Doctoral Thesis

Working Title:
Community-Supported Entrepreneurship in Sustainability Transitions. The Role of Systemic Intermediation for Niche Formation and Translocal Diffusion of Transformative Social Innovations.

Supervisors:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc Wolfram, IOER and Dresden University of Technology (TUD)
Dr. rer. pol. Markus Egermann, IOER
Prof. Dr. sc. pol. Artem Korzhenevych, IOER and Dresden University of Technology (TUD)
Prof. Dr. René (R.P.M.) Kemp, Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT

TUD Faculty:
Faculty of Environmental Sciences  

IOER Research Area:
Transformative Capacities

Abstract:
The inertia in sustainability transitions of unsustainable mainstream economic practices (transactional, productivist, extractive, globalized) is marked by path-dependent economic narratives and imaginaries that limit the diversity of future economic possibilities and sustainabilities for real-world places. Empowering sustainable economic practices therefore necessitates narrative-altering and locally situated experimentation to expand the ‘in situ’ spectrum of conceivable sustainable economic futures. The support, nurturing and consolidation of alternative economic practices across places depends on the civil society networks of organized social movements because they bypass dominant institutions. The main source for challenges to institutionalized mainstream economic practices are grassroots innovation movements emanating from the civil society sphere, of which the commoning-oriented practices of Community-Supported Entrepreneurship (CSX) are a major example within Germany.

This research aims to contribute to the theorization of the diffusion of CSX as an example of Transformative Social Innovation (TSI). TSI diffusion has been described to require locally context-sensitive embedding and translation of grassroots practices instead of conventional upscaling. This has been coined ‘translocal diffusion’. Additionally, highly distributed network leadership has been identified as a pivotal condition for translocal support and reinforcement dynamics related to learning, resourcing and strategic behavior. In this context, the doctoral project investigates ‘Systemic Intermediation’ as a specific form of network leadership. For other contexts, the concept of ‘Systemic Intermediation’ has already been described as network-bridging and institutionally oriented innovation facilitation activities. However, the role of those activities in the TSI and CSX context remains undertheorized. The doctoral project seeks to address this lacuna by analyzing systemic activities in the formation of organized incubation spaces (‘niches’) and in the stabilization of movement-driven communities of practice (‘translocal networks’).

Using the theoretical repertoires of TSI, Strategic Niche Management (SNM), Transformative Capacity (TC), and the Transformative Geographies of Community Innovation (TG), this doctoral work seeks to contribute to the literature both through conceptually integrative and empirical efforts. A first step is to conceptualize the features of effectively constituted CSX Niches through a synthesis of SNM, TC and TG. A next step is to systematically compare different cases of CSX initiatives using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify conditions for the formation of intermediated niche spaces. Subsequently, a low-n comparative case study will delve deeper into processes of systemic intermediation for the formation of translocal bonds. Finally, event sequences of value network consolidation between CSX initiatives will be analyzed using a process-tracing or a formalized-qualitative approach.

CV

Education:

Since 07/2025
Doctoral Candidate at the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS)

09/2021 – 08/2022
Maastricht University / United Nations University (UNU-MERIT)
M.Sc. Public Policy and Human Development, Specialization in ‘Governance of Innovation’ 

10/2019 – 08/2021
University of Bamberg
Graduate studies in Political Science and Sociology

10/2015 – 09/2019
Heidelberg University
B.A. Political Science and Sociology

Professional Experience:

02/2023 – 10/2024
IFOK GmbH, Consultant for the area ‘Transformation of Economy’ (Fellow until 10/2023)

08/2020 – 09/2024 
WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Summer Research Intern with the Digital Mobility research group 

09/2018 – 02/2019
CEval GmbH (Center for Evaluation), Intern

08/2014 – 08/2015
‘Weltwärts’ volunteering service of the federal BMZ ministry, Volunteer in Mercedes, Uruguay