Dr. Conrad Lluis

• since 08/2024: Research Associate (Postdoc) at the Faculty of Macrosociological Analysis of Contemporary Societies, University of Kassel

• 05/2022-08/2024: Research Associate (Postdoc) at the Institute for Work and Qualification (IAQ), University of Duisburg-Essen

• 07/2022: Doctorate at the University of Hamburg ('summa cum laude'), Dissertation Prize of the German Sociological Association 2024, Dissertation Prize of the Sociological Theory Section 2023/2024.

Title: Hegemony and social change. Indignados movement, populism and democratic practice in Spain, 2011-2016.

Link to the book (Open Access)

• 2018-2020: Fellow at the Institute for Social Research (IfS) at Goethe University Frankfurt

• 2016-2022: part-time work as a freelance journalist, in retail and in elderly care

• 2014-2017: Doctoral scholarships from the Hans Böckler Foundation and the DAAD

• 2014-2017: Fellow at the Centre d'Estudis sobre Moviments Socials (CEMS, Social Movements Research Group) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona

• 2011-2014: M.A. degree in Sociology at the University of Hamburg

• 2010-2011: Work in the fields of public health (Fribourg) and urban planning (Basel)

• 2005-2010: B.A. in Sociology and Philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and the University of Basel

• 2005: German and Spanish Abitur at the German School Barcelona

Memberships

• Sections Sociology of Work and Industry, Sociology of Europe and Sociology of Culture in the DGS

Reviewer activities

• European Journal of Social Theory, Journal for Theoretical Sociology

Jaehrling, Karen / Lluis, Conrad, 2025: Loud and quiet politicization. How novel regulatory projects challenge the neoliberal order of ‘essential work’ in Germany, in: Critical Policy Studies, 1-16 (Open Access). https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2025.2561145

Lluis, Conrad, 2025: Break at the edge. Reading note on Norma Tiedemann's "Disobedient Democracy and Contested Patronage Statehood in Southeast Europe," in: theorieblog.de, March 17, 2025.

Lluis, Conrad, 2025: A Different History of Capitalism: Review of “Metabolic Politics: Labor, Nature, and the Future of the Planet” by Simon Schaupp, in: Soziopolis, March 5, 2025.

Lluis, Conrad, 2024 (ed.): Back to hegemony. From Laclau/Mouffe to a sociological theory of hegemony. In: Journal for Theoretical Sociology (2/2024)

Barthel, Georg / Lluis, Conrad 2024: For a good season. Seasonal work in German agriculture between precarization, regulation and politicization. Duisburg: Institute for Work and Qualification. IAQ-Report 2024-09| Info | Read

Lluis, Conrad, 2023: Work and migration. A research overview with a focus on precarization. Duisburg: Institute for Work and Qualification. IAQ Research 2023-02| Info | Read

Jaehrling, Karen / Lluis, Conrad, 2023: The laboratory of a different kind of work. Care and agriculture under pandemic refraction - between neoliberal structuring and experimental regulation . In: Sociological Studies in Labor and Industry 16 (2), pp. 27-42| Info | Read

Jaehrling, Karen / Lluis, Conrad / van Gerven, Minna / Salm, Aino, 2023: DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defense of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets. Report on Germany and the Netherlands. Funded by the Directorate-General for Employment, the European Commission. Duisburg [et al.] | Read

Lluis, Conrad, 2023: Hegemony and social change. Indignados Movement, Populism and Democratic Practice in Spain, 2011-2016. Cf. dissertation, University of Hamburg, 2022. Bielefeld: Transkript Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-8394-6625-4 | Info | Read

Lluis, Conrad, 2022: Outraged Spain. The Indignados and their afterlife. In: Mittelweg 36 (4), pp. 36-53

Lluis, Conrad, 2020: New people, different country. Populism as a practice in Spain. In: Kim Seongcheol and Aristotelis Agridopoulos (eds.): Populism. Discourse - Hegemony - State, pp. 253-275

Lluis, Conrad, 2019: The protests of the Indignados ... and their analysis using an expanded theory of hegemony. In: Judith Vey et al. (eds.): Handbook of poststructuralist perspectives on social movements, pp. 88-107

Lluis, Conrad, 2018: Review of: Right-wing populism and hegemony. The rise of the SVP and the discursive transformation of political Switzerland. In: Swiss Journal of Sociology 44 (1), pp. 189-191

Lluis, Conrad, 2017: The fear remains. Spain's economy grows, society remains poor. In: Matices. Journal on Latin America, Spain and Portugal 93| Info

Lluis, Conrad / Arndt, Sophie, 2016: Spain facing the question of incorporation. In: Forum Law H. 2, p. 56-59

Lluis, Conrad, 2014: The antagonistic bet of social theory. Review of: The impossible object. A post-fundamentalist theory of society by Oliver Marchart, Theorieblog.de, blog for political theory, philosophy and history of ideas, 5.5.2014

Lluis, Conrad, 2014: Review of: The Left Hemisphere. Mapping Critical Theory Today by Razmig Keucheyan. In: Journal for Philosophical Literature 2 (3): 45-55

Lluis, Conrad / Hildebrand, Marius, 2012: The negation of power - from structuration theory to the politics of the Third Way. In: Distinction: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 13 (2), pp. 187-207

“To Care or to Remain Vulnerable: On the Biopolitical Line of Conflict in Our Time,” lecture in the ad hoc group “Foucault and the Excluded” at the DGS Congress at the University of Mainz, September 2026.

Moderator for Sebastian Weil’s lecture “Of Good Shepherds, Sheep, and Wolves: Ecclesiastical Sovereignty in Medieval Scotland,” as part of the Brown-Bag series organized by Department 05 (Social Sciences) at the University of Kassel, July 2026.

With Clelia Caruso, “From Transition to Transition: Spain after 1975—Between Role Model and Crisis Laboratory,” lecture as part of the Brown-Bag series of Department 05 (Social Sciences) at the University of Kassel, January 2026.

with Lars Döpking: “From Transition to Transition: Spain after 1975—Between Role Model and Crisis Laboratory,” organization and moderation of an ad hoc group at the DGS Congress at the University of Duisburg-Essen, September 2025.

“Europe from Below: The Sociology of Europe as Ethnography,” lecture at the Sociology of Europe section meeting during the DGS Congress at the University of Duisburg-Essen, September 2025.

“The Social as a Political Space. Against the Ontologization of the Political with an Alternative Theory of Hegemony,” lecture at the Political Sociology Section Meeting at the DGS Congress at the University of Duisburg-Essen, September 2025.

“Foucault at Work: Toward a Poststructuralist Concept of the Working Society,” lecture at the colloquium of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Göttingen, June 2025.

“Fragile Order: The Production of Vulnerability in Inpatient Care,” lecture in the lecture series “Precarious Life: Orders of Violence and Gender” at the University of Kassel, May 2025.

“Between Recognition and Appropriation: With Honneth and Foucault Toward a Rehabilitation of Work and Organization for Social Theory,” lecture at the conference of the DGS Section on Sociological Theory at the Institute for Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt, February 2025.

Moderator of the workshop “Ethnography and (Critical) Social Theory” with Olaf Tietje, University of Kassel, November 2024.

“A Vulnerable ‘We.’ On the Constitution of Collectivity in the Tension Between Vulnerability and Political Practice.” Organization, moderation, and introductory remarks for the workshop at the 2024 SGS Congress at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (Canton of Baselland), September 2024.

“Relationships Over Time. Articulated in Practice Around Necessary Points of Transition—Poststructuralist Social Theory Before the Organizational Turn,” presentation at the conference of the DGS Sections on Organizational Sociology and Sociological Theory at the University of Duisburg-Essen, 10/2023.

“The Others at Work. The Depreciative Appropriation of Migrant Labor,”Lecture at the annual conference of the Section on Cultural Sociology at the Bauhaus University Weimar, September 2023.

with Karen Jaehrling: “The Laboratory of a Different Kind of Work: Care and Agriculture Amid the Pandemic Disruption: Between Neoliberal Structuring and Experimental Regulation,” presentation at the AIS Spring Conference at the University of Osnabrück, 06/2023.

“Hegemony Theory as Social Theory,” lecture at the colloquium of the Chair of General Sociology and Sociological Theory at the Technical University of Darmstadt, December 2021.

“Angry Bodies, Outraged Practices: An Ethnographic Study of Protest Movements in Spain,” lecture at the Institute for Social Research at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, December 2018.

“The Order of the Political: Building Blocks of a Materialist Theory of Discourse,” lecture at the Institute for Sociology, University of Hamburg, December 2018.

“Populisme i Emancipació” (Populism and Emancipation), roundtable and workshop at Pompeu Fabra University, May 2017.

“Discourse Analysis: The Theory of Laclau/Mouffe,” lecture at Pompeu Fabra University, May 2015.

“Practices of Indignation: The Theory of Hegemony on Ethnographic Paths,” lecture at the Institute of Sociology, University of Hamburg, February 2016.

“The Critical Power of Political Articulation,” lecture in the Sociological Theory section of the German Congress of Sociology (DGS Congress), University of Trier, October 2014.

“Civil Society as Political Culture,” lecture at the “Social Theory” workshop organized by the Institutes of Sociology at the Universities of Freiburg and Basel, October 2013.

“Ideological Deadlocks? Contemporary Ideologies and Their Inherent Fractures,” lecture at the^11th Conference in Critical Political Theory, University of Essex, June 2011.

“The Negation of Power—from Structuration Theory to the Politics of the Third Way: A Critique of Anthony Giddens,” presentation with Marius Hildebrand at the^10th Conference on Critical Political Theory, University of Essex, June 2010.

Current (Winter Semester 26/27)

B.A. Seminar: Social Discourse. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis

M.A. Seminar: The Rise of Neoliberalism: A Story from Different Perspectives

Summer Semester 26

B.A. Empirical Research Project / Teaching Research Project (Part II): Ethnography and Society. Applying the Extended Case Method to Nursing

M.A. Seminar: Foucault and Marx. A Dialogue on Disciplinary Capitalism

Winter Semester 25/26

B.A. Empirical Research Project / Teaching Research Project (Part I): Ethnography and Society. Applying the Extended Case Method to Nursing

B.A. Seminar: Sociological Theories: Discipline and the Body—with Foucault

M.A. Seminar (with Dr. Clelia Caruso): From Transition to Transition. Spain after 1975: Between Role Model and Crisis Laboratory

Summer Semester 25

B.A. Seminar: The Externalization Society. A Concept from Various Perspectives

M.A. Seminar: Back to Hegemony. From Laclau/Mouffe to a Sociological Theory of Hegemony

Winter Semester 24/25

B.A. Seminar: An Unequal Europe. An Introduction to the Sociology of Europe with a Focus on the South and East of the EU

M.A. Seminar: Society with Power. An Introduction to Poststructuralist Social Analysis

Summer Semester 24: M.A. Seminar: Theories of Organization (and Organizing) (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Winter Semester 23/24: B.A. Seminar: Identity, Power, Work. Classical and Contemporary Perspectives.
Summer Semester 2016: B.A. Seminar: Movements, Protest, and Social Change. (University of Hamburg)
Summer Semester 2015: B.A. Seminar: Movements, Protest, and Social Change. (University of Hamburg)

General

I am happy to supervise B.A. and M.A. theses. Please contact me and provide a brief outline (2 to 3 paragraphs, preferably with a preliminary table of contents) describing your project. My research interests include:

- Social and societal theory

- Political sociology

- Poststructuralist approaches (Foucault, Laclau/Mouffe, Butler, Reckwitz, etc.)

- Theories of social practices

- Qualitative social research (ethnography, discourse analysis, interviews)

- Sociology of inequality (topics to be agreed upon)

- Sociology of aging and long-term care

First State Examination in “Sociology/Political Science” for teacher education students

For the 2026/2027 exam cycle, I will be examining students on the following topics: (1) bureaucracy, (2) power and domination, (3) work and migration, and (4) “stubbornness” at work (and in school). I still have exam slots available for spring 2027. Please contact me by email, and we will schedule a consultation to prepare for the exam.