Raphael Schwegmann

Raphael Schwegmann is a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Culture - Digitalization - Metropolis, HafenCity University Hamburg. His research intersects re-materialized economic geography and global history, focusing on socio-technical phenomena such as Digitalization, Globalization, and Urban Development. He holds dual PhDs from Heidelberg University and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Paris, an LLM from the European Academy of Legal Theory, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the CityScienceLab (Hamburg-MIT collaboration).

• Education:
  • German-French Doctoral Program, Heidelberg University and EHESS Paris
  • Graduiertenkolleg "Philosophie des Ortes", Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
  • LLM in Legal Theory, European Academy of Legal Theory

Research Focus: His work examines the economic, legal, and cultural dimensions of socio-technical phenomena. Key areas include the digital transformation of cities, colonial and postcolonial geographies, and urban nightlife economies. He explores spatial theories through practice-based methodologies and has contributed to debates on "emerging fields" like legal geography.

Publication Trends: Recent articles address digital city science, biopiracy in global history, and interdisciplinary spatial theories. His work often bridges global economic history, urban policy, and cultural spatial analysis.

Teaching & Leadership: He has taught Applied Cultural Theory, Space Theories, and Geographies of South Asia at HCU Hamburg since 2016. He also led the Young Researchers Panel at the CityScienceSummit 2019.

Labs & Teams: Affiliated with the CityScienceLab (Hamburg-MIT), he collaborates with researchers like Dr. Inga Reimers and Sophia Leipert (M.Sc.).