Prof. Arnold Groh

In the 1980s, Arnold Groh began systematic research not only in indigenous contexts but also on field research methodology itself. In the 1990s, he became involved with the United Nations, first as a representative of the Semiotics Research Centre and later as head of S.A.C.S., contributing to UN conferences on climate change and Indigenous rights. Since 1997, he has also worked with Holocaust survivors in Yiddish Roundtable sessions at TU Berlin.

Groh has conducted field research in Indigenous contexts since 1987 and has trained students for this work since 2001. He has led research excursions to Indigenous communities in:

• Asia: Indonesia (Borneo: Punan; West Papua: Dani), India (Soliga), Laos (Akha, Lanten)

• Latin America: Colombia, Panama (Emberá-Wounaan), Peru (Yagua), Brazil (Marubo, Tuyuka), French Guyana (Wayampi)

• Africa: Cameroon (Bagyeli), Uganda (Batwa, Teso), South Africa (Venda), Ethiopia (Hamer), Benin/Togo (Somba/Tamberma), Senegal (Bassari), Eastern Congo Basin (Bambuti)

In his extensive fieldwork, Groh has focused on cultural resilience, the implementation of Indigenous rights, and understanding the mechanisms of culture. His applied projects include resilience in culture-environment interactions, such as replacing fog-catching nets with more efficient fog-harvesting trees to collect drinking water in arid areas. Furthermore, he participated in an evaluation study of sustainable management of East Africa's freshwater ecosystem. 

Among his numerous publications, he conceptualised a functional model of globalisation mechanisms, explaining the emergence of cultural dominance and its effects across the spectrum from industrial to Indigenous societies. He has also presented a critical analysis of Marketing & Manipulation (2008), proposed functional models of intra-, inter-, and trans-cultural processes of globalisation (Globalisation and Indigenous Identity, 2006; Theories of Culture, 2020), and developed minimally invasive field research methods (2018), which are relevant to all forms of contact with Indigenous peoples, as they should always align with the rights of Indigenous peoples as enshrined in international law.

Professional experience

Prof. Arnold Groh is president/director of the research institution Structural Analysis of Cultural Systems (S.A.C.S.), which holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. His research areas include perceptual, cognitive, advertising, and forensic psychology; irrationality; script–brain interaction; field research methodology; globalisation and loss of culture; theories of culture; and cultural mechanisms, change, and dominance.

He understands culture as the result of human interaction, implying that psychology is a prerequisite for resilience research, which cannot be adequately addressed on a purely phenomenological level by sociologists, climatologists, economists, or political scientists.

Groh has held teaching appointments as Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, and various private universities. He was Chair of Interpersonal Psychology and Diagnostics at the University of Lübeck and currently teaches at the Technical University of Berlin. He has also served as an academic guest and external assessor at universities in India, Africa, and Latin America. In addition, he has served as a psychological expert in various civil court proceedings since 2001.

Education

Arnold Groh earned his degrees in psychology (with law as a secondary subject), linguistics, and literature at the University of Bielefeld, where he also received his Ph.D. in Psychology. He did his habilitation at the Technical University of Berlin.    

Resilience and Wellbeing

• Capacity-building and resilience-strengthening methods

• Hydroresilience: involvement with UN Water, natural/sustainable fog-water collection, and limnological resilience (East African Great Lakes)

Prof. Groh’s research integrates cultural psychology with resilience studies, contributing to interdisciplinary understanding of how communities can withstand pressures such as globalisation, environmental degradation, and marginalisation. His work focuses on systemic resilience by offering culturally grounded perspectives that extend theory beyond infrastructural or ecological models towards application.