Prof. Dr. Clemens Greiner
Wissenschaftlicher Geschäftsführer des GSSC
Senior Researcher
Raum: 3.14, Global South Studies Center
Classen-Kappelmann-Str. 24, 50931 Köln
Tel.: +49 221 470 76654
E-Mail: clemens.greiner[at]uni-koeln.de
Kurzbiographie
2019
Habilitation (venia legendi: Social and Cultural Anthropology), University of Cologne
2013 - present
Scientific Managing Director of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC), University of Cologne
2010 - 2013
Senior Research Fellow in collaborative research unit "Resilience, Collapse and Reorganization in Social-Ecological-Systems of African Savannahs", University of Cologne
2009 - 2010
Visiting Assistant Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg
2008
PhD Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg
2005 - 2007
Junior Research Fellow, collaborative research center SFB 389 ACACIA, University of Cologne
Interessengebiete
- Economic Anthropology
- (Energy) Infrastructure
- Migration
- Rural-urban relations
- Land-use change
- Political ecology
- Human-environmental relations
- Pastoralism
- Agrarian change
- Eastern and Southern Africa
Forschungsprojekte
TRR Future Rural Africa III: C02 Energy Futures: Infrastructures and governance of renewable energies
Description:
What dynamics of future-making are associated with the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects in a previously marginalized dryland area? Focusing on community-investor relations, this project explores the risks and opportunities, land-use changes and governance of infrastructures at the interface of global and local dynamics.
Support:
DFG
Duration:
2026 - 2029
S(m)elling the "Wild“: Die politische Ökologie ätherischer Baumöle und die Produktion olfaktorischer Ressourcen
Die weltweite Nachfrage nach Naturkosmetik und ökologischen Pflegeprodukten führt zu einer zunehmenden Kommerzialisierung ökologischer Nischenarten. Dieses Projekt konzentriert sich auf die Beschaffung von ätherischen Baumölen, die vor allem wegen ihrer Geruchseigenschaften ein wichtiger Bestandteil dieser Produkte sind. Die steigende Nachfrage erhöht den Druck auf diese wilden, seltenen und oft gefährdeten Ressourcen und gibt Anlass zu Forderungen nach mehr Schutzmaßnahmen. Dies führt zur Suche nach Alternativen zu Wildernte, z. B. durch Plantagenanbau oder Versuche zur biochemischen Entwicklung naturnaher oder naturidentischer Alternativen. Im Rahmen dieses Projekts sollen diese Prozesse unter zwei Gesichtspunkten untersucht werden. Zum einen erforscht es die politische Ökologie der ätherischen Baumöle, zum anderen untersucht es die Substituierbarkeit von wilden geernteten durch biotechnologisch hergestellte Inhaltsstoffe. Das Projekt erforscht die Materialität von ätherischen Baumölen und die Wertschöpfungsketten für „wilde“ Gerüche in Afrika und Europa. Unter Verwendung von Ansätzen aus der sensorischen Ethnographie werden sowohl die Welten von Geruchsexpert*innen erforschen, als auch die Erschaffung und Bewertung von Gerüchen, ihre assoziativen Beziehungen zur „Wildnis“ und die Auswirkungen materiell-sensorischer Differenzen auf Beschaffungspraktiken in Kenia, Namibia und Südafrika. Im weiteren Sinne erforscht das Projekt, wie Dinge zu Ressourcen werden, und hinterfragt die Praktiken neoliberalen Naturschutzes und die kommerzielle Nutzung seltener Naturprodukte in Zeiten des globalen Umweltwandels.
Förderung: DFG seit 2024
https://commodifying-the-wild.de/projects/smelling-the-wild/
Medium-Scale Farmers in Rural Africa: Transformations in Belonging, Property, Kinship and Power
A dramatic new phenomenon has been taking shape in rural Africa over the past two decades: the rise in the preponderance of medium-scale commercial farms. Within African landscapes, medium-scale farmers represent a new type of economic actor: domestic entrepreneurs who are mostly men and who enter agriculture often on the basis of capital they have accumulated elsewhere. The academic literature is divided on the implications, as to whether the trend drives economic dynamism and inclusion, or inequality, exclusion and conflict. We aim to contribute to this debate by investigating the repercussions of medium scale farmers’ investments on accumulation, wealth and impoverishment in the rural landscape and agrarian economies of Namibia, Ghana and Tanzania, using a combination of anthropological and political economy approaches. Our focus is on the agency of these farmers, their strategies for accumulation, and their impact on the agrarian economy and smallholder production. We work with four sets of variables that shape the context of their actions: translocality, belonging and changing patterns of urban and rural economic and social life; agri-food value chains, employment and local economies; kinship, gender relations and intergenerational inheritance; and local politics of state and traditional authorities that mediate access to resources.
Förderung: VW
Dauer: 2025-2028
https://gssc.uni-koeln.de/forschung-1/verbundprojekte/medium-scale-farmers-in-rural-africa
TRR 228 Future Rural Africa III: Z03 Combined Farm/Household Survey
Description:
Across CRC study areas projects work on overarching research questions:
Will conservation lead to well-being and a reduction of poverty? Will agricultural intesification create wealth? How are educational status/gender/age of individuals related to houshold decisions and related outcomes? How is migration linked to future making processes?
Answering these questions requires a systematic approach to longitudinal farm-household data collection.
Support:
DFG
Duration:
2026 - 2029
Vergangene Forschungsprojekte
TRR Future Rural Africa II: C02 Energy Futures: Infrastructures and governance of renewable energies
Description:
What dynamics of future-making are associated with the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects in a previously marginalized dryland area? Focusing on community-investor relations, this project explores the risks and opportunities, land-use changes and governance of infrastructures at the interface of global and local dynamics.
Support:
DFG
Duration:
2021 - 2025
TRR 228 Future Rural Africa I: C02 Energy Futures: Infrastructures and governance of renewable energies
Description:
What dynamics of future-making are associated with the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects in a previously marginalized dryland area? Focusing on community-investor relations, this project explores the risks and opportunities, land-use changes and governance of infrastructures at the interface of global and local dynamics.
Support:
DFG
Duration:
2018 - 2021
TRR 228 Future Rural Africa I: Z03 Combined Farm/Household Survey
Description:
Across CRC study areas projects work on overarching research questions:
Will conservation lead to well-being and a reduction of poverty? Will agricultural intesification create wealth? How are educational status/gender/age of individuals related to houshold decisions and related outcomes? How is migration linked to future making processes?
Answering these questions requires a systematic approach to longitudinal farm-household data collection.
Support:
DFG
Duration:
2018 - 2021
Beyond the Domesticated and Wild Divide: Plant Biology and the Politics of Nutrition (BiPoN)
Wetlands in East Africa (GlobE)
Period: 2013-2018
Food production in many areas in East Africa shows stagnating or declining trends, with demographic growth, land degradation and climate variability being the main culprits. Wetlands, on the other hand, have year-round water availability and generally high resource base quality and present potential production hotspots. They cover 20 Mio ha in the four target countries with only a small proportion currently being used. We surmise that wetlands become the breadbasket of the region. A BMBF-funded consortium from Bonn-Cologne-Jülich and several African partners will assess the wetlands’ contribution to food security and the sustainability of current use along climatic and social gradients.The island-like wetlands within arid zones, in particular, are of enormous value for the livelihoods of local communitiesWork package socio-economic evaluation aims to provide an understanding of the social, economic and cultural factors that shape patterns of access to and use of wetlands. In close collaboration with colleagues from public health and social geography, this project will analyze dynamic land use patterns and scrutinize how health issues impact them. Research will also address gender dynamics regarding wetland access, use and benefit. Crop management systems and their potential contribution to the livelihoods of the surrounding communities will be evaluated.
Translocal Relations and the Reorganization of Socio-Ecological Systems in Kenya and South Africa
Period: 2013-2017
The central aim of project B4 is to understand the impact of human migration on the social-ecological systems (SES) in migrants’ home areas. The project seeks to advance knowledge on the migration-environment-nexus on a conceptual as well as empirical level: Conceptually, the project seeks to develop and synthesize the discussion on two broad topics, which until today remain widely unconnected, namely translocality and social-ecological resilience. Empirically, the project aims to employ the synthesized framework on translocality and resilience through comparative research into rural-urban relations.