The actor-centered research activities are concentrated in the following fields:

• Innovation: Technological upgrading along global value chains in varying regional innovation systems from world cities to rural areas.
• Transformation: Regional effects of transformation processes in those countries which are characterized by both a transition from a planned to a market economy and by drastic institutional changes.
• Vulnerability: Impacts of natural risks on the relationship between people and their environment in order to get a better understanding of the dynamics of urban poverty as well as to develop sustainable strategies to overcome social and regional disparities.

The regional focus is on Europe, Southeast and East Asia and Africa, with current research projects in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Argentina.

From 18 to 19 December 2025, the TVSEP team met for an internal workshop hosted by Javier Revilla Diez. Recent findings were exchanged the strategic future of the project was discusses. The first day featured internal research presentations covering a wide range of TVSEP core topics, including rural household incomes, resilience and migration, agricultural markets, crop commercialisation, labour allocation, digitalisation, and climate-smart farming in Southeast Asia and beyond. On the second day, participants focused on internal TVSEP matters in a plenary session, followed by an in-depth discussion on the future of TVSEP and the preparation of a potential new joint research proposal. 
 

Every year, we look forward to our working group's Christmas party –  a highlight of the year! All the classics were there: we started with a stroll through the Christmas market, followed by an international buffet (featuring Bulgarian, Burmese, Afghan, Turkish, Namibian, Vietnamese and Baden delicacies, among others), there was a Christmas story written by Leonie Hesselmann and Emma Galbraith, a funny Christmas quiz with different levels of difficulty – and, to top it all off, a cheerful round of karaoke.

On 13–14 November 2025, Justina Nangolo participated in the RSA Regional Futures Conference in London, where she shared the idea for her third paper of her PhD, titled "Paths of Development: Comparing Livelihood Impacts of Corridors, Roads, and Communal Conservancies in Rural Namibia." The session sparked fruitfull discussions, with participants offering thoughtful suggestions on refining the focus of the study and strengthening the research design. The insights shared and connections made during the conference will be valuable as Justina Nangolo develops the paper for publication and continues to build her academic career.

On 13 and 14 November 2025, Emma Galbraith, Leonie Hesselmann and Javier Revilla Diez took part in the Economic Geography Project Workshop in Wiesbaden-Naurod. In her presentation entitled ‘Beyond passive hosts: host country agency and geopolitical proximity in the strategic coupling of foreign state investors’, Emma Galbraith presented the draft of the second paper of her dissertation. In her presentation ‘Future-making in Rural Africa in Times of Crises: Unpacking Agency for Regional Resilience through Aspirations and Decision-Making,’ Leonie Hesselmann presented the current status of the first paper. The conference provided ample opportunity for stimulating discussions and exchanges.

From July to September 2025, Leonie Hesselmann travelled through Namibia's Zambezi region to research the cattle value chain for her doctoral thesis. She conducted numerous interviews with farmers about their experiences and how they deal with crises such as droughts, animal diseases and human-wildlife-conflicts. These were complemented by interviews with stakeholders along the value chain, such as those working in slaughterhouses and ministries. First results show that the cattle value chain faces major challenges. The data collected is now being comprehensively evaluated to identify strategies for strengthening resilience and developing the value chain.

On 6 October, 2025 Mfundo Mlilo successfully defended his PhD with summa cum laude. His doctoral research examines the complex processes and theoretical foundations underlying the emergence and evolution of industries and economic activities. The thesis uses the case of tourism development in the KAZA region in Southetn Africa to illustrate how such processes unfold in a Global South context. Congratulations!

In Juli 2025, Linus Kalvelage, together with Prof. Dr. Frank Neubacher from the Criminology Institute at the University of Cologne, successfully secured an exciting three-year DFG-funded research project. Titled “Wildlife Hunting Across Borders: (Il-)Legal Value Chains in Conservation Areas,” the project investigates how wildlife is transformed into commodities and how legislation and international demand affect ecosystems and local communities. The focus is on the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) and transit countries such as Germany. Through interviews, focus groups, and data analysis, the team aims to reveal how legal and illegal markets overlap and what impact they have on conservation and regional economies.

From Master’s Thesis to First Publication: Local Impact on Namibia’s Green Hydrogen Development: Tom Schnurr, together with Linus Kalvelage, has published an article in Regional Science Policy and Practice: “Towards Inclusive Path Transplantation: Local Agency for Green Hydrogen Linkage Creation in Namibia.” Based on his master’s thesis, for which he conducted a survey of Namibian solar companies, the study shows how local firms can actively participate in Namibia’s emerging green hydrogen economy. Measures such as workforce training, inter-firm cooperation, and supportive regulations can help increase local value creation.

Im August 2025 nahm Ole Lück am 64. ERSA-Kongress in Athen teil, wo er erste Ergebnisse seiner Doktorarbeit vorstellte. In seinem Vortrag legte er dar, wie Klimaschocks das Engagement von Unternehmen im ländlichen Südostasien beeinflussen. Mit rund 1.000 Teilnehmenden bot der Kongress wertvolle Gelegenheiten für den akademischen Austausch, konstruktives Feedback und die Vernetzung mit führenden Wissenschaftler*innen der Regionalwissenschaft.

Im Rahmen des Master-Seminars „Aktuelle Forschungsthemen in der Physikalischen Geographie“ unter der Leitung von Mirijam Zickel wurdeJustina Nangolo von Studierenden zu ihrer aktuellen Arbeit über Infrastruktur und Entwicklung in der namibischen Sambesi-Region interviewt. Der daraus resultierende Blogbeitrag untersucht die Rolle von Straßen bei der Gestaltung der regionalen Entwicklung und betont, wie wichtig es ist, über den Bau hinaus auch weiterreichende Ergebnisse zu berücksichtigen, während gleichzeitig kritische Fragen darüber aufgeworfen werden, was echte Entwicklung ausmacht. Hier ist der Link zum Blogbeitrag.

Mfundo Mlilo has been awarded the 2024 Geoforum Best Student Paper Award for his article Coloniality of power and the imaginaries of tourism in Victoria Falls. It adopts the concept of coloniality of power to illuminate past continuities and explain the uneven participation and value capture among actors using the example of the very popular tourist destination Victoria Falls, a majestic waterfall in Zimbabwe. More fundamentally, it provides a brief reflection on how tourism GVCs can be extricated from colonial and racial legacies.

From 20 July to 5 August 2025, Prof. Revilla Diez, phD student Mfundo Mlilo, 15 bachelor's students and two master's students were in Namibia. During the first week of the excursion, the group intensively explored the country's colonial and apartheid history and its effects, which are still felt today. They then worked together with Namibian students in a mini field school on three new tourism concepts designed to better exploit the tourism potential of Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi region: adventure tourism, casino & public entertainment, and cultural and heritage-based tourism. Find out more here.

In June 2025, the Global Conference on Economic Geography took place at Clark University in the United States. Dr. Linus Kalvelage gave a presentation on the geopolitics of global production networks using the example of the green hydrogen industry in Namibia, Emma Galbraith examined Singapore's state-sponsored investments in Vietnam, and Mfundo Mlilo discussed tourism concepts and development paths in the KAZA region in southern Africa. Together with Javier Revilla Diez, they participated in important debates on economic geography alongside international scholars.

Leonie Hesselmann attended the Regional Studies Association Annual Conference in Porto in May 2025 and presented the preliminary findings of her doctoral research. In her presentation, she explained how rural households in Africa are affected by multiple crises and how they make decisions and shape their future under these difficult conditions. The conference provided an inspiring platform for interdisciplinary exchange on regional development, resilience and global challenges, as well as for expanding and deepening scientific networks.

Best Paper Award for young researchers goes to Dr Linus Kalvelage
Dr. Linus Kalvelage and his co-author Benedikt Walker have been awarded the Early Career Researcher Paper Prize by the renowned Journal of Economic Geography. The award-winning publication, entitled ‘Strategic coupling beyond borders: Germany's extraterritorial agency in Namibia's green hydrogen industry’, analyses Germany's role in the development of Namibia's hydrogen economy against the backdrop of geopolitical and climate-economic challenges. The article shows how states – even in liberal and coordinated market economies – pursue targeted extraterritorial strategies to link global production networks with national decarbonisation goals. The article can be found here, and the announcement of the award here.

Gemeinsam mit dem College of Economics, Law and Government der University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (CELG-UEH) organisierte unsere Arbeitsgruppe im Rahmen des TVSEP-Projekts (DFG-Langzeitprojekt) am 6. und 7. März eine internationale Konferenz zum Thema „Poverty dynamics and sustainable development in Thailand and Vietnam“ in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt. Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez und Ole Lück waren vor Ort und diskutierten auf der Konferenz neueste Forschungsergebnisse im Kontext der regionalen Entwicklung in Thailand und Vietnam.

Vom 24. bis 28. Februar 2025 nahm Emma Galbraith an der Summer School und der anschließenden Konferenz zur Financial Geography teil, organisiert vom Financial Geography Network unter der Leitung von Prof. Dariusz Wójcik an der National University of Singapore. In der Summer School für Early Career Researchers diskutierte sie gemeinsam mit internationalen Forschenden intensiv über Theorieentwicklung, Methoden und die Zukunft der Finanzgeographie in Asien und dem Globalen Süden. Auf der Konferenz präsentierte sie erste Ergebnisse ihrer Promotionsforschung zur Rolle Singapurs als Finanz- und Energiehub im Zeitalter von Net-Zero.

In February 2025, on the home straight of the second phase of the SFB Future Rural Africa, Mfundo Mlilo and Leonie Hesselmann, together with Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete and Javier Revilla Diez, shared research results with local stakeholders in a feedback workshop. The workshop brought together key stakeholders, researchers, policymakers and industry experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of tourism development in the region. It took place in cooperation with the Wildlife Management and Ecotourism Department of the University of Namibia. Based on the presentation of the research results, concrete steps to strengthen the tourism profile of the Zambezi region were discussed. 

In February 2025, Fenny Nakanyete visited the Khewe San community in Namibia's Bwabwata National Park again as part of our project  Future in Chains of the CRC Future Rural Africa together with Javier Revilla Diez, Mfundo Mlilo and Leonie Hesselmann.  Fenny Nakanyete had conducted a large part of the interviews for her doctoral thesis there, and now she was there to share her research results. The Khewe San, who depend on the harvest and trade of the Devil's Claw, learned how much they are exploited in these transactions and thus received information for a better negotiating position. You can read the report of Fennys Results-Workshop here.

It was a particular pleasure and honour for us to welcome the renowned scientist and conceptual father of global production networks, Prof. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, to Cologne on 9th December 2024. In the context of a workshop moderated by Prof. Peter Dannenberg on the topic ‘Sustainable Global Production in Times of Multiple Crises?’, Dr. Linus Kalvelage and Dr. PD Alexander Follmann presented current research projects, which were then discussed by Prof. Henry Yeung. Prof. Henry Yeung then presented his book ‘Theory and Explanation in Geography’, which was then critically discussed by the doctoral students Emma Galbraith (from our working group) and Johanna Fellbrich (working group Urban and Regional Development), moderated by Prof. Javier Revilla Diez. In the evening, Prof. Yeung gave a lecture on the dynamic development of the semiconductor industry in geopolitically troubled times as part of the Gesellschaft für Erdkunde's lecture series. It was a stimulating day with many fruitful and inspiring discussions! We thank Henry Yeung for his visit!

From 12th to 13th November 2024, the doctoral students of the working group took part in a workshop on ‘Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches in Sustainability Research: Mutual Insights and Learning’, organised by Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez and Prof. Dr. Christina Bogner at the University of Cologne. The workshop aimed to combine qualitative and quantitative methods in order to better understand the complexity of sustainability research and develop innovative, interdisciplinary approaches.

Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete, affiliated with Project C01 Future in Chains through a bi-nationally supervised doctoral program (Cotutelle) between the University of Cologne and the University of Namibia, was awarded her bi-national PhD degree during the University of Namibia's graduation ceremony on 9 October 2024. Her dissertation, titled "Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Livelihoods: Evaluating Non-Timber Forest Product Value Chains for San Communities in Northern Namibia," was jointly supervised by Prof. Revilla Diez from the University of Cologne and Prof. Kenneth Matengu from the University of Namibia. Fenny Nakanyete sees the Cotutelle doctoral student model as an important step towards decolonisation, the promotion of a fair distribution of intellectual property and the promotion of research on post-colonial structures.

We are pleased to announce that the German Research Foundation (DFG) has awarded Linus Kalvelage a research project entitled FGHyTransition: Fossil-Green Hydrogen Path Creation for Transformative Development in Namibia and Vietnam. This project aims to explore the multi-scalar interrelationships between the emerging green hydrogen industry and the fossil fuel industry, analysing actors, power dynamics and dependencies in order to assess the opportunity space for green industrialisation in the Global South.

The publication “Nation-state influence on tourism path creaton in Southern Africa”, written by Mfundo Mlilo with Prof. Revilla Diez and Prof. Michael Bollig, was published in Regional Studies in September 2024. It examines the development of tourism pathways in the post-colonial states of Southern Africa and specifically in the border regions of Chobe, Victoria Falls and Zambezi. Building on the concept of the Trinity of Change Agency, it shows the importance of the nation state in the development of institutional entrepreneurship and the impact of triggering events. The interplay between regional actors and a responsive nation state plays a crucial role in shaping tourism pathways.

In August 2024, Prof. Revilla Diez and our research assistants Emma Galbraith, Ole Lück and Dr. Linus Kalvelage met representatives of our long-standing cooperation partner Ciem (Vietnam Institute of Central Economic Management) in Hanoi: President Dr. Tran Thi Hong Minh and staff members Nguyễn Anh Dương and Đỗ Thị Lê Mai . We presented our three current research projects in Vietnam: Green Finance (Emma Galbraith), Energy Transition (Dr. Linus Kalvelage) and the long-term socio-economic panel project in Thailand and Vietnam (TVSEP) (Ole Lück).

Vom 21. bis 26. Juli 2024 nahm Dr. Linus Kalvelage am Summer Institute in Economic Geography teil, das dieses Jahr gemeinsam von Jamie Peck, Henry Yeung und Dariusz Woijzeck an der National University of Singapore organisiert wurde. Neben spannenden Diskussionen zur Zukunft der Wirtschaftsgeographie standen auch Tagesexkursionen auf dem Programm - unter anderem zum Jurong Island Industrial Park, einem Zentrum der globalen Öl- und Gasindustrie.

During his research stay in Vietnam in July 2024, Prof. Javier Revilla Diez took part in the Annual international conference on Economy, Law, and Government 2024 (ELG2024), held by the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City, with the focus: “Approaches to the twin transition – Digitalization and climate change in developing countries. Javier Revilla Diez organised a session about the long-term socio-economic panel-project in Thailand and Vietnam (TVSEP) and presented a paper that he published together with Franziska Sohns: Explaining micro-enterprise survival in rural Vietnam: a multilevel Analysis. More details you can see on this video.

We are pleased to welcome Leonie Hesselmann and Ole Lück to our working group!  Leonie Hesselmann is researching the project "Future in Chains - Socio-Economic Impacts of Growth Corridors", funded by the German Reserach Foundation (DFG) with a special focus on the socio-economic impacts of global and regional value chains. Her research interests include the greater involvement of the local population in regional development processes. Ole Lücks project is embedded in the long-term project Thailand Vietnam Socio Economic Panel (TVSEP), also funded by the German Reserach Foundation (DFG),  researching  in particular on the influence of entrepreneurship in rural Vietnam and Thailand on structural change and regional diversification. His research interests include regional and global disparities and the drivers of regional development in the Global South.

From June 24th - 27th, 2024, Emma Galbraith  and Mfundo Mlilo attended the 10th Nordic Geographers Conference, themed "Transitioning Geographies" in Copenhagen which attracted over 450 participants from across Europe. They took part in lively discussions, presented and promoted the institute's work. The sunny weather and networking with esteemed scholars added to their positive experiences. We are looking forward to applying the insights they gained

Linus Kalvelage took part in the conference of the Energy Geography Working Group in Marburg from June 6th to 8th, 2024, and gave a presentation on "Interpath Relations in the Periphery: Green Hydrogen and the Oil Industry in Namibia". His presentation highlighted the interactions between green hydrogen projects and the traditional oil industry in Namibia and opened up exciting prospects for future energy development in the region.

Han Luong has been conducting a survey of students since March 2024 in three major cities in Vietnam: Thai Nguyen, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. The pre-designed questionnaire was tested via Zoom, then a first survey was conducted by distributing over a hundred questionnaires to students on different campuses in the specified cities. A final survey is currently underway, which aims to collect a significant number of questionnaires from students. This is expected to be completed by mid-May 2024.

Infrastructure drives economic and transportation development and facilitates communication and trade across distances. The recent importance of globalization, exemplified by projects such as the Chinese Road and Belt Initiative and digital infrastructures, is linked to future development. However, challenges such as migration and environmental change offer new perspectives. The interdisciplinary workshop on May 16 and 17 will focus on issues related to infrastructure.

In March 2024, Mfundo Mlilo has been to four Countries—Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia—collecting immigration data to track tourist movements in the KAZA region as part of our research on tourism knowledge transfers. This builds on previous research on tourism, among others at the Namibia Tourism Expo, as shown in this picture.

On April 23, 2024 at 6 pm, a lecture evening will take place at International House, Kringsweg 6: "Insights into Myanmar's Conflict-Induced Displacement and Livelihoods Situations of Post-Coup Displaced Communities in Mae Sot, Thailand". Su Myat Thwe and Simon Becker will present the results of their empirical research in Mae Sot on the Thai-Myanmar border, Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez will moderate the discussion. The event will be held in English. More information can be found here; and you can register here.

From March 1 to March 3, Prof. Javier Revilla Diez and Emma Galbraith took part in a workshop in Zhuhai, China. The aim of the workshop was to bring together economic geographers from the two research areas Global Production Networks (GPN) and Global Financial Networks (GFN) and to exchange views on their current research projects. Following introductory remarks by Javier Revilla Diez, Emma Galbraith presented her research ideas on analyzing the role of financial service providers from Singapore and their regional economic impact in Southeast Asia.

Namibia is currently receiving much media attention as a destination for large-scale green hydrogen investments, raising hopes for green industrialization. At the same time, the discovery of large offshore oil fields has put Namibia on the map of the global oil and gas industry, with the coastal town of Lüderitz at the center of both industries. How can these two industries coexist? And what does this dual energy boom mean for Namibia's regional development pathways and institutions? Linus Kalvelage recently returned from a research trip to find out.

As we look back on the past year, we are filled with gratitude for the opportunity to work on so many different projects and topics with such a talented and dedicated team. And as is tradition in our working group, we got together for a small Christmas party with delicious food from different countries, wine from Spain, beer from Germany and our new tradition: Christmas Bingo!

The CO1 crew rocked the CRC Retreat 2023 in Steinfeld from November 8-10! We dove deep into the second phase of the CRC 228 project (which will be completed in 2025) and reviewed our progress. Of particular note is the interdisciplinary research that is fostering collaboration between the projects. In addition, CO1 is planning a special issue on infrastructures and is working on a series of papers to improve our teamwork.  #CRC228Magic #TeamCO1 #