Industrial societies need a radical change
The Industrial Revolution ushered in a fundamentally unsustainable trajectory, the First Deep Transition. Change in the same order of magnitude – the Second Deep Transition – is required to solve the socio-ecological polycrisis. Our team studies how to make this happen with support from the European and Estonian Research Councils.
Current projects
Our ongoing projects focus on three questions related to deep assumptions about nature, science and technology in contemporary industrial societies: how did we get here, why does it matter and what can we do?
Previous projects
Our work builds significantly on our previous project “Reshaping Estonian energy, mobility and tele-communications systems on the verge of the Second Deep Transition”, funded by the Estonian Research council.
Ongoing work
Our current work focuses on industrial modernity: deep societal assumptions about nature, science, and technology perpetuating persistent sustainability challenges. We research the 250-year evolution of these traits in seven research streams.
Theorizing industrial modernity
Mapping the historical evolution of industrial modernity
Mapping the contestation of industrial modernity
Creating the historical narrative of industrial modernization
Identifying the mechanisms of industrial modernity
Developing an Industrial Modernity Index
Developing future scenarios
News and media
22.-25. April 2026
Industrial Modernity: 1st Workshop is Officially in the Books
Our team took the project on the road, hosting our very first workshop in Pühajärve and Narva. We gathered a group of international scholars to tear into our ongoing research and see if what we are doing holds water. Over three days, discussions focused on mechanisms of industrial modernity, sustainability interventions, technocracy, comparative country cases, and methodological advances, including large language model–based analysis. Huge thanks to Lea Fünfschilling, Bruno Turnheim, Ed Steinmueller, Paul Edwards, Frank Feraart, Victoria Donovan, Melvin Wevers and Kaspar Beelen for the sharp critiques and thoughtful engagement.
Publications
6. Nov 2025
Large quantities of printed heritage have been digitized in Estonia allowing computer assisted research in digital history. By official estimates, at least 42% of Estonian cultural heritage has been digitized, including 30% of printed heritage. In this article, three interrelated questions on the state of the archives were addressed: 1) What do the digital newspaper archives contain and how representative are they of the historical media publishing? 2) How could we use this material in research and what opportunities does it present? 3) What could we pay attention to in developing the state of the art further? Read more…
Research team
Our team combines expertise from a broad range of disciplines, including sustainability transitions, innovation studies, history, media and communication studies, digital humanities, computational social science, and more.
Institutional support and financing
We are supported by the Institute of Social Studies at the University of Tartu. We are funded by the Estonian Research Council (project PRG2160) and the European Union (ERC, project RiDe, project number 101170823).
