Rabea Berfelde
Leading the sub-project on the socialization of agrarian land
Rabea is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Critique at Humboldt-University of Berlin, where she co-directs the research project Socialisation in Theory and Practice. Democratising Access to Land an Energy.
She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her past work explored the impact of financialised real estate speculation and platform companies on both labour and socio-spatial transformations, with a particular focus on the urban economy of Berlin. In 2026, the book “Spaces of Urban Platformisation. Airbnb and Coworking in Berlin” will appear with Routledge. She was an associate member to the CRC 1265 Re-Figuration of Spaces at Technical University Berlin. Rabea has taught courses in Cultural Studies, (Environmental) Sociology and Political Theory at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Goldsmiths College (University of London) and Free University of Berlin.
Rabea’s current research focuses on financialised land economies and possible common good-oriented alternatives, with a particular focus on agrarian land economies. Her work aims to provide a social theoretical analysis of the possibilities and limitations of democratising resources and infrastructure, such as land and energy, in the context of the climate crisis.
Publications
Berfelde, R. (forthcoming). Spaces of Urban Platformisation. Airbnb and Coworking in Berlin. Routledge
Berfelde, R., Möller, P., 2025. (Re)-imagining Housing as an Infrastructure for Social Reproduction – A Proposal for a Radical Democratic Planning of Housing Provision, in: Sorg, C., Groos, J. (Eds.), Creative Construction Planned Economies in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press, Bristol.
Berfelde, R., Blumenfeld, J., 2024. Von der Vergesellschaftung zur Planung und wieder zurück: Über alte und neue Debatten um Wirtschaftsplanung und Vergesellschaftung. PROKLA 54, 177–193. https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i215.2119 (open access)
Berfelde, R. , S. Heeg, 2024. Struggling with and through Knowledge Production: The Campaign ‘Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.’s’ Attempt at Housing Definancialisation in Berlin. Critical Housing Analysis 11 (1), 105-114. https://doi.org/10.13060/23362839.2024.11.1.568 (open access)
Berfelde, R., Möller, P., 2023. Radikaldemokratische Planung der Wohnraumversorgung?: Das Vergesellschaftungskonzept von »Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen«. PROKLA 53, 561–577. https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v53i212.2049 (open access)
Berfelde, R., Kluzik, V., 2022. Platforms becoming infrastructural? Mapping Socio-Spatial Transformations, in: Strüver, A., Bauriedl, S. (Eds.), Platformization of Urban Life. Towards a Technocapitalist Transformation of European Cities. transcript, Bielefeld.
Berfelde, R., 2022. Airbnb: leveraging the crisis of care to become essential urban infrastructure, in: Into the Black Box (Ed.), On Platforming. Digital Capitalism and Its Aftermath., I Quaderni Di Into the Black Box. University of Bologna Press, Bologna. (open access)
Berfelde, R., 2021a. Das Reproduktionsmodell von Airbnb: Wohnraum “teilen” im Kontext krisenhafter sozial-reproduktiver Verhältnisse, in: Altenried, M., Dück, J., Wallis, M. (Eds.), Plattformkapitalismus Und Die Krise Der Sozialen Reproduktion. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster, pp. 130–147.
Berfelde, R., 2021b. Enacting “the Right to the Creative City” in Berlin, in: Tunali, T. (Ed.), Art and Gentrification in the Changing Neoliberal Urban Landscape. Routledge, New York, pp. 108–124.