Jana Rülke

Jana Rülke has been the Coordinator and Public Relations Manager of the DFG-funded Research Training Group “Ecological Regime Shifts and Systemic Risk in Coupled Social-Ecological Systems (ECORISK)” at the University of Osnabrück since October 2024. In this role, she coordinates the interdisciplinary programme, supports strategic and organisational processes, and contributes to the communication and public outreach of the graduate school. She was also involved in the successful acquisition of the programme.
Since 2020, she has worked as a research associate in Human Geography with a focus on Economic Geography. Her research examines sustainability transformations in global agri-food systems, with a particular focus on cocoa production in Ghana. Within the DBU-funded research project “Value Chains and Consumer Decisions – Remote Effects of Governance and Product Biographies Using Cocoa as an Example”, she analysed how governance structures shape social, ecological and economic conditions in the global cocoa-chocolate production network.
Jana Rülke holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences with a focus on agroecology from the University of Göttingen and a Master’s degree in Geographies of Rural Areas – Change through Globalization from the University of Vechta. During her studies she participated in the international DAAD-funded research project “Reconciling Human Livelihood Needs and Nature Conservation” in Kenya. Her academic work combines perspectives from human geography, rural development and sustainability research, with regional expertise in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Research interets
Agri-food networks, Human-environment relations, Rural development, Globalization research,Global production networks, Community based approaches, Mixed methods approaches

Spatial foci
Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Germany