ZEF Bonn

Specific Research Areas
ZEF's more disciplinary research follows the contours of its three departments, as
shown in Box 5.
Box 5: ZEF's Research Groups and Themes
Political and Cultural Change
Democratisation and the Rule of Law
State Building and Ethnic Conflicts
Human Rights and Development
Culture and Development
Economic Development and Technological Change
Poverty Reduction, Human Resources, and Public Goods
Trade and Aid Policies, Macroeconomic Issues, and Economic Roles of the State
Technologies for Development and Efficiency in Resource Utilisation
Ecology and Natural Resource Utilisation
Atmosphere and Water Management
Sustainable Land Use Systems
Ecosystems in a Development Context
1. Department of Political and Cultural Change
Research in this department is most closely related to the cross-cutting theme of
governance and governability. There are three research groups that enlarge and differentiate
the crosscutting research on governance. They all ask about the role of a
transforming state for sustainable development. The first group, State Building and
Ethnic Conflict, aims at understanding the dominant form of violent political conflict
over the past decades - a major obstacle to democratisation, the establishment
of the rule of law and to development in general. A second group asks how the
legal systems of states are responding to the human rights agenda and what effects
their response may have on sustainable development. The third group on Culture,
Knowledge and Development addresses how specific cultural traditions and systems
of knowledge limit or enhance the prospects for democratisation, rule of law, and
“good" governance.
1.1 State Building and Ethnic Conflict
Since the end of the Cold War ethnic conflicts have replaced interstate wars as
major security threats. At the same time, ethnic violence is challenging the pillars of
nation-states in many developing countries. ZEF's research group State Building and
Research
43