Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. As a social geographer, he worked on social inclusion and exclusion, urban studies, praxelogical theories, the methodology of the social sciences and geographical health research. He developed the research programme of a transactional anthropology, which expresses a specific understanding of critique as mediation. It is particularly suited to analyze local power asymmetries and dissent scenarios. Recent work has focused on cities in transition, post-growth economies and environmental justice. Numerous collaborative research projects with city administrations, urban target groups also by involving students.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Cities

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Maximilian Benner is an economist and economic geographer with a habilitation degree (venia docendi) in human geography. As senior scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Vienna and non-tenured associate professor (“Privatdozent”) at the University of Klagenfurt, he focuses on innovation-based regional development and its impacts in terms of environmental sustainability, social justice, and inclusiveness. Empirically, he is particularly interested in regions hosting emission-intensive industries such as the chemical industry.

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I’m a human geographer interested in studying the socio-environmental injustices that emerge at different territorial scales in the configuration of food value chains and carbon markets. In particular, I’m interested in learning how coastal communities develop social innovations to respond to climate change scenarios and the global environmental crisis. My research lies at the intersections of Political Ecology, Political Economy, Marine Social Sciences, Maritime Border Studies, and the Uneven Geographies of Development. I have conducted research on fishing value chains involving different marine species (lobsters, tuna, shrimp, and multi-species fisheries) on different coastlines and seas in Mexico and Central America, as well as the implementation of the blue carbon market in mangrove areas on the Mexican coast.

I am very interested in taking knowledge beyond the academic sphere and collaborating with coastal communities in building more equitable governance frameworks to reduce the stark power asymmetries that generate environmental injustices in these territories. Similarly, I believe that collaboration between academia and communities is essential to build knowledge that is more closely aligned with the realities and needs of local coastal populations.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Caribbean Sea, South Pacific of Mexico, Central American Pacific, Chiapas coast, The Pacific Coastal-Marine Transboundary Region in between Mexico and Guatemala.

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