J. Wensing

Joana Wensing is Assistant Professor at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute exploring the behavioral foundations of sustainability transitions. Currently, her research focuses on understanding how to motivate urban citizens to adopt behaviors related to a more circular food system. Her work is inspired by theories from environmental psychology, behavioral economics and complex systems thinking using methods such as discrete choice experiments, momentary ecological assessment studies, participatory mental modeling and recently also agent-based modeling.

She studied Business Psychology at the University of Bremen and obtained a PhD in Food and Agricultural Economics at the University of Bonn. Her dissertation developed an understanding of which psychological factors drive consumers and farmers to adopt innovative products and practices needed for a transition towards a bio-economy. In her Postdoctoral Position at the Urban Economics Group at Wageningen University, she explored the role of cities in the circularity transition as well as how psychological and contextual factors drive plant-based protein choices of urban citizens.