Soziologie

In October and early November 2025, Nora Habelitz visited the CIDAPE team at Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence for a research stay as a visiting PhD student.

During that time, she focused on a paper draft as part of her cumulative dissertation about the role of emotions in Italy's debate on energy poverty. She had the opportunity to exchange with the Italian CIDAPE team led by Prof. Manuela Caiani, as well as researchers from the Italian Energy Poverty Observatory (OIPE) and the University of Padova, discussing political emotions, climate communication and eco-social policies in Germany and Italy.

Nora's doctoral research explores how emotions are used in policy communication around the sustainable energy transition, comparing Germany and Italy. Her PhD project is embedded in CIDAPE's Work Package 2 (WP2), led by Prof. Sonja Blum at Bielefeld University. In WP2, the research focuses on how emotions shape policy narratives that surround specific energy and climate policies, so emotion-laden stories that policy actors tell to influence others, to attract attention, persuade or manipulate.

Nora is particularly grateful to Prof. Manuela Caiani, Nikos Saridakis and Ipek Demirsu for the inspiring month at Scuola Normale. She is looking forward to returning to Florence and to Scuola Normale to discuss her findings at the conference on Political Emotions in Times of Conflict: Climate, Inequality, and Democracy, 11-12 March 2026.

Sonja Blum and Nora Habelitz will be chairing a panel on 'Emotional conflicts around energy transitions in Europe: Policy narratives and policymaking dynamics' and are currently inviting paper proposals (400 words) by 31 December 2025 via Email to: ipek.demirsudibiase@sns.it.

A more detailed report from Nora's research stay in Florence can be accessed on the CIDAPE Blog.