Prof. dr. Thomas Block

Thomas Block works as professor 'Sustainability and governance' at the Centre for Sustainability Studies, attached to the Department of Political Sciences at Ghent University. He has a PhD in Political Sciences and a Master degree in Sociology (magna cum laude). The identity of his research approach lies in the use of a (nuanced) constructivist epistemology, a complexity-acknowledging perspective, an interpretative policy analysis framework, a participative research design, and in the framing of sustainability issues as ‘political’ matter. His research focus is on complex decision-making and transition governance, education on wicked sustainability issues, scenarios and future studies, sustainable cities and urban projects.

He is/was the main promotor of the Interdisciplinary Consortium of the Stadsacademie (IDC-BOF 2020-2030), the International Thematic Network SEDwise 'Sustainability Education – Teaching and learning in the face of wicked socio-ecological problems' (ITN 2015-2021), and several other research projects and PhD trajectories. Thomas Block is/was also involved in inter-university consortia, such as ‘Transitions for Sustainable Development’ (TRADO 2012-2017), Climate Change and Development Cooperation (KLIMOS 2015-2019), ‘Innovation Governance’ (SBV 2016-2020), PUReSmart 'PolyUrethane Recycling towards a smart Circular Economy' (EU-H2020 2019-2022), SuPER-W 'Resource, Product and Energy Recovery from Wastewater' (EU-Marie Curie ITN 2016-2020), interdisciplinary ZAP-consortium 'Urban Waste and Circular Economy' (UGent, since 2018), etc.

Amongst many other activities, he is an active member of the governing board 'Transitie UGent' and the broader sustainability policy at Ghent University, the jury concerning the Flemish Fund for Urban Regeneration, member of STRN (Sustainability Transitions Research Network), member of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), the jury of the VDK Sustainability Award, the jury of the FUTUREproof Award, the Support Team concerning the Ghent District Budget, etc. From 2019 to 2023, Thomas Block was Special Commissioner to integrate sustainability more strongly into UGent curricula. At the moment, he is lecturer of 3 UGent courses: ‘Politics of sustainability’, 'Sustainable Cities' and the module 'Discourse analysis'. Thomas Block is also co-initiator and promotor of the Ghent ‘Stadsacademie’.

Mail: Thomas.Block@UGent.be

Research Explorer: https://research.ugent.be/web/person/thomas-block-0/en

Publications