Junior professor

Community research
Innovation research
Expertise and knowledge
Geographies of crises
New places of work
Economic geography

Verena Brinks has been a junior professor for the "Geography of Social Media and Digital Cultures" since September 2019. Her disciplinary focus is primarily on economic geography. Her research focuses on knowledge and expertise under the conditions of digitality. In this context, she deals with "user innovations" in predominantly digitally active communities and with the phenomenon of "lay expertise" in the digital space. Another field of research is the examination of new places of work and creativity that are strongly characterized by digitality (e.g. coworking spaces, fab labs). For several years, Verena Brinks has also been working intensively on the geographies of "crises" and the significance of expertise in crises.

From May 2012 to August 2019, Verena Brinks worked as a research assistant (PhD student and postdoctoral researcher) at the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research (IRS) in Erkner (near Berlin). In 2016, she completed her doctorate at the Free University of Berlin on user innovations. In 2012, she completed her diploma studies at the University of Münster with a thesis on coworking spaces (minor subjects: political science, sociology).

Verena Brinks works qualitatively (e.g. spatio-temporal process research, (online) ethnography, qualitative social research).

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

Brinks, V. & Donner, F. (2025). Approaching "the expert" in times of (digital) disruptions: Towards a geography of expertise. Progress in Human Geography (Online First). https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325251337717

Schmidt, S., Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2024). Placing career resilience: Collaborative workspaces as situated resources for adaptation and adaptability. Progress in Economic Geography 2: 100004.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2023). Experts in crisis: The wide spectrum of advisors for coping with extreme events. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 93: 103696.

Brinks, V. (2022). Fluid objects? An attempt to conceptualize the global rise of "coworking spaces". Area, 54 (3), 435-442.

Brinks, V. (2021). The localization of digital work: Coworking spaces. Geographische Rundschau (GR Plus), H.1/2-2021, 48-53.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2021). From omniscient narrator to involved participants: Places and spaces "activated" in the EHEC O104:H4 crisis 2011. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 29(3), 321-329.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2020). From corona virus to corona crisis: The value of an analytical and geographical understanding of crisis. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 111(3), 275-287.

Brinks, V. (2020). Fun or frustration? How emotions shape user innovation processes. Emotion, Space and Society, 34, 1-7.

Brinks, V. (2019). 'And Since I Knew About the Possibilities There ...': The Role of Open Creative Labs in User Innovation Processes. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 110(4), 381-394.

Schmidt, S., Müller, F. C., Ibert, O. & Brinks, V. (2018). Open Region: Creating and Exploiting Opportunities for Innovation at the Regional Scale. European Urban and Regional Studies, 25(2), 187-205.

Brinks, V., Ibert, O., Müller, F. C. & Schmidt, S. (2018). From Ignorance to Innovation: Serendipitous and Purposeful Mobility in Creative Processes - The Cases of Biotechnology, Legal Services and Board Games. Environment and Planning A, 50(8), 1742-1763.

Schmidt, S. & Brinks, V. (2017). Open Creative Labs: Spatial Settings at the Intersection of Communities and Organizations. Creativity and Innovation Management, 26(3), 291-299.

Brinks, V. (2016). Situated Affect and Collective Meaning: A Community Perspective on Processes of Value Creation and Commercialization in Enthusiast-Driven Fields. Environment and Planning A, 48(6), 1152-1169.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2015). Mushrooming Entrepreneurship: The Dynamic Geography of Enthusiast-Driven Innovation. Geoforum, 65, 363-373.

Schmidt, S., Brinks, V. & Brinkhoff, S. (2014). Innovation and Creativity Labs in Berlin: Organizing Temporary Spatial Configurations for Innovations. Journal of Economic Geography, 58(4), 232-247.

Brinks, V. (2012). Networks and nest warmth in coworking spaces - working between digitalization and re-localization. Geographical Journal, 100(3), 129-145.

Contributions to edited volumes

Brinks, V. & Zademach, H.-M. (2023). Crises. In: Suwala, L. (ed.): Key concepts of economic geography. Stuttgart, 338-350.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2020). On the spatiality of crises: Relationality, territoriality, scalarity and topologies. In: Bösch, F., Deitelhoff, N. & Kroll, S. (Eds.): Handbook of Crisis Research. Wiesbaden, pp. 41-57.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2020). Crisis counseling. Objective and procedural expertise in crises. In: Bösch, F., Deitelhoff, N. & Kroll, S. (Eds.): Handbook of crisis research. Wiesbaden, pp. 249-265.

Working, discussion and conference papers

Brinks, V., Ibert, O. & Wendland, A. V. (2017). Counseling under stress: Experts in and for crises. (Working Paper / Leibniz Research Alliance "Crises of a Globalized World"; No. 2). Frankfurt am Main: Leibniz Research Alliance "Crises in a Globalized World".

Müller, F. C., Brinks, V., Ibert, O. & Schmidt, S. (2015). Open Region: Model for a regional innovation policy of creating and utilizing opportunities. (Working Paper / Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning; No. 53). Erkner: Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning.

Brinks, V. & Schmidt, S. (2015). Global Knowledge Communities in Temporary Spaces. Contribution to workshop "Transience and permanence in urban development", Sheffield (UK).

Transfer publications and blog posts

Ibert, O., Brinks, V. & Harmsen, T. (2022). Crises - In space and time. News of the ARL 3(2021), 8-11.

Ibert, O., Harmsen, T. & Brinks, V. (2021). In demand during the crisis. Good advice under exceptional conditions. (Policy Paper 4/2021, Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research). Erkner: Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research.

Brinks, V. & Ibert, O. (2020). Advising and deciding in a "Transboundary Crisis". Contribution to the blog series "Corona Crisis(es)" of the Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research Hesse.

Ibert, O., Brinks, V. & Schmidt, S. (2018). Do It! Participation and Innovation through "Making" in Open Creative Labs: Political Design Tasks and Funding Options. (Policy Paper / Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research). Erkner: Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research.

Ibert, O., Brinks, V. & Schmidt, S. (2018). Open Creative Labs in the Urban Context: Why do they Proliferate? Blog post Manchester Urban Institute Blog.

Ibert, O., Brinks, V., Müller, F. C. & Schmidt, S. (2017). Open region: Creating and utilizing regional opportunities for innovation. Enterprise Region, 2(2017), 31-33.

Selection

2025

"Making sense of the 'lay expert': Towards a geography of expertise in times of (digital) disruptions". Global conference on economic geography. Worcester (USA). 05.06.2025

"From omniscient narrator to involved participants: Why there is no "one" crisis". Congress "Research for Civil Protection". Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance. Bonn. 06.02.2025

"(Digital) Connectivity and Economic Geography: On (Unintended) Innovations, Lay Expertise and Community Concepts". Jena Talks in Economic Geography. Jena. 28.01.2025

2023

"Lay experts": Geographies of digitally mediated expertise in times of crisis. Workshop conference of the working group "Digital Geographies" on the topic of "Digital Disruptions". Mainz. 23.11.2023 (together with Friedrich Donner)

Social Media in Crisis. Navigating a new research field in Human Geography. German Congress for Geography 2023. Frankfurt a.M. 20.09.2023 (together with Julian Zschocke)

"Crisis and its management from a spatio-temporal perspective - What role do experts play?" Leipzig Geographical Colloquium 2023 "Crises and the City". Leipzig. 20.06.2023

"Why the crisis is (not) a permanent condition. Presentation of a narrow concept of crisis and the potential for geography". Conference New Cultural Geography: "Geographies of overlapping crises". Halle (Saale). 27.01.2023

2022

"Experts on Twitter and the Geographies of the Covid-19 Crisis". Global Conference on Economic Geography. Dublin. 07.06.2022

"Reconfiguring proximity and distance: How digitality is changing geography. A perspective from economic geography". 6th Rhineland-Palatinate School Geographers' Day 2022. Mainz. 01.04.2022

2021

"Tweeting experts". Geoweek 2021. online. 09.10.2021

"The geography of crises - systematically thought through". Geowoche 2021. online. 08.10.2021

"Demand for expertise in crisis. Giving advice under extra-ordinary circumstances". Conference "Emerging from Emergencies". IRS Erkner and JGU Mainz. Online. 01.07.2021 [jointly with Oliver Ibert]

2020

"It's a crisis, isn't it? Approaching the concept of crisis". Lecture series at the Professional Center of the University of Cologne. 15.12.2020

"Coworking spaces: Emergence and proliferation from a geographical perspective". Lecture Series of the Institute of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. 03.12.2020

"Why crises have a spatiality...and why it is relevant". Lecture series at the Freiburg University of Education. 04.11.2020

"Connectivity, creativity, crises. A relational perspective on digitality and space". Inaugural lecture at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. 19.10.2020

"Experts in crisis: The diversity of advisors for coping with extreme events". 36th EGOS Colloquium. 03.07.2020 [jointly with Oliver Ibert]

"Experts in Crisis". Round Table "Communicating Science" of the Gutenberg Academy and Gutenberg Research College. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. 15.06.2020

2019

"Open Creative Labs: An exploration of their function in user innovation processes and career resilience strategies". International Lecture Series in Human Geography. Karl-Franzens-University Graz. 14.05.2019

2018

"The Spatiality of Crises from a Dynamic Process Perspective". Annual Conference of the Leibniz Research Alliance "Crises in a Globalized World". Berlin. 12.12.2018

"A spatio-temporal process perspective on crises". Annual meeting of the AK Industrial Geography. Naurod-Niedernhausen. 16.11.2018

"Anchoring Resilience in and Through Open Creative Labs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Detroit". 5th Global Conference on Economic Geography. Cologne. 24.07.2018

"Open Creative Labs: The Institutionalization of User Innovation?". 4th Geography of Innovation Conference. Barcelona. 02.02.2018

2017

"The institutionalization of user innovations in Open Creative Labs?". German Congress for Geography 2017. Tübingen. 02.10.2017

"Advice in Stressful Situations: Experts in Crises and Crisis Experts". Workshop "On the Limits of Knowing: Ignorance, Promises and Political Economy of Knowledge". Cambridge (MA). 29.08.2017

2016

"Sharing and (or "in") Communities: The Relation of Two Key Terms in Contemporary Economies". 3rd International Workshop on the Sharing Economy. Winchester. 16.09.2016

"Fun or frustration? An explorative comparison of enthusiast- and problem-driven user innovation from a time-spatial perspective". Economic Worlds Seminar of the School of Geography. Nottingham. 21.04.2016

2015

"Value creation and market formation in enthusiast-driven communities". German Congress for Geography 2015, Berlin. 01.10.2015

"Co-Working: The Organization of and for "Communities"?" German Congress of Geography 2015. Berlin. 02.10.2015

"From ignorance to "heureka": Serendipitious and purposeful mobility in creative processes". International Conference "Creativity in Arts and Sciences: Collective Processes from a Spatial Perspective". Erkner. 07.05.2015 [together with Oliver Ibert]

Summer semester 2025

Lecture "Introduction to Human Geography II: Economic Geography"

Lecture "Spatial planning"

Lecture "Theories of Human Geography" [together with Veronika Cummings and AG Verne]

Project: Research Workshop + Seminar

Consultation hours:
By appointment by e-mail

If you would like to view an exam (HG 2: Economic Geography; Spatial Planning), please contact me by e-mail to arrange an appointment.