Miriam Wenner, Dr.

My research focuses on the role of politics and power in processes of socio-economic, ecological and political transformation and change, mainly - but not entirely - in the Global South. I am especially interested in how political, economic, and social orders evolve in time-space specific contexts and how these processes are contested by different actors at different scales.

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I am particularly interested in the role of moral values, and how such values inflect upon the political and economic conduct of different actors. For instance, drawing on data from my finalised dissertation-project “Monopolising a statehood movement. Gorkhaland between authoritarian parties and 'aware citizens'” I analysed how socially held moral values and idealised imaginations of “proper” conduct gain importance in party-political contestations over political authority in the broader context of a social movement for regional autonomy in northern India.

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In another project I highlighted the role of moral values in inspiring Nepalese tea farmers' collective action. Another project researches the how normative standards like those of Fairtrade that are usually designed in the Global North are being translated to producers in the Global South.

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Currently, I combine my focus on moral values with assemblage theory and approaches from Labour Geography to better understand socio-ecological transformations of labour regimes in internationally integrated economic sectors, namely tea and natural stone in India, under the influence of private sustainability standards.

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My research integrates approaches from human geography, development studies, and social anthropology, and has a regional focus on India and Nepal.

 

My fields of interest include: relations between ethics, ecology, politics/economy, and space; local politics, patronage, and brokerage; authority, informal sovereigns, and legitimacy; social movements and spatial justice; regionalism and geographical imaginations.