Staff

Henrike Rau

Lecturer

BA (equ.) (Psychology), Friedrich Schiller Universität, Jena (Germany) & University College Galway (Ireland)
PhD (Political Science and Sociology), NUI, Galway

Office: 323 Aras Moyola
Telephone number: 353 (0)91 495104
Email: henrike.raunuigalway.ie

Member of the Governance and Sustainable Development Research Cluster

Profile

Henrike Rau is a lecturer in Political Science and Sociology, specialising in environmental sociology and sustainability research. She is a member of the SAI committee (2009-present) and ISA-RC24 (Environment and Society). She is also co-chair of the Governance and Sustainable Development research cluster at NUIG and leader of the Socio-Economics and Policy cross-cutting theme in the Ryan Institute.

Teaching

Sociology of the Environment (UG)
Sustainable Development in Ireland (PG)
Research Methods (UG and PG)
Comparative Sociology (UG)
Introduction to Sociology (UG).

Research Interests

Henrike Rau's research focuses on socio-cultural and political aspects of (un)sustainable consumption, especially with regard to transport patterns. She currently leads research on transport, mobilities and the ’consumption of distance’ as part of ConsEnSus, an EPA Ireland-funded collaborative project between Trinity College Dublin and NUI, Galway on consumption, environment and sustainability. This four-year project (2009-2013) investigates household consumption in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Her other areas of expertise include environmental sociology, social-scientific and interdisciplinary sustainability research and cross-cultural studies. She is particularly interested in the implications of human time use for sustainability, which enables her to link her previous research on time cultures and temporal practices in Germany and Ireland to her current interests in sustainability.

Selected Publications

Fahy, F. and Rau, H. (eds.) (2013)  Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences. London: Sage.

Sustainability is a key concept used by social scientists interested in interactions between human society and the environment. This text offers a systematic and critical review of established and emerging methodological approaches, as well as tools for the integrated investigation of sustainability questions. Recognising the significance of scale for sustainability efforts and measurement, its scope ranges from the local to the global.

Divided into five sections:

• Part I: examines the key challenges inherent to social scientific sustainability research, focusing in particular on methodological questions that arise from recent efforts towards greater disciplinary integration
• Part II: discusses methodologies aimed at the investigation of attitudes and behaviour observable at the local level - from families and households to individual organisations within communities
• Part III: focuses on comparative sustainability research across different levels of socio-political organisation - from cities and regions to nation-states.
• Part IV: covers decent developments which recognise the significance of time for sustainability research and which offer innovative methodological approaches that focus on life events and long-term outcomes
• Part V: offers a critical assessment of current and future trends in social-scientific sustainability research

Bringing together contributions from international social scientists, this is the resource for academics and practitioners interested in sustainability research. It will be a core teaching text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sustainability and sustainable development, geography, environmental sociology and the environmental sciences.

Rau, H. and Fahy, F. (2013) ’Introduction: Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences – Concepts, Methodologies and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity’, in F. Fahy and H. Rau (eds.) Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences. London: Sage (publication in February 2013), pp. 3-24.

Fahy, F. and Rau, H. (2013) ’Researching complex sustainability issues: Reflections on current challenges and future developments’, in F. Fahy and H. Rau (eds.) Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences. London: Sage (publication in February 2013), pp. 193-208. 

Rau, H. and Edmondson, R. (2013) ’Time and Sustainability’, in F. Fahy, F. and H. Rau (eds.) Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences. London: Sage (publication in February 2013), pp. 173-190. 

Fahy, F. and Rau, H. (eds.) (2013) Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences. London: Sage (publication in February 2013).

Healy, N., Rau, H. and McDonagh, J. (2012) ’Collaborative Tourism Planning in Ireland: Tokenistic Consultation and the Politics of Participation’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 14(4): 450-471.

Rau, H. and Vega, A. (2012) ’Spatial (Im)mobility and Accessibility in Ireland: Implications for Transport Policy’, Growth and Change, 43(4): 667-697.

Millar, M., Coen, L., Bradley, C. And Rau, H. (2012) '“Doing the Job as a Parent”: Parenting Alone, Work, and Family Policy in Ireland', Journal of Family Issues, 33(1): 29-51.

Rau, H. (2011) ’The Ties That Bind? Rural (Im)mobilities and the Transformation of Rural-Urban Relationships’, in C. Hedberg and R. M. do Carmo (eds.) Translocal Ruralism: Mobility and Connectivity in European Rural Space. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 35-54.

Pape, J., Rau, H., Fahy, F. And Davies, A. (2011) ’Developing Policies and Instruments for Sustainable Household Consumption: Irish Experiences and Futures’, Journal of Consumer Policy 34(1): 25-42.

Rau, H. (2011) ’Das „neue“ Mobilitätsparadigma als Regulierungsansatz für die Wechselbeziehungen von Umwelt, Politik und Gesellschaft’, in B. Bärlocher and S. Kruse (eds) Natur und Gesellschaft: Gestaltung und Regulation der Natur-Gesellschaftsbeziehungen, Proceedings of the 6th NGU Conference 2009, Basel, Switzerland. Basel: Gesowip, pp.93-128.

Rau, H. (2010) ’(Im)mobility and Environment-Society Relations: Arguments for and against the “Mobilisation” of Environmental Sociology’, in M. Gross and H. Heinrichs (eds.) Environmental Sociology: European Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Challenges. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 237–253.

Rau, H. (2010) ’The “Green Wave” That Never Happened: The General Election in 2007’, in P. Share and M.P. Corcoran (eds) Ireland of the Illusions: A Sociological Chronicle 2007-8. Dublin: IPA, pp. 163-175.

Davies, A., Fahy, F., Rau, H. and Pape, J. (2010) ’Sustainable consumption and governance: reflecting on a research agenda for Ireland’, Irish Geography, 43(1): 59-79.

Khoo, S. and Rau, H. (2009) ’Movements, Mobilities and the Politics of Hazardous Waste’, Environmental Politics, 18(6): 960-980.

Rau, H. and Hennessy, C. (2009) ’The Road to Sustainable Transport? Rural Transport Programmes and Policies in Ireland’, in J. McDonagh, A. Varley and S. Shortall (eds) A Living Countryside? The Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland. Aldershot: Ashgate (in print), pp.361-78.

Rau, H. (2009) ’Introduction: Contested Landscapes—Space, Place, and Identity in Contemporary Ireland’, Nature and Culture, 4(1): 17–34.

Rau, H. (2008) ’Environmental Arguing at a Crossroads? Cultural Diversity in Irish Transport Planning’, in R. Edmondson and H. Rau (eds) Environmental Argument and Cultural Difference: Locations, Fractures and Deliberations. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp.95-124.

Edmondson, R. and Rau, H. (eds) (2008) Environmental Argument and Cultural Difference: Locations, Fractures and Deliberations. Oxford: Peter Lang.

Environmental argument is ’about’ far more than meets the eye. How people (mis-)understand each other during environmental debates is affected by conflicts between values and ways of life which may not be directly connected with the environment at all. This book offers sociological evidence from three contrasting societies – Ireland, Germany and China – to explore how diversity of cultural context affects deliberation about the physical world. What can we discover by examining environmental debates through the lens of interculturality? When people disagree about flood management, building motorways or extracting gas, what difference does it make if they have diverse experiences of neighbourly relations, how to use time or how to imagine a good life? What is going on at intersections between cultures to influence the trajectories of environmental debates? The book disinters taken-for-granted practices, feelings and social relationships which affect environmental arrangements, in scientific and artistic debates as well as in politics and policy-making.

Millar, M., Coen, L., Rau, H., Donegan, M., Canavan, J. and Bradley, C. (2007) Towards a Better Future: Research on Labour Market Needs and Social Exclusion of One Parent Families in Galway City and County. Galway: CFRC.

Rau, H. and McDonagh, J. (2007) Going Local? Public Participation and Future Mobility in Ireland, Proceedings of 5th Global Conference: Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship, July 3rd-6th, 2006, Mansfield College, Oxford (UK), e-book.

Rau, H. (2006) Introduction to Sociology. Module for BA in Community and Family Studies, Community Education Centre, NUI, Galway.

Rau, H. (2004) Time Perspectives and Temporal Practices: A Cross-Cultural, Comparative Study of Time Cultures in Ireland and Germany. NUI, Galway: unpublished PhD thesis.

Rau, H. (2002) 'Time Divided - Time United? Temporal Aspects of German Unification', Time & Society, 11(2/3): 271-294.

Supervision of Research

M.Litt./PhD

Michael Hynes (PhD cand.) – Telework: A Sustainable Mobility Option?, School of Political Science and Sociology, 2009-present, EPA-STRIVE funding 2009-2012)

Barbara Heisserer (PhD) – Curbing the Consumption of Distance? A practice-theoretical investigation of an employer-based mobility management initiative to promote more sustainable commuting (2009-2013, EPA-STRIVE funding 2009-2012).

Emmet Fox (PhD cand.) – Public Perceptions of Global Warming and Trends towards Decarbonisation: Evidence from Ireland (2008–present).

Sarah O'Malley (M.Litt./PhD cand.) – Reconnecting Children and Nature? A Sociological Study of Environmental Education in Ireland (2008–present; IRCHSS funding from 2009-2012).

Lisa Moran (PhD) – Tacit Knowledge and Resistance: The Impact of Rural Knowledge–Based Cultures on the Implementation of Environmental Policy in Connemara (2004–2011; IRCHSS funding 2004-2007)

Noel Healy (PhD) – Interpretation, Governance and Conflict: A Critique of Protected Area Planning in Ireland (co-supervision with Dr. John McDonagh, Dept. of Geography, NUIG, January 2007–10; funded by EPA Ireland and College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, NUIG)

Undergraduate and M.A. dissertations

Maedhbh Gordon - Growing Sustainability? A Case Study of Community Participation in Westside Community Garden Project in Galway City (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2012–13).

Catherine Swift - No room for manoeuvre: An analysis of factors impacting participation of cycling lobby groups in decision making on planning (4BA student in Political Science and Sociology, Options module SP399 (minor dissertation), NUIG, 2011-12).

Cherida D’Arcy - Landscaping the grassroots: The relationship between the Irish state and the community development sector as defined within the LCDP (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2010–11)

Maedhbh Moroney – Service Learning and Community Development: A Case Study of Pavee Study Homework Club (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2009–10)

Helen Doherty – Immigration and Community Development in Ireland: Working with Asylum seekers and Refugees in County Mayo (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2007–8)

Bernadette McCaffrey – Garda Youth Crime Diversion in Youth Work Organisations: Implications for Policy and Practice (MA programme in Child and Family Support Studies, NUIG, 2007–8)

Colleen Frawley – Transport Policy and the Community and Voluntary Sector in Ireland (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2006–7)

Treasa Quigley – Exploring the Voice of the Contemporary Childcare Worker in Co. Cavan (MA programme in Child and Family Support Studies, NUIG, 2006–7)

Isobel Daly – A Case Study of Two Youth Advice Cafés in Co. Galway (MA programme in Community Development, NUIG, 2005–6)

Derek Joyce – The Role of Family Support in Reducing Expressed Emotion (EE) in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (MA programme in Family Support Studies, NUIG, 2004–5).

Membership of NUIG Graduate Research Committees

Mary Greene (PhD cand.), Department of Geography, NUI, Galway (2012-present) 

Sarah Kollnig (PhD), School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway (2011-present).

Mark Ryan (PhD cand.), Department of Philosophy, NUI, Galway, (2010-present)

Mary Jo Lavelle (PhD cand.), Department of Geography, NUI, Galway (2009-present)

Brid Walsh (PhD), Department of Geography, NUI, Galway (2008-2011)

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