Research Interests

• Migration and mobility research
• Geographical development research
• Border & boundary studies
• (Post-) area studies
• Translocality and positionality
• Critical spatial theory
• Actor-based and ethnographical approaches
• Qualitative social research

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2019

Postdoctoral Researcher, TRANSECT research group at HNE Eberswalde

2017-2019

Postdoctoral Researcher, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen focusing on interactions between Chinese distant water fisheries and local artisanal fisheries along the West African Atlantic

2016

Research Fellow, ira.urban at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig

2011-2016

Postdoctoral Researcher within the BMBF-funded competence network Crossroads Asia at the Centre for Development Studies (ZELF) of Freie Universität Berlin, focusing on the transformation of small-scale trade across the former Sino-Soviet border

2008-2017

Co-Editor of the online journal ‚Zentralasien-Analysen‘ of the German Society for Eastern European Research (DGO)

2008-2010

Doctoral Researcher at the University of Potsdam focusing on the role of transnational social networks of Mongolia’s Kazakhs in post-Soviet migration and integration processes

2001-2008

M.A. Human Geography, Slavic and Central Asian Studies at the University of Potsdam, Humboldt University Berlin, the Kazakh National University Almaty and the Pedagogical University Dushanbe

Field Research

2023

3 months fieldwork on agricultural innovations in Kazakhstan

2022

5 months of fieldwork on soybean farming and the Chinese impact on agricultural transformation in Kazakhstan, organization of/participation in first stakeholder workshops in Dushanbe and Zharkent

2021

2,5 months of fieldwork on Soviet heritage in agriculture, cropping changes and irrigation water issues in Southeastern Kazakhstan

2019

1 month of explorative fieldwork on post-Soviet agricultural transformations in Panfilov District, Almaty Region, Kazakhstan

2018

1 month on interactions between Chinese industrial fisheries and local artisanal fisheries in Senegal, Mauritania and Ghana (PADDLE)

2018

1 month on climate change-induced mobilities/migration in mariculture/scallop farming along the Peruvian Pacific (Core Funding)

2011-2014

6 months on transformed mobility and exchange processes in crossborder trade between China and Central Asia (Almaty and Zharkent, Kazakhstan/Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan/Guangzhou, China)

2006-2009

12 months on the migration and integration processes of Kazakhs from Mongolia (Almaty and Astana, Kazakhstan/Bayan-Ulgiy, Mongolia)

2002

2 months on the Georgian-Abkhaz reconciliation process (Georgia)

Membership

• Association of Geographers at German-speaking Universities and Research Centres (VGDH)
• American Association of Geographers (AAG)
• Board Member of the Asian Borderlands Research Network (ABRN)
• Member of the Working Group 'Land-Sea Interactions' of the COST Action 'Ocean Governance'
• Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)
• Central Eurasian Scholars and Media Initiative (CESMI)
• Speaker of the Geographic Studies Group at the German Society for Eastern European Research (DGO)

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journals

Alff, Henryk & Michael Spies (2023): Introduction: Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighbourhood. In: Eurasian Geography & Economics 64 (7-8): 797-810. (Special issue ‚Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighborhood‘) https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2023.2258150

Alff, Henryk; Konysbayev, Talgarbay, and Ruslan Salmyrzauly (2023): Old stereotypes and new openness: Discourses and practices of trans-border re- and disconnection in south-eastern Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector. In: Eurasian Geography and Economics 64 (7-8): 896-918. (Special issue ‚Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighborhood‘). https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2023.2169184

Alff, Henryk (2023): Maize-farming forever? Path dependency and friction in South-east Kazakhstan’s ‘post-Soviet’ borderland agriculture. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 270-292. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’). doi:10.30965/22142290-bja10040.

Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Missall, Siegmund & Martin Welp (2023): Path dependencies of (un-)sustainable land use in Central Asia. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 239-269. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’). doi:10.30965/22142290-bja10039.

Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk & Matthias Schmidt (2023): Is the new path a modified old path? Smallholder farmers’ perspectives to cotton farming in Khatlon, Tajikistan. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 213-238. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’). doi:10.30965/22142290-bja10038.

Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk and Matthias Schmidt (2023): Cash crop or food crop? Socioeconomic and geopolitical factors affecting smallholder farmer crop selection in times of crisis in southwestern Tajikistan", Frontiers in Agronomy. DOI: 10.3389/fagro.2023.1228165.

Spies, M.; Zuberi, M.; Mählis, M.; Zakirova, A.; Alff, H.; Raab, C. (2022) Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector. Sustainable Production and Consumption.

PDF  | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020

Alff, H., & Spies, M. (2020): „Pfadabhängigkeiten in der Bioökonomie überwinden? Landwirtschaftliche Intensivierungsprozesse aus sozial-ökologischer Perspektive.“ PERIPHERIE 159/160, 334-359.
https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v40i3-4.06

Alff, Henryk (2020): "Negotiating coastal infrastructures: An evolutionary governance theory (EGT) approach to Chinese high-modernist development along the Indian Ocean." In: Marine Policy 112, February 2020, 103545.

Morales-Muñoz, Héctor; Jha, Srijna; Bonatti, Michelle; Alff, Henryk; Kurtenbach, Sabine and Sieber, Stefan (2020): "Exploring Connections—Environmental Change, Food Security and Violence as Drivers of Migration. A Critical Review of Research." In: Sustainability. July 2020.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145702.

Spies, Michael & Henryk Alff (2020): "Assemblages & complex adaptive systems: A conceptual crossroads for integrative research?" In: Geography Compass 14 (10): e12534.

Kluger, Lotta; Alff, Henryk; Alfaro-Córdova, Eliana & Joanna Alfaro (2020): "On the move: the role of mobility and migration as a coping strategy for resource users after abrupt environmental disturbance – the empirical example of the Coastal El Niño 2017." In: Global Environmental Change 63: 102095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102095

Alff, Henryk (2020). "Belts and roads every- and nowhere: conceptualizing infrastructural corridorization in the Indian Ocean". In: Environment & Planning C: Politics and Space. Special issue on ‚Politics and spaces of China's Belt and Road Initiative.‘
https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420911410 
E-Copy: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/T3DFVZXFMZUPRHJUGGX9/full

Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (2019). "The Multidimensionality of Space: An analytical framework for the empirical investigation of the production of place." In: Erdkunde, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 111-125.

Alff, Henryk (2017). "Geopolitics and inter-actor relations: reflections on China’s rise in Asia." In: Critical Asian Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 465-71.

Alff, Henryk (ed.) (2016). "Beyond Silkroadism: Contextualising Social Interaction across/along Xinjiang’s Borders." Special section of Central Asian Survey, vol. 35, no. 3.

Alff, Henryk (2016). “Introduction - Beyond Silkroadism: Contextualizing Social Interaction along Xinjiang’s Borders.” In: Alff, Henryk (ed.): Beyond Silkroadism: Contextualizing Social Interaction along Xinjiang's Borders. Special section of Central Asian Survey, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 327-33.

Alff, Henryk (2016). “Getting Stuck within Flows: Limited Interaction and Peripheralisation at the Kazakhstan-China Border.” In: Alff, Henryk (ed.): Beyond Silkroadism: Contextualizing Social Interaction along Xinjiang’s Borders. Special section of Central Asian Survey, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 369-86.

Alff, Henryk (2016). “Flowing Goods, Hardening Borders? China’s Commercial Expansion into Kyrgyzstan Re-examined.” In: Yeh, E. (ed.): The Geoeconomics and Geopolitics of Chinese Development in Asia. Special issue of Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 433-56.

Alff, Henryk (2015). “Profiteers or Moral Entrepreneurs?: Bazaars, Traders and Development Discourses in Almaty, Kazakhstan.” In: International Development Planning Review, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 249-267.

Alff, Henryk; Benz, Andreas and Matthias Schmidt (eds.)(2014). “Mobilities in Asian Contexts.” Special Issue of Internationales Asienforum/International Quarterly for Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 1-2.

Alff, Henryk; Benz, Andreas and Matthias Schmidt (2014). “Mobilities in Asian Contexts.” In: Internationales Asienforum/International Quarterly for Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 1-2, pp. 7-23.

Alff, Henryk (2013). “Renegotiating Integration: Dual Citizenship and the Mobilisation of Social Networks of Mongolia’s Kazakhs.” In: Inner Asia, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 101-119.

Alff, Henryk and Matthias Schmidt (2011). „Seidenstraße 2.0? Handel und Mobilität im Grenzraum Kasachstan-Kirgisistan-Xinjiang.“ In: Osteuropa, Jg. 61, Heft 11, S. 63-76.

Books

Schmidt, Matthias; Steenberg Rune; Spies Michael and Henryk Alff (eds.) (2021): “Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia” (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg.

Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (eds.) (2014). “Tracing Connections: Explorations of Spaces and Places in Asian Contexts.” Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.

Alff, Henryk (2012). „Zwischen Geburtsort und Land der Vorväter: Die Rolle von sozialen Netzwerken von Kasachen aus der Mongolei im postsowjetischen Migrations- und Inkorporationsprozess" (Dissertation, Universität Potsdam). Berlin: LIT.

Alff, Henryk (2012). "Tughan zher men atazhurt arasynda: Qazaqstandagy transulttyq migraciya zhäne äleumettik zheliler" (dt.: Zwischen Geburtsort und Land der Vorväter. Transnationale Migration und soziale Netzwerke in Kasachstan=kasachische Übersetzung der Dissertationsschrift). Almaty: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Alff, Henryk and Wulf Lapins (2009). "Oralmany – ėtničeskie kazachi v poiskach identičnosti: Aspekty integracii v sovremennoe kazachstanskoe obščestvo." (Oralman – ethnic Kazakhs in search of identity: Aspects of integration into the society of Kazakhstan.) Almaty: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Book chapter

Alff, Henryk and Wladimir Sgibnev (2023): “Almaty: Modernisation through spatial reordering—urban networks, transport sector reforms, and Eurasianism.” In: Hu, Richard (ed.) (2023): Routledge Handbook of Asian Cities. London: Routledge. pp. 463-471.

Alff, Henryk (2022): “Post-Soviet Decline or China-Induced Prosperity? Agricultural and Socio-Economic Change in the Kazakhstan-China Borderlands.” In: von Löwis, Sabine & Beate Eschment (eds.): Post-Soviet Borders: A Kaleidoscope of Shifting Lives and Lands. London: Routledge.

Alff, Henryk; Schmidt, Matthias; Spies, Michael and Rune Steenberg (2021): “Layered legacies – An introduction” In: Schmidt, Matthias; Steenberg Rune; Spies Michael and Henryk Alff (eds.): “Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia” (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg. pp. 4-6.

Alff, Henryk and Anna-Katharina Hornidge (2019): „Making a Living from Everyday Contradictions: Water Management and Cross-border Trade in Post-Soviet Central Asia.“ In: Lossau, Julia, Schmidt-Brücken, Daniel and Ingo Warnke (eds.): Spaces of Dissension: Towards a New Perspective on Contradiction. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. pp. 193-214.

Alff, Henryk and Anna-Katharina Hornidge (2019): "‘Transformation’ in the Study of IDS: Across Disciplines, Knowledge Hierarchies and Oceanic Spaces." In: Baud, Isa; Basile, Elisabetta, Kontinen, Tiina and Susanne von Itter (eds.): Building development studies for the new millennium. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 141-161.

Alff, Henryk (2018). “A Sense of Multiple Belonging? Translocal Relations and Narratives of Change within a Dungan Community.” In: Stephan-Emmrich, Manja and Philipp Schröder (eds.): Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers. pp. 177-201.

Alff, Henryk (2018). “Making connectivity work: Exploring crossborder livelihoods between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China.” In: Horstmann, Alexander; Saxer, Martin and Alessandro Rippa (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Asian Borderlands. London: Routledge.

Alff, Henryk (2017). "Flowing Goods, Hardening Borders? China’s Commercial Expansion into Kyrgyzstan Re-examined." In: Yeh, Emily T. (ed.): The Geoeconomics and Geopolitics of Chinese Development and Investment in Asia. London: Routledge.

Alff, Henryk (2017). “Red Lines for Uncivilised Trade? Fixity, mobility and position on Almaty’s changing bazaars.” In: Mielke, Katja and Anna-Katharina Hornidge (eds.): “Crossroads Studies: Mobilities, Immobilities and the Issue of Positionality for Rethinking Area Studies.” Basingstoke: Palgrave. pp. 121-39.

Alff, Henryk (2017). “Trading for Change: Bazaars and Social Transformation in the Borderlands of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang.” In: Saxer, Martin and Zhang Juan (eds.): The Art of Neighbouring: Making Relations Across China's Borders. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 95-119.

Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (2014). “Tracing Connections – Explorations of Spaces and Places.” In: Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (eds.): Tracing Connections: Explorations of Spaces and Places in Asian Contexts. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. pp. 7-20.

Alff, Henryk (2014). “Post-Soviet Positionalities – Relations, Flows and the Transformation of Bishkek’s Dordoy Bazaar.” In: Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (eds.): Tracing Connections: Explorations of Spaces and Places in Asian Contexts. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag. pp. 71-90.

Alff, Henryk (2009). „Die Zuwanderung ethnischer Kasachen aus dem Ausland und die staatliche Migrationspolitik – ein Für- oder Gegeneinander.“ In: Alff, Henryk and Wulf Lapins (eds.): Oralmany – ėtničeskie kazachi v poiskach identičnosti: Aspekty integracii v sovremennoe kazachstanskoe obščestvo. (Oralman – ethnic Kazakhs in search of identity: Aspects of integration into the society of Kazakhstan.) Almaty: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. S. 27-36.

Other Journals

Alff, Henryk und Anna-Katharina Hornidge (2019). "Chinas blaue Expansion: Die maritime Seidenstraße in Westafrika aus Fischereiperspektive". In: Geographische Rundschau. Jg. 71, Heft 6 (2019), S. 18-23.

Alff, Henryk (2016). „Markt unter Druck. Der Dordoi-Basar in Kirgistan unter dem Einfluss von Eurasischer Wirtschaftsunion und Wirtschaftskrise“. In: Zentralasien-Analysen 105, S. 2-7.

Alff, Henryk (2013). „Basarökonomie im Wandel: Postsowjetische Perspektiven des Handels in Zentralasien.“ In: Geographische Rundschau, Jg. 65, Heft 11 (2013), S. 20-25.

Alff, Henryk (2011). „Soziale Netzwerke statt staatlicher Hilfe: Mobilität und Integration kasachischer Migranten im ‚Land ihrer Vorväter‘.“ In: Zentralasien-Analysen 41, S. 2-9.

Alff, Henryk und Eschment, Beate (2009) „Bewunderung, Bedrohungsgefühle und ein bisschen Spott: Sechzig Jahre Volksrepublik China in der Darstellung zentralasiatischer Medien.“ In: Zentralasien-Analysen 22, S. 9-12.

Alff, Henryk (2009) „Vom schwelenden Konflikt zum künftigen Flächenbrand: Die blutigen Proteste in Xinjiang und ihre Auswirkungen auf Zentralasien. Ein Blick in die Presse.“ In: Zentralasien-Analysen 19-20, S. 20-25.

Alff, Henryk (2008) „Reale Krisenbewältigung oder nur Kosmetik?: Kasachstans Stabilisierungsansätze in Zeiten globaler wirtschaftlicher Unwägbarkeiten. Ein Blick in die Presse.“ In: Zentralasien-Analysen 10, S. 6-11.

Alff, Henryk (2006) „Vom 'Ideologieexport' zur Wahrnehmung nationaler Interessen – Irans regionale Außenpolitik.“ In: Felgentreff, Carsten (Ed.): Die Islamische Republik Iran. Eine Studienreise. Potsdam (= Praxis Kultur- und Sozialgeographie 39, S. 69-74).

Proceedings

Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Raab, Christoph; Zakirova, Aksana and Mehwish Zuberi (eds.)(2023): Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures? Localised Approaches to Agricultural Change and Bioeconomy. Eberswalde. https://doi.org/10.57741/opus4-837.

Alff, Henryk (2007). “The South Caucasus Policy of Turkey: Strategic goals, Dynamics and Future Prospects.” In: Sokolowski, Jacek (ed.): How far is the Caucasus? Proceedings of the International Seminar on EU and Caucasus, Krzyzowa, March 2006. Krakow.

General Publications

Alff, Henryk (2014). “Embracing Chinese Modernity?: Articulation and positioning in China-Kazakhstan trade and exchange processes.“ In: Crossroads Asia Working Paper Series No. 21. 27 pp.

Alff, Henryk and Andreas Benz (2011). „Kompetenznetzwerk Crossroads Asia.” In: CAS Fachinformationsdienst 2011 (1), S. 9-16.

Book Reviews

Alff, Henryk (2024): Review of Siriwardane‐de Zoysa, Rapti; Low, Kelvin; Abdullah, Noorman and Anna‐Katharina Hornidge (eds)(2023). Coastal Urbanities: Mobilities, Meanings, Manoeuvrings. Brill: Leiden. In: Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. http://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12538

Alff, Henryk (2022): Review of Urbansky, Sören (2020): Beyond the Steppe Frontier. A History of the Sino–Russian Border. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. In: Europe-Asia Studies 74 (3): 508-510.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2022.2050559

Alff, Henryk (2022): „Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China.“ In: Review of Rippa, Alessandro (2020): Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. In: Journal of Borderlands Studies.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2022.2046485.

Alff, Henryk (2021): „Re-assembling the Silk Road(s) from a heritage perspective“ In: Review forum on Winter, Tim (2019): Geocultural Power: China's Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. In: Political Geography, vol. 84 (2021), 102297.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102297

Alff, Henryk (2020): Review of: Gupta, Pamila (2019): Portuguese decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: history and ethnography. London et al.: Bloomsbury. In: Journal of the Indian Ocean Region. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2020.1852030

Alff, Henryk (2020): Review of: Thomas, Alun (2018): Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin. London et al.: Bloomsbury. In: Nomadic Peoples, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 352-54.

Alff, Henryk (2019): Review of: Spector, Regine (2018): Order at the Bazaar: Power and Trade in Central Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. In: Inner Asia, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 125-128.

Alff, Henryk (2018): Review of: Megoran, Nick (2017): Nationalism in Central Asia: A Biography of the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Boundary. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press. In. Political Geography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2018.09.007

Alff, Henryk (2018): Review of: Cooley, Alexander and John Heathershaw (2017): Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. In: Pacific Affairs, vol. 91, no. 3, pp. 577-9.

Alff, Henryk (2017). Review of: Marsden, Magnus (2016): Trading worlds: Afghan merchants across modern frontiers. London: Hurst. In: Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 69, no. 7, pp. 1128-9.

Alff, Henryk (2017). Review of: Mould, David E. (2016): Postcards from Stanland: Journeys in Central Asia. Athens (OH): Ohio University Press. In: Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 185-87.

Alff, Henryk (2014). Review of: Cummings, Sally (2012): Understanding Central Asia: Politics and Contested Transformations. London & New York: Routledge. In: Osteuropa, Jg. 64, Heft 11-12, S. 219-220.

Alff, Henryk (2014). Review of: Brox, Trine & Ildiko Bellér-Hann (eds.)(2014): On the Fringes of the Harmonious Society: Tibetans and Uyghurs in Socialist China. Copenhagen: NIAS Press. In: Central Asian Survey, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 575-577.

Alff, Henryk (2014). Review of: Chang, Felix & Sunnie Rucker-Chang (eds.)(2012): Chinese Migrants in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. London & New York: Routledge. In: Central Asian Survey, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 120-123.

Alff, Henryk (2013). Review of: Mackerras, Colin & Michael Clarke (eds.)(2009): China, Xinjiang and Central Asia: History, transition and crossborder interaction into the 21st century. London & New York: Routledge. In: Osteuropa, Jg. 63, Heft 7, S. 216-217.

Alff, Henryk (2012). Review of: Wagner, Mathias (2011): Die Schmugglergesellschaft: Informelle Ökonomien an der Ostgrenze der Europäischen Union. Eine Ethnographie. Bielefeld: transcript. In: Osteuropa, Jg. 62, Heft 1, S. 168-170.

Alff, Henryk (2011). Review of: Clarke, Michael (2011): Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia – A History. London & New York: Routledge. In: Osteuropa, Jg. 61, Heft 10, S. 141-142.

Peer-Review for

Development and Change, Global Networks, Political Geography, Central Asian Survey, Europe-Asia Studies, International Development Planning Review, Erdkunde, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Critical Asian Studies, Eurasian Geography & Economics, Central Asian Journal of Water Research, Administration & Society, Journal Territory, Politics, Governance. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space