Focus Area Society & Sustainability | Contemporary Art and Cultural Production
About
How do we tackle the major challenges of our time – such as social inequality, the democracy and climate crisis, artificial intelligence? They require sustainable transformations, complex thinking and action as well as cooperation between different social groups and scientific disciplines. Against this backdrop, we at the focus area Society & Sustainability | Contemporary Art and Cultural Production work in artistic-scientific teams together with actors from civil society to develop transdisciplinary and open spaces for education, communication and experience. In doing so, we start from an understanding of art and cultural production as a critical and socially negotiable process. We pursue the goal of change in the sense of comprehensive cultural sustainability on a social, ecological and economic level. The anchor points in terms of content are socially committed art and cultural work, cultural participation and mediation, democracy, diversity and planetary justice, which are essential for a socio-ecological transformation.
In order to gain new cooperation partners and to strengthen the exchange between interested parties and existing projects at the two universities, we hold networking meetings at regular intervals.
Overview of the previous networking meetings
Next date: Autumn 2025
Guiding Principles
OUR RESEARCH CONCERNS
Our guiding questions & concerns
- How can artistic, cultural and research practices foster social change and cultural sustainability for a more just, livable future?
- How to create open and inclusive spaces with communities in rural and urban contexts?
Focus
- cultural sustainability & socio-ecological transformation: sustainability as a social practice, and as a principle of action encompassing all areas of life and society
- democracy & justice: participatory arts and cultural production as part of a plural society
- co-creative processes: developing ideas and creating knowledge together by combining theory and practice
- everyday realities & diversity: multi-perspective, inclusive and low-barrier approaches oriented towards people’s lived realities
Forms of working
- creating open spaces: developing and designing spaces for communication, education and action
- transdisciplinary: collaborative action of various social groups including a variety of disciplines and artforms, research, cultural work, and cultural production
- participatory: researchers, lecturers and artists develop ideas together with the civil society
- artistic approaches: social engagement, scrutinizing knowledge, and emerging practices – with formats such as storytelling, comics, creative writing, DIY practices, games and performances
- international & solidarity: embracing global perspectives of arts and research
Practices and projects
- Diversify ourselves: Community outreach in Salzburg as permanent action and gesture of invitation to connect and participate.
- Social sustainability, justice and diversity in the cultural sector. More information
- Collective Practices and Relational Agencies: Audiovisual Cultures, Artistic Processes, Transcultural and Decolonial Perspectives.
- Augmented Reality Communities: Activism in public space with digital and hybrid formats, creation of co-living utopias through artistic strategies, sustainable software development. Link to project website
- Co-Creating Change! Artistic practices and transformative learning in the context of cultural sustainability. Link to project website
- ETHNOFARM: Generational Dynamics and AgriTech Transformation. Funded by the FWF 1000-Ideen-Program. Link to projects website.
- Climate, Crisis & Classism: Cultural Sustainability as a Democratising and Participative Impulse in Justice and Sustainability Discourses.
- Graphic Spaces of Eco-Memory: Creating eco-memory through comics. More information
Team
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Assoz. Prof.in Dr.in phil. Elke Zobl »
Head
Focus Area Society & Sustainability T: 0043 (0)662/8044-2372 E: elke.zobl@plus.ac.at -
Univ. Prof.in Ulrike Hatzer »
Head
Focus Area Society & Sustainability T: +43 662 6198 5828 E: ulrike.hatzer@moz.ac.at -
Assoz. Prof.in Dr.in phil. Ricarda Drüeke »
Co-Head
Focus Area Society & Sustainability T: 0043 (0)662/8044-4147 E: ricarda.drueeke@plus.ac.at -
Sonja Prlić , M.A. PhD »
Co-Head
Focus Area Society & Sustainability E: sonja.prlic@moz.ac.at -
MMag.a Dr.in Doris Posch »
Senior Scientist and Deputy Managament
Focus Area Society & Sustainability T: 0043 (0)662/8044-2382 E: doris.posch@plus.ac.at -
Mag.a phil. Dr.in Anita Moser »
Senior Scientist / Managing Director
Focus Area Society & Sustainability / Doctoral School T: 0043 (0)662/8044-2382 E: anita.moser@plus.ac.at -
Bettina Egger , M.A. PhD »
Senior Scientist
Focus Area Society & Sustainability T: 0043 (0)662/8044-2379 E: bettinajulia.egger@plus.ac.at -
Ass. Prof.in Mag.a art. Katharina Anzengruber , PhD »
Research and artistic associate
Focus Area Society & Sustainability E: katharina.anzengruber@moz.ac.at -
Kinga Szemessy , M.A. BA »
Senior Scientist
Focus Area Society & Sustainability E: kinga_zsofia.szemessy@moz.ac.at -
Julieta Jacobi »
Doktorandin
Doktoratskolleg E: julietajohanna.jacobi@plus.ac.at -
Mag.a phil. Roswitha Gabriel »
Referentin
T: 0043 (0)662/8044-2383 E: roswitha.gabriel@plus.ac.at -
Elin Güler , BA »
Studienassistentin
Programmbereich Gesellschaft & Nachhaltigkeit T: 0043 (0) 662 8044 2371 E: elinkume.gueler@plus.ac.at
