Dr Janosch Prinz

I am an Assistant Professor in Social and Political Philosophy. 

My research is located at the intersection between normative and empirical forms of inquiry. It aims to bridge methodological and disciplinary divides between normative-analytical, critical-reflective and interpretive political thought, in order to provide reliable orientation for political judgment. In short, I seek to develop philosophical tools useful for democratic politics and public discourse.

Current focal points of my research include:

1)    the relationship between money creation and democracy (e.g. in the EMU), 

I explore (the justificiations for) this relationship in an NWO-Open Competition funded research project (406.XS.04.237, 2023-2024) under the title of "Banking on Democracy";

2)    building a democratic theory which addresses the challenge the increasing concentration of power poses to democracy

Together with Manon Westphal and Enzo Rossi, I direct a research project on the "Contours of Non-Oligarchic Futures", funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung (04/TG/2023, 2024-2027). A paper with Manon Westphal on reinventing the plebeian tribunate has recently been published in Political Theory.

3)    methods in political theory

I have co-developed the radical approach to realism in political theory/philosophy and continue to work on the prospects of realism as an empirically-grounded and critical approach; I co-host the “Realism beyond Liberalism” working group;

I am active in academic self-governance and seek to enhance the position of young scholars in academic. I am the Vice-Chair of the Maastricht Young Academy and have been serving on the Council of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences since 2023.

Before joining Maastricht, I was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in philosophy at University of East Anglia (2017-2019) and a lecturer in political theory at Queen's University Belfast (2015-2017). I hold a PhD from the University of Sheffield and an M.A. from Bonn.

I am further affiliated with the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, based on my collaborative work on the legitimation and political geography of recent counterterrorism and development interventions in the Global South. My work on this line of research has appeared in Geoforum, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and Alternatives.

Recent publications include

Burelli, Carlo, and Prinz, Janosch (2024): A genealogy of politics: vindicatory, pragmatic, and realist. In: European Journal of Philosophy, https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12965.

Prinz, Janosch and Westphal, Manon (2023): The Tribunate as a Realist Democratic Innovation. In: Political Theory, https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231191089.

Prinz, Janosch and Scerri, Andrew (2023): From politics to democracy? Bernard Williams’ Basic Legitimation Demand in a radical realist lens. In: Constellations, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12710

Cross, Ben and Prinz, Janosch (2023): Can narratives about sovereign debt be generally ideologically suspicious? An exercise in broadening the scope of ideology critique. In: Journal of Social Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12511.

Prinz, Janosch (2022): Realism and Real Politics. In: Critical Review of International Political and Social Philosophy. DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2022.2120655.

Prinz, Janosch and Rossi, Enzo (2022): Financial Power and Democratic Legitimacy: How to Think Realistically about Public Debt. In: Social Theory and Practice 48 (1), 115-140. https://doi.org/10.5840/soctheorpract2021121144