Short Biography

10/2023 till present: Principal Investigator in the NamTip consortium (A Namibian perspective on
Namibian perspective on desertification tipping points in the context of climate climate change)

03/2019 till 02/2023: PostDoc researcher in the NamTip Project (Understanding and Managing Desertification Tipping Points in Dryland Social-Ecological Systems – A Namibian Perspective)

09/2017 till 05/2017: Research fellow in the LINGS (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) project and in the Range Ecology and Range Management Group at the University of Cologne

09/2016 till 8/2017: Coordinator of the Master’s program “Culture and Environment in Africa”, Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.

05/2010 till 05/2016: Research fellow in the LINGS Project (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) at the Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.

Doctorate (Defensio) on the 5.11.2015. Titel of the Dissertation: "The Pump Keeps on Running: On the Emergence of Water Management Institutions Between State Decentralization and Local Practices in Northern Kunene".

03/2004 till 04/2010: Master’s studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology (major subject), Sociology and Latin-American Studies (subsidiary subjects). Title of thesis: "Institutions and Conflict. An Ethnographic Study of Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia".

Academic Membershipds/Awards

Anthropology Southern Africa (Asna); Global South Studies Center (GSSC)

Hamburg's student's price in Social & Cultural Anthropology 2010.

Thematic Interests and Regional Focus

Human-Environment Relations, Political Ecology, Pastoralism, Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods.

Southern Africa, Caribbean.

Current Research Projects and Grants

Courses and Seminars

SuSe 2017: Guerrillas, Paras, Narcos - an approach to an understanding of the armed conflict and violence in Colombia

SuSe 2017: Basic Concepts of Research in Hazard, Vulnerability, and Risk Managment

WiSe 2016/2017: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Social Anthropology

WiSe 2016/2017: Theoretical Approaches to Human-Environment Relations – An introduction

SuSe 2016: Anthropological Perspectives on the Caribbean

SuSe 2014: Governing the Commons: Theories and Concepts Underlying Community Based Natural Resource Management

Guest lectures

March 2022: Local perceptions of desertification tipping points in Namibia’s drylands: a case study (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

Sept 2021: When design principles do not apply: a case study on communal water management in the northern Kunene Region (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

April 2021: Understanding desertification at the community level in Namibia’s eastern communal rangelands: a comparative study integrating social and ecological insights (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

September 2021: When design principles do not apply: a case study on communal water management in the northern Kunene Region (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

March 2022: Local perceptions of desertification tipping points in Okakarara constituency (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

Publications

Di Baldassarre, G., Piemontese, L., Terzi, S., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Castelli, G., Bresci, E. (2024). Over-reliance on water infrastructure can hinder climate resilience in pastoral drylands. Nature Climate Change.

Heita, H. T. N., Dressler, G., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Mbidzo, M. (2024). Pastoralists’ perceptions on the future of cattle farming amidst rangeland degradation: A case study from Namibia's semiarid communal areas. Rangelands, 46(1), 1-12.

Brinkmann, K., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Grieger, L., Heshmati, S. & Rauchecker, M. (2023). How and why do rangeland changes and their underlying drivers differ across Namibia’s two major land-tenure systems? The Rangeland Journal, 45(3), 123-139

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., (2023). Overcoming Namibia’s worst drought in the last 40 years: Ethnographic insights from Okakarara constituency. Journal of Namibian Studies, 33, 31-56.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., Dimba Kiaka, R., Schnegg, M., 2022. Water values and moral economic practices in Kunene, Namibia. Water Alternatives, 15(3): 614-630.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2022. Exploring pastoralists’ perceptions of desertification tipping points in Namibia’s communal drylands: An ethnographic case study from Okakarara constituency. Pastoralism, 12,3.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2020. When Design Principles Do Not Apply: The Role of Individual Commitment and “Voluntarism” in Maintaining Communal Water Supply in Northern Kunene, Namibia. Human Organization, 79(3): 216-225.

Bollig, M., Schnegg, M., Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2020. Ethnographic Upscaling: Exploring and Testing Hypotheses Drawn from In-depth Ethnographic Findings in Spatially Continuous Cases. Field Methods, 32(4):346-364.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., Mbidzo, M. 2020. Socio-historical and structural factors linked to land degradation and desertification in Namibia's former Herero 'homelands', Journal of Arid Environments, 178:104151.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2019. Negotiating Water on Unequal Terms: Cattle Loans, Dependencies and Power in Communal Water Management in Northwest Namibia. Nomadic Peoples, 23(2):241-260.

Menestrey Schwieger; D.A. 2017. The Pump Keeps on Running: On the Emergence of Water Management Institutions Between State Decentralization and Local Practices in Northern Kunene. Lit Verlag: Münster.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2015. An Ethnographic Analysis of the Role of Power in Institutional Arrangements: Borehole Cost Recovery Within a Pastoral Community in North-Western Namibia. Environmental Policy and Governance, 25, 258–269.

Bollig, M., & Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2014. Fragmentation, Cooperation and Power: Institutional Dynamics in Natural Resource Governance in North-Western Namibia. Human ecology, 42, 167-181.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2012. Institutions and Conflict: An Ethnographic Study of Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia. Köln: Kölner Ethnologische Beiträge.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2010. Institutions and Conflict: Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia. MICROCON Research Working Paper 34. Brighton: MICROCON.