Niklas Stoll
Niklas Stoll
Doctoral project
Transformation on the move: The discourse around socio-ecological transformation led by civil society and social movements (working title)
Abstract
In view of the multiple crises of the 21st century, there have been increasing calls for a fundamental socio-ecological transformation of societies around the world in recent years. The solutions offered by the ecological modernism that has prevailed for decades, which considers these crises to be manageable within the framework of established institutions and capitalist economies, are proving increasingly inadequate. In contrast to this, the concept of socio-ecological transformation and related approaches such as Just Transition, Green New Deal and Degrowth have given rise to new social science theories as well as a discourse led by civil society and social movements on the design and management of such fundamental processes of social change, which are increasingly shaping political and public debates. The dissertation project focuses on the latter discourse on the basis of publications by corresponding international coalitions of actors and aims to reconstruct the transformation ideas, strategies and patterns of interpretation circulating within it using discourse analysis. In particular, ideas regarding the role of the state and politics as well as the transformative potential of civil society and social movements will be analysed. The aim is to bring social science theory and movement discourse into dialogue in order to shed light on mutual gaps and thus contribute to more realistic assessments of social transformation potential.
Short biography
since 10/2020
Scholarship holder in the MWK doctoral programme 'Shaping the Future. Transformation of the present through scenarios of digitalisation' at the University of Oldenburg
10/2019 - 09/2020
Research assistant in the research project 'Gegen Oben, gegen Andere: Sources of Critique of Democracy, Critique of Immigration and Right-Wing Populism', WZB Social Science Research Centre Berlin
08/2017 - 09/2019
Student assistant in the research project "Gegen Oben, gegen Andere: Sources of Critique of Democracy, Critique of Immigration and Right-Wing Populism", WZB Social Science Research Centre Berlin
10/2016 - 09/2019
M.A. Social Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin
06/2016 - 08/2017
Student assistant in the third-party funded project "Gedankenlesen als Kulturtechnik", Institute for Cultural Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
10/2011 - 09/2015
B.A. Political Science/Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Publications
Stoll, Niklas (2022): Socialisation as a transformation strategy: 'Expropriating German Wohnen & Co.' in a discursive and political context. PROKLA 52: 631-648. https://www.prokla.de/index.php/PROKLA/article/view/2024/1938
Stoll, Niklas (2021): Degrowth as a socio-ecological mosaic left. Research Journal Social Movements 34(4): 759-763. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/fjsb-2021-0072/html
Stoll, Niklas (2021): Planned economy 2.0. review of "The invisible hand of the plan. Coordination and Calculation in Digital Capitalism" by Timo Daum and Sabine Nuss (eds.). Soziopolis. www.soziopolis.de/planwirtschaft-20.html
Heiko Giebler, Magdalena Hirsch, Benjamin Schürmann, Niklas Stoll & Susanne Veit (2019): "It's not me, it's us! Group-related dissatisfaction as a central link between populist attitudes and electoral potential for the AfD". In: Wolfgang Schroeder & Bernhard Weßels: Smarte Spalter: Die AfD zwischen Bewegung und Parlament. J.H. Dietz Verlag: Bonn.