Linda Hering

Dr Linda Hering is a Post-doc Research Associate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the Collaborative Research Centre 1265 “Re-Figuration of Spaces”, where she explores how food, knowledge and space interact in contexts ranging from German fresh-produce markets to peri-urban Nairobi.

Education:

• 2018-2021 PhD in Sociology, Technische Universität Berlin (supervisors: Nina Baur & Elmar Kulke)
• 2006-2012 Diploma in Sociology, TU Berlin & Auckland University of Technology, NZ

Research focus: Hering combines economic sociology with spatial and environmental questions. She scrutinises agri-food commodity chains, traces the invisible logics that shape urban retail landscapes, and analyses how crises and power asymmetries reconfigure socio-spatial arrangements. Mixed-methods designs, comparative case studies and visual techniques such as mapping and photo-documentation are central to her work.

Key themes: Her publications reveal three interlocking strands: (i) the materiality and governance of global food chains, (ii) the transformation of urban food systems in the Global South, and (iii) methodological innovation for space-sensitive sociology. Recent articles illuminate Singapore’s hawker centres, Nairobi’s informal settlements and the resilience of commodity chains under external shocks.

Scientific awards & grants: No major personal prizes are listed; her projects are financed through the German Research Foundation (DFG) within CRC 1265 and earlier DFG projects on local economic conventions.

Teaching & supervision: She has taught at TU Berlin and Akkon Hochschule für Humanwissenschaften, covering qualitative methods, spatial sociology and sustainability, but no individual advisees are named in the source.

Labs & teams: Hering is an integral member of the interdisciplinary CRC 1265 team, co-leading sub-project A03 “Knowledge and Goods II” that brings together sociologists, geographers and planners to investigate how consumers and intermediaries co-produce spatial knowledge.