Dr Ulrike Ehgartner
Research Associate
Profile
Biography
I joined the School for Business and Society in 2021.
My research expertise lies in the social dimensions of sustainable consumption and production, with a particular focus on narratives that drive social and environmental change. I am interested in the intersection of social practices and collective meaning-making, and how these interact with formal structures, such as policy, governance, and organizations, to understand how communities, organizations, and policymakers interpret, negotiate, and enact pathways toward sustainable futures.
I hold a PhD in Sociology from the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester and completed two master’s degrees: an MA in Media Education from the University of Graz and the University of Klagenfurt, and an MA in Sociology from the University of Graz. Prior to my current role, I held research positions at the University of Manchester (Departments of Sociology and Geography) and worked in applied research and education roles in Austria and the UK, including supporting language learning in schools, conducting evaluations for municipal and cultural
organizations, and designing evaluation projects for formal education.
My work spans critical social and socio-environmental scholarship and interdisciplinary sustainability research, with publications in journals such as Futures, Geoforum, Nature Food, and Sustainable Production and Consumption. I am an Editorial Board Member for Sociology, Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Member of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).
Publications
Full publications list
Journal Articles
Ehgartner, U., Kluczkovski, A., & Doherty, B. (2025). Public food procurement as a tool for building food system resilience in the UK. Nature Food, 6(2), 123–126. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016
Kluczkovski, A., Hadley, P., Yap, C., Ehgartner, U., Doherty, B., & Denby, K. (2025). Urban vertical farming: Innovation for food security and social impact? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380(1935), 20240154. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2
Buckton, S. J., Fazey, I., … Ehgartner, U., et al. (2024). Transformative action towards regenerative food systems: A large-scale case study. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 3(11).
Ehgartner, U., & Welch, D. (2024). Exploring Cultural Futures: Dimensions of Projectivity as a Methodological Lens for Narrative Analysis. Futures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futu
Kluczkovski, A., Ehgartner, U., Pugh, E., Hockenhull, I., Heaps-Page, R., Williams, A., Thomas, J. M. H., Doherty, B., Bryant, M., & Denby, K. (2024). Aquaponics in schools: Hands-on learning about healthy eating and a healthy planet. Nutrition Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12
Ehgartner, U., & Holmes, H. (2022). Changing understandings of waste reduction and avoidance in moralities of thrift: A comparison of Mass Observers’ narratives three decades apart. Geoforum, 137, 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geof
Doherty, B., Bryant, M., … Ehgartner, U., et al. (2022). Transformations to regenerative food systems—An outline of the
FixOurFood project. Nutrition Bulletin, 47(1), 106–114. https://www.doi.org/10.1111/nb
Pottinger, L., Barron, A., Hall, S. M., Ehgartner, U., & Browne, A. L. (2022). Talking methods, talking about methods: Invoking the transformative potential of social methods through animals, objects and how-to instructions. Geo: Geography and Environment, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.1
Ehgartner, U. (2020). The discursive framework of sustainability in UK food policy: The marginalised environmental dimension. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/152390
Holmes, H., & Ehgartner, U. (2020). Lost property and the materiality of absence. Cultural Sociology, 1-19.
https://doi.org/10.1177/174997
Ehgartner, U. (2018). Discourses of the food retail industry: Changing understandings of ‘the consumer’ and strategies for sustainability. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 16, 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.
Ehgartner, U., Gould, P. and Hudson, M. (2017). On the Obsolescence of Human Beings in Sustainable Development. Global Discourse, 7, 66-83. (Special issue: Post-Sustainability: Tragedy and Transformation)
https://doi.org/10.1080/232699
Edited Volumes and Book Chapters
Doheny-Adams, T., Ehgartner, U., & Stockdale, J. (2024). Meeting development goals in education: An interdisciplinary approach focused on food at the University of York. In K. Cripps & P. S. Thondre (Eds.), Higher Education and SDG2 Zero Hunger (pp. 176-179). Emerald Publishing.
Barron, A., Browne, A. L., Ehgartner, U., Hall, S. M., Pottinger, L., & Ritson, J. (Eds.) (2021). Methods for Change: Impactful social science methodologies for 21st century problems. University of Manchester. https://www.research.mancheste
Ehgartner, U. (2011). Grenzen in unseren Köpfen: Überlegungen zur Funktion, Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion von nationalen Stereotypen. In B. Gruber & D. Rippitsch (Eds.), Modell Friedensregion Alpen-Adria?: Lernerfahrungen aus einer europäischen Grenzregion. pp. 282-292. Schwalbach: Wochenschau Verlag.
Reports
Doherty, B., Ehgartner, U., Morris, B., Stewart, S., Crowther, B. and Duncombe, T. (2025). Catapulting Sustainable and Healthy Public Food Procurement in the UK (Policy and Practice Note). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo
Antal, L., Ehgartner, U. and Pearce, E. (2024). Public Procurement: The role of public procurement in the strategy for resilient food and farming systems in the North of England. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo
Kluczkovski, A., Ehgartner, U., Tereza da Silva, J., Schmidt, X., Reynolds, C., Bridle, S., Doherty, B. and Denby, K. (2022). Climate change for food projects: What it means and what to do about it. Food Research Collaboration Climate Briefing.
https://foodresearch.org.uk/pu
Fix our Food (2022). Transformation of Yorkshire's food economies: Summary report of the co-creative Three Horizons process. https://zenodo.org/records/152
Ehgartner, U., Boons, F. (2020). COVID-19 and Practice Change in the Everyday Life Domains of Hygiene, Eating, Mobility, Shopping, Leisure and Work: Implications for Environmental and Social Sustainability. Manchester: Sustainable Consumption Institute. December 2020 [Commissioned report prepared for the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra)] https://documents.manchester.a
Ehgartner, U. (2014). Ernährungsalltag und Lebensalltag: Untersuchung der Motive und Werteorientierungen von KonsumentInnen im Hinblick auf die Bildung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. Vienna: Forum Umweltbildung im Umweltdachverband. Forum Exkurse 11. ISBN 978-3-900717-75-9 B https://www.umweltbildung.at (commissioned
research booklet for the Austrian Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry - Lebensministerium).
Public-facing Articles and other Publications
Pettinger et al. (2025). Collaborating with the Yorkshire Grain Alliance. Transforming grain crop production and consumption in Yorkshire. Case Study for Co-production of research for food systems transformation. TUKFS Synergy Project. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/res
Trevelyan, N., Ehgartner, U. (2025). Biscuits with Purpose: How the Yorkshire Grain Alliance is reimagining food and farming – article commissioned by Edible Archives. https://www.ediblearchives.co.
Ehgartner, U. (2021). Methods for Change. Sociological Discourse Analysis. https://aspect.ac.uk/wp-conten
Ehgartner, U., Solé Canet, I. (2021). Sociological Discourse Analysis - Digging Beneath Text.
https://aspect.ac.uk/wp-conten
Ehgartner, U., Hirth, S. (2019). The Right to Repair and Endangered Practices. Discover Society, DS75.
https://discoversociety.org/20
Welch, D., Ehgartner, U. (2019). Imagined Futures of Consumption. Lay Expectations and Speculations. Discover Society, DS73. https://discoversociety.org/20
Research
Overview
My research combines narrative and discourse analysis with participatory approaches to explore how sustainable consumption and production are imagined, negotiated, and enacted in practice. Much of my research is concerned with how shared meanings and practices shape action and social change, providing empirically grounded insights that inform policy and practice on sustainability transitions. I also embed my research into teaching through experiential learning, supporting students to engage directly and critically with sustainability challenges in applied settings.
Since joining York in 2021, my work has been dedicated to the FixOurFood programme (UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems SPF), working within the hybrid business models work package. For this work, I conducted fieldwork with regional food and farming actors, facilitated multi-stakeholder workshops, and explored the governance, social, and cultural dynamics that enable sustainable food system transformation.
As part of my engagement with the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI), the University of York’s interdisciplinary hub dedicated to addressing pressing global environmental challenges, I work across international and interdisciplinary research networks, fostering collaboration between social scientists, natural scientists, and practitioners around questions of how sustainability agendas are produced, negotiated, and put into practice.
My YESI-funded project on the Right to Repair movement explores cultural and generational dynamics of repair practices in collaboration with Dr Mustafa Enes Tepe (Mehmetbey Karamanoglu University, Türkiye).
In another YESI-based project, I work with an interdisciplinary team across the University of York and partner institutions in Ghana (KNUST and KsTU) to explore leadership, logistics, and health in urban fresh produce supply chains in Ghana, with particular attention to how socio-material conditions shape everyday practices and health and sustainability outcomes
School for Business and Society
University of York
Church Lane Building
York Science Park
Heslington
York YO10 5ZFTelephone: +44 (0) 1904 321299
Email: ulrike.ehgartner@york.ac.uk
Room: CL/A/