Dr. Benedikt Schmid
Research Associate
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Central research questions
My research engages with the question how societal trajectories can be shifted away from current patterns of unsustainability towards social and environmental justice. I pay particular attention to the interplay between place-based and translocal processes, including networking, dissemination, impact, learning, as well as exploitation and dependency. By drawing on practice-theoretical approaches and a relational understanding of space, I correlate (often abstract) power relations, crisis phenomena, and transformation processes with concrete patterns of action. In my empirical work, I employ established methods of qualitative social research, such as interviews and participant observation, alongside participatory and transdisciplinary methods (including action re-search, integrative workshops, and real-world laboratories). These methods assign a central role to the positions, voices, and challenges of practitioners and civil society actors in the research process.
Research topics and projects
- Alternative Economies / Diverse Economies
- Post-growth and social-ecological transformation
- Local and regional governance
- Global Change
- Political Geography
- Practice Theory and Materiality
- Community Initiatives and eco-social enterprises
- Transdisciplinary research (methods)
- Regional Focus: Europe (esp. Southern Europe, Northern Europe, Germany)
Memberships
- Manager of the ARL working group "Wohlstandsalternativen und Regionalentwicklung" (https://www.arl-net.de/de/projekte/wohlstandsalternativen-und-regionalentwicklung )
- Member of the Community Economies Research Network (http://www.communityeconomies.org/ )
- Member of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initative (SCORAI) (https://scorai.net/)
- Member of the Environmental Justice Netzwerks (EnJust) (https://enjust.net/)
- Member of the "Verband für Geographie an deutschsprachigen Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen"
- Manager of the ARL working group on post-growth economies (http://www.arl-net.de/de/projekte/postwachstumsökonomien ) (2017-2020)
- Member of DFG network on practice theories (2016-2019)
Prices
- 2021 Price for Best dissertation thesis in human geography 2019-2021 by the Association of Geographers on German-speaking universities and research institutes
- 2020: FRU-Förderpreis: Just Spaces? Gerechtigkeit und Gemeinwohl in Stadt und Region
Vita
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Substitute professorship, chair of cultural- and regional geography, University of Trier | |
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Postdoctoral researcher, University of Freiburg, Germany | |
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Doctorate in geography "Making Transformative Geographies: Lessons from Stuttgart’s Community Economy" | |
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Doctoral researcher, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg | |
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Teaching fellow at the Universities of Heidelberg & Freiburg, Germany | |
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Research assistant, University of Freiburg, Germany |
- Seminars on sustainability, social-ecological transformation, alternative economies, environmental justice, introduction to geography, qualitative methods
- Thesis supervision in the following areas: post-growth, social-ecological transformation, sufficiency-oriented urban development, alternative economic models (in particular, Economy for the Common Good, Doughnut Economics)