Organisation profile

The Global Political Sociology (GPS) research group studies contemporary political and social dynamics across the globe, focusing on state-society relations and transnational ideas, movements and networks in their local, regional or global expressions. Researchers combine Anthropology, Area Studies, Law, Politics, and/or Sociology to develop ‘thick’ understandings of the present and the recent past, particularly since the mid-20^th century. They contribute intellectual depth and ambition to Roskilde University’s international research environment.

Current research themes include collaborative knowledge production; corporate security in mining and energy sectors; democratic participation, activism and social innovation; global Christianity; the globalization of the Indian Ocean region; the history of human rights; legal responses to insurgency and home-grown terrorism; local and global gender norms in Africa; the Middle East in the global New Left; political and power elites; social movement and civil society; state-making and brokerage in Somali territories; and transitional justice.

GPS members are leading and participating in international research projects on global Catholicism; entangled histories of Palestine and the global new Left; European social-scientific knowledge production; global gender-based norms in Ethiopia; illegal resource extraction and state formation in emerging African democracies; the international standardization of transitional justice; the political responsiveness of power elites; private cash transfers in Africa; rights in natural resource extraction and energy production.

Members of GPS have expertise on social and political developments in particular countries and may be contacted individually. In Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tunisia and Uganda. In Europe: Bosnia, France, Italy, and Europe as such. In the Middle East: Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria. In Latin America: Colombia, Peru.

The aim of the GPS research group is to develop members’ research skills by sharing and critiquing each other’s work, reflecting on current transnational phenomena, and engaging in critical dialogue about theoretical insights and currents. Moreover, the group works to externally position Roskilde University’s global political sociology by publishing internationally in high-ranking journals; contributing to public debate in the media; giving talks, lectures and conference presentations; engaging in research collaboration; and inviting guest lectures.

For more information, contact research group leader, Associate Professor Line Engbo Gissel.