Ortrud Lessmann is a senior researcher at the Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg. An economist by training, her research interest lies in the overlap of economics, philosophy, philosophy of education and sociology. She has published widely across disciplines. After accomplishing a research project on conceptualizing justice and sustainability on the basis of the capability approach, she is currently conducting a research project on socio-economic aspects of sustainable consumption in the context of the transdisciplinary research network “Reporting on socioeconomic development in Germany”. She is the network co-ordinator of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) and an editor of the Human Development and Capability Debates Series.