Dr. Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele // University of Oldenburg

Dr. Ricarda Schmidt-Scheele

Postdoctoral researcher

Associate Junior Fellow at Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study

Orcid: orcid.org/0000-0003-0491-9981

Researchgate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Ricarda-Schmidt-Scheele

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ricarda-schmidt-scheele-76497951/

Research focus

Sociology of technology, innovation, and organizations

Interplays between sustainability transitions and digitalization, with a focus on the energy system
Organisations in sustainable energy transitions
Digitalisation and datafication in energy infrastructure planning
Knowledge and knowledge infrastructures
Performativity and plausibility of foresight and scenarios

Curriculum vitae

Current and past positions

Since Jul 2022	Associate Junior Fellow at Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study
Since Jun 2021	Postdoctoral researcher, Working Group Organisation and Innovation, Institute of Social Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Oct 2022 – Dec 2023	Maternity leave
Apr 2020 – May 2021	Maternity leave
Jan 2014 – May 2021	Research associate and project lead, Center for Interdisciplinary Risk and Innovation Studies, University of Stuttgart
Apr 2016 – Apr 2021	Facilitator at the Oxford Scenarios Programme, Said Business School, University of Oxford
Dez 2016	Visiting researcher, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University
Apr 2016 – Okt 2016	Visiting researcher, Said Business School, University of Oxford

Education

Jul 2019	Conferral of the doctorate, Dr. rer. pol. (summa cum laude), University of Stuttgart, Institute of Social Sciences. Thesis: „Applause for Scenarios?! An Exploratory Study of Plausibility as Assessment Criterion in Scenario Planning”
Jan 2014	Master of Sciences (with distinction) in European Governance, University of Bristol, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Jun 2012	Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business and Management, Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen

Publications

Articles in journals with peer-review

2025: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda; Mattes, Jannika: Unravelling the relationship between digitalisation and sustainable energy transitions using socio-technical-ecological scripts, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2025.100994

2023: Rohe, Sebastian; Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda & Mattes, Jannika: The embeddedness of companies in regional energy transitions, European Planning Studies, doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2023.2179389

2022: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda; Hauser, Wolfgang; Scheel, Oliver; Minn, Fabienne; Becker, Lisa; Buchgeister, Jens; Hottenroth, Heidi; Junne, Tobias; Lehr, Ulrike; Simon, Sonja; Sutardhio, Claudia; Tietze, Ingela; Ulrich, Philip; Viere, Tobias & Weidlich, Anke: Sustainability assessments of energy scenarios: citizens’ preferences for and assessments of sustainability indicators, Energy, Sustainability and Society 12:41. 1 doi.org/10.1186/s13705-022-00366-0

2022: Hottenroth, Heidi; Naegler, Tobias; Becker, Lisa; Buchgeister, Jens; Hauser, Wolfgang; Junne, Tobias; Lehr, Ulrike; Scheel, Oliver; Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda; Simon, Sonja; Sutardhio, Claudia; Tietze, Ingela; Ulrich, Philip; Viere, Tobias & Weidlich, Anke: Beyond climate change. Multi-attribute decision making for a sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 156:111996. doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111996

2021: Naegler, Tobias; Becker, Lisa; Buchgeister, Jens; Hauser, Wolfgang; Hottenroth, Heidi; Junne, Tobias; Lehr, Ulrike; Scheel, Oliver; Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda; Simon, Sonja; Sutardhio, Claudia; Tietze, Ingela; Ulrich, Philip; Viere, Tobias & Weidlich, Anke: Integrated Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment of Energy System Transformation Pathways, Sustainability 13(9): 5217. doi.org/10.3390/su13095217

2020: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda: Plausible energy scenarios?! How users of scenarios assess uncertain futures, Energy Strategy Reviews. online doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2020.100571

2019: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda; Bauknecht, Dierk; Poganietz, Witold-Roger; Seebach, Dominik; Timpe, Christof, Weimer-Jehle, Wolfgang & Weiß, Annika: Guiding motives and storylines of the German energy transition: How to systematically integrate stakeholder positions into energy transformation pathway, TaTuP Technikfolgenabschätzung Theorie und Praxis, 28(3): 27-33. doi.org/10.14512/tatup.28.3.27

2013: Scheele, Ricarda: Deutschland und die Welt: Energie, Gas gegen Werte, ADLAS Magazin für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, 04/2013: 53- 58. >>Full paper.

**Books and book chapters (*with peer-review)**

2020: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda: The Plausibility of Future Scenarios: Conceptualising an Unexplored Criterion in Scenario Planning. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. doi.org/10.14361/9783839453193

*2018: Scheele, Ricarda; Kearney, Norman M.; Kurniawan, Jude H.; Schweizer, Vanessa J..: What Scenarios Are You Missing? Poststructuralism for Deconstructing and Reconstructing Organizational Futures, in: How Organizations Manage the Future: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Insights, edited by Krämer, H., Wenzel, M., Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153-172. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74506-0_8

*2017: Scheele, Ricarda; Kosow, Hannah & Prehofer, Sigrid: Kontextszenarien als Ergänzung modellgestützter Szenarioanalysen – Grundlagen und aktuelle Fragestellungen. In: Tilebein, M. et al. (eds.): Digitale Welten: Neue Ansätze in der Wirtschafts- und Sozialkybernetik, Wirtschaftskybernetik und Systemanalyse Band 30. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 107-121. >>Full chapter.

Reports and working papers

2025: Schnell; Tamara & Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda: The social embeddedness of trust in AI: How existing trust relations to decision-makers and institutions influence trust in AI decision aids for public administration. GEIST – Geography of Innovation and Sustainability Transitions, 2025(02), GEIST Working Paper series, https://www.geist-wp.com/papers/geist_wp_2502.pdf

2021: Chlebna, Camilla & Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda: Commentary on ‘Imajine: Scenarios for the Future of European Spatial Justice’, p.36-37. >>Commentary

2019: Schmidt-Scheele, Ricarda: Applause for Scenarios!? An Explorative Study of ‘Plausibility’ as Assessment Criterion in Scenario Planning. Dissertation, Stuttgart: University of Stuttgart.

2018: Schweizer, Vanessa; Scheele, Ricarda; Kosow, Hannah: Practical Poststructuralism for Confronting Wicked Problems. In: Arabi, M., O. David, J. Carlson, D.P. Ames (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, June 25.-28. 2018, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. >>Full paper.

2018: Schick, Christoph; Blesl, Markus; Borggrefe, Frieder; Brand, Heike; Buchmann, Tobias; Fahl, Ulrich; Fuchs, Anna-Lena; Gils, Hans Christian; Hufendiek, Kai; Münkel, Annika; Püttner, Andreas; Rosenberg, Manou; Scheben, Heike; Scheel, Oliver; Scheele, Ricarda; Schmidt, Maike; Steurer, Martin; Wetzel, Manuel; Wiesmeth, Michael: Energiesystemanalyse Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart: Forschungsverbund STRise - Stuttgart Research Initiative on Integrated Systems Analysis for Energy. >>Full report.

Presentations & invited talks

2025: 42th Congress of German Sociological Asssociation (DGS), Duisburg, 22. - 26/09/2025. Plenary talk: Legitimität im Wandel. Komplexe sozio-technische Dynamiken in der Energiewende (with J. Mattes and T.Schnell).

2025: Spring conference of German Sociological Asssociation (DGS) sections Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Sociology, Dortmund, 26. -27/06/2025: Digitalisierte Nachhaltigkeit? Das ambivalente Verhältnis digitaler Technologien und nachhaltiger Energietransitionen (with J. Mattes).

2025: 16. International Sustainability Transitions Conference, Lisbon, 23.-26. Jun 2025: The social embeddedness of trust in AI (with T. Schnell).

2024: Windlab ForWind, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Podiumsdiskussion zum jährlichen Alumniseminar, Oldenburg, 06. Sept 2024: Energiewende und Stromnetze – Wie kann der Engpass überwunden werden?

2024: 15^th International Sustainability Transitions Conference, Oslo, 16.-20/06/2024: Interdependence between energy transitions and digital technologies: Socio-technical-ecological configurations of intelligent bird detection technologies (with J. Mattes).

2022: 38th EGOS Colloquium 'Organizing: The Beauty of Imperfection', Sub-theme 23 'Digital Technology, Societal Change and Shifts in Institutional Logics'. WU Vienna, 07.-09.07.2022: Heterogeneous cooperation in smart grid projects: Bridging institutional logics via digital standards? (with S. Paustian and J. Mattes).

2022: 6th Geography of Innovation Conference (GeoInno2022). Mailand, Italien. 04.-06.07.2022: The embeddedness of companies in regional energy transitions (with S. Rohe and J.Mattes).

2022: Tagung des DGS-Arbeitskreises „Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit“: Kann eine digitale Gesellschaft nachhaltig sein? Soziologische Perspektiven auf die Wechselwirkungen von gesellschaftlicher Transformation, Technik und Natur. Universität Passau. 23.-24.06.2022 'Heterogeneous cooperation in smart grid projects: Bridging institutional logics via digital standards?' (with S. Paustian and J. Mattes).

2021: 5^Th Energy and Society Conference, Energy & Society Network and European Sociological Association, Trento, 10-12 Feb 2021: Adding the Social Perspective to Life cycle analysis (LCA) of Energy Transition Scenarios (with O. Scheel and W. Hauser)

2021: 5^Th Energy and Society Conference, Energy & Society Network and European Sociological Association, Trento, 10-12 Feb 2021; workshop organization: Tailored participation of different target groups in inter and transdisciplinary research projects (with S. Wist and R. Kuhn).

2019: Demokratische Wissenschafts- und Technikgestaltung heute, Conference, Stuttgart, 28-29 Nov 2019: „Plausible“ Szenarien als (un)verzichtbare Instrumente zur Gestaltung von gesellschaftlichen Transformationsprozessen?.

2019: Scenarios and the Politics of the Future, Conference by the Cluster of Excellence CLICCS, Hamburg, 14-15 Nov 2019: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept of Scenario Plausibility: Enhancing Conversations about the Scenario Users Perspectives.

2019: Regional conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), Jena, 23-27 Sept 2019: Sustainable Energy Transitions: Understanding and integrating social sustainability indicators in energy systems modelling (with O. Scheel).

2019: Major Projects Leadership Academy, Said Business School, Universität Oxford, Michaelmas Term 9. Dec 2019, Scenario Planning in Organisations.

2018: Energy Scenarios Conference, Helmholtz Energy Scenario School, KIT Karlsruhe, 24-25 Sept 2018: Applause for Scenarios?! Enhancing scholarly conversations about scenario plausibility and user perspectives.

2018: ENSYSRTA Summer School “Modelling Energy Systems – Setting the Interdisciplinary Stage”, Universität Flensburg, Sept 2018, Scenario Analysis and Methods.

2018: European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference, University of Hamburg, 22-25 Aug 2018: Social sustainability in models of energy transition pathways: Concepts and methodological opportunities (with O. Scheel).

2018: European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) General Conference, Lancaster, 24-28 Jul 2018: Politicizing Energy Futures in conflicting visions (with C. Kropp).

2018: Energy and Climate Change Futures Workshop, Memorial University, St. John’s, 10-11 Oct 2018: Re-imagining (im)plausible Energy Futures.

2018: Ministerium für Umwelt, Klimaschutz und Energie Baden-Württemberg, Stakeholder dialogue, Stuttgart, 28 Feb 2018: Gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz von Energieszenarien im Rahmen des Projekts „Energiesystemanalyse Baden-Württemberg“.

2017: 18th International Futures Conference, Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, 12-13 Jun 2017: Strangers in the night? Analysing the developer − User nexus in scenario practice through concepts of plausibility.

2017: Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Workshop „Szenarien für das Energiesystem der Zukunft“, Delmenhorst, 5-6 Sept 2017: Integration sozio-technischer Aspekte in Energieszenarien: Akzeptanz von Energiezukünften.

2016: Society for Risk Analysis, Annual Meeting, San Diego, 11-15 Dez 2016: Wolf in sheep’s clothing? A conceptual and empirical reconsideration of the value of ‘plausibility’ as assessment criterion in scenario planning.

2016: Occasional Speaker Series, Arizona State University, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Tempe, 6 Dez 2016: Along the Life Path of Energy Scenarios: Understanding the Trajectories of Plausibility in Scenario Work.

2015: SCENARIO 2015 Improving Scenario Methodology: Theory and Practice, Warwick Business School, Warwick, 14-15 Dec 2015: Rethinking plausibility: Empirically analysing plausibility assessments of different qualitative scenario formats.

2015: Helmholtz Research School on Energy Scenarios, KIT Karlsruhe, Sept 2015, Scenario development using Cross-Impact Balance Analysis.

2014: Konferenz für Wirtschafts- und Sozialkybernetik KyWi 2014, Stuttgart, 10-11 Jul 2014: Kontextszenarien als Ergänzung modellgestützter Szenarioanalysen.

2014: 1st International Symposium on Energy Challenges & Mechanics, Aberdeen, 8-10 Jul 2014: Applying Cross-Impact Balance Method to enhance strategic reflection in science and politics. The case of heat consumption in Germany (with S. Prehofer und W. Weimer-Jehle).

2014: Society for Risk Analysis, Annual Meeting, Denver, 7-11 Dez 2014: How social systems analysis can add to the policy-relevance of energy systems simulations (poster presentation).

2014: 5th International Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA), Brussels, 27-28 Nov 2014: Energy Futures: A systematic approach to developing qualitative societal scenarios and informing energy modeling (poster presentation with H. Kosow, S. Prehofer, W. Hauser, W. Weimer-Jehle).

Donnerstags 10:00 - 11:00 Uhr (buchbar über Stud.IP)