Dr Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt

• International organizations and international authority
• Public communication and public opinion
• Legitimation and delegitimation
• International Political Sociology
• International Security and Peacekeeping
• Global Climate Governance
• Global Migration Governance

• Building Bridges or Holding the Trench? Tweeting the Global Compact for Migration

• Self-Legitimation by Framing Failure? United Nations Communication of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Peacekeepers

• Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW)

• European International Studies Association (EISA)

• International Studies Association (ISA)

Dr Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt joined the research group 'Legitimation and delegitimation in global cooperation' in November 2020 and will be a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre until October 2021.

Understanding international organizations' social media ecology in times of anti-cosmopolitan contestation

His research at the Centre takes on social media as increasingly relevant arenas for the legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations. Empirically, the project focuses on debating international authority in global migration and climate governance online—two of the currently most controversial areas of global governance. Theoretically, he aims at a holistic perspective on the social media ecology of international authority. In this perspective, IO social media professionals are important translators of meaning, including claims to international authority and representation. At the same time, these attempts to provide compelling narratives about international authority and representation are heavily contested by critics, providing alternative readings of what international authority and representation is about. Arguably, social media frees public discourse from classical processes of elite gatekeeping and moderation to some widely debated extent, empowering citizens to co-create and distribute meaning. However, social media provide peculiar opportunities to self-selective clustering of communication ('echo chambers'), ideological polarization, conspiracy theories and incivility—new challenges to public deliberation as a precondition for democratic governance. With this focus, the project shall enhance our understanding of new digital spaces of reflexive global governance and their potential for democratizing international authority in times of anti-cosmopolitan contestation.

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „Global Governance in the Digital Age“, postponed to the 9th European Workshops in International Studies, EISA, Thessaloniki, 30 June-3 July, 2021 (with Corneliu Bjola)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „Public Communication in International Politics: Analyzing Capacities, Strategies, and Impact“, 44rd ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Pisa, April 24-28, 2015 (with Bernd Schlipphak)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „Entgrenzte politische Teilhabe? Beiträge zu einer politischen Soziologie transnationaler Mobilisierungs- und Partizipationsprozesse“ at Technische Universität Berlin, June 12, 2015 (with Sabrina Zajak)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „The Quest for Legitimacy in World Politics – International Organizations’ Self-Legitimation“, 43rd ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Warschau, March 29 to April 2, 2015 (with Jennifer Gronau, Henning Schmidtke, Dominic Zaum)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „Legitimate Global Governance? Searching for Patterns and Explanations of Public Attitudes Towards International Institutions“, 1st European Workshops in International Studies, EISA, Tartu, June 5-8, 2012 (with Bernd Schlipphak)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop „Konstruktivistische Forschung jenseits des konstruktivistischen Mainstreams“ at WZB, Juni 1-2, 2012 (with Martin Koch and Anna Holzscheiter)

• Co-Organizer, Workshop “Gesellschaftliche Politisierung und Internationale Institutionen“ at WZB, March 6-7, 2008 (with Michael Zürn)