Johanna I. Höffken

Johanna Höffken is an Assistant Professor in the group Technology, Innovation and Society at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her areas of expertise include development studies, sociology, science and technology studies and sustainable energy.  

Johanna is interested in the notion of responsible innovation in and for a global context. She follows this interest both in her research and in her teaching activities. Her current research, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) – Responsible Innovation call, includes ethnographic studies in India, where she studies the development and implementation of smart grids in rural areas. In a collaboration with Signify, Johanna is involved in a performance study on solar-based energy solutions in Ghana and Kenya. Other lines of Johanna’s research revolve around the issue of urbanization, especially the notion of ‘smart cities’, and how this takes shape in Asia. Responsible value proposition development is another of her research topics, which she carries out in collaboration with colleagues from ITEM.

Johanna Höffken holds an MSc of International Relations from Dresden University of Technology as well as a Master Degree in Science and Technology Studies at Maastricht University. She received her PhD at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University in 2012, where she finished her dissertation “Power to the People? Civic Engagement with Small-scale Hydroelectric Plants in India”. During her time as PhD candidate she had the privilege to participate as fellow in the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard University.  

Johanna also holds an MA in International Relations from Dresden University of Technology and an MA in European Programme on Science and Technology (ESST) from Maastricht University, after which she worked temporarily for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Provincial Government. Johanna joined TU/e in 2012 as a lecturer and became an Assistant Professor in 2015.