Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Open University (OU), Tilburg University (TiU), University of Groningen (RUG), Leiden University (LEI), University of Twente (UT), and Wageningen University (WUR) are working on this theme. The theme coordinator is prof. R.P.M. (Rafael) Wittek (RUG).
The theme Societal Transitions and Behavioral Change (STAB) brings together researchers from diverse disciplines to tackle the complex challenges of societal transitions through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative research methods. The theme focuses on five crucial transitions—sustainability, circular economy, energy transition, digitalization, and democratic renewal. It examines how behavioral change at individual, organizational, and system levels can strengthen these transitions. For this purpose, a unique analytical framework has been developed that makes visible the interaction between societal and individual processes.
Why this theme is now crucial for the Netherlands
Complex challenges require integrated solutions
The Netherlands faces unprecedented societal challenges that cannot be solved by separate disciplines or isolated interventions. Climate change, democratic erosion, digital inequality, and economic transition interact in complex ways and require a fundamentally new approach that understands and utilizes their interconnections. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored this: technical solutions only work when citizens accept them and adapt their behavior, where social and psychological factors prove to be just as important as technical innovations.
Gap in existing research
Research on societal changes often focuses on one discipline or one change at a time. This means that opportunities to collaborate and improve our understanding of how changes influence each other are missed. In order to implement successful changes, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of the connections between different transitions and behavioral changes. STAB addresses this issue by focusing on the ‘intersections’ between the various disciplinary research questions and the different transitions.
Strategically utilizing Dutch transition experiences
The Netherlands has gained experience with various transitions, from energy transition to digital innovation. These experiences offer opportunities to identify success factors and understand why some transitions succeed while others do not.
Policy relevance and socioeconomic impact
Behavioral and social science knowledge is important for good policy. Investments in changes often fail because behavioral aspects are underestimated. STAB research helps base policy on facts by showing why some interventions work or don’t work.
Innovative approach: multilevel, interdisciplinary
Analytical framework for complexity
STAB has developed a unique analytical framework that crosses five types of transitions with five types of research problems, from normative to evaluative. This matrix model enables researchers to discover connections between transitions and identify gaps in knowledge. For example: how does digitalization influence the energy transition, or how does democratic decline undermine or strengthen climate policy?
The framework uses a social mechanism approach that explicitly shows how societal and group phenomena are related to individual psychology and behavior. This approach shows, for example, how climate anxiety at the individual level can lead to collective action, which subsequently brings about policy change at the system level.
Community building and structured collaboration
STAB has built an organizational structure with a team of ten senior and junior coordinators who meet every two months to discuss progress and ensure coherence. They guide six interuniversity teams that collaborate on refining and implementing the research agenda.
Six theme groups connect researchers from different universities and disciplines in a matrix organization that prevents fragmentation and promotes genuine transdisciplinary collaboration. STAB members work together on shared research questions instead of in isolated thematic silos. These theme groups develop joint theoretical frameworks, methodological innovations, and empirical studies that transcend individual disciplines.
Empirical infrastructure: LISS panel module
STAB has added a specialized module to the LISS panel, which follows a representative sample of 5,000 Dutch households. This STAB module collects unique longitudinal data on how Dutch people perceive different societal transitions. The data enables STAB researchers to unravel connections between transitions and behavior.
Research themes
STAB organizes research through six interuniversity working groups that each work on different intersections between transition types and research problems. This matrix model crosses five transition types (sustainability, circular economy, energy, digitalization, democracy) with five types of research problems (normative, conceptual, descriptive, explanatory, evaluative).
Theme 1: Framework for Social Transitions
An analytical framework for societal change
This theme develops a comprehensive analytical framework for social transitions that combines different scientific perspectives. The goal is to remove barriers between fields by connecting theories about societal developments with individual psychological theories.
Example question: “What defines a social transition at different layers of society?”
The framework establishes criteria for characterizing and comparing transition processes. We look at measurable characteristics such as speed, scale, intensity, resistance, and structure of change. Beyond theory, we offer policymakers and professionals practical tools to assess transitions, predict obstacles, and design interventions.
The theme focuses on the intersections between sustainability transitions on one hand and conceptual, descriptive, and explanatory issues on the other.
Theme 2: Sustainable transitions, equality and behavior
When do transitions make society more or less fair?
This theme bridges individual perceptions and group-level dynamics. It examines how personal definitions of sustainability differ between demographic groups and how these differences influence collective sustainability efforts.
Example question: “How do individuals in different groups define sustainability and what behavior is seen as most important for sustainable living?”
An important part of this is when societal changes increase or decrease inequality between people. For this, a framework is developed that works for different types of transitions and different fields.
This theme is located at the intersection of normative questions about how different groups define sustainability and associated ethical priorities, combined with descriptive research that maps what behavior is seen as most important for sustainable living.
Theme 3: Transition to a circular economy
What motivates people to work circularly
This theme examines what social and psychological factors are needed for a circular economy. It investigates how behavioral changes work through from small families to large business networks and entire regions. The research works on three levels: individuals (citizens, consumers, employees), groups (teams, families, organizations), and systems (policy and institutions).
Example question: “What psychosocial factors enable the circular economy and what consequences do the behavioral changes have on complex social systems, ranging from small family units to large business networks or geographical regions?”
A circular economy requires a different way of thinking about raw materials, consumption, and waste. Success depends not only on new technology, but especially on changing deeply rooted habits and values. These changes must take place at all levels of society.
Theme 4: Resilience in transition
How people cope with climate change and digitalization
Resilience helps people cope with major changes in their lives. This theme looks at how personal characteristics such as experience, knowledge, and character influence how well people adapt to societal changes. We pay special attention to the influence of climate change and digitalization.
Example question: “What personal characteristics increase or decrease citizens’ resilience in the digital transition?”
It is important to understand resilience because people have different concerns about changes, even though their fears seem the same. With climate change, some worry about natural disasters, while others fear they will have less freedom due to new rules.
This theme focuses on the analytical intersections between conceptual and descriptive on one hand and the digital and energy transition on the other.
Theme 5: Interactions between levels of transitions
Linking individual behavior to societal change
This theme develops methods to understand how during a transition different levels of society influence each other. We connect theories about individual behavior with theories about societal systems.
Example question: “How are behavioral change and system change connected?”
The research is important for planning desired changes from multiple levels simultaneously. We show how higher levels influence lower levels and vice versa. By linking individual behavioral change to system change, we create frameworks for strategies that connect personal and societal change.
The theme investigates how changes in societal systems relate to individual behavior. We also look at how processes like trust create connections between large and small levels of change.
Theme 6: Interactions between transitions
How different transitions influence each other
Example question: “How does the digital transition influence households’ possibilities for sustainable energy choices?”
This theme studies how different transitions influence each other, how policymakers understand these connections, and how they deal with them.
Better insight into these interactions is crucial because different transitions can strengthen or counteract each other in various ways. For example, the digital transition can contribute to more efficient energy use by households. At the same time, greater reliance on data centers increases pressure on natural resources like water and space.
The theme investigates the social and economic tensions that arise from these kinds of interactions, and how they can be resolved. This focuses on the analytical intersections between descriptive and evaluative issues on one hand, and the energy and digital transition on the other.
Concrete results and progress since the start
Structural development and network building
STAB has enabled 35 new assistant professor positions within the SSH domain, specifically focused on transition and behavioral research. These positions are strategically distributed across different universities to facilitate genuine collaboration and transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Knowledge development and community building
Since the start, STAB has organized five national meetings that brought together researchers from different disciplines and universities around shared transition challenges. These meetings have led to new collaborations, joint research proposals, and theoretical breakthroughs in understanding multi-level transition processes.
Contribution to the field
The systematic focus on behavioral mechanisms within transition processes fills an important gap in existing research and contributes to a better understanding of why some transitions succeed while others fail, regardless of their technical or economic merits. The developed analytical framework and empirical infrastructure can help the broader research field better understand complex societal change processes.
Knowledge products
The STAB White Paper presents the analytical framework, identifies “intersections,” and formulates concrete new research questions for each of the five transition types.
STAB researchers are working on a concept repository to align different definitions of core concepts from participating disciplines. This tool helps develop a common language for interdisciplinary collaboration.
The LISS panel module systematically collects data on Dutch citizens’ perceptions of transition processes. This data is used in various research projects and provides insights into how transitions influence each other.
STAB in brief
- Transition intersection research central: STAB systematically develops research into the connections between five societal transitions (sustainability, circular economy, energy, digitalization, democracy) and different types of research problems (from descriptive to evaluative) to better understand the role of behavioral change.
- Structured interdisciplinary collaboration: Six interuniversity theme groups work on different combinations of transition types and research problems, guided by ten coordinators and supported by 35 new assistant professor positions.
- Unique empirical infrastructure: A specialized LISS panel module collects longitudinal data on 5,000 Dutch households, supplemented with concept repositories and analytical frameworks for interdisciplinary transition research.