• ​Research project on global justice for children: This is planned as a follow-up project on our project on social justice and child poverty. This philosophical research project aims to develop a theory of global justice for children. In today’s world children face several forms of harm: poverty, violence, human trafficking, exploitation. These are severe forms of injustices on a global scale. The main goal of this research project is to provide the normative basis for their critique. In four research areas we examine questions as the following: What is the moral and political status of children? How should we develop a global theory of justice for children? How can we criticize and finally overcome the injustices in children’s lives? Children and their particular claims have been largely ignored so far in the philosophical debate about global justice. This research project aims to fill this gap. In order to do so it will combine two normative approaches: the capability approach and recognition theory. You can download the proposal for this project here.
• Research project on minor refugees, the capability approach and justice: The so-called “refugee crisis” made refugees – and migrants in general – the No. 1 political topic in many European countries. This is mirrored by an unprecedented height in scholarly attention, also in political philosophy. Surprisingly, child refugees are absent in the philosophical debate – the whole issue of child migration is largely ignored albeit a few exceptions. The research project consists of three research areas (bundles of research questions), which are interlinked and dedicated to the political philosophical research of the situation of minor refugees. In the first research area, the basis and groundwork of a political philosophy of justice for minor refugees is developed. The leading question is what claims of justice do minor refugees have in terms of capabilities and functionings? In the second research area, this framework will be used to analyse the situation of minor refugees in order to show at which neuralgic points their claims to justice are particularly endangered and violated. The leading question here is what injustices do minor refugees suffer? Finally, in the third research area, we are concerned with the actors of justice for minor refugees and their responsibility towards them. The leading question is who is responsible to secure justice for minor refugees? This research project will achieve its aim, and give answers to its research questions by using the capability approach as its framework for assessing what justice for minor refugees’ demands. It should be explicitly noted that in this project the capability approach is understood and explored as a political philosophy of justice, even though it is also a broad and multi-faceted theoretical basis for empirical research.  The proposed project will both temporally dynamise the capability approach as a political philosophy of justice and apply it to situation of minor refugees. The main contribution of the project will be to analyse the particular challenge that the situation of minor refugees imposes on philosophical research, and to do so as comprehensively and as complexly as possible. The project will further develop the capability approach as a political philosophy of justice for children, in particular through an innovative reflection on the temporal claims to justice. And finally, this research project will demonstrate the fertility and connectivity of philosophical-normative reflection with regard to the political and social treatment of underage refugees.

• Research project on social justice and child poverty: I was the Principal Investigator (PI) of a three year research project on social justice and child poverty, funded by the Austrian Science Fund. In this project, which ran from April 2014 until September 2017, I worked together with two colleagues, Mar Cabezas and Gunter Graf, on a first philsoophical systematization and evaluation of child poverty. Our normative background theory is that of the capability approach. The total funding I received is nearly 200.000 Euros plus 25% overhead. If you are interested in this project please go the project's homepage: www.child-poverty.org

• Research Network "Philosophie und Kindheit": I am the co-founder of a research network on philosophy and childhood, which provides a platform for philosophers in the German-speaking world interested in all questions related to childhood and children. Before COVID we organized a yearly workshop.