2013 - present
Full professor of Anthropogeography, Institute of Geography, University of Cologne

2012
Guest professor of Rural Development, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Stellenbosch (South Africa)

2011
Deputy professor of Human Geography, Institute of Geography, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg

2007 - 2013
Senior research fellow, Institute of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2011
Habilitation, funded by the German research foundation (DFG), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2006
PhD, funded by the German research foundation (DFG), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

• City and regional development
• Economic geography
• Globalization and global value chains
• Rural areas
• Agricultural geography
• Human-nature conflicts
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• European Union

Abstract:
This project investigates - on the basis of qualitative research results and in the context of the change of retail formats - the spatial effects of an increasing expansion of online food retailing in Germany.

Introduction:
The expansion of online food retailing in Germany is leading to a change in the previous operating forms of food retailing. Many new business models with dispatch and delivery concepts now complement the established structures of stationary retailing. This goes hand in hand with spatial implications, which affect the spatial organisation of the online food retail trade and the bricks-and-mortar trade. The project therefore investigates which new business forms are created by the use of the digital channel in food retailing and, on the other hand, how these bring about a (spatial) change in the existing structures in food retailing, e.g. with regard to logistical processes, space requirements, location decisions and customer interactions.

Project Head: Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg
Investigator: Dipl.-Geogr. Sebastian Dederichs

Further Information

Abstract:
Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) operates in an ambiguous relation to rapid urban growth: On the one hand, urban expansion and land use change constrain urban and peri-urban farmers’ access to land and other resources; on the other hand, population growth and changing food consumption patterns offer new market opportunities for UPA. Between these poles, we analyse the spatiotemporal dynamics of market-oriented UPA and farmer´s responses to changing socio-spatial circumstances in two rapidly growing Kenyan cities: Nyeri and Nakuru. We use a mixed-methods approach combining geospatial analysis with quantitative and qualitative interviews, to better understand urban-growth related dynamics within UPA. In particular, we look for socio-economic and spatial factors to explain the juxtaposition of replacement, persistence, and intensification of UPA in the Global South.

Further Information

Duration: 2023-2027
Funding: DFG
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/532555586

Duration: 2023-2025
Funding: Rheinenergie Stiftung

https://geographie.uni-koeln.de/forschung/arbeitsgruppen/anthropogeographie-
stadt-und-regionalentwicklung/forschung-20/integration-und-prekarisierung-be
schaeftigungsmoeglichkeiten-im-onlinehandel-nach-der-pandemie

Duration: 2018-2026
Funding: DFG
https://crc-trr228.de/c01-future-in-chains/

Duration: 2022-2026
Funding: DFG
https://crc-trr228.de/z03-combined-farm-household-survey/

The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) is a research conglomerate funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It aims at understanding African futures and how they are “made” in rural areas by investigating land-use change and social-ecological transformation. The Universities of Bonn and Cologne (UoC) have a track record of collaborations in this regional and thematic field of interest, combining complementary expertise from a wide range of disciplines in natural and social sciences. “Future-making” refers to physical changes as well as social practices that shape future conditions by making the future an issue in the present. 

The first funding phase of the CRC focused on the two seemingly opposite, yet often mutually constitutive processes of agricultural intensification and conservation. This focus is widened in the current phase to include infrastructuring as a third essential process. With infrastructuring we refer to the establishment of large-scale infrastructure, which we consider as an additional driver of land-use change and social-ecological transformation. All three processes – intensification, conservation, and infrastructuring – contribute, in often overlapping dynamics, to grand-scale transformations in our research areas with multiple micro-scalar repercussions. The CRC conceptualizes such processes of social-ecological transformation as expressions of “future-making”. This builds on the hypothesis that imagined futures and the different ideas about how they can be realized have a decisive impact on current land-use dynamics. The projects of the CRC analyse how different approaches to the future, and also surprises and unintended side-effects, inform the politics and practices of large-scale land-use change, and how they relate to each other.

Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Cooperation Partners: University of Bonn, Dep. of Geography

Website: crc-trr228.de

Duration: 2nd Funding Phase: 2022-2025 (4 years)

Objectives:

• Development and establishment of an interdisciplinary research and teaching cooperation format
• Intensification of partnership-based cooperation on an institutional level
• Inclusion of further partners from science and industry

Cooperation Partners: Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore

Funding: DAAD

Website: geographie.uni-koeln.de

Duration: 2020-2024

Abstract:
Based on Ethiopian and Zambian case studies, this projects compares and explains how Chinese and domestic/African Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Sub-Saharan Africa contribute to regional development.

Aim:
This project aims to analyse 1. how and 2. why Special Economic Zones (SEZs) developed by African and Chinese developers in Sub-Saharan Africa contribute to regional development or develop into disintegrated enclaves. The study novelly combines conceptual considerations on enclaves, global production networks (GPN), and policy transfer. Empirically, the study will analyse and compare SEZs of Chinese and domestic African developers and their embedding regions in two different countries, Ethiopia and Zambia.

Research Activities:
Data collection in Zambia helped exploring the case studies of two SEZs, the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone (domestic/African development) and the Lusaka East Multi-Facility Economic Zone (Chinese development). A mix of stakeholder workshop, site visits and detailed qualitative interviews with several actors (inside and outside the SEZs) was used. Furthermore, we compare policy documents such as plans and regulations, and media discourses from both countries. We frequently exchange and discuss insights and results with other researchers on that topic and general economic geography in meetings, colloquia and presentations.

Project Head: Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg
Investigator: Carolina Kiesel
International partners: Dr. Enock Sakala (University of Zambia), Prof. Dr. Alemayehu Geda (Addis Abeba University)
Funding: DFG GZ: DA 1128/9-1 (Period 2019-2022)

Further Information

The project investigates how online retail and hybridization of brick-and-mortar retail influence local work along value chains and how these challenges can be shaped.

It is oriented towards the overarching questions:

(1) how the conditions, spatial structure, employment relations and other areas of work in hybrid trade and online trade in international retail value chains present themselves and change.

(2) what opportunities there are for companies, trade unions, works councils, national policies and other international actors to shape work on the ground. 

The empirical basis is provided by document analyses and qualitative interviews at selected German sites as well as with international decision-makers in the chains in the USA and China. 

Further Information

Abstract:

This project aims to examine China´s emerging Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as  ‘beltscapes’ as a potential new format of global connectiveness and planetary urbanism.

Introduction:

This proposed study aims to analyse 1. explore the impact of BRI on urban development and 2. urban planning in the endpoint cities. Empirically, the study will analyse primary and secondary data on the impacts of BRI on foreign direct investment, patterns of industry specialization/diversification, urbanization and fiscal position of city governments. This includes media and document analysis and qualitative interviews with stakeholders.

Project Head: Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg
Investigator: Lisa-Michéle Bott (PhD student), Johanna Fellbrich (Master student)
International partners: Prof. Nicholas Phelps (University of Melbourne), Julie Tian Miao (Senior Lecturer), Xiao Zhang (PhD student), Zhuoya Kang (PhD student)
Funding: DAAD (01/ 2020 – 12/2021)

Further Information

Description:
Growth corridors are one again gaining attention as possible avenues of future development in sub-Saharan Africa. Multi-stakeholder initiatives integrate rural areas into global value chains in order to achieve socio-economic development. Critics argue, however, that growth corridors intensify social conflicts, external dependencies, land grabs, and the maldistribution of wealth.

Support:
DFG

Duration:
2018 - 2021

Abstract
This research is part of the studies of international retirement migration, land markets and changes in the territory. Using the example of the rural city of Cotacachi in Ecuador, this study analyzes how the sale of agricultural land for the construction of housing developments for retired foreigners is affecting the organization of space and the living conditions of indigenous communities.

Introduction
Today, Cotacachi is considered one of the world's favorite retirement destinations largely due to the low cost of living, excellent climatic conditions and cheap medical services. Nevertheless, with the massive influx of foreign retires, a number of problems are emerging, which are generating changes in the economic, social and cultural structure, but also leading to complex changes that are taking place in the territory.

Research Activities

In order to identify the different impacts that are taking place in the city, a multi-temporal map of  the growth of foreign-owned properties has been developed, data from the real estate sector has been collected and analyzed, and several semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and community leaders have been conducted.

Project Head: Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg
Investigator: Marcelo Crespo Enríquez
Funding: DAAD (Period 2019-2020)

Further Information

Environmental management standards (EMS) are playing an increasingly important role in international value chains. However, the introduction of EMSs is often associated with problems and obstacles for producers. While the role of governance structures on the diffusion of EMS has already been considered, little research exists on the influence of different actors outside the chain. However, it can be assumed that, depending on the type of chain, actors in the target region in particular (e.g. NGOs) can exert influence on the producer in the introduction and implementation of EMS via consumers and trade. The question arises to what extent such Cross Regional Influences (CRI) from the target regions, depending on regional differences (e.g. level of development, target and value patterns), can lead to acceptance problems of the producers towards the EMS and thus hinder the successful implementation and dissemination of the EMS. The aim of the project is to compare the fruit and vegetable value chains Kenya - EU and South Africa - Sub-Saharan Africa1 to illustrate and explain the importance of CRI and acceptance on the introduction, implementation and spatial diffusion of EMS and to derive recommendations for action. The theoretical basis is provided by approaches to value chains, which will be extended by the areas of CRI and acceptance. The empirical basis is provided by qualitative interviews along the value chains and quantitative surveys in the producer regions.

DFG process in-kind subsidies
International reference: Kenya, South Africa

Further Information

Description:

Region: Africa

Department: Institute for Geography

Research Area: Natural Commodities and Changing Markets in the Global South

Period: 2013-01

Person(s): Peter Dannenberg