Alexander Wentland is the head of the „Transforming Mobility and Society“ (TraMS) Lab, which is closely affiliated with the Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitain Regions (MCube). He is also project co-leader in the DFG-funded project Understanding Regional Innovation Cultures. His work focuses on the politics of innovation, sustainability transformations (esp. mobility), and regional industrial legacies. In his doctoral thesis at TU Berlin, he examined the relationship between political discourse, local assemblages, and cultural imagination related to the electrification of transportation. He holds a Magister degree in Political Science from TU Dresden and a Master’s degree in Sociology from the New School for Social Research.
- Regional diversity in innovation
- Epistemic governance of economic transformations
- Mobility, transportation, infrastructures
- Sociotechnical imaginaries and futures
- Political sociology
- Responsible Mobility Governance and Innovation (ReMGo), 11.2021-11.2024
- MCube, 11.2021-11.2024
- Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation,
- Regionale Innovationskulturen verstehen, 04.2018 – 04.2021
Journal Articles
Jung, M., & Wentland, A. (2024). Beyond scalable impacts: Roles of mobility experiments in local transition governance. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 33(1), 80–86.
Meinherz, F. X., & Wentland, A. (2024). Urban mobility policy in pandemic times: An exploration of how Covid-19 affected policy framings and priorities in eight European cities. Soziologie und Nachhaltigkeit, 9–29.
Pfotenhauer, S. M., Wentland, A., & Ruge, L. (2023). Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives, directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria. Research Policy, 52(3), 104704.
Ryghaug, M., Subotički, I., Smeds, E., von Wirth, T., Scherrer, A., Foulds, C., Robison, R., Bertolini, L., Beyazit İnce, E., Brand, R., Cohen-Blankshtain, G., Dijk, M., Pedersen, M. F., Gössling, S., Guzik, R., Kivimaa, P., Klöckner, C., Nikolova, H. L., Lis, A., … Wentland, A. (2023). A Social Sciences and Humanities research agenda for transport and mobility in Europe: Key themes and 100 research questions. Transport Reviews, 43(4), 755–779.
Klimburg-Witjes, N., & Wentland, A. (2021). Hacking Humans? Social Engineering and the Construction of the “Deficient User” in Cybersecurity Discourses. Science, Technology & Human Values, 46(6), 1316–1339.
Wentland, A., & Jung, M. (2021). Der asynchrone Weg zur urbanen Mobilitätswende. TATuP - Zeitschrift Für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie Und Praxis, 30(1), 23–28.
Wentland, A. (2020). Warum elektrische Utopien festgefahren sind: Das Imaginary Automobilität als Grenze der Verkehrswende am Beispiel der Elektromobilität in Deutschland. Behemoth - A Journal on Civilisation, 13(1), 70–82.
Engels, F., Wentland, A., & Pfotenhauer, S. M. (2019). Testing future societies? Developing a framework for test beds and living labs as instruments of innovation governance. Research Policy, 48(9), 103826.
Canzler, W., Engels, F., Rogge, J.-C., Simon, D., & Wentland, A. (2017). From “living lab” to strategic action field: Bringing together energy, mobility, and Information Technology in Germany. Energy Research & Social Science, 27, 25–35.
Wentland, A. (2016). Imagining and enacting the future of the German energy transition: Electric vehicles as grid infrastructure. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 29(3), 285–302.
Book Chapters
Wentland, A. (2021). Die Glaubenssätze einer innovationsbasierten Transformationspolitik, ihre Artikulationen und Fallstricke am Beispiel der Stadt Dortmund. In J. Herberg, J. Staemmler, & P. Nanz (Eds.), Wissenschaft im Strukturwandel. Die paradoxe Praxis engagierter Transformationsforschung (pp. 117–139). oekom verlag.
Wentland, A., & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). »Die Benutzer sind das Problem, nicht das System«: Verantwortung, Vertrauen und Vulnerabilität in IT-Sicherheitsdiskursen. In K. Braun & C. Kropp (Eds.), Politik in der digitalen Gesellschaft (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 167–188). transcript Verlag.
Lösch, A., Böhle, K., Coenen, C., Dobroc, P., Heil, R., Grunwald, A., Scheer, D., Schneider, C., Ferrari, A., Hommrich, D., Sand, M., Aykut, S. C., … Wentland, A. (2019). Technology Assessment of Socio-Technical Futures—A Discussion Paper. In A. Lösch, A. Grunwald, M. Meister, & I. Schulz-Schaeffer (Eds.), Socio-Technical Futures Shaping the Present (pp. 285–308). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Canzler, W., Engels, F., Rogge, J.-C., Simon, D., & Wentland, A. (2017). Energiewende durch neue (Elektro-)Mobilität?: Intersektorale Annäherungen zwischen Verkehr und Energienetzen. In S. Giacovelli (Ed.), Die Energiewende aus wirtschaftssoziologischer Sicht: Theoretische Konzepte und empirische Zugänge (1st ed., pp. 119–147). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH.
Wentland, A. (2017). An automobile nation at the crossroads: Reimagining Germany’s car society through the electrification of transportation. In G. Verschraegen, F. Vandermoere, L. Braeckmans, & B. Segaert (Eds.), Imagined futures in science, technology and society (Vol. 34, pp. 137–165). Routledge.