The department accommodates all economic, social, political and legal research and teaching activities at BOKU. We are a unique academic organisation in this field in Austria and internationally.

We synthesize economic, ecological, sociological and ethical aspects. Innovation, inter- and transdisciplinarity as well as internationality define our department culture.

The fields of research and teaching are:

Economics, policy and law of the agricultural, energy, food and forest sector,
Sustainable development and societal transformation,
Management of biological resources and environmental policy and history,
Management strategies of biogenic value added chains,
Governance, rural development and agricultural sociology,
Optimisation and evaluation of managerial and economic processes in agriculture, forestry and the timber industry as well as in the environmental and food sector.
Social ecology and societal metabolism.