Associate Member

Jens Steffek

Projects and positions at the research center
Principal Investigator

Project management: Knowing the Rules and Acting Politically. Friedrich Kratochwil and his Critics | Research Focus 4 – Overstretched Orders: Global Governance between De- and Renationalization

Funding period 2012-2017
Project management: Legitimation through international law and legitimation of international law | Research field 3

Funding period 2007-2012
Project management: The justification narrative of “good functional governance” | Research field 3
Project management: Ambivalent universalization of democracy | Research field 3

Subject areas
Political science

Main research
Politics and history of international organizations, theory of international relations, transnational social actors, theory of democracy

  • Biografische Angaben

    Since 2023: Speaker of the DFG Research Training Group “Standards of Governance”

    2017-2019: Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences

    Since 2010: Professor of Transnational Governance at the Institute of Political Science

    2008-2009: University Lecturer in Political Science, Jacobs University Bremen

    2006-2007: Visiting Professor, International University Bremen

    2003-2008: Research Assistant (C1), University of Bremen

    2002-2003: Research assistant, University of Bremen

    2002: Doctorate in Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute, Florence

    2001-2002: Research Associate, Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, Florence

    1998: Magister Artium in Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

    Certified research assistant, Technical University of Munich

    1996-1998: Research Assistant, Foundation for Science and Politics, Ebenhausen

    1993-1998: Permanent freelancer, Süddeutsche Zeitung

    1991-1992: Civilian service, Bund Naturschutz in Bayern e.V.

    1991: Abitur, grammar school in Icking/Upper Bavaria

  • Publikationen

    Eine Liste der Publikationen von Jens Steffek finden Sie: Hier…

News from the research center

News
18.05.2026

Videopodcast-Reihe „Our Planet, Our Health“ gestartet

Mit „Our Planet, Our Health“ startet eine neue Videopodcast-Reihe zu Fragen globaler Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Die Reihe, gehostet von Dr. Romina Rekers, ist eine Initiative des Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme (GHJ), gefördert von der Höppschen Stiftung.

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Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

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Event
20.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Von der Selbstermächtigung zum sozialen Widerstand

Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Axel Honneth (Frankfurt am Main / New York Columbia University) mit anschließender Diskussion im Rahmen des Rechtstheoretischen Mittwochsseminars von Klaus Günther, Dan Wielsch und Benno Zabel.

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Event
19.05.2026 | Frankfurt

Speculative Truth Regimes

Panel Discussion

Event with Adam Kahlil (New Red Order) and Toby Lee (NYU) as part of the Series Visual Truth Regimes, organized by Laliv Melamed (Goethe University Frankfurt, Normative Orders), Felix Trautmann (Institut für Sozialforschung; HBK Braunschweig) and Franziska Wildt (Institut für Sozialforschung).

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Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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Event
28./29.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice

Conference

Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, funded by Höppsche Stiftung, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan. The Global Health Justice Programme and this conference are supported by the Höppsche Stiftung in Villmar.

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Event
14.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis

Lecture Series

Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.

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Event
10.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency

Lecture, Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

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