College UA Ruhr: Publications

#Article
#RG Kranke
#peer-reviewed

Campbell-Verduyn, Malcolm / Kranke, Matthias

Post-growth tokens or token post-growth? Bitcoin, alt-coins and infrastructural evolution in digital finance

This paper examines the paradoxical (post-)growth trajectory of Bitcoin, the first ‘cryptocurrency’, as a case of infrastructural change in digital finance. Bitcoin's founding phase revolved around the principles of self-governance and self-limitation, which combined to create a commitment to degrowing the financial system and limiting monetary production to impede accumulation. Yet growth logics soon began to unfold after Bitcoin's creation in 2009. How and why did that shift occur, and with what implications? We rely on white papers and outputs of alt-coin founders to trace the socio-technical relations underpinning the emergence and expansion of ‘alt-infrastructures’ oriented around growth. We demonstrate how what was originally designed as a post-growth infrastructure largely, albeit not fully, succumbed to conventional growth dynamics over a fairly short period.

DOI URL

In: Economy and Society 54 | 2025 | pp. 765-788

#Article
#RG Beregow

Beregow, Elena / Bilgin, Emre

Shed Theory und die neue Trap-Ästhetik

DOI URL

In: Pop. Kultur und Kritik 24 | 2025 | pp. 32-39

#Article
#Senior Fellows

Schlipphacke, Heidi

Sisi Unchained: Female Auteurs and the Sisi Fetish

In recent years numerous streaming series, books, and films focusing on Elisabeth of Austria have generated intense interest among readers and viewers. This plethora of pop cultural 'Sisi' products both reflects and produces a cult affect surrounding the figure of 'Sisi'. Recent films by female auteurs Frauke Finsterwalder ( Sisi und Ich, 2023) and Marie Kreutzer ( Corsage, 2022) present especially complex, partly fantastical pictures of this figure. I will argue here that these recent filmic 'Sisi' iterations embody a unique mode of female fetishism that invites us to reconsider the fetish from a feminist perspective.

DOI URL

In: Austrian Studies 33 | 2025 | pp. 137-155

#Book
#Senior Fellows

Erthal, Alice / Wegner, Douglas

Strategy and Leadership for Grand Societal Challenges. Bridging Theory and Practice

Strategy and Leadership for Grand Societal Challenges: Bridging Theory and Practice offers a thorough examination of grand challenges (GCs), addressing the origins and impacts of these global issues while outlining practical solutions. Through a blend of theoretical exploration and real-world case studies, this book reveals how businesses, governments, and organizations can strategically approach GCs to foster societal progress. It presents a toolkit for addressing GCs, focusing on key areas like multi-stakeholder collaboration, innovative business models, and responsible innovation. Readers will gain insights into ethical and transformative leadership and the importance of open strategizing, which prioritizes transparency, inclusivity, and socially aligned decision-making. Practical guidance and theoretical frameworks equip leaders to navigate the complex and sometimes paradoxical aspects of GCs, helping them drive meaningful, sustainable impact. This book is essential reading for academics, researchers, and advanced students in the fields of business management, leadership studies, and public policy, especially those focused on addressing complex societal issues through strategic frameworks. It also offers valuable insights for scholars investigating the intersections of ethics, responsible innovation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. While practitioners and policymakers may find actionable strategies within its pages, scholars and professionals alike will benefit from its rigorous theoretical foundation and empirical case studies.

URL

New York: Routledge | 2025

#publication in media
#Senior Fellows

Samanta, Tannistha

The Anti-intellectual University: Ratings, Rankings and the Need for (feminist) Rage

URL

Doing Sociology | blog post | 18 March 2025

#Article
#Senior Fellows
#peer-reviewed

Brown, Stephen

The decriminalization of same-sex relations in Botswana: National, regional and international dimensions of LGBTQI+ activism

This article examines the first instance in the past 25 years of the decriminalization of same-sex relations in Africa via strategic litigation. It asks: What are the main factors that contributed to decriminalization in Botswana in 2019? What relative role did national, regional and international actors play? Drawing in part on interviews with key actors and observers in Southern Africa, it argues that Botswanan LGBTQI+ activists’ efforts outside the courtroom played a key role. They mobilized crucial support, expertise and financial resources of allies at home and elsewhere in Southern Africa, with some financial assistance from the Southern African affiliate of an international philanthropic network. Nonetheless, national activists maintained ownership of the process. The case thus contradicts assumptions in the literature that when human rights activists obtain assistance from transnational activist networks, the aid comes from the Global North and the international actors dominate the process.

DOI URL

In: Sexualities Special Issue: Queer Organising in the Global South | 2025

#In book
#Senior Fellows

Rolstad, Kellie et al.

The Legacy of the Great Divide in Multilingual Education: Historical Methods in the Study of Language Ideology

URL

In: Kellie Rolstad, Wayne E. Wight, Na Liu, Jeff MacSwan (ed.): Language Diversity, Policy and Social Justice: In Honor of Terrence G. Wiley | Bristol: Multilingual Matters | 2025

#In book
#RG Fastenrath

Fastenrath, Florian et al.

The Politics of Expectations in Local Government. (De-) Financialization Processes in the US and Germany

Local governments have increasingly embraced financial engineering in times of austerity. The characteristics and causes of this process have been examined under the concept of state financialization in a recently growing multidisciplinary literature. It remains puzzling, however, why a dramatically failed financialized approach to public finance in some cases leads to definancialization, while in others it proves to be resilient. Drawing on two comparative case studies of policy responses to crisis situations arising from the use of opaque financial instruments (swaps) at the local level in Germany and the US, this chapter examines the conditions leading to these different patterns of policy change. By bridging approaches to policy change after crisis with current research on fictional expectation formation, the chapter points to the centrality of the “politics of expectations.” Policy outcomes are the result of fierce struggles between financial experts and civil society actors to influence decision-makers’ expectations in times of fundamental uncertainty.

DOI URL

In: Lenel, Laetitia; Nützenadel, Alexander; Streb, Jochen; Köhler, Ingo (ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Economic Expectations in Historical Perspective | New York: Routledge | 2025 | pp. 578-598

#Article
#RG Beregow
#peer-reviewed

Beregow, Elena

Thermische Intrasubjektivität. Eine Soziologie des Schwitzens

Dieser Beitrag entwickelt eine soziologische Perspektive auf das Phänomen des Schwitzens. Statt es als rein biologische Reaktion zu verstehen, untersucht der Artikel, wie es zum Bestandteil und Effekt von Machtbeziehungen wird. In Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept der thermischen Gewalt (Nicole Starosielski) und dem „model case“ der Sweatbox wird gezeigt, dass der Gewaltbegriff an seine Grenzen stößt, wenn es zu alltäglichen Aushandlungsprozessen thermischer Machtbeziehungen kommt. Um den umweltlichen Charakter und die Materialität des Schwitzens denken zu können, wird Karen Barads Begriff der Intra-Aktion mit Blick auf thermische Phänomene kritisch diskutiert. Als ein spezifischer Modus der Intra-Aktion wird der Begriff der thermischen Intrasubjektivität vorgeschlagen, der auf die Machteffekte sensorischer Relationen zielt. Der Begriff beschreibt die prekäre Gleichzeitigkeit von Entsubjektivierungsprozessen durch Hitze einerseits und deren subjektivierenden, fixierenden Wirkungen andererseits. An historischen Beispielen werden die differenzerzeugenden Effekte des Schwitzens – u. a. seine Bedeutung für körperliche Arbeit, für vergeschlechtlichte Hygieneregime und rassifizierende Diskurse – herausgearbeitet. Derlei Machtbeziehungen wirken durch sensorische Umwelten, deren Bedeutung nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf die Zunahme von Hitzewellen an Brisanz gewinnen dürfte.

DOI URL

In: Berliner Journal für Soziologie 35 | 2025 | pp. 243-265

#Article
#Senior Fellows
#peer-reviewed

Resnick, Irven

Thomas de Cantilupe (d. 1282) and the Last Jews of Medieval England †

Thomas de Cantilupe (d. 1282) is one of the last medieval English Catholics to have been canonized as a saint, following a remarkable career in which he twice served as the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, as the Chancellor of England, and as Bishop of Hereford. This paper examines reports of his anti-Judaism and its potential influence in England in the period before the English crown expelled the entire Jewish community in 1290.

DOI URL

In: Religions 16 | 2025

#In book
#Senior Fellows

Langa, Patrício / Kaldewey, David

Towards a Conceptual History of the University in Africa: Grand Narratives and Competing Models

Is there such a thing as an “African university”? What characterises an “African” university? What does it mean to be an African university, apart from being a university in Africa? What insights can we gain by studying the university in Africa? These questions guide our exploration in this conceptual chapter. To answer them, we examine the grand narratives and competing models that have shaped the way African universities define their identities as distinct, socially situated institutions. We start by exploring the idea of the university as a travelling concept and show that the modern university underwent significant transformations as it expanded beyond Western societies to become a global institution. As the European model spread across the world during the colonial and capitalist developments of the 19th and 20th centuries, it adapted to incorporate different features relevant to new contexts. With the rise of the postcolonial condition in the second half of the 20th century, nationally rooted institutions began to evolve. As they negotiated their institutional fabric and societal role, they reflected both global trends and local realities. To better understand this process, we discuss in detail four narratives and corresponding models that have shaped and continue to shape the idea of the university in Africa.

URL

In: Langa, Patrício / Kaldewey, David (ed.): Negotiating the Fabric of the African University | Leiden, Boston: Brill | 2025 | pp. 1-34

#Article
#Scientific Board

Griem, Julika

Warten, lernen

URL

In: Merkur 911 | 2025 | pp. 29-38

#Article
#Senior Fellows

Donahue, William C.

Weltmeister des Vergessens. Zum amerikanischen Exzeptionalismus

URL

In: Merkur 79 | 2025 | pp. 91-98

#In book
#Senior Fellows

Coltofean, Laura et al.

What Is Wrong with This Image? Reflecting on Past Diversity Through Visual Representations of Gender Stereotypes in Archaeology

Gender and feminist archaeologists have fought for decades against gender stereotypes through academic writing, museum exhibitions, and popular literature, among other mediums. Despite their efforts, many of these stereotypes—e.g. depictions of men only as hunters and producers of tools and women only as gatherers and caregivers, or same-sex practices being considered a modern invention or a disorder—continue to survive and even flourish, both in academic and non-academic settings, especially in countries where gender archaeology does not exist or where gender in archaeology is barely discussed. These stereotypes reflect essentialist interpretations and (visual) representations of the past, which often replicate contemporary ontologies, perceptions, and dichotomies. The past, however, was probably just as diverse as our contemporary reality. Using a feminist and intersectional framework, this paper discusses the possibilities and challenges of creating more diverse and inclusive visual representations of the past. It does so by presenting the case study of an editorial project resulting in an illustrated booklet on gender stereotypes in archaeology, edited under the aegis of the Archaeology and Gender in Europe Community of the European Association of Archaeologists. In a thought-provoking and open way, this booklet addresses often uncomfortable topics concerning gender in archaeology through images and text, in an attempt to raise awareness among the professionals and fans of the discipline of archaeology.

DOI URL

In: Matias, Jo Zalea; Scheyhing, Nicola; Gutsmiedel-Schümann, Doris (ed.): Diversity in Visual Representations of the Past | New York: Springer | 2025 | pp. 93-103

#Article
#PostdocLab
#peer-reviewed

Alscher, Pascal et al.

When will they know what they don’t know? Political knowledge and the infamous “Unskilled and Unaware” effect

The unskilled and unaware effect, also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, describes that low performers tend to overestimate and high performers tend to underestimate their ability and that on average low performers provide less accurate estimates of their ability than high performers. Based on data from N = 1047 students in Grade 7 (n = 613) and Grade 10 (n = 434), we examined whether the unskilled and unaware effect exists with regard to high school students’ political knowledge, whether the effect is different in Grade 7 and Grade 10, and how teachers’ behavior (i.e., cognitively activating and motivating teaching) affects students’ judgement accuracy and judgement direction. The results show that the unskilled and unaware effect exists in both grade levels. Furthermore, visual and statistical examination of the data suggest that the pattern of data is very similar in both grade levels. Finally, we further find that perceived motivational quality is associated with judgement accuracy, but also with overconfidence. Perceived cognitive activation is negatively associated with judgement accuracy. Through the usage of two-cohort data, this study applies a novel approach and bears important implications for research on the unskilled and unaware effect. Furthermore, the results regarding the teachers’ behavior provide important insights for educational practice in civic education.

DOI URL

In: Contemporary Educational Psychology 81 | 2025 | pp. 1-14

#In book
#RP Nadim

Nadim, Tahani / Hopp, Meike

Wissenschaft öffnen: Einblicke aus dem ambivalenten Forschungsalltag

URL

In: Byroum-Wand, Pegah (ed.): MachtKritikKollaboration: Praxisreflexionen zwischen Aktivismus, Museum und Universität | Berlin: Yilmaz-Günay | 2025

#In book
#RG Kranke

Bosi-Moreira, Bruna / Kranke, Matthias

World (Re)Ordering through Green Growth and Degrowth Futures

DOI URL

In: Wilson Rowe, Elana / Beaumont, Paul / de Oliveira Paes, Lucas (ed.): Governing Nature and the Making of World Order | Bristol: Bristol University Press | 2025 | pp. 127-142

#Article
#Senior Fellows
#peer-reviewed

Franzel, Sean / Kaminski, Nicola

Zeitlichkeiten von Journalpublikation, Entzeitlichung im Buch. Aviso eines Editionsprojekts zu Theodor Fontanes »Vor dem Sturm« in der Zeitschrift Daheim (mit Probelektüren)

URL

In: Fontane Blätter 119 | 2025 | pp. 117-166

#In book
#Scientific Board

Balke, Friedrich

„Nivellierte Jetztfolge“ und „ekstatische Erstrecktheit“. Medien und Zeit nach Heidegger

PDF DOI URL

In: Cantarella, Jonas / Emundts, Dina / Gamper, Michael (ed.): Zeiten der Alltäglichkeit. Eine schwer fassbare Erfahrung in den Künsten und der Philosophie | Berlin: Schwabe | 2024 | pp. 253–268

#In book
#Scientific Board

Balke, Friedrich

Ansatzphänomene der Weltliteratur. Zur Verschränkung von close und distant reading bei Erich Auerbach

URL

In: Lemke, Anja (ed.): „Leib der Zeit“. Ansätze und Fortschreibungen Erich Auerbachs | Göttingen: Wallstein | 2024 | pp. 37-55

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