The ‘glass ceiling’ of Germany’s socio-ecological transformation: Citizen, expert, and local stakeholder perspectives on responsibility for change

The IPCC (2022) underscores the urgent need to transform economic and social systems to stay within the ~1.5 °C warming threshold, with the pressure placed on states to lead the processes of transformation. Germany’s market economy is currently neither socially nor ecologically sustainable, requiring a socio-ecological transformation towards sustainable consumption and production systems. As the imperatives of the modern democratic welfare state require high levels of material welfare, economic growth and legitimation through (over)consumption, there is currently a “glass ceiling” to any such transformation. Through a combination of empirical research methods, including 11 expert interviews, a gamified citizen workshop with 22 citizens, and a local stakeholder workshop with 27 stakeholders, this paper explores the readiness and perspectives of German citizens, experts, and local stakeholders for a socio-ecological transformation. The findings highlight the contradictory role given to the state in the transformation, the difficulties of transforming “imperial modes of living”, and the collective evasion of responsibility, which suggests a “glass ceiling” to transforming the German market economy into a genuinely social and ecological model.