflict between sustainability and economic growth and how it affects their decision-making.

As ecological crises increase and intensify while the world economy continues to expand, humanity faces a goal conflict between economic growth and planetary sustainability. The project GROVAINITY integrates the focus of Environmental Psychology on individual behaviour and insights from International Relations into broader institutional dynamics to study how this goal conflict plays out in international organisations (IOs), whose work shapes sustainability transitions. Using a mixed-methods research design, we explore how IO officials conceptualise the relationship between growth and sustainability. Our research project will produce novel findings and targeted outputs for society at large (report), as well as practitioners (workshop) and scientists (publication) interested in how this goal conflict undermines efforts to stay within planetary boundaries.

Funding agency

Andrea von Braun Foundation

Project duration

May 2022 – October 2023

Project management
Laura Henn
Matthias Kranke

Project staff
Jana Antonia Guschlbauer
Amira Mehr
Gerrit Lühring
Ana Gabriela Hermida Ortiz