Eva-Maria Schäfferle

Eva-Maria Schäfferle is a postdoctoral researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt and a member of the Leibniz research group Transformations of Citizenship. She is particularly interested in questions of borders, citizenship and migration as well as in transnational and cosmopolitan theories of democracy.

She previously held positions at the Université Grenoble-Alpes and Sciences Po Paris and was awarded the Wilhelm-Bender-Prize for her dissertation Modern Metics. EU Citizenship and the Boundaries of the Demos.

Contact: Schaefferle@soz.uni-frankfurt.de

Research project

Citizenship and Transnational Democracy
In my current research I seek to explore new avenues for strengthening the political voice of migrants. Migrants or non-citizens are subject to foreign states’ laws in multiple ways. They are bound by their immigration, integration and naturalization rules, which significantly restrict their personal freedom and choice of life plans. In contrast to citizens, though, they are deprived of political voice and influence. Seeking to overcome the political voicelessness of migrants, I’m particularly interested in new forms of democratic decision-making beyond the nation state. Can emerging forms of transnational democracy bridge the gap between national realities on the one hand and cosmopolitan ideals on the other? Can they help to remedy the problem of under-inclusiveness that modern nation states currently face? If so, how must transnational democracy be designed to ensure that the needs and interests of migrants are adequately represented in the decision-making process?

Selected Publications

2022. Wer gehört zum Volk? Eine Rekonstruktion der Unionsbürgerschaft im Lichte gegenwärtiger Boundary-Debatten, in: Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie, 13 (1-2), 261-281.
Online discussion of the article on Theorieblog: Comment by Joachim Blatter, followed by a response by the author.

2022. Strangers in each other’s lands: Democracy, migration, and inclusion in a mobile world, Constellations, online first

2017. Institutions for Future GenerationsLa Revue Nouvelle, 72 (8), 77-82

2017. ‘Souveränität und Legitimität des heranwachsenden europäischen Demos: Die Exklusivität der Europäischen Bürgerschaft auf dem Prüfstand‘, in: Grossman, Emiliano and Felix Heidenreich (eds.), Konstellationen der Souveränität in Europa, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 87-110

Book reviews
2022. La démocratie communautaire. Généalogie critique de l’Union européenne by Aliénor Ballangé, in: Politiques européennes, 78 (4), 158-163.

2021.  Die Grenzen des Demos. Mitgliedschaftspolitik aus post-souveräner Perspektive, by S. Ahlhaus, in: Politische Vierteljahreszeitschrift, 62(2), 371-373