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Prof. Dr. Matthias Otten

Dr. phil.
Faculty of Applied Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Matthias Otten

Campus Südstadt
Ubierring 48
50678 Köln
Room Raum 327 Mailing address


  • Phone: +49 221-8275-3360

Office hours

Consultation hours upon request
Tuesday, Wednesday, 13:00 to 14:00
Campus Südstadt, Ubierring 48, Room virtuell über ZOOM oder persönlich nach Vereinbarung
Consultation hours are usually held in person or online (Zoom) by prior arrangement. Please contact me by email before your visit to arrange an appointment and discuss your concerns. We will also clarify whether the appointment will take place online or in person.

Positions

  • Spokesperson for the Competence Platform “Migration - Intercultural Education - Organizational Development”
  • Faculty representative for Internationalisation and ERASMUS+
  • Co-editor Book Series „Disability Studies: Körper – Macht – Differenz“, transcript Verlag.
  • Spokesperson for the Internationalization Working Group in the Action Alliance for Participation Research

Responsibilities

  • Responsible for Internationalization

Teaching disciplines

  • Social Work, Sociology and Political Sciences Social work, sociology, political science, and intercultural education Migration and refugee research, participation research/disability studies, international social work, organizational development, qualitative research methods
  • DFG scientific network "Futures of Social Citizenship" (2026-2028)
    The aim and focus of the scientific network is to develop new theoretical and empirical perspectives on issues of marginality and access to social rights in order to address developments in social citizenship as a key aspect of global social change. Global migration reflects the relations between the global North and the global South and the power relations involved, for example in the distribution of resources. It is an area in which central questions of the reorganization of social inequality become apparent. Since citizenship can be seen as a key organizing principle for promoting solidarity in contemporary societies (Turner 1997: 5), questions about the dynamics, and transformations of internal (Brandzel 2022) and global social inequalities (Shachar 2009) and their effects on access to social rights for migrants need to be brought to the fore. This involves reflecting on the impact of social, economic and technological developments, as well as the side effects of capitalism, including increasing environmental degradation and climate change. In line with current theories of society (e.g. Fraser 2023), the network's focus will be on the future of social rights for migrants with a view to recalibrating the relationship between the economy and the environment, changing care relations and the transformation of the political. Transformations of society in the late modern era of the Anthropocene are characterized by the experience that humans play a decisive, often fatal role in shaping the planet and physical, economic and social living conditions, and at the same time are overstrained to deal with devastating consequences of this change. Ulrich Beck’s diagnosis of risk society (Beck 2012 (1986)) as well as Zygmunt Bauman´s diagnosis of an “ambivalent” (1991) and “liquid modernity” (Bauman 2000) have long since reached a global scale, as transnational incidents, crisis events and hardly-to-control flows of ambivalence are more and more perceptible and impactful for all individuals, social groups and societies all over the globe. While states with advanced social security systems may cushion the consequences to a certain extent, damaging effects often are not covered in poorer regions of the world. Migrants are particularly affected by these developments: Illegalized persons, for example, often have to organize their lives under particularly precarious conditions. But even for people with valid residence permits, social rights are not guaranteed. The network discusses differences in legal status and the possible marginalization associated with it by addressing the changing access to social rights, also with a view to the effects of anti-immigrant policies of belonging on access to social rights. How do states organize a decent life and rudimentary social security on the grounds of social rights for immigrants, and which other actors intervene when state measures fail or are lacking, against the backdrop of these social conditions? This question is at the center of the discussions of the planned network, and it concerns three main thematic areas; (a) the discursive arenas in which social rights are negotiated (e.g. local initiatives, national discourses, international organizations); (b) the actors addressing specific situations of inequality and their modes of establishing agency (e.g. civil society, state actors, migrant organizations); (c) the related practices of claiming and enacting social rights (e.g. protests and other acts of citizenship, legal and administrative measures). The complex task of developing global comparative perspectives on these different social processes requires us to take into regard different levels of society and regional specific constellations of inequality, marginality and political subjectivities. Accordingly, the members of the network reflect on the diversity of this field of phenomena with regard to theoretical perspectives and empirical foci in different regions of the world. We combine perspectives from the fields of postcolonial theories, inequality studies, social change research, and political theory. In accordance with methodological relationalism, the interactions between phenomena at the micro, meso and macro levels are to be discussed within the network. Empirically, we focus on case studies in the respective sectors of politics, economy and environment with transnational/transcultural character in the Global North and Global South, among them Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.
  • Liste der Publikationen
    Matthias Otten, 28.02.2026
    List of publications Matthias Otten 2026
  • Otten, Matthias (2025): Intersektionales Problematisierungswissen der Sozialen Arbeit. Eine rekonstruktive Analyse der narrativen Konstruktion sozialer Probleme am Beispiel der Verschränkung von Fluchtmigration und Behinderung.
    In: Zeitschrift für erziehungswissenschaftliche Migrationsforschung 2/2025. S. 114-132
    https://doi.org/10.3224/zem.v4i2.03
  • Otten, Matthias & Hempel, Sebastian (2023): Epistemische Teilhabe an rekonstruktiver Forschung zur Sozialen Arbeit
    In: Köttig, Michaela / Kubisch, Sonja / Spatscheck, Christian (Hrsg.): Geteiltes Wissen. Wissensentwicklung in Disziplin und Profession Sozialer Arbeit. Opladen. Verlag Barbara Budrich. S. 209-220., Publisher: open access
    Open Ascess
  • Otten, Matthias & Afeworki Abay, Robel (2022): Partizipative Teilhabeforschung an der Schnittstelle von Behinderung und Fluchtmigration.
    In: Wansing, Gudrun / Schäfers, Markus / Köbsell, Swantje (Hrsg.): Teilhabeforschung – Konturen eines neuen Forschungsfeldes. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. S. 367-384.
    Open Ascess
  • Otten, Matthias (2022): Rekonstruktive Erkenntnisarbeit und gesellschaftliche Entscheidungssehnsucht.
    In: Bartmann, Sylke / Erdmann, Nina / Haefker, Meike / Schörmann, Christin / Streblow-Poser, Claudia (Hrsg.): Verstehendes Forschen in der Pandemie...Opladen: Barbara Budrich
    Open Ascess
  • Otten, Matthias (2022): Forschung zu Flucht und Dis/ability als epistemische Grenzbearbeitung.
    Publisher: Migration und Soziale Arbeit, Heft 3/2022, Schwerpunkt Grenzregime. S. 221-227.
  • Otten, Matthias / Hempel, Sebastian (2022): Mehr Partizipation im Kontext rekonstruktiver Forschung: Erklärvideos als didaktischer Einstieg in die Forschung mit der Dokumentarischen Methode
    Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung FQS 23, 1
    https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-23.1.3801
  • Hempel, Sebastian & Otten, Matthias (2021): Partizipation als Element rekonstruktiver Forschung. Methodische Spannungen und forschungsethische Notwendigkeiten.
    In: Engel, Juliane/ Epp, André / Lipkina, Julia / Schinkel, Sebastian / Terhart, Henrike / Wischmann, Anke (Hrsg.): Bildung im gesellschaftlichen Wandel – Qualitative Forschungszugänge und Methodenkritik. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. S. 211-228.
    https://shop.budrich.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9783847416999.pdf
  • Otten, Matthias (2021). Verständigung und / oder Resonanz? Hartmut Rosa’s Soziologie der Weltbeziehung in interkultureller Perspektive
    In: Nazarkiewicz, Kirsten / Schröer, Norbert (Hg.): Verständigung in pluralen Welten. Stuttgart: ibidem, S. 37-53.
  • Otten, Matthias (2020): Kategorisierung und Repräsentation: Methodologische Grenzerkundungen zur Forschung über Flucht und Behinderung.
    In: Brehme, D./ Fuchs, P./Köbsell, S./Wesselmann, C. (Hg.): Disability Studies in deutschsprachigen Ländern. Zwischen Emanzipation und Vereinnahmung. Weinheim: Juventa. S. 151-157.
    Open Ascess
  • Otten, Matthias (2020): Eine Frage der praxeologischen Balance: Fallinterpretationen zwischen qualitativer Forschung und professionsbildender Anwendung.
    Debatte: Beiträge zur Erwachsenenbildung. 3. Jg., Heft 1. S. 23-36.
    https://www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/debatte/issue/view/2779
  • Otten, Matthias; Hempel, Sebastian; Masurek, Martina & Platte, Andrea (2020). „Die Blicke gehen alle nach vorne“ – Qualitative Rekonstruktion zum Anerkennungserleben von Bildungsfachkräften für Inklusion
    QfI - Qualifizierung für Inklusion, 2(4).
    https://doi.org/10.21248/qfi.36
  • Otten Matthias (2019): Partizipative Forschung zur Teilhabe von geflüchteten Menschen mit Behinderung.
    In: Klomann V., Frieters-Reermann N., Genenger-Stricker M., Sylla N. (Hg.) Forschung im Kontext von Bildung und Migration. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. S. 181-194.
    https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-658-20692-5
  • Veröffentlichungen Matthias Otten
    28.02.2026
    List of publications Matthias Otten
  • DGS 2026 Social Citzenship on the move
  • Between distance and eye level. Experiential spaces for participatory teaching and research. Digital conference
    2021
    ParLink project. Final conference 2021
  • 8th Annual Conference of ALTER (European Society for Disability Research) in Köln
    https://alterconf2019.sciencesconf.org
Short CV Matthias Otten
Short CV Matthias Otten (pdf)

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