skip to content

Faculty of Mathematics and Natural SciencesInstitute of Geography

Development and Sustainability in the Global South

The effects of economic globalization, economic growth, natural demographic increase, migration and different processes of societal changes represent challenges that the Development and Sustainability in the Global South has to deal with. Empirical research at the interface of human-environment can contribute to a better understanding of these developments. In the Global South, many urban, peri-urban and rural areas experience dynamic land use changes often resulting in a range of conflicts around land, water and other resources.

Our research concentrates in this regard on three different aspects:

  • Land use change and land use conflicts in rural and agrarian areas
  • Urban green, environmental protection and urban development
  • Impacts of economic “South-South" connections on urban and regional development
Selection of recent papers:

  • Dannenberg, P., Braun, B., Greiner, C., Follmann, A., Haug, M., Semedi Hargo Yuwono, P., ... & Kopriva, S. (2024). Eight arguments why biodiversity is important to safeguard food security. Plants, People, Planet, 6(3), 604-610. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10492
  • Kanosvamhira, T. P., Follmann, A., & Tevera, D. (2024). Experimental urban commons?: Re‐examining urban community food gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. The Geographical Journal, 190(2), e12553. DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12553
  • Tups, G., Mbunda, R., Ndunguru, M., & Dannenberg, P. (2024). Multiple Krisen und Globale Produktionsnetzwerke: Neue Sojapartnerschaften zwischen China und Tansania im Rahmen der Belt and Road Initiative. Standort, 48(1), 2-9. DOI: 10.1007/s00548-024-00907-z
  • Follmann, A., Kennedy, L., Pfeffer, K., & Wu, F. (2023). Peri-urban transformation in the Global South: a comparative socio-spatial analytics approach. Regional Studies, 57(3), 447-461. DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2022.2095365
  • Kiesel, C., Dannenberg, P., Hulke, C., Kairu, J., Diez, J. R., & Sandhage-Hofmann, A. (2022). An argument for place-based policies: The importance of local agro-economic, political and environmental conditions for agricultural policies exemplified by the Zambezi region, Namibia. Environmental Science & Policy, 129, 137-149. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.12.012
  • Luxen, V., Tups, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2022). What makes Tanzanian smallholder farmers satisfied with their life? It’s not farming!. DIE ERDE–Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 153(4), 259-263. DOI: 10.12854/erde-2022-623
  • Zhang, M., & Dannenberg, P. (2022). Opportunities and challenges of indigenous food plant farmers in integrating into Agri-food value chains in Cape Town. Land, 11(12), 2267. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11122267
  • Follmann, A. (2022). Geographies of peri‐urbanization in the global south. Geography Compass, 16(7), e12650. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12650
  • Follmann, A., Willkomm, M., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). As the city grows, what do farmers do? A systematic review of urban and peri-urban agriculture under rapid urban growth across the Global South. Landscape and Urban Planning, 215, 104186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104186
  • Tups, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Emptying the future, claiming space: the southern agricultural growth corridor of Tanzania as a spatial imaginary for strategic coupling processes. Geoforum, 123, 23-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.04.015
  • Hartmann, G., Nduru, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Digital connectivity at the upstream end of value chains: A dynamic perspective on smartphone adoption amongst horticultural smallholders in Kenya. Competition & Change, 25(2), 167-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529420914483
  • Follmann, A., Willkomm, M., Nduru, G., Owuor, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Continuity under change: Towards a spatiotemporal understanding of market-oriented urban and peri-urban agriculture–Insights from Kenya. Applied Geography, 135, 102528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102528
  • Hartmann, G., Mwaka, I., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Large investments, small farmers: A financialisation perspective on value chains in a development corridor. Development Southern Africa, 38(1), 122-138. DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2020.1799758
  • Willkomm, M., Follmann, A., & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Between replacement and intensification: Spatiotemporal dynamics of different land use types of urban and peri-urban agriculture under rapid urban growth in Nakuru, Kenya. The Professional Geographer, 73(2), 186-199. DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2020.1835500
  • Willkomm, M., Follmann, A. & Dannenberg, P. (2019). Rule-based, hierarchical land use and land cover classification of urban and peri-urban agriculture in data-poor regions with RapidEye satellite imagery: a case study of Nakuru, Kenya. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 13(1). doi: 0.1117/1.JRS.13.016517.
  • Follmann, A., Hartmann, G. & Dannenberg, P. (2018). Multi-temporal transect analysis of peri-urban developments in Faridabad, India. Journal of Maps, 14 (1), 17-25.
  • Opondo, F. A., Dannenberg, P. & Willkomm, M. (2017). Characterization of the levels of cassava commercialization among smallholder farmers in Kenya: A multinomial regression approach. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 12(41), 3024-3036. doi: 10.5897/AJAR2017.12634.
  • Follmann, A. (2016). The role of environmental activists in governing riverscapes: the case of the Yamuna in Delhi, India. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ), (14).
  • Willkomm, M., Vierneisel, B. & Dannenberg, P. (2016). Land use change dynamics in the Mt. Kenya region—a remotely sensed analysis using RapidEye satellite images. Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie, 1(1), 23-40. doi: 10.1127/zgpI/2016/0023-0040.
  • Willkomm, M., Vierneisel, B. & Dannenberg, P. (2016). Land use dynamics in the Mt. Kenya region - a remotely sensed analysis using RapidEye satellite images. Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie 2016(1): 23-40.