This research group investigates the politics of sustainability and (post-)growth in leading international organisations. Rather than asking whether green growth is feasible or whether instead post-growth is required for socio-ecological transformations, it focuses on the lessons that specific organisations at the supra- or international level draw from current sustainability debates for their work. The research group will thus contribute to further academic and public dialogue on global unsustainability as one of the most pressing problems of our age.
A special issue of the journal Economy and Society on ‘(Post-)Growth Infrastructures’, co-edited by Matthias Kranke and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, brings together scholarship on (post-)growth, transformations, infrastructures and socio-material relations from across the social sciences. The illustrative cases of transport, financial and energy infrastructures show how the pursuit of growth or post-growth (re)shapes – and is also (re)shaped by – infrastructures. The publication was presented at an event on 13 March 2026 at the University of Groningen, featuring presentations by the editors and several contributors.
Most articles, including the introduction by the editors, are available open access: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/reso20/54/4.
The graphic novel Welt im Wandel ('world in transformation') aims to make the climate crisis tangible for pupils through five visualised stories that show the complex interdependencies between globalisation and consumption and different aspects of the environmental crisis such as pollution, global warming and the loss of biodiversity. Matthias Kranke contributed to this publication as a former member (2021 to 2024) of the Young Academy for Sustainability Research (YAS) at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), which edited the graphic novel.
The periodical KlimaWandelBar, which is published by the Research Center for Climate Change Education and Education for Sustainable Development (ReCCE) and addresses teachers and other education professionals, discusses how the graphic novel can be used in school teaching (in German) in its recent issue. It is available open access.
The ecological crisis is a global phenomenon, its effects do not stop at national borders. Matthias Kranke examines global sustainability issues from a political perspective. As newly appointed junior professor at the College, the political scientist is setting up the research group ‘Global Sustainability Governance’.
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UDE / Fabian Strauch
The junior professorship examines practices of governing (un)sustainability in global politics. The associated research group takes the green growth versus post-growth debate as a starting point to analyse how international organisations position themselves on sustainability questions. The aspired innovation of the group’s research is to illuminate the grey areas and render visible the nuances of these organisations’ policy stances, which can be more complex than simple endorsements or rejections of the growth paradigm. Most notably, organisations may support post-growth ideas under a variety of labels – that is, without invoking the contested language of “post-growth” or even “degrowth”.
While the professorship is broadly situated in the intersecting fields of International Relations and International Political Economy, its theoretical and methodological approach is interdisciplinary, drawing especially on scholarship in ecological economics, (organisational) sociology and sustainability studies. One of its ultimate goals is to contribute socially relevant research that helps society as a whole to transition to a truly sustainable world.
The professorship is based at the Institute for Socio-Economics (IFSO) of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Matthias Kranke was appointed to the professorship in April 2025.
Prof. Matthias Kranke took up the position of the junior professorship in April 2025. He leads the research group 'Global Sustainability Governance'. Tabea Waltenberg and Lichen Tian joined the team as doctoral researchers in May and October 2025 respectively.
Detailed information about the staff members of the research group is available on the team page.
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Photo Kranke: Fabian Strauch
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Photo Kranke: Fabian Strauch