Fellow Groups
Fellow Group Sustainability and Democracy – Avenues of Interdisciplinary Research
This Fellow Group brings together experts from various disciplines and from the non-university sector to jointly explore promising avenues of interdisciplinary research on the relationship between climate change/sustainability and democracy as well as to identify potential points of political intervention. The group of UDE members and external fellows meets repeatedly for intensive workshops and experiments with new formats of collaboration in the process. The Fellow Group is united not least by their willingness to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration and to explore initially unfamiliar and unusual perspectives and approaches beyond their own research and reflections.
The Fellow Group is part of the research lab ‘Sustainability and Democracy’.
Activities
Past events
9 - 10. September 2024: Kick-off meeting
10.-12. Februar 2025: Finding focus
Members
Prof. Dr. Andreas Niederberger
Jenny Stupka
Fellow Group ‘Owning Democracy’
The Fellow Group ‘Owning Democracy’ brings together a distinguished group of researchers from Mexico, the USA and Germany for continuous interdisciplinary collaboration. The group's project starts from the premise that many of the current conflicts have an economic core or at least significant economic dimensions. Some of the conflicts result directly from property relations, while others are made more difficult to resolve due to property relations. The aim of the collaborative research is, on the one hand, to understand the significance of economic developments and property for global, national and local cooperation and – currently, above all – for the prevention of a democratic shaping of this cooperation. On the other hand, we ask how property could be approached differently in order to make it an instrument of democratic self-government and not an obstacle to it.
Currently, the group focuses on the question of whether property is a facet of the economic and legal challenges and constraints facing democracies, or whether property has special significance. It also discusses whether and how different and more equal distributions of property or political decisions on possessions could lead to greater democratic inclusion.
Activities
Building on monthly digital working meetings, the Fellow Group is planning two concentrated meeting phases in June/July and September 2025 at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg.
On June 30 and July 1, 2025, the group will hold an international conference in Duisburg on the topic “What's the Problem with Property in Democracy?”. More information will follow soon.
Members
Margret Griesse (Social and Historical Studies, University of Washington in Tacoma/USA)
Regina Kreide (Political Science, Justus Liebig University Gießen/Germany)
Amos Nascimento (Philosophy, University of Washington in Tacoma/USA)
Andreas Niederberger (Philosophy, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)
Jonathan Warren (Sociology, University of Washington in Seattle/USA)
Jorge Zuñiga (Philosophy, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/Mexico)
Host: Andreas Niederberger (Philosophy, University of Duisburg-Essen/Germany)