Oikodrom creates mental and physical spaces
where change can come about.
The innovation of Oikodrom studies lies in dealing with the complexity of sustainability, relating the fields of economy, ecology and socio culture to the space of human settlements. Oikodrom is a private research institute, founded in 1993, that generates future images and strategies for human settlements in countries all over the world - from Europe to China and to the Mediterranean Islamic countries - under a concept of strong sustainability.
The team creates mental and physical spaces where change can come about. The emerging future scenarios contribute to the creation of systemic knowledge as well as to the participatory implementation of sustainability processes in human settlements.
Oikodrom has worked out several substantial studies on the sustainable future of the city and rural regions on behalf of Austrian Ministries and the town of Vienna. Transdisciplinary long term projects with an international consortium have been coordinated by Oikodrom since its foundation. The research team comes from the fields of sciences, humanities and design. The researchers represent the following disciplines: sustainability, regional planning, agronomy/organic agriculture, participation and governance, heterodox economics, ethnology, linguistics, town planning, health, sociology, architecture, scenarios for human settlements.
Oikodrom Scientific Concept/Approach
Strong Sustainability: Oikodrom follows the definition of strong sustainability, as an ideal concept for actual change towards sustainable societal and material processes.
Human Settlements: The interdisciplinary research process focuses on given societal and environmental local systems, from small neighbourhoods and villages to big towns and cities.
Theory and Practice: When starting the local sustainability processes, the team generates theses and theories for the emerging research field of sustainability. Thereby we discuss the role of the scientists, and work on future scenarios and a common vocabulary - the thesaurus of sustainability.
Interdisciplinary Research: The interdisciplinary cooperation is a basic precondition for sustainability research. The complexity of societal, economical and material processes demands for scientific knowledge of several disciplines for present and future sustainability oriented changes.
Transdisciplinary Research: Sustainability research has its local expressions and participation of dwellers is indispensable. The combination of local and scientific expert knowledge assures sustainability oriented solutions.
Multicultural Research:
The multicultural research network around Oikodrom strengthens the global approach to the complex issue of sustainability.
