Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Microsociology

Completed Projects

EQUALLIVES: Inequality, early adult life courses and economic outcomes at mid-life in comparative context [Link]

The Research project "EQUALLIVES: Inequality, early adult life courses and economic outcomes at mid-life in comparative context" – Prof. S. Harkness, University of Bath, Prof. J.P. Erola, University of Turku, Prof. A.E. Fasang, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Dr T. Leopold, University of Amsterdam and Prof. M.M. Jaeger, University of Copenhagen– funded by the NORFACE network (the New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) will begin its work soon as a part of the "fourth major transnational research programme on the topic of Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course: structures and processes (Acronym: DIAL)".

Period: 2017 - 2021

 


 

Atypical employment and the Intergenerational Transmission of disadvantage: Britain and Germany in Comparative Perspective [Link]

Since the early 1990s, the incidence of atypical employment – fixed-term, part-time, low paid or flexible shift work – has increased markedly in many advanced economies. This includes but is not limited to the rise of the ‘gig economy’, i.e. the growing share of the economy that relies on work being performed through short-term contracts or freelancing. We currently lack a good understanding of whether, how and to what extent the negative consequences of atypical employment that are known to affect individuals in these kinds of employment conditions are further transmitted to the next generation, thus entrenching social disadvantage amongst this group and hampering social mobility. Our project aims to shed light on this question by bringing together two bodies of inquiry — research on social consequences of atypical employment and research on the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. Building on the theoretical and empirical advances in these two fields of research, we aim to establish the empirical associations between different types of atypical employment in the parental generation and the development and life chances of children.

Principal Investigators: Anette Eva FasangBastian Betthäuser (Oxford)

Funded byOX-BER Research Partnership Seed Grant

Period: 2019 - 2021

 


 

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Family Formation Policies [Link]

This project, seed-funded by the OX-BER partnership, explores the potential challenges in linking policies oriented to the pre-parental phase of family with those oriented to the parental phase. Theories on the latter are far more developed than on the former, certainly from a social policy perspective. Moreover, the two phases of life are typically treated in isolation and by distinct research fields. Policies for the preparental phase tend to be considered from a public health perspective whereas the parental phase tends to be the province of classical family policies. Hence, little is known about similarities and differences in the logics of law and social policy shaping partnership and family formation on the one hand, and parenthood and family life on the other. This omission is highly problematic especially because it makes for a lacuna in social policy knowledge and potential contradictions between social policy, law and health policy. In sum, the project opens up the view of the life course as starting before conception and aims to contribute to elaborating an innovative perspective of social rights of children and parents across the life course.

Principal Investigators: Hannah Zagel, Mary Daly (Oxford)

Funded by: OX-BER Research Partnership Seed Grant

Period: 2019-2020