Research

The Chair of International Relations and Sustainable Development team's research focus is situated in the following, overlapping fields:

1. Sustainable Development, especially sustainable consumption
2. Power in politics, with a focus on power of non-state actors and business actors in particular. Perspectives include instrumental, structural and especially discursive aspects.

The resulting conceptual and empirical work often focuses on normative claims such as justice, the good life, democracy and political legitimacy. Empirical foci include the international agrifood system, energy and climate politics (climate, forest, water) and the role of business and finance actors and its logics (financialization). By critically analyzing, for instance, barriers and opportunities of promoting sustainable consumption, the legitimacy and effectiveness of so called 'private governance' in the global agrifood system, or the failure of democracy in the context of political power of business actors, the chair's research is concerned with highly current societal and sceintific topics.