GEIST is an international research network funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), bringing together 18 researchers from 13 institutions across Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, and Norway to advance ideational economic geography as an emerging field. At its core, the network investigates how ideas, imaginaries, narratives, and future conceptions drive economic and spatial transformation processes, ranging from regional development strategies, to changing global production networks, to overarching sustainability transitions.

In five collaborative workshops between 2026 and 2028, GEIST aims to build on participating members' preliminary work to bring concepts and approaches into pluralistic dialogue, achieve terminological clarity, explore methodological possibilities for transformation research, and create linkages between ideational economic geography and other disciplines. In times of significant global change, GEIST offers contributions to increase our understanding how collectively shared ideas reshape economies and territories.

Project Duration

2026-2028 (30 months)

Funding Agency

German Research Foundation (DFG)

Co-coordinators

• Dr Tim Rottleb, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
• Dr Nicklas Riekötter, University of Luxembourg

Network members

• Prof. Dr Sören Becker, Philipps University Marburg
• Priv-Doz. Dr Maximilian Benner, University of Vienna
• Prof. Dr Marc Boeckler, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• Prof. Dr Javier Revilla Diez, University of Cologne
• Prof. Dr Ludger Gailing, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
• Prof. Dr Huiwen Gong, University of Stavanger
• Franziska Görmar, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL)
• Clara Hertz, M.Sc., University of Hamburg
• Klara Kolhoff, M.Sc., University of Hamburg
• Dr Sebastian Losacker, Justus Liebig University Giessen
• Dr Alica Repenning, University of Greifswald
• Dr Max Roessler, University of Greifswald
• Dr Mfundo Mlilo, University of Cologne
• Prof. Dr Lech Suwala, University of Technology Berlin
• Dr Amy Walker, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
• Leonard Weiß, M.Sc., BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

If you have any questions or are interested in co-operation, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please contact the coordinators Dr Tim Rottleb directly: tim.rottleb(at)b-tu.de or Dr Nicklas Riekötter: nicklas.riekoetter(at)uni.lu.