Institute of Geography

Group Portrait

Dr. Alexander Vorbrugg

Senior Researcher / SNSF Ambizione

Critical Sustainability Studies

Phone
+41 31 684 33 23
E-Mail
alexander.vorbrugg@unibe.ch
Office
104
Postal Address
Universität Bern
Geographisches Institut
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern

CV

I earned my PhD in Geography from Goethe University Frankfurt and held visiting research fellowships at the New School in New York and University College London (UCL), including the Department of Geography and the Institute of Advanced Studies. Currently, I am a visiting academic at the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.

I serve as an associate editor for Geographica Helvetica and co-editor of the Critical Rural Studies book series (transcript). I am also the co-chair of the Geography section of the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), co-initiator of the research network “War Effects on Food Systems and Environment”, and co-coordinator of the working group “Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Global Land-Use Change Phenomenon” with the Global Land Programme.

My research focuses on three main domains:

Rural Change and Agricultural Land: Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, I have studied and theorized the complex forms and temporalities of rural change and dispossession in contemporary Russia. My monograph, Dispersed Dispossession: Collective Goods, Appropriation, and Agency in Rural Russia, is forthcoming with the University of Georgia Press.

Post-Disruption Land Use: I am interested in how resources are made, reframed, and governed in the context of environmental crises and changes. In my ongoing project, Russia’s New Forests, I examine how trees growing on abandoned agricultural land are being transformed into objects of knowledge, governance, and economic and environmental interest in fundamentally new ways. This project is funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, part of this project has focused on studying land disruptions in Ukraine resulting from the war and options for future land use.

Collaborative Methodologies: I engage in projects on ethnographic collaborative research and the politics of fieldwork, as well as artistic and visual forms of research and science communication (mLAB). Additionally, I participate in interdisciplinary collaborations within my research fields.

Research

Research and Teaching Interests

  • Agrarian political economy and critical rural studies, rural dispossession
  • Political ecology of forest transitions
  • Economic and resource geographies in the context of global change
  • Environmental politics (with a particular focus on Eastern Europe)
  • Social theory (critical, feminist, materialist theories; environmental theories)
  • Qualitative research (ethnography, visual methods, materialist methods)

 

Projects

  • Exploring LaRethink land. Controversies about the reuse of disrupted land in Ukraine (ReLAND) (ongoing)
  • War Effects on Food Systems and Environment (research network, ongoing, funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research)
  • Russia’s New Forests: Assembling and Governing a Resource Frontier (ongoing, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF)
  • mLAB (ongoing)
  • Dispersed Dispossession. Rural Change in Contemporary Russia (completed)
  • Property Rights and Communal Services: The Implementation of Local Self-Government in Rural Russia (funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), with P. Lindner and A. Nikulin, completed)
  • Governing through civil society? The work of German political foundations in Ukraine (funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, completed)

 

Teaching

I supervise BSc/MSc theses in my key research areas.

Memberships & institutional responsibilities

Member of the mLAB

Member of editorial collective, Geographica Helvetica

Co-editor, book series Kritische Landforschung/ Critical Rural Studies

Co-chair, Geography section of the German Association for East European Studies (DGO)

Co-coordinator, working group Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Global Land-Use Change Phenomenon, Global Land Programme

 

Active memberships

  • Working Group Climate Crisis and Societal Transformation, German Society of Geography
  • Working Group Feminist Geographies, German Society of Geography
  • German Association for East European Studies e.V. (DGO)

Publications

Journal Articles

Dobrynin, D., Vorbrugg, A., & Hujala, T. (2025). Forestry on abandoned agricultural lands: future options for Russia. Land Use Policy(150), 107435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107435

Vorbrugg, A., Fatulaeva, M., & Dobrynin, D. (2024). Envisioning “new forests” on abandoned farmland in Russia: A discourse analysis of a controversy. Environmental Science & Policy(161), 103871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103871

Vorbrugg, A. (2023). What is the place of abandonment in planetary rural geographies? Dialogues in Human Geography, Article 20438206231220722. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231220722

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2022, online first): Making sense of (the Russian war in) Ukraine: On the politics of knowledge and expertise. In Political Geography, p. 102700. DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102700.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Ethnographies of slow violence: Epistemological alliances in fieldwork and narrating ruins. In Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, pp. 1–16. DOI: 10.1177/2399654419881660.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2020): Этнографии медленного насилия: исследование последствий разрушения сельской инфраструктуры. In Russian Peasant Studies 5 (1), pp. 31–52. DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-1-31-52.

Thieme, Susan; Eyer, Phillip; and Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Film VerORTen: Film als Forschungs- und Kommunikationsmedium in der Geographie, Geogr. Helv., 74, pp. 293–297. DOI: 10.5194/gh-74-293-2019.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Not about land, not quite a grab: dispersed dispossession in rural Russia. In Antipode 51 (3), pp. 1011–1031. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12523.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2018): Не только о земле и о ее захватах: дисперсное лишение прав в сельской России. In Крестьяноведение - Russian Peasant Studies 3 (3), pp. 19–47. DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-3-19-47.

Hoppe, Katharina; Klingenberg, Darja; Thompson, Vanessa Eileen; Trautmann, Felix; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2018): Worüber wir reden, wenn wir mit jemandem nicht reden wollen. Zum Spannungsverhältnis von Rassismuskritik und Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität. In: movements: Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 4 (1), S. 167–177.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2015): Governing through civil society? The making of a post-Soviet political subject in Ukraine. In Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33 (1), pp. 136–153. DOI: 10.1068/d13055p.

Lindner, P.; Vorbrugg, A. (2012): Wiederkehr der Landfrage. Großinvestitionen in Russlands Landwirtschaft. In Osteuropa 62 (6-8), pp. 325–344.

 

Monographs

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2025): Dispersed Dispossession. Collective Goods, Appropriation, and Agency in Rural Russia, Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation Series. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820363882/dispersed-dispossession/

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2017): Dispersed Dispossession. New Agricultural Players, Local Political Economies and De/Structural Violence in Rural Russia. Dissertation. Goethe Universität Frankfurt. Frankfurt/Main.

 

Edited Volumes and Issues

Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Eds.) (2021): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Klosterkamp, Sarah; Vorbrugg, Alexander (Eds.) (2020): Feminist Research Practice in Geography: Snapshots, Reflections, Concepts. Feministische GeoRundmail (83). Bern.

 

Book Chapters

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2023, forthcoming): Ethnographisch forschen. In Eva Nöthen, Verena Schreiber (Eds.): Handbuch Transformative Geographische Bildung. Schlüsselprobleme, Theoriezugänge, Forschungsweisen, Vermittlungspraktiken. Berlin: Springer Spektrum, 189–195.

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Klosterkamp, Sarah; Thompson, Vanessa E. (2021): Feldforschung als soziale Praxis. Ansätze für ein verantwortungsvolles und feministisch inspiriertes Forschen. In Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Ed.): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Schwiter, Karin; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2021): Ein Plädoyer für Slow Scholarship: Feministische Strategien für eine entschleunigte und bessere Wissenschaft. In Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Ed.): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Ouma, Stefan (2020): Große Transformationen des Ländlichen: Agrarwirtschaft in der globalen Marktgesellschaft. In Hans Gebhardt, Rüdiger Glaser, Ulrich Radtke, Paul Reuber, Andreas Vött (Eds.): Geographie. Physische Geographie und Humangeographie. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum, 926–937.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Ressourcen. In Jan Brunner, Anna Dobelmann, Sarah Kirst, Louisa Prause (Eds.): Wörterbuch Land- und Rohstoffkonflikte. 1. Auflage. Bielefeld: Transcript; transcript Verlag (Global Studies), pp. 272–278.

Thompson, V. E.; Vorbrugg, A. (2018): Rassismuskritik an der Hochschule. Mit oder trotz Diversity Policies? In M. Laufenberg, M. Erlemann, P. Lucht, M. Norkus, G. Petschick (Eds.): Prekäre Gleichstellung: Geschlechtergerechtigkeit, soziale Ungleichheit und unsichere Arbeitsverhältnisse in der Wissenschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Lindner, Peter; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2013): Die Transformation der Landwirtschaft in Russland. In Hans Gebhardt, Rüdiger Glaser, Sebastian Lentz (Eds.): Europa - eine Geographie. Berlin: Springer Spektrum, pp. 264–265.

Haide, E. v. d.; Vorbrugg, A. (2009): Frauen und Frauenprojekte im Kaschmirkonflikt: Beispiele von Gemeinwesenarbeit in einer Konfliktregion. In S. Elsen (Ed.): Gemeinwesen gestalten - Lernen für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Neu-Ulm: AG-SPAK-Bücher (218), pp. 175–189.

 

Working Papers, Electronic Journals (selection)

Vorbrugg, A. (2017): Not About Land, Not Quite a Grab: Rural Transformation and Dispersed Dispossession in Russia. Paper prepared for the 5th International Conference of the BRICS Initiative for Critical Agrarian Studies in Moscow.

Lindner, P.; Vorbrugg, A. (2011): Die russische Landwirtshaft im Privatisierungsprozess: Vom Kolchos- zum Investorenarchipel? In Russland-Analysen (229), pp. 2–6.

 

Miscellaneous (selection)

Vorbrugg, A. (2024). Dispersed Dispossession. Book excerpt. Emptiness. https://emptiness.eu/field-reports/dispersed-dispossession/

Hilbrandt, H.; Bluwstein, J.; Cima, O.; Del Biaggio, C.; Duplan, K.; Marquardt, N.; Péaud, L.; Pütz, M.; Véron, R.; Vorbrugg, A.: Editorial: Expanding knowledge geographies. In Geographica Helvetica. DOI: 10.5194/gh-79-239-2024.

Belina, B.; Freytag, T.; Hannah, M.; Hilbrandt, H.; Hutta, J.; Kramer, C.; Kühne, O.; Marquardt, N.; Mattissek, A.; Volgman, K.; Vorbrugg, A.: Geographische Fachzeitschriften aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum – ein Aufruf zur Debatte und Unterstützung. In Rundbrief Geographie.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2023): Black Earth, White Bread. A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food. In Europe-Asia Studies. DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2023.2191530.

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Other casualties of Putin’s war in Ukraine: Russia’s climate goals and science. In The Conversation, 5/23/2022. Available online at https://theconversation.com/other-casualties-of-putins-war-in-ukraine-russias-climate-goals-and-science-182995

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Les politiques climatiques, ces autres victimes de la guerre de Poutine en Ukraine. In The Conversation, 7/7/2022. Available online at https://theconversation.com/les-politiques-climatiques-ces-autres-victimes-de-la-guerre-de-poutine-en-ukraine-186255.

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Арктика, «зеленый переход», СО2. Как война с Украиной бьет по климатическим проектам в России, которые важны для всего мира, 7/4/2022. Available online at https://republic.ru/posts/104348.

Bachmann, Veit; Mattissek, Annika; Ruppert, Linda; Stenmanns, Julian; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2020): Kritische Militärgeographie - Anliegen und Abgrenzungen. In Rundbrief Geographie (282), pp. 28–30.

 

Documentary Films

Women Between the Front Lines (2007). Co-directed with E. v. d. Haide and A. Khan. EVDH Production, Pullach, 2007. Website: https://womenbetweenthefrontlines.wordpress.com/.

No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from the Housing Struggles in Cape Town (2005). Co-directed with E. v. d. Haide. Indymedia Cape Town Production, Cape Town, South Africa, 2005.