ROBERT | HAFNER
creative|human-environment|research
JOMO, the joy of missing out – or, the focus on things that matter*
VITA
I am an Associate Professor in human–technology–environment relations (Geography) at the University of Innsbruck, co‑founder of geoLIT GmbH – a geographical lab for innovation and transformation – and Chair of the Ethics Review Board at Eurac Research in Bolzano. I have studied and worked in Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Usuhaia, Malmö, Roskilde, León and Innsbruck, completed a PhD and Habilitation in geography, and held positions as university assistant, guest professor and project leader before my current role. Today I teach, supervise and review widely in human geography and related fields, and enjoy collaborating across disciplines and institutions from the Alps to Latin America and Indonesia.
RESEARCH
I explore how human–technology–environment relations shape social‑ecological transformations in everyday life, infrastructure and governance. My work combines environmental justice and political ecology to examine how agribusiness, mining, energy, food and water systems reconfigure territories and livelihoods in Alpine regions and across Latin America, as well as Indonesia. Methodologically, I work with Q‑methodology, long‑term ethnographic fieldwork and more‑than‑rational approaches such as visceral and sensory methods to make diverse thought styles and lived experiences visible.
TOOLS
I design and test tools that make social‑ecological complexities easier to see, discuss and transform. These range from Q‑methodology workflows for mapping diverse viewpoints, to visceral and sensory toolkits that bring more‑than‑rational experiences into research, teaching and collaboration. Together with partners in academia, administration and practice, I translate these approaches into practical formats – from workshop designs and decision‑support templates to digital prototypes – that help groups navigate conflicts, explore futures and co‑create more just and resilient human–environment relations.
A dedicated tools page will follow; for now, selected applications are described under Projects and Publications.
* My three research baselines:
Cultivating understanding beyond metrics: Treating citation counts, impact factors, or third‑party funding volumes as primary indicators of scientific value risks confusing visibility with understanding. Qualitative and reflexive work in particular often aims at transforming conceptual vocabularies, practice, and relations rather than producing quickly quantifiable “effects”. This theme invites re‑imagining evaluation cultures so that careful, conceptually generative work is not structurally penalized by metrics designed for other epistemic projects.
Doing science as a communal practice: My work repeatedly stresses that science is communal: knowledge emerges within thought collectives, and scientists are always already entangled in the societies and territories they study. This undermines the myth of the detached expert and reframes research as a social practice embedded in power relations, infrastructures, and everyday life. It also legitimates third‑mission engagement, co‑production, and public‑facing work as core scientific activities rather than add‑ons.
Finding joy as a driver of creativity: Across my talks, science slams, and projects there is a strong insistence that enjoyment and playfulness are not luxuries but conditions for creative, insightful research. Humor, experimentation with formats, and aestshetic curiosity help to surface tacit assumptions, invite wider participation, and open space for genuinely new connections—especially in transdisciplinary and more‑than‑rational settings. This theme challenges academic cultures that glorify overwork and seriousness, suggesting that joyful collaboration may be epistemically superior, not just personally sustainable.
IDEAS & THEIR MATERIALIZATION
THOUGHT STYLE EXPANSIONS
CREATIVE PROJECTS
Thought styles expand whenever different ways of knowing collide – across disciplines, sectors and species. Work on environmental justice, social‑ecological transformation and human–technology–environment relations builds on Ludwik Fleck’s idea that knowledge is always shaped by thought collectives, and asks how these styles can be made visible, questioned and creatively expanded.
This often happens at the edges of science: in art–science collaborations, experimental teaching, more‑than‑human research and joint projects with practitioners. Jazz methodology and visceral methods use improvisation, rhythm and multisensory experience as structuring principles for research design and writing, turning fieldwork and analysis into open, playful and still rigorous processes. Photography, sound and installation work with artists invite non‑verbal perspectives into environmental debates, while more‑than‑human approaches situate humans as one actor among many in Anthropocene landscapes.
Across these experiments, my aim is to hold methods lightly, enjoy the process and treat curiosity, humour and a sense of fun as serious tools for expanding thought styles – in academia, in policy and in everyday human–environment relations.
EMPIRICAL GROUNDING
SPIN-OFF & IMPACTS
Research on human–environment relations unfolds beyond papers and projects into concrete tools, workshops and decision‑support processes that help organisations, administrations and communities navigate social‑ecological transformation. Transdisciplinary collaboration is central here: working with practitioners, artists, engineers and civil society allows methods like Q‑methodology, participatory formats and visceral approaches to become accessible, context‑sensitive and genuinely enjoyable to use. This spirit also shapes spin‑off activities such as the geographical lab for innovation and transformation geoLIT, where experimental formats are tested and refined together with partners who are curious, open and ready to have some fun while working on serious environmental and societal questions.
COLLABORATION IS MORE FUN THAN COMPETITION
IF YOU HAVE
OUT-OF-THE-BOX IDEAS, INTERESTING APPROACHES AND GOOD VIBES,
CONTACT ME