Göran Duus-Otterström

Professor

Department of Political

Science

Mail

goran.duus-otterstrom@pol.gu.se

Fax

+46 31-786 45 99

Visiting address

sprängkullsgatan 21

411 23 Göteborg

Room number

B430

Postal address

Box 711

40530 Göteborg

About Göran Duus-Otterström

Göran is professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg.

Background

Göran was awarded his PhD in political science by the University of Gothenburg in 2008. Following a postdoc at Warwick University, he returned to Gothenburg, where he was appointed as lecturer in 2012. He was promoted to associate professor (docent) in 2012 and full professor in 2018. Between 2017 and 2021, he was associate professor of political science at Aarhus University. Since 2015, he has been employed as a researcher in the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm.

Research

Göran's research is in normative political theory. The bulk of his work can be divided into two categories: on the one hand, the justification of legal punishment, on the other hand, climate ethics and climate justice. Göran's work on punishment explores retributivism, particularly the concept of desert and the idea that punishment can be justified by appeals to "fair play." Recently, he has also focused on the relationship between political legitimacy and the state's right to coerce. Göran's research on climate ethics is primarily on fair burden sharing, that is, how the costs of climate policy ought to be allocated between actors. His work has been published by journals such as British Journal of Political Science, Environmental Politics, European Journal of Political Theory, Global Environmental Change och Law & Philosophy. He is the author (with Bengt Brülde) of the popular science book Klimatetik: Rättvisa, Politik och Individens Ansvar (Thales, 2015). Göran won the 2023 Brian Barry Prize in political science.

Göran is co-PI of the research programme “Climate Ethics and Future Generations” (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2018-2023), which explores central ethical questions raised by climate change and climate policies. For more information, click here. He is also running the research project "Loss and Damage: Normative Perspectives on Compensation for Climate Harm", which is funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Teaching

Göran is course director of the course SK2223 Environmental Problems within Social Science: From Tragedy of the Commons to Planetary Boundaries. He is also teaching on SK1124 Politisk teori, which is a first semester undergraduate course on the history of political thought. Göran has supervised four PhD students to completion. He is currently the second supervisor of Micheline Egge Grung (Oslo University).