Research

2027-2029
DFG: Working the Plantationocene. Ecological Labour Regimes of the Palm Oil Value Chain (PALMWORK)
PALMWORK examines the relationship between labor and ecology along the palm oil value chain, particularly in the areas of production (plantations and oil mills) and social reproduction. The project is designed as a qualitative comparative analysis of case studies from northeastern India, Ghana, and Colombia. It builds on research from the fields of labor regime analysis, (feminist) labor geography, environmental labor studies, and political ecology on the materiality of nature and the society-nature metabolism. The project is funded as part of the DFG Priority Program 2575, “Sustainability and Resilience of Agricultural and Food Supply Chains in Times of Multiple Crises?” It consists of three subprojects being conducted at the University of Bonn (PD Dr. Oliver Pye), the Freie Universität Berlin (Prof. Dr. Bettina Engels), and the University of Kassel.

Project leader is Prof. Dr. Kristina Dietz

January-June 2027
ZFF: "Territoriality of Feminist Movements "
The research project "Territoriality of Feminist Movements" examines the significance of space and territorial strategies for feminist movements in Argentina in the context of increasing authoritarian politics. The starting point is the observation that territorial politics - understood as practices of appropriation, defense or control of certain territories - play a central role in Latin America. It is not only indigenous, peasant or urban protest actors fighting for access to land or housing, for example, who explicitly refer to space and territory. Feminist movements also pursue territorial political strategies by specifically creating spaces in which care, solidarity and autonomy can be practiced. Since territorial politics have so far received little attention in research on the Global North and a movement-sociological systematization of territorial strategies of feminist movements is largely lacking, the project aims to deepen the scientific understanding of territoriality within feminist movements in Argentina. The question of how feminist initiatives anchor their content, practices and forms of organization spatially and to what extent territorial politics shape the structuring of the movement will be investigated. In addition, it will examine how territorial strategies of feminist initiatives contribute to dealing with social problems.

Project Leader is Sarah Uhlmann (University of Kassel)

2026-2029
DFG Network: Social Reproduction between Crisis and Transformation
The aim of the network is to make the perspective of social reproduction as a social science approach fruitful for an empirically and theoretically sound social analysis. Within the framework of the network, we analyze current crisis phenomena and social transformation processes in the three thematic fields of inequality, ecology and state/civil society.

The coordination team consists of Sarah Uhlmann (University of Kassel), Anna Steenblock (University of Kassel/IfS Frankfurt), Leon Rosa Reichle (University of Hamburg), Mike Laufenberg (Fulda University of Applied Sciences)

2025-2029
BMFTR: CALAS joint project in the current phase: ''Creating Horizons: Accelerations, Transformations, and Emergencies"                      
The Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies (CALAS) is an inter- and transdisciplinary research network on social transformation processes in Latin America funded by the BMFTR. The University of Kassel is part of the network via the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos (CELA). The project pursues the following goals

1. promote regionally anchored research in international research groups
2. Transfer knowledge to society and politics
3. Promote dialog and exchange with internationally renowned researchers
4. Strengthen cooperation between science, civil society and politics - including "other forms of knowledge"
5. Promote research-oriented and international networking in teaching and research

The spokespersons at the University of Kassel are CALAS Director Prof. Dr. Kristina Dietz, represented by CELA Director Prof. Dr. Liliana Gómez.

2025-2028
HMWK: Research network “DemoReg”
DemoReg – Challenges to Democracy in Times of Regression: Times, Spaces, and Discourses
The “DemoReg” research consortium, funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts (HMWK), examines the growing trends of democratic regression. The research focuses on how democratic regression manifests itself from a spatiotemporal perspective and within discursive contexts, and on the normative, institutional, cultural, and historical dynamics underlying it.

As part of “DemoReg,” Prof. Kristina Dietz’s research group is collaborating with Prof. Bernd Belina (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Dr. Reiner Becker (Hesse Center for Democracy) to investigate populist discursive constructions of urban-rural dichotomies.

Further information: www.demoreg.de

• August 2014 bis Dezember 2019 (abgeschlossen): „GLOCON: Globaler Wandel - lokale Konflikte? Landkonflikte in Lateinamerika und Subsahara-Afrika im Kontext interdependenter Transformationsprozesse“ (Leitung mit Prof. Dr. Bettina Engels). Gefördert durch das BMBF im Rahmen der Fördermaßnahme „Nachwuchsgruppen Globaler Wandel, 4+1“. (s. www.land-conflicts.net)
• Juli 2009 bis Oktober 2013 (abgeschlossen): "Fair-Fuels? – Zwischen Sackgasse und Energiewende: Eine sozial-ökologische Mehrebenenanalyse transnationaler Biokraftstoffpolitik." (Ko-Leitung mit Prof. Bernd Hirschl, Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (IÖW, Berlin). Gefördert durch das BMBF im Rahmen der Sozial-Ökologischen Forschung (SÖF)