Dr. Benjamin Etzold

I am a social geographer, migration scholar and conflict researcher. At BCDSS, I will lead the project "Mobility, Violence and Asymmetrical Dependencies in Contemporary Labour Relations" (MoVAL) across 2024–25. MoVAL is a collaborative endeavour between the BCDSS and BICC (Bonn Centre for Conflict Studies), which aims to bring together normally separate fields of expertise, compare conceptual and methodological approaches, and to formulate new research ideas at the intersections of (forced) migration studies, peace and conflict studies and dependency and slavery studies. More precisely, the central objective is to conceptually and empirically explore the interrelations between (im)mobility, violence and labour precarity based on secondary literature, existing data, and two pilot studies. A particular focus will lie on livelihoods and employment relations that can currently be witnessed in conflict-affected settings in the Global South, and how these are shaped through human (im)mobility, systems of violence and coercion, and asymmetrical dependencies.

Over the past 17 years, I worked on people's livelihoods and vulnerabilities, trajectories of migration and displacement, experiences of violence, as well as informal labour and patterns of food security – predominantly in countries of the Global South. I studied Geography, Sociology, Political Sciences and Development Studies, and hold a PhD in Geography from the University of Bonn, which I obtained for a study of street food vendors' livelihoods and spatial strategies in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2012). Since 2016, I work as senior researcher at BICC, where I led or was part of several research projects at the intersection of forced migration studies and peace and conflict studies, most notably the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project 'Transnational Figurations of Displacement' (TRAFIG) (see my staff page at BICC).

I published two books – The Politics of Street Food. Contested Governance and Vulnerabilities in Dhaka's Field of Street Vending (2013) and Illegalisierte Migration in der Flüssigen Moderne. Migration aus Afrika und die europäische Grenzsicherungspolitik (2009) – and an edited volume – Environment, Migration and Adaptation. Evidence and Politics of Climate Change in Bangladesh (2015 with B. Mallick). My academic work has been published in Population, Space and Place; Geographica Helvetica; Erdkunde; Die Erde; Geographische Rundschau; Climate and Development; Migration and Development; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Comparative Population Studies; International Quarterly for Asian Studies; International Migration; and in multiple books.

2007–2012
PhD Studies, University of Bonn, Department of Geography

2003–2007
Graduate Studies (Diplom) in Geography, Sociology and Politic Science, University of Bonn

2002–2003
Undergraduate Studies in Development Studies, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia

1999–2002
Undergraduate Studies in Geography, Sociology and Geology, University of Stuttgart

since 2016
Senior Researcher, BICC (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies)

05–06/2023
Guest Professorship, Institute for Geography, University Innsbruck, Austria

10/2020–03/2021
Interim Professorship, Institute of Geographical Sciences, Centre for Development Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

03–04/2013
Guest Lecturer, University of Sussex, School of Global Studies

2011–2012
Consultant, UN University, Institute for Environment and Human Security, Bonn

2007–2016
Lecturer and Research Associate, Geography Department, University of Bonn