Past events
- 2026-01-29T13:30:00+01:00
- 2026-01-29T14:30:00+01:00
29
ThursdayZEF public lecture: The Kartarpur Corridor
This research examines the Kartarpur Corridor as a transformative model of trans-local and sub-national diplomacy between India and Pakistan. Connecting shared religious and cultural heritage, it fosters peace through people-to-people contact, emotional healing, and spiritual engagement. Despite structural challenges like political volatility, restricted access, and administrative barriers, the Corridor offers a counter-narrative to hostility. With institutional support and integration into broader cultural diplomacy frameworks, it holds the potential to become a lasting symbol and mechanism of cross-border peace, unity, and reconciliation in South Asia.
- 2026-01-21T11:00:00+01:00
- 2026-01-21T12:00:00+01:00
21
WednesdayZEF CPC Colloquium: Statelessness in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Judgment 168-13 retroactively revoked citizenship for over 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent, mainly from bateyes, disregarding jus soli to redefine them as foreigners. Law 169-14 further institutionalized this exclusion by categorizing individuals into groups with restricted rights, ensuring multi-generational statelessness and socioeconomic vulnerability. This presentation examines how citizenship is weaponized as a tool of exclusion, masking xenophobia under national sovereignty. By limiting access to healthcare and legal protections, these laws legitimize discrimination and facilitate labor exploitation, fundamentally altering the social and political landscape for this marginalized population.
- 2025-12-17T11:00:00+01:00
- 2025-12-17T12:00:00+01:00
17
WednesdayCPC Colloquium: Transdisciplinary approach Human-Nature Relations
A transdisciplinary approach to Human-Nature Relations: The Case of Manos a la Cuenca in Colombia As part of the lecture on Human Nature Relationships and Environmental Thinking, this presentation highlights an experience of critical and situated environmental education that has fostered transformations not only in human–nature relationships but also in relations within academia and between academia and local communities, promoting environments of collaboration and knowledge exchange. This is exemplified by the transdisciplinary social laboratory Manos a la Cuenca in Suesca, Colombia. About the Speaker: Carolina Tobón is a senior researcher in the CPC ZEF group and holds a PhD in Geography. She is interested in social metabolism, sustainability, and development from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective.
- 2025-12-11T13:30:00+01:00
- 2025-12-11T14:30:00+01:00
11
ThursdayZEF Public Lecture: Reframing Soil Knowledge
From Extraction to Coexistence for a Sustainable Future Soils have always shaped our (agri)cultural practices and landscaped human life, yet we rarely recognize their agency in shaping our societies and sciences alike. What are soils beyond the matter beneath our feet? Are they only resources, or do they reflect who we are? This talk explores how scientific and cultural perceptions of soil co-evolve, influencing research practices and decision-making. From the methodological challenges of soil complexity to diverse worldviews, I will examine how these perspectives shape the ways we value and manage soils. Drawing on virtual reality communication and my research on soil pollution, I argue for an epistemic renewal: moving from extraction to coexistence, and towards a plural, relational soil science that fosters more just and sustainable futures.
- 2025-12-10T11:00:00+01:00
- 2025-12-10T12:00:00+01:00
10
WednesdayCPC Colloquium: Ghana's Urban Informal Sector
Care Work, Gendered Time Poverty & Livelihood Outcomes in Ghana's Urban Informal Sector: Panel Evidence & Lived Narratives This proposal investigates, across four panel waves tracking the same households, how unpaid care and gendered time poverty constrain livelihoods in Ghana's urban informal sector. Using the ISSER–Yale longitudinal dataset with interviews and focus groups in Accra and Kumasi, it will analyse effects on income, working hours, assets and mobility, and inform debates on urban labour markets, social protection and economic constraints shaped by unpaid care. About the Speaker: Adlai Gardesey is a DAAD-funded Junior Visiting Researcher at ZEF CPC from ISSER, University of Ghana. He is a development economist & has worked with GIZ, Amnesty International & Ministry of Finance.
- 2025-12-03T11:00:00+01:00
- 2025-12-03T12:00:00+01:00
3
WednesdayCPC Colloquium: Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites
Conservation in Practice: Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites - Insights from the Michael Succow Foundation The session will present the work of the Succow Foundation, an internationally active sustainable development and conservation organization. In 1999, Prof. Michael Succow founded the Succow Foundation with the prize money of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize". Ever since, the Succow Foundation is internationally active with its guiding principles "Preserve, sustain, value". Initially, the Succow Foundation was involved in the development and management of national parks and biosphere reserves in Europe and Asia. Now 25 years after its inauguration, it runs a variety of projects on four continents on sustainable land use, climate protection, protected areas, and sustainable livelihoods with a huge network of partners, nationally and locally worldwide.
- 2025-11-27T13:30:00+01:00
- 2025-11-27T14:30:00+01:00
27
ThursdayZEF Public Lecture: Housing crisis in Latin America
Some causes and consequences Housing is a basic need and a human right, and as such it has also been enshrined in Article 11 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN Social Covenant). At the 12th World Urban Forum, organized by UN-Habitat every two years and held from November 4, 2024, in Cairo, Egypt, the biggest setback was discussed once again: SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) is the sustainable development goal that has suffered the greatest setback. Today, 2.8 billion people live in inadequate housing or spend more than 50% of their net income on housing (UN-Habitat). However, housing has increasingly become a commodity and an object of speculation in the real estate market. This was particularly evident in Spain, where a real estate bubble was artificially created with the construction of hundreds of thousands of apartments and single-family homes.
- 2025-11-26T11:00:00+01:00
- 2025-11-26T12:00:00+01:00
26
WednesdayCPC Colloquium: Peace Journalism in Lebanon
Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions in Conflictive Settings Peace journalism is both an academic discipline and a movement concerned with the media's role in reporting events in conflict-affected areas. This research examines the practice of peace journalism in Lebanon, a country characterized by a diverse media landscape that remains deeply polarized and politicized. The study adopts a qualitative approach, beginning with an exploration of the political economy that shapes Lebanese media. It then offers a comprehensive content analysis of news coverage of Lebanon’s 2022 Parliamentary Elections, examining 857 news items. In addition, the study includes 18 in-depth interviews with television journalists and editors based in Beirut. Through thematic analysis, the study identifies key challenges, opportunities, and solutions for practicing peace journalism in conflict-prone environments.
- 2025-11-24T14:00:00+01:00
- 2025-11-24T15:30:00+01:00
24
MondayOnline Launch: The Social Dimension of Nature-based Solutions
Online Launch of the publication “The Social Dimension of Nature-based Solutions. Guidance Report” on behalf of ZEF's LAND Team, led by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger, hosted by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) often face operational challenges, with their social dimension frequently overlooked – a critical gap that can undermine inclusive, just and effective implementation. Over the past two and a half years (April 2023 – November 2025), the BioClimSocial project has explored this issue in depth. This Guidance Report distils the lessons learnt from research and practice, providing a theoretical framework, overview of existing guidance materials, and practical examples.
- 2025-11-13T13:30:00+01:00
- 2025-11-13T14:30:00+01:00
13
ThursdayControl and agency in global production networks
The political economy of contract farming in Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector Contract farming (CF) has become a key mode of organizing agricultural production in many rural areas of the global south with direct consequences for work and livelihood conditions. CF is a system that involves a substantial restructuring and reorganization of production and labor relations, outsourcing labor costs, production costs, and risks to contract farmers. This paper builds upon and extends the labor regimes framework. It conceptualizes CF as a distinct labor regime characterized by flexibility, fragmentation, and the blurring of capital-labor boundaries. The paper integrates insights from agrarian political economy and global production network analysis to examine how mechanisms of control—contractual discipline, indebtedness, and managerial control—structure the production process. It also explores how these mechanisms interact with the constrained agency of contract farmers.