Staff profile

I am an Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at Durham University. My work focuses on time, sustainability and urban development in postindustrial Europe. 

My first monograph Back to the Postindustrial Future: An Ethnography of Germany’s Fastest-Shrinking City (2018, Berghahn) investigates the effects of severe population shrinkage in the German city of Hoyerswerda. It documents how the inhabitants of a city “without a future” regain their futures, providing the first ethnography of a shrinking city and new approaches to the anthropological study of the future.

I am currently writing my second monograph, After Sustainability: An Anthropological Investigation of a ‘Climate City’ in Crisis. This explores the efforts of Bremerhaven, another postindustrial German city, to make itself sustainable in the wake of Germany’s recent halt in its transition to renewable energies.

I have co-edited a special issue on ‘Time-Tricking’ (2016, Cambridge Journal of Anthropology), and published various journal articles and book chapters (please see below for details). In the future, I’m planning two research projects, one on the ongoing transition to a post-carbon future in Germany's oil and gas industry, and another one on social sustainability. What is social sustainability, and how is it sustained in the context of ongoing welfare state and austerity crises? 

I have been interviewed at various points throughout my career by newspapers, including The New York Times, TheGuardian and Die Zeit. In Hoyerswerda I was involved with various outreach activities, including the AnthroCamp, a research camp for urban youth in Hoyerswerda (video here); and the Malplatte, a sociocultural art project (short film here). In Bremerhaven I am involved with applied projects on on climate change and CO2 reduction (I was interviewed on these projects here).

Previously, I studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge for my PhD (2012). Afterwards I held a fixed-term lectureship (Habilitationsstelle) at the University of Vienna (2012-2016) and a Marie Curie Fellowship at Durham University (2016-2019). My work has been supported by several funding bodies, including the Fulbright Foundation; the Economic and Social Research Foundation, UK; the German National Study Foundation; and the Marie Curie Foundation.

Other

Felix Ringel: "Futures all around" presentation

• anthropology of Europe
• anthropology of the future
• anthropology of time
• postindustrial urban regeneration
• postsocialist anthropology
• social sustainability
• urban anthropology
• urban sustainability

Authored book

• Back to the Postindustrial Future: An Ethnography of Germany's Fastest Shrinking City
  Ringel, F. (2018). Back to the Postindustrial Future: An Ethnography of Germany's Fastest Shrinking City. Berghahn Books

Chapter in book

• ‘Time(s)’ in Anthropologies of/in Europe
  Ringel, F. (in press). ‘Time(s)’ in Anthropologies of/in Europe. In J. Tošić, S. Strasser, & A. Lems (Eds.), Time. Berghahn Books
• Futures All Around: Anthropological Reflections on Where (and How) to Find the Future
  Ringel, F. (2025). Futures All Around: Anthropological Reflections on Where (and How) to Find the Future. In J. Glückler, M. Garschagen, & R. Panitz (Eds.), Placing the Future (119-139). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76841-5_7
• Future-Making in Times of Urban Sustainability: Maintenance and Endurance as Progressive Alternatives in the Postindustrial Era
  Ringel, F. (2021). Future-Making in Times of Urban Sustainability: Maintenance and Endurance as Progressive Alternatives in the Postindustrial Era. In M. Kazubowski-Houston, & M. Auslander (Eds.), In Search of Lost Futures (129-149). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63003-4_6
• Contextualising Expectations: Reconfiguring Progressive Politics in the Post-Industrial Era
  Ringel, F. (2021). Contextualising Expectations: Reconfiguring Progressive Politics in the Post-Industrial Era. In E. Kirtsoglou, & B. Simpson (Eds.), The time of anthropology : studies of contemporary chronopolitics. Routledge
• Sensing late-liberal state failure: Ecologies of resistance in a post-industrial German city
  Ringel, F. (2020). Sensing late-liberal state failure: Ecologies of resistance in a post-industrial German city. In A. Dundon, & R. Vokes (Eds.), Shifting States: New Perspectives on Security, Infrastructure, and Political Affect. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003086673
• The Production of Indeterminacy: On the Unforeseeable Futures of Postindustrial Excess
  Ringel, F. (2018). The Production of Indeterminacy: On the Unforeseeable Futures of Postindustrial Excess. In C. Alexander, & A. Sanchez (Eds.), Indeterminacy: Waste, Value, and the Imagination (1-210). Berghahn Journals
• Class, CO2 and urban climate change mitigation: On saving energy in a post-industrial German city
  Ringel, F. (2018). Class, CO2 and urban climate change mitigation: On saving energy in a post-industrial German city. In A. Szolucha (Ed.), Energy, Resource Extraction and Society: Impacts and Contested Futures (124-139). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351213943
• Neue Gegenwärtigkeit in Hoyerswerda: Zur Anthropologie und Zukunft Ostdeutschlands
  Ringel, F. (2015). Neue Gegenwärtigkeit in Hoyerswerda: Zur Anthropologie und Zukunft Ostdeutschlands. In Der Osten (141-167). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06401-3_7

Journal Article

• Beyond outmigration: Im/mobilities and futures in peripheral postindustrial cities
  Ringel, F. (online). Beyond outmigration: Im/mobilities and futures in peripheral postindustrial cities. Mobilities, 18(4), 593-605. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2023.2209829
• A Season for Plastic - Carbon-Capitalist Times in Blantyre, Malawi
  Ringel, F., & Chilobwe, H. (in press). A Season for Plastic - Carbon-Capitalist Times in Blantyre, Malawi. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology,
• Afterword: Time and Politics
  Ringel, F. (2025). Afterword: Time and Politics. Time & Society, 34(1), 147-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x241308961
• The time of post-socialism: On the future of an anthropological concept
  Ringel, F. (2022). The time of post-socialism: On the future of an anthropological concept. Critique of Anthropology, 42(2), 191-208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275x221095930
• Hope and the future: Temporal agency and the politics of hope in late capitalism
  Ringel, F. (2021). Hope and the future: Temporal agency and the politics of hope in late capitalism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 39(5), 880-886. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758211052115
• Tides of Concrete: Sensing Infrastructural Times in a Former Socialist Model City
  Ringel, F. (2021). Tides of Concrete: Sensing Infrastructural Times in a Former Socialist Model City. Roadsides, 006, 72-80. https://doi.org/10.26034/roadsides-202100610
• Postsocialist Dialectics or Postindustrial Critique? On Discomfort in a Former Socialist Model City in East Germany
  Ringel, F. (2021). Postsocialist Dialectics or Postindustrial Critique? On Discomfort in a Former Socialist Model City in East Germany. Europe-Asia Studies, 73(9), 1748-1767. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2021.1998380
• Ruins of pre-gentrification: Schrotthäuser and urban standstill in a postindustrial city
  Ringel, F. (2020). Ruins of pre-gentrification: Schrotthäuser and urban standstill in a postindustrial city. Time & Society, 29(2), 563-580. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x20906652
• Brexit as postindustrial critique
  Ringel, F. (2020). Brexit as postindustrial critique. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 10(2), 361-366. https://doi.org/10.1086/709780
• On expectations in the aftermath of the ‘refugee crisis’: Ethnographic prospects from a post-industrial German city
  Ringel, F. (2018). On expectations in the aftermath of the ‘refugee crisis’: Ethnographic prospects from a post-industrial German city. Anthropology Today, 34(3), 26-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12437
• Beyond temporality: Notes on the anthropology of time from a shrinking fieldsite
  Ringel, F. (2016). Beyond temporality: Notes on the anthropology of time from a shrinking fieldsite. Anthropological Theory, 16(4), 390-412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499616659971
• Can Time Be Tricked? - A Theoretical Introduction
  Ringel, F. (2016). Can Time Be Tricked? - A Theoretical Introduction. Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 34(1), 22-31. https://doi.org/10.3167/ca.2016.340104
• Time-Tricking - A General Introduction
  Moroşanu, R., & Ringel, F. (2016). Time-Tricking - A General Introduction. Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 34(1), 17-21. https://doi.org/10.3167/ca.2016.340103
• Post-Industrial Times and the Unexpected: Endurance and sustainability in Germany's fastest shrinking city
  Ringel, F. (2014). Post-Industrial Times and the Unexpected: Endurance and sustainability in Germany's fastest shrinking city. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 20(S1), 52-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12093
• Differences in Temporal Reasoning: Temporal complexity and generational clashes in an East German city
  Ringel, F. (2013). Differences in Temporal Reasoning: Temporal complexity and generational clashes in an East German city. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 2013(66), 25-35. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2013.660103
• Epistemic Collaborations in Contexts of Change: On conceptual fieldwork and the timing of anthropological knowledge
  Ringel, F. (2013). Epistemic Collaborations in Contexts of Change: On conceptual fieldwork and the timing of anthropological knowledge
• Towards Anarchist Futures? - Creative presentism, vanguard practices and anthropological hopes
  Ringel, F. (2012). Towards Anarchist Futures? - Creative presentism, vanguard practices and anthropological hopes. Critique of Anthropology, 32(2), 173-188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275x12437979

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Sustainability as Orientation: Towards Sustainable Urban Futures
  Ringel, F. (2019). Sustainability as Orientation: Towards Sustainable Urban Futures