Sophie Schmäing is a sociologist specialising in democracy and participatory processes,  forced migration and housing. The regional focus of her research is on Eastern Europe. She earned her PhD from Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, in 2023 for a thesis on urban democracy in post-Maidan Ukraine. Her dissertation was awarded the Klaus Mehnert Prize by the German Association for Eastern European Studies (DGO), as well as the dissertation prize from Justus Liebig University Giessen. A graduate of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle (Saale) and Freie Universität Berlin, her academic training included studies and internships at the Universities of Poznań and Kharkiv. Before joining the Institute for East European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin in 2026, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the ‘Horizon Europe’ consortium Migration, Affective Geopolitics and European Democracy in Times of Military Conflicts and as a coordinator supporting displaced Ukrainian scholars through the Prisma Ukraïna programme at Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin. Her current research project is funded by the German Research Foundation (Eigene Stelle) and explores how the war-induced housing crisis reshapes social citizenship in Ukraine.

Research interests:

- urban democracy and participatory processes  

- social citizenship, forced migration, and housing 

- digital ethnography

Current research project:

New Homes for the Displaced: Negotiating Welfare and Citizenship in Light of Ukraine’s Housing Crisis

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Eigene Stelle), 2026-2029

This project analyses the social dynamics of homeownership amid external shocks, focusing on collective and individual responses to the current housing crisis in war-torn Ukraine. Large-scale destruction and de facto expropriation of housing in the territories occupied by Russia fundamentally disrupted the post-socialist Ukrainian housing regime. This regime has been characterised by an underlying tension between the state’s withdrawal from housing policies and continued societal expectations of state-supported homeownership. Displaced Ukrainians who have been dispossessed of their homes are hit hardest by this disruption. The search for accommodation in Ukraine or abroad is a pressing social issue that necessitates renegotiation of the prevalent understandings of welfare and citizenship. 

The project analyses state, municipal, and civil society responses to Ukraine’s housing crisis, with a particular focus on grassroots projects that implement alternatives to homeownership. It examines how changing housing policies and practices shape social citizenship, dwelling, and individual and collective responses to housing provision. The project contributes to a nuanced understanding of the constitutive role of homeownership for society, scrutinising its limits amid crisis and war. It will also enhance our understanding how the agendas of the state, municipalities, and civil society will likely shape future societal cohesion in Ukraine.

Journal Articles (peer reviewed)

Schmäing, Sophie: From Reconfiguring the Urban Space to Resisting Russia’s War: Local Civic Engagement in Ukraine since 2014, Post-Soviet Affairs 41, 2025, no. 5, pp. 478–497.

Schmäing, Sophie: Urban Democracy in Post-Maidan Ukraine: Conflict and Cooperation between Citizens and Local Governments in Participatory Budgeting, European Societies 26, 2024, no. 2, pp. 230–252.

Schmäing, Sophie: ‘Dictatorship of Applause’? The Rise of Direct Representation in Contemporary Ukraine, in: Topos. Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies, 2021, no.1, p.11-31.

Special Issue

Langenohl Andreas; Schmäing, Sophie: Voting over Contested Issues – Voting as a Contested Issue, Special issue, Topos. Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies, 2021, no.1.

Other Publications

Schmäing, Sophie; Shmulyar Gréen, Oksana; Spehar, Andrea: Ukrainian Forcefully Displaced People under Temporary Protection in the Baltic Sea Region. Labour Market, Education, and Housing in Comparative Perspective. Comparative Report Horizon Europe, December 2025.

Schmäing, Sophie: ‘Photographers are very eloquent speakers’ – A Conversation with Jessica Zychowicz and Mariia Kravchenko on the exhibition Ukraine: War and Resistance, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 07.09.2023.

Schmäing, Sophie: Tragedy and Normalcy: Documenting Russia’s War on Ukraine – An Interview with Photographer Brendan Hoffman, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 08.08.2023.

Schmäing, Sophie; Fait, Ricarda: DGO-Jahrestagung ‘Flucht und Exil im östlichen Europa. Macht und Ohnmacht’, 15-16 Juni 2023, Berlin, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 06.07.2023.

Schmäing, Sophie: In Search of a Common Political Project: Understanding Ukraine’s Post-Soviet Path, in: KULT_online, 2020, no. 61 (April).

Schmäing, Sophie: Rethinking Ukrainian Studies: Serhy Yekelchyk’s keynote lecture ‘Writing the history of revolution in the time of war’, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 22.08.2019.