Jenss, Dr. Alke

Position at ABI:

Senior Researcher

Coordination Cluster Contested Governance

E-mail:

alke.jenss [at] abi.uni-freiburg.de

Phone:

+49 (0)761 888 78 26

Areas of research:

urban violence, politics of infrastructure, authoritarian practices, political economy and decolonial approaches

Regional focus:

Latin America (particularly Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica)

Professional experience:

2016-2017

PostDoc Researcher and Lecturer in the Cluster Transnationalization, Development and Migration at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University

2014-2016

Lecturer in Human Rights in the spanish language MA programme "Intercultural Conflict Management", Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin

2014-2015

Researcher, civil society research project on Investment & Emerging Markets, Werkstatt Ökonomie

2009-2014

Lecturer at Marburg, Kassel and Göttingen Universities

2009-2014

Journalist/Editor at LateinamerikaNachrichten

Education:

2010-2014

PhD in Sociology, Philipps University Marburg (summa cum laude). Empirical research in Colombia and Mexico on the grey zones of state violence. Scholarship holder.
ADLAF Dissertation award 2016 (German Association for Research on Latin America)

2002-2008

MA Political Science, Peace & Conflict Studies, Spanish Language
Philipps University Marburg

2005

Political Theory and International and Latin American Relations
Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina

Projects

PI Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace & Conflict, BMBF, 2022-2026.

PI Promises of Democratic Connection, Thyssen Foundation, 2022-2024.

Authoritarian Urbanism Working Group, with Dr. Hugo Fanton, Dr. Aysegül Can, Dr. Khanyile Mlotshwa, 2020-2021.

Making Infrastructures Global? Design and Governance of Infrastructural Expansion in the Global South (EUCOR Project in Cooperation with Prof. Dr. Kenny Cupers, Urban Studies Department, University of Basel, and Dr. Benjamin Schütze, ABI), 2020.2022.

Networks & Memberships

Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

Critical Political Economy Research Network (CPERN) at the European Sociological Association (ESA)

Political Economy Beyond Boundaries at the European International Studies Association (EISA)

Critical Peace Studies Working Group at the German Association of Peace & Conflict Studies (AFK)

Working Group on the Transformation of the State at the Latin American Social Sciences Council CLACSO: Estados latinoamericanos: ruptura y restauración

Selected Publications

(2024): Fantasies of Flows and Containment: The Technopolitics of Security Infrastructures in the Americas. In: (2024) Antipode, 56(2), 492-515, OPEN ACCESS.

(2024): Everyday Scalar Politics: Navigating Insecurity in the Competitive City. In: Urban Geography, 45(3), 311-331.

with Julia Gurol, Fabricio Rodríguez, Benjamin Schuetze, Cita Wetterich (2024): Authoritarian Power and Contestation Beyond the State (Special Issue Introduction). In: Globalizations 21(6), 1009–1022, OPEN ACCESS.

with Benjamin Schuetze (2024): Prefiguring Politics: transregional energy infrastructures as a lens for the study of authoritarian practices.In: Globalizations. 21(6), 1076–1091, OPEN ACCESS.

with Hugo Fanton and Aysegül Can (2024): State-led Gentrification against the Backdrop of Authoritarian Practices. In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, online first. Introduction to collection of articles on Istanbul, Casablanca, Lijang and a conclusion.

BOOK (2023): Selective Security in the War on Drugs: The Coloniality of State Power in Colombia and Mexico. Rowman & Littlefield.

BOOK with Mara Albrecht (2023): The spatiality and temporality of urban violence. Histories, rhythms, and ruptures. Manchester University Press.

with Rosa Lehmann (2022): Scalar Struggles. The Selectivity of Development Governance in Mexico. In: Latin American Research Review 57(4), 848-866. OPEN ACCESS.

with Benjamin Schuetze (2021): Rethinking Authoritarian Power: The Logistics Space and Authoritarian Practices in and between Secondary Port Cities of the Global South. In: International Studies Quarterly 65(1), 82-94 OPEN ACCESS.

(2020): Global Flows and Everyday Violence in Urban Space: The Port-City of Buenaventura, Colombia. In: Political Geography, 102113. OPEN ACCESS.

(2019): Authoritarian neoliberal rescaling in Latin America: Urban in/security and austerity in Oaxaca. In: Globalizations, 16(3), 304–319.

Publications

Shaping the peaceful city: (Post)colonial and transnational entanglements of security governance and spatial economic restructuring in urban Colombia

State-led gentrification against the backdrop of Urban Authoritarian Practices: Introduction

The coloniality of capitalism

Everyday Scalar Politics. Navigating Insecurity in the Competitive City

Elsewheres of the Unbuilt: The Global Effects of Transnational Energy Infrastructure Projects

Cities as Nodes of Conflict in Logistics. The Role of Transnational Corporations in Urban Supply Chain Conflicts

Authoritarian Power and Contestation Beyond the State. Introduction

Prefiguring Politics. Transregional energy infrastructures as a lens for the study of authoritarian practices

Fantasies of Flows and Containment: The Technopolitics of Security Infrastructures in the Americas

Schillernde Praktiken. Widerständiges in der neoliberal-autoritären Stadt

Authoritarian power and contestation beyond the state

Selective Security: The Coloniality of State Power in the War on Drugs

The spatiality and temporality of urban violence. Histories, rhythms and ruptures

Tracing Practices of Coercion and Consent in and beyond Oaxaca: Multiscalar Perspectives on the Authoritarian City

Rethinking Authoritarian Power: The Logistics Space and Authoritarian Practices in and between Secondary Port Cities of the Global South

Multi-Scalar Struggles: The Selectivity of Development Governance in Southern Mexico