In the BMBF junior research group Mentalities in Flux (flumen), we study how people’s basic mindsets, attitudes and shared imaginations – that is mentalities – change when radical changes occur in patterns of economic activity, away from economies based on a linear flow of fossil resources (fossil-based economies) towards a circular flow of renewable biological resources (bio-economy). Our research focuses accordingly on changes in mentalities during the course of transformation processes.
Combining sociological and historical research, we address the following questions:
The historical emergence of economies based on linear flows of coal and oil resources in the 19th century radically transformed human work and was closely linked to basic mindsets, attitudes and shared imaginations that were compatible with the logic of constant growth. These mentalities differed between social groups, and they will undergo far-reaching change once again in the transformation toward bio-based economies. In short, mentalities evolve in parallel with the transformations of societies’ material and energetic basis. - they are mentalities in flux. See more here.