What does the theme “Conflict & Cooperation” mean to you? 

In sociology, conflict and cooperation have been central topics since the early days of the discipline. Already at the beginning of the 20^th century, Georg Simmel, one of the discipline’s classics, described them as basic social forms that are an inseparable part of any society. I aim to connect to this tradition by studying appearances of these social forms in various thematic contexts. Today, the world is still highly conflictual and requires cooperation at all kinds of geographic scales to tackle fundamental crises.

How does this theme play a role in your work?

 The topic of conflict and cooperation has been with me since the beginning of my academic journey. In my Master thesis, I analyzed how the Guantánamo detainees collaborated, specifically whether they incriminated fellow inmates and how that affected their chances of getting released. Later, in my PhD, Mapping the Transnational World, the idea that interaction across nation-state borders can generate a sense of community played an important role. And in my latest book, Die Exponentialgesellschaft (The Society of Exponentiality), I argue that the clash between those pushing for further growth and those advocating for stabilized, sustainable conditions within planetary boundaries constitutes a new and decisive conflict line in society today.

What project(s) will you be working on during your fellowship at the Forum Basiliense?

I am excited that this fellowship will provide time to work on multiple projects. But the main task for the coming months will be to analyze data from the ClimatePol project, in which we explore how actors in the Danish-German border region cooperate with each other when it comes to climate adaptation. Like earlier work of mine, it is methodologically based on social network analysis. I think Basel with its geographic position right at the Swiss-German-French border(s) is a great location to pursue this kind of research.