Dr. Niko Schäpke

Dr. Niko Schäpke received a combined BSc and MSc in environmental sciences as well as a combined BA and MA in economics from Leuphana University Lüneburg, before graduating with a PhD in philosophy at the same university in 2018. He was Post-Doc at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden and fellow at MISTRA sustainable consumption program. Since 2020 assistant professor (German: akad. Rat) at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and from 2023-2024 additionally senior research associate at the Research Institute for Sustainability, Potsdam, Germany.

In his research, Niko combines the experimental and the relational turn in sustainability science. His research interests are principles, settings and methods of transdisciplinary research, including real-world labs and transition management, as well as understanding and catalyzing human agency and inner-outer transformations for sustainability.

Niko teaches in the areas of research design, methods of social sustainability science and global environmental politics and enjoys projects based and learner centered teaching. He is member of the coordination circle of the Network ´Reallabore der Nachhaltigkeit´, institutional representative of Freiburg University in the German Society for Participatory and Transdisciplinary Research, and member of the Transformations Community and Sustainability Transitions Research Network.

Niko is driven by a passion to advance sustainability studies in its capacity to contribute to societal transformation towards sustainability.

• Transdisciplinary research settings and transdisciplinary labs
• Governance of transformations
• Transformative knowledge systems
• Human agency
• Social and humanistic psychology   
• Interrelating transitions and sustainability
• Philosophy of sustainability science

Bachelor’s degree

• “Methoden der Umweltsozialwissenschaften” (Integrated minor subject Environmental Social Sciences, core module with 5 ECTS; together with external guest lecturers from research and policy consulting)

Master’s degree

• “Sustainability and Governance” (5 ECTS compulsory module in the MSc Environmental Governance)
• “Global Environmental Politics” (im Modul MSc Environmental Governance, compulsory module; together with Leonard Frank, Prof. Peter Poschen, Prof. Heiner Schanz; paused since 2024)
• “Research Design” (5 ECTS compulsory module in the MSc Environmental Governance)

Current publications

• Schäpke, N., Beecroft, R., Wanner, M., Wagner, F., Rhodius, R., Laborgne, P. & Parodi, O. (2024): Gaining deep leverage? Reflecting and shaping impacts of real-world labs through leverage points. GAIA 33/S1: 116 – 124.
• Frank, L., Feola, G. & Schäpke, N. (2024): Assessing regime destabilisation through policy change: An analysis of agricultural policy in the United Kingdom during Brexit. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 50, 100810.
• Schäpke, N., Wagner, F., Beecroft, R., Rhodius, R., Laborgne, P., Wanner, M. & Parodi, O. (2024): Impacts of real-world labs in sustainability transformations: Forms of impacts, creation strategies, challenges, and methodological advances. GAIA 33/S1: 4-9
• Wagner, A., Schäpke, N., Strasser, J. & Matoba, K. (2024): Co-creating Resonant Societies in Times of Crises: Trauma, Polarization and Democracy. UNU-CRIS working paper, United Nations University.
• Williams, R., Wittmayer, J.M. & Schäpke, N., Lawrence, M.G., Loorbach, D. (2024): Institutionalisation of Transdisciplinarity in Research Organisations – A Review of Key Dimensions. DIT Discussion paper, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Selected Publications

• Schäpke, N., Stelzer, F., Bergmann, M., Singer-Brodowski, M., Wanner, M., Caniglia, G., Bernert, P., Liedtke, C., Loorbach, D., Olsson, P., Lang, DJ. (2018): Jointly striving for transformation? A comparison of real world labs, urban transition labs, transformation labs, niche experiments and sustainability living labs. In: GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 27 (S1): 85-96. doi: https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.27.S1.16
• Fazey, I., Schäpke N., Caniglia, C., Patterson, J., Hultman, J., …, Wyborn, C. (2018): Ten essentials for action-oriented and second order energy transitions,transformations and climate change research. In: Energy Research and Social Science (40): 54-70. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.11.026
• Caniglia, G., Schäpke, N., Lang, DJ., Abson, DJ., Luederitz, C., Wiek, A., Laubichler, M., Gralla, F., Wehrden, Hv. (2017): Experiments and Evidence in Sustainability Science: A Typology. In: Journal of Cleaner Production (169): 39-47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.05.164
• Schäpke, N., Omann, I., Wittmayer, JM., Mock, M., Steenbergen, Fv., (2017): Linking transitions to sustainability: a study into social effects of transition management. In: Sustainability 9(737). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su9050737
• Luederitz, C., Schäpke, N., Wiek, A., Lang, DJ., …, Westley, F. (2017): Learning through Evaluation – A Tentative Evaluative Scheme for Sustainability Transition Experiments. In: Journal of Cleaner Production (169): 61-76. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.005
• Wittmayer, JM., Schäpke, N. (2014): Action, Research and Participation. Roles of Researchers in Sustainability Transitions. In: Sustainability Science. 9 (4): 483-496. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0258-4