Dr. Timothy Moss
Urban infrastructures and human-environment relations
- Transformation and governance of socio-technical systems (energy, water, wastewater) in past and present
- Co-evolution of cities and their infrastructures
- Institutional arrangements and spatial organisation of public goods in multi-level settings
Timothy Moss became a Guest Professor at IRI THESys in April 2016, having been an affiliated member since June 2014. Prior to this appointment he headed a research department at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS). He holds a B.A. in European Studies (Sussex), an M.Phil. in Modern European History (Oxford) and a D.Phil in German municipal history (Oxford). His research revolves around processes of institutional change relating to public goods and their spatiality in general, and urban infrastructure systems in particular. With his multi-disciplinary background in history and political science and 20-year experience on interdisciplinary research projects both within and beyond the social sciences he is naturally attracted to scholarship at the interface of diverse debates on this topic. In his work he draws on concepts relating to socio-technical systems, institutional change, urban and regional development, multi-level governance, global change and environmental history in order to devise novel perspectives and derive innovative insight on the dynamic relationship between infrastructures, actors and space. He has led and conducted numerous research projects for the European Commission, the German Research Council (DFG) and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and published widely in leading academic journals and edited volumes. Many of his projects have had a strong transdisciplinary component, involving close interaction with practitioners in policy, administration, business and civil society. He is a member of the German Academy of Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) and the Council for Land Stewardship (DRL).
Thesys Projects
- Research Group: Urban infrastructures and human-environment relations
Selected Publications
Becker, S.; Naumann, M.; Moss, T. (2016): Between coproduction and commons: understanding initiatives to reclaim urban energy provision in Berlin and Hamburg, Urban Research and Practice.
Moss, T.; Francesch-Huidobro, M. (2016): Realigning the electric city. Legacies of energy autarky in Berlin and Hong Kong, Energy Research & Social Science, 11, 225-236.
Gailing, L.; Moss, T. (eds) (2016): Conceptualizing Germany’s Energy Transition: Institutions, Materiality, Power, Space, Palgrave Macmillan, London. 
Moss, Timothy (2016): Discarded surrogates, modified traditions, welcome complements: The chequered careers of alternative technologies in Berlin’s infrastructure systems, Social Studies of Science.
Moss, Timothy (2016): Conserving Water and Preserving Infrastructures between Dictatorship and Democracy in Berlin, Water Alternatives, 250-271.