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
31. August – 2. September 2026
Thank you, IST!
Six researchers from our team presented their latest research at the International Sustainability Transitions Conference (IST), “Hope in Challenging Times”. Great discussions today may become tomorrow’s publications. Thank you for the inspiring feedback! Our team contributed six presentations showcasing the breadth of our current research, covering the core beliefs of industrial societies, policy interventions for sustainability transitions, the depth of radical sustainability interventions, the evolution of technocracy, contestation around Deep Transitions, and conceptual approaches to mechanisms in transitions research.
Publications
8. September 2026
Based on a massive synthesis of literature we identify 38 traits of industrial modernity, 10 recurrent controversial outcomes created by the traits and broad patterns resulting from these interactions.
„As the paper sits between many disciplines without really fitting into any of them, our current holy goal is to annoy as many historians, sociologists, STI scholars and sustainability researchers as we possibly can. Stay tuned for further updates on that front.“ says professor Laur Kanger. Access the full article…
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).
