Univ.-Prof. Dr. Michael Schnegg

2015 Paul-Lazarsfeld-Visiting-Professor at the Department of Methods in the Social Sciences, University of Vienna

2010-2014 Head of the Department for Cultural Studies & Cultural History at the University of Hamburg

Since 2010 Full Professor (W3) at the Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg

2009 Assistant professor (with tenure track) at the Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne

2007 Assistant professor at the Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg

2003 Dr. phil, title of the thesis: "Das Fiesta Netzwerk: Soziale Organisation einer mexikanischen Gemeinde, 1679-2001" (= the fiesta network: social organization of a Mexican community, 1679-2001)

2002-2004 Paternity leave

1999-2002 Research associate, DFG funded project "Moderner Kulturwandel am Beispiel von compadrazgo in Mexiko", headed by M. Casimir, Th. Schweizer

1997 Magister Artium, main subject Anthropology, subsidiary subjects Sociology and History. Title of the thesis: "Soziale Struktur und Alltagsleben in virtuellen Gemeinschaften" (= social structure and daily life in virtual communities)

1992-1997 Studies of Anthropology, Economics, Sociology and History at the University of Cologne

1971 Born in Munich

• Political ecology
• Economic Anthropology
• Climate and Culture
• Social networks
• Theory, especially Phenomenology
• South Africa, Latin America

Schnegg M (2021) What Does the Situation Say? Theorizing Multiple Understandings of Climate Change. Ethos. DOI: DOI: 10.1111/etho.12307. open access

Schnegg M (2021) Eleven Namibian Rains: A Phenomenological Analysis of Experience in Time. Anthropological Theory. open access

Schnegg M (2021) Ontologies of Climate Change: Reconciling Indigenous and Scientific Explanations for the Lack of Rain in Namibia. American Ethnologist 48(2). open access

Schnegg, Michael, Coral Iris O’Brian, and Inga Janina Sievert. 2021. "It’s Our Fault: A Global Comparison of Different Ways of Explaining Climate Change." Human Ecology. doi: 10.1007/s10745-021-00229-w. open access 

Schnegg, Michael. 2021. "Becoming a Debtor to Eat: The Transformation of Food Sharing in Namibia." Ethnos:1-21. doi: 10.1080/00141844.2021.1887913. open access

Schnegg, M., E. Lowe. (2020) "Comparing Cultures: Innovations in Comparative Ethnography." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bollig, M., Schnegg, M., & Schwieger, D. A. M. (2020). Ethnographic Upscaling: Exploring and Testing Hypotheses Drawn from In-depth Ethnographic Findings in Spatially Continuous Cases. Field Methods, 32(4), 346–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X20928879 open access

Schnegg, Michael. 2019. "The Life of Winds: Knowing the Namibian Weather from Someplace and from Noplace." American Anthropologist 121:830-844.  open access

Schnegg, Michael, and Richard Kiaka. 2019. "The Economic Value of Water: The Contradictions and Consequences of a Prominent Development Model in Namibia." Economic Anthropology.  open access

Schnegg, Michael, and Richard Dimba Kiaka. 2018. "Subsidized Elephants: Community-Based Resource Governance and Environmental (In)justice in Namibia." Geoforum 93:105-115. open access

Schnegg, Michael. 2018. "Institutional Multiplexity: Social Networks and Community-Based Natural Resource Management." Sustainability Science 13 (4):1017-1030 .open access

Schnegg, Michael, Michael Bollig, and Theresa Linke. 2016. "Moral Equality and Success of Common-Pool Water Governance in Namibia." Ambio 45 (5):581-590. open access

Schnegg, Michael. 2016. "Lost in Translation: State Policies and Micro-politics of Water Governance in Namibia." Human Ecology 44 (2):245-255. .open access

Schnegg, Michael, and Michael Bollig. 2016. "Institutions Put to the Test: Community-Based Water Management in Namibia During a Drought." Journal of Arid Environments 124:62-71 open access

Schnegg, Michael. 2016. "Collective Foods: Situating Food on the Continuum of Private-Common Property Regimes." Current Anthropology 57 (5):683-689 .open access

Schnegg, M. “Reciprocity on Demand. Sharing and Exchanging Food in Northwestern Namibia”. Human Nature (2015): S. 1-18.open access

Schnegg, Michael, and Theresa Linke. 2015. "Living Institutions: Sharing and Sanctioning Water among Pastoralists in Namibia." World Development 68:205-214..open acces

Schnegg, M., R. Rieprich and M. Pröpper. “Culture, Nature, and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Northern Namibia”. Ecology & Society 19 (4): 26. (2014) open access

Schnegg, M. “Anthropology and Comparison: Methodological Challenges and Tentative Solutions.”. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 139. (2014): S. 55-72.open access

Schnegg, M. “Epistemology: The Nature and Validation of Knowledge”. Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Hg. Bernard, Russell H. & Clarence C. Gravlee. Lanham u.a.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, S. 21-53. (zum Artikel als nicht druckbares PDF) (zum Artikel als Scan)

Schnegg, M., J. Pauli & C. Greiner. “Pastoral Belonging: Causes and Consequences of Part-time Pastoralism in North-western Namibia”. Pastoralism in Africa. Past, present and future. Hg. Bollig, M., M. Schnegg & H.-P. Wotzka. New York / Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2013, S. 341-362. (PDF)

Schnegg, M. “Blurred edges, open boundaries: The long term development of the closed corporate peasant community in rural Mexico.”. Journal of Anthropological Research 63. (2007): S. 5-32. (PDF)

Schnegg, M. “Les cyber-guérillos ne se battent pas seuls. Réseaux virtuels et mobilisation pendant le conflit du Chiapas.”. Revue des Sciences Sociales 35. (2006): S. 76-83.

Schnegg, M. “Reciprocity and the emergence of power laws in social networks”. International Journal of Modern Physics C 17. (2006): S. 1067-1076. (PDF)

Ziker, J. & M. Schnegg. “Food sharing at meals: kinship, reciprocity, and clustering in the Taimyr autonomous okrug, northern Russia.”. Human Nature 16. (2005): S. 178-210. (PDF)

Schweizer, T., M. Schnegg & M. Berzborn. “Personal networks and social support in a multiethnic community of Southern California.”. Social Networks 20. (1996): S. 1-21. (PDF)

vollständige Publikationsliste (PDF)

Current research projects

2019-2023 DFG-Projekt
Different ways of knowing the weather in Namibia
Michael Schnegg

2019-2026 DFG-Projekt
Social Constructions of Climate Futures
Michael Schnegg & Michael Brüggemann & Simone Rödder

2018-2022 NORFACE / BMBF
Artisanal Gold Mining, Mobility and Ideas of Sustainable Futures in Ghana
Michael Schnegg & Robert Pijpers

2010-2019 DFG - long-term project
„Local institutions in globalized societies"

2016-2026 NSF Projekt
The effect of social networks on inequality: A longitudinal cross-cultural investigation
collaboration in cross-cultural project, Jeremy Koster (Principle investigator)

Completed research projects

2013-2016 DFG-Projekt
"Construction and reception of the discourse on climate change in the Philippines"
Michael Schnegg & Thomas Friedrich

2012-2016 BMBF - SASSCAL
"Deforestation and Development"
Michael Schnegg & João Baptista

2010-2015 BMBF - Sustainable land management - The Future Okavango
„Cultural knowledge, valuation, and regulation of ecosystem services"
Michael Schnegg & Michael Pröpper

2010-2013 DFG-Projekt
„Aging in the transnational space: (re-)migration processes between Mexiko and the USA"
Julia Pauli & Michael Schnegg

2018 Conference at the University of Hamburg: „In troubled Waters“ – (with Michael Bollig und David Parduhn) programm

2016 Organisation der Konferenz "Comparing Culture(s): Reinvigorating Explicit Comparison as a Method in Anthropology", 27.05.-29.05.2016, Hamburg (gemeinsam mit Edward Lowe, Soka University)

2013 Organisation der Tagung "XXXIII Sunbelt Social Networks Conference of the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)", 21.-26. Mai 2013, Hamburg (gemeinsam mit Betina Hollstein, Sonja Drobnic)

2009 Organisation des Workshops „Eliten zwischen Aneignung, Anpassung und Abgrenzung” auf der Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, Frankfurt (Main) (gemeinsam mit Dr. Pauli)

2009 Leiter der Module „Grundlagen der Netzwerkanalyse" (2 Tage) und „Gesamtnetzwerke" (4 Tage) der 3. Trierer Summerschool: „Network Analysis for the Humanities and the Social Sciences"

2008 „Changing livelihoods in the face of AIDS" (CLIVIA), 18.-20.01.2008, Durban, Südafrika (zusammen mit Dr. Scott Drimie und Clemens Greiner, M.A.)

2008 Leiter der Module „Grundlagen der Netzwerkanalyse" (2 Tage) und „Gesamtnetzwerke" (4 Tage) der 2. Trierer Summerschool: „Network Analysis for the Humanities and the Social Sciences"

2007 Organisation des Workshops „Verwandtschaft Heute” auf der Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, Halle (Saale) (gemeinsam mit Prof. Alber, Prof. Beer, Dr. Pauli)

2007 Kommentator: „Social networks and institutional change: pathways and limits of state intervention in rural societies”, European Science Foundation - COST action A 35 Progressore - Working Group 4 (State and Peasants), Münster, 30.-31. März 2007

2007 Leiter der 6-tägigen 1. Trierer Summerschool: „Network Analysis for the Humanities and the Social Sciences"

2006 2nd International Symposium in Media Informatics - „Cow Paths: Agency in Social Software" - 16.-17. November, 2006, B-IT, Bonn (zusammen mit Dr. Ralf Klamma)

2000 Organisation der internationalen Konferenz „Networks, ethnography and social theory. In memoriam Thomas Schweizer”, Universität zu Köln, 9.-12. Juli 2000 (zusammen mit Prof. Dr. M. Bollig, Prof. Dr. H. Lang und Dr. J. Pauli)