Before joining the Economic Geography Research Group and pursuing his Ph.D., Arne Rieber worked at the University of Duisburg-Essen on the BMZ-funded project “Pathways Out of Poverty, Vulnerability, and Food Insecurity.” Prior to that, he earned his B.A. in Integrated European Studies at the University of Bremen and his M.Sc. in Geographical Development Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Arne Rieber’s research interests span economic geography, political economy, and ecology, as well as industrial policy, infrastructure, hydropolitics, and hydro-social spaces.
In the Economic Geography Research Group, Arne Rieber will conduct research for his habilitation thesis on “German Industrial Transformation: Geoeconomy and the Role of the State in the Chemical Industry.” In this work, he will examine the responses of industrial policy and the private sector to a rapidly changing global economy. The focus will be on the interactions between geostrategic and economic processes, as well as the increasing competitive pressure on the European chemical industry. The goal is to make both empirical and conceptual contributions to the debate on economic geography. With this research project, Arne Rieber has already won the Dr. Hohmann Prize from the Society for Geography in Cologne in December 2025.
The Economic Geography Research Group warmly welcomes Arne Rieber!