Beate Littig is fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies and member of the research platform  'Socio-ecological transformation'. Before the restructuration of the IHS she headed for 10 years the Sociology department of the institute, whose research agenda since 2009 has been focused on practice studies. She studied Sociology (History, Philosophy and Psychology) at the Universities of Göttingen, Hamburg and Berlin. From 1987-89 she was a member of the interdisciplinary research and consulting team at the Daimler-Benz-Institute for Technology and Society in Berlin. The focus of her work then was on the analysis of changing values in Western societies and its potential impacts on the enterprise. From 1990-92 she participated in the two-year postgraduate-programme at the IHS, Department of Sociology. From 1993-94 she worked free-lanced in several research projects (such as environmental learning and qualification, social issue management). In June 1994 she became research assistant at the IHS (occupied with two OECD-projects, Technology Audit for Hungary and National Innovation Systems). In 1995 she finished her Ph.D. at the FernUniversität at Hagen. Since February 1996 she is a senior researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Department of Sociology. In 2001 she finished the habilitation procedure at the University of Vienna and became senior lecturer of Sociology at the University of Vienna. From 2005 until 2009 she was vice-president of the Austrian Sociology Association (ÖGS). Beate coordinated many national and international research projects mainly in the areas of environmental sociology, sustainable work(ing societies), gender studies and participatory technology assessment. She teaches in Austrian and German universities as well as in international summer schools and workshops.