Interview Katharina Hölscher

The Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH) interviewed Katharina Hölscher, PhD researcher at Drift, who studies processes and capacities for transformative climate governance in cities.

Being passionate about nature and searching for a way she could contribute to a sustainable society, it was while studying for her Bachelor’s degree that Katharina realised she could actually do something about this professionally. For her Master’s degree, she decided to focus on Environmental Governance and Sustainability. She discovered that she wanted to pursue her passion through research, looking at how societal change towards sustainability can be realised and translating her insights into policy practice. In 2014, Katharina joined DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transition).

Katharina: “The transition perspective addresses climate change as a transformation challenge, not only looking at climate change in an isolated way but also at its connection to broader issues such as pollution, social equity and health. My focus is on the different actors, the governance processes that these engage in and their roles in achieving a transition towards a more sustainable, resilient society.” Her empirical research focuses on Rotterdam and New York City as examples for understanding what works well, discerning gaps and exploring the building of capacity towards transformative climate governance.

Read the complete interview here.

Date
december 24, 2016