Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Department of Social Sciences

Sorted by research area

Here you will find an overview of current ISW research projects ordered by research area.

updated until November 2021
More recent research projects can be found on the Research Database FIS of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

available on: https://fis.hu-berlin.de/converis/portal/detail/Organisation/400412062?lang=en_GB

 

Democracy and transformation

After the end of the Cold War, liberal democracy DFG.deseemed to have prevailed for good. Today, 25 years later, however, the liberal model of political and economic order faces a profound crisis. The Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS) analyzes the contemporary controversies about the liberal order from a historical, global, and comparative perspective. What are the causes of the current contestations of the liberal script, and what are the consequences for the global challenges of the 21st century? The Cluster connects the academic expertise in the social sciences and area studies in Berlin, and thereby bridges prevailing methodological and institutional divides. In addition to Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the Centre for East European and International Studies, the German Institute for Economic Research, the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, the Hertie School of Governance, and the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient are participating in the Cluster. Based on research collaborations with universities in all world regions, SCRIPTS addresses the diversity of the contestations and their inter-connections. At the same time, the Cluster maintains close cooperative ties with major political and cultural institutions.

Antragstellende Hochschule: Freie Universität Berlin

SCRIPTS Directors: Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel (FU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin)

Vom ISW sind folgende Wissenschaftler*innen als Principal Investigators beteiligt:

Prof. Anette Fasang, PhD (HU Berlin), Koordinatorin der an SCRIPTS beteiligten Wissenschaftler*innen der HU Berlin

Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Martin Kroh, PhD, Prof. Steffen Mau, PhD 

Duration: 2019-2025

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


Interest Groups and the Ministerial Bureaucracy in Germany: Studying lobbying success at the administrative stage (MINISTERIALLOBBY)

 Ministries are central players in German policy-making DFG.deas one of their major tasks is drafting legislative proposals. It is therefore no surprise that they are an important lobbying target for interest groups that seek to influence legislation in Germany. Even though ministries regularly interact with interest groups, there is no systematic research on the extent to which interest groups are able to successfully lobby the drafting of legislative proposals in Germany. In this research project, we therefore aim to close this important gap in the literature by pursuing two major objectives. First, we will develop a comprehensive theoretical framework in order to explain lobbying success. We conceptualize lobbying as an exchange process in which the minister, as the central political actor in a ministerial department, trades influence on policies for information, public, especially electoral support, and economic resources, while bureaucrats trade openness first and foremost for information. We expect that interest groups that can deliver these goods are in a particularly good position to successfully lobby policy-making. In addition, we argue that the decisive level of analysis is not an individual interest group. Instead, lobbying success can only be understood if we take into account the aggregated supply of these goods by issue-specific lobbying coalitions. Finally, we theorize that the issue context affects the exchange relationship as the effect of information supply is expected to increase with the complexity of policy proposals. Second, we will test our theoretical expectations by compiling a new dataset on the lobbying success of interest groups with regard to 50 selected policy proposals introduced to the Bundestag throughout the year 2019. We will measure the preferences of interest groups and the location of the policy output before and after the agenda-setting and policy formulation stage, in order to draw conclusions about the winners and losers of decision-making processes at the ministerial stage. Our findings will have major implications for our understanding of policy-making and political representation in Germany.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schnapp (Universität Hamburg)

Duration: 09/2021 – 08/2024

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) 


Western societies are challenged by massive DFG.dedemographic changes. Migration, population aging as well as changing family patterns are reconfiguring the lines of conflict. First, they contribute to changing societal needs and problem pressures in policy areas such as health, pension and education policy. Second, they reconfigure the political landscape by introducing new lines of conflict and thus changing the relationship between voters, political parties, interest groups and governments. Traditional research conceptions, such as welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism and class-based voting no longer do justice to current trends and have left policy-makers unprepared for the current dramatic shifts in voter demands and problem pressures generated by population aging, changing family structures and migration. The interdisciplinary RTG systematically studies the relationship between demographic change, democratic processes and public policy in order to shed much needed light on how the dramatic demographic shifts transform the existing political order and the established patterns of political competition. Our research programme is divided into three pillars: First, we investigate how demographic changes affect democratic processes, most notably preference formation, voting behaviour and government responsiveness and how political institutions moderate these effects. Second, we study how policy decisions targeting demographic shifts are actually made and how interest groups, institutional and partisan veto players, and international developments affect policy reactions to demographic changes. Third, we examine how public policies in turn affect demographic development by studying the effect of public policies on family and employment behaviour, old age poverty, old age care, retirement behaviour as well as the societal integration of migrants.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver (HU Berlin)

In Cooperation with Hertie School of Governance

Further Project Participants:

Prof. Anette Fasang, PhD (HU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke (HU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Hanna Schwander (HU Berlin), Prof. Steffen Mau, PhD (HU Berlin), Prof. Thomas Meyer, PhD (HU Berlin)

Prof. Mark Hallerberg, PhD (Hertie School), Prof. Dr. Anke Hassel (Hertie School), Prof. Mark Kayser, PhD (Hertie School), Prof. Dr. Michaela Kreyenfeld (Hertie School)

Duration: 09/2019 - 02/2024

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • Einstein Fellows 

The Einstein Fellows Research Group at Humboldt-EinsteinFoundation.de Universität zu Berlin, funded by the programme "Wissenschaftsfreiheit" by Einstein Foundation Berlin, is composed of eight scholars with a background in critical academia in Turkey. The research focus of the group is twofold: Four researchers are affiliated with the Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Migration and Integration (BIM) and work on forced migration and diasporas. Rising authoritarianism in Turkey is the main research focus of the four scholars who are affiliated to the Institute of Social Sciences (ISW) and the Integrative Research Institute for Law and Society (IRI).
With their research focusing on Turkey the Einstein Fellows Research Group is a valuable contribution to the already established network of the programme "Blickwechsel: Contemporary Turkey Studies" at the Institute of Social Sciences. Within the framework of this cooperation jointly organized events and collaboration on many different levels are taking place.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff

Duration: bis 08/2023

Funding: Einstein Foundation Berlin


  • Investigating EU Rules of Law logosbeneficaireserasmusleft_de.jpg

Jean Monnet Module sind Lehrforschungsprojekte, die über drei Jahre pro Semester je eine spezifische Lehrveranstaltung zum Projektthema anbieten. Im Projekt EU4Law setzen sich Studierende mit dem Thema Rechtsstaatlichkeit in der EU in verschiedenen Lehrveranstaltungen, die nacheinander oder auch unabhängig voneinander besucht werden
können, auseinander. Neben der Vermittlung vertieften Wissens zu diesem Themengebiet werden neue Lehrformate (blended learning, forschungsorientiertes Lernen) entwickelt und erprobt, etablierte Kooperationen neu verschränkt (Studierende der internationalen Partneruniversitäten in den USA (University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill) und der Türkei (Middle East Technical University in Ankara) können sich digital beteiligen und neue Zielgruppen angesprochen (z.B. Lehramtsstudierende). Aus der Lehre und den oben  genannten Aktivitäten heraus werden weiterhin curriculare Konzepte zur besseren Vermittlung von EU-Studien (auch für BA Studierende) entwickelt. Außerdem werden Veranstaltungen durchgeführt, die auch die breitere Öffentlichkeit adressieren (Townhall-Meeting in Kooperation mit Berliner Senatsverwaltung) und darüber hinaus erfolgt begleitende Forschung zum Thema Rechtsstaatlichkeit in der EU, deren Ergebnisse in
einschlägigen Journals oder Büchern publiziert werden.

Project Management: Dr. rer. pol. Claudia-Yvette  Matthes

Duration: 10/2020-07/2023

Funding: Erasmus+


The interdisciplinary programme "Blickwechsel: Contemporary 

Stiftung-mercator.de

Turkey Studies" explores in five scientific projects different aspects of current Turkish society, economy, and politics. Researchers at German and Turkish universities work together. A coordination team at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin supports this cooperation.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff

Duration: 07/2020 - 06/2023

Funding: Stiftung Mercator (im Programm "Blickwechsel: Contemporary Turkey Studies")


  •  Protest und Ordnung. Demokratietheorie, umkämpfte Politik und der Formwandel westlicher Demokratien

The research project aims to analyze the interreThis [result/equipment/video is part of a] project [that] has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s [Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013)] or [Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme]lationship between protest and political order under the contextual conditions of the changing shape of modern western democracy. Two groups of questions are connected to this study perspective, which will be answered by means of a democratic-theoretically-led synchronous comparison of selected contemporary protest movements–anonymous digital protest movements, transnationally organized alter-globalization protest movements, the No Border movement and the rightwing identitarian protest movement: The aim is to clarify firstly (1) the extent to which the new forms of protest question the premises of democratic orders, what potential for further development lies within the new forms of protest on the one hand, and what are the challenges to democracy on the other. Secondly, the aim is to determine (2) the influence and relevance held by the democratic order itself in an age of the changing shape of democracy with regard to the specific formation of the new forms of protest, and what statements can be made on how the formation of the order is changed, in turn, by the new forms of protest themselves. In order to achieve these study perspectives, POWDER consists of an overarching democratic-theoretical framework project (TFP) and four empirical subprojects (SP 1-4), which each analyze one of the protest movements mentioned in the context of a qualitative approach (documentary analysis, participatory observation, qualitative interviews). The comparison of these protest movement investigates(I) recurring patterns, but also contrasting assessments with regard to the interrelationship between the political order and the protest movements, examines at a second level (II) the different manners in which the new forms of protest challenge democratic-theoretical dimensions, and attempts at the third level (III) to reconstruct a general democratic-theoretical determination of meaning of present-day protest movements.  

Project ManagementProf. Dr. Christian Volk   

Duration: 04/2018-03/2023

FundingEuropean Research Council (ERC) - Starting Grant


  •  Spheres of Citizenship                                   

Ausgehend von den konkreten Erfahrungen der Städte Berlin und Rio DAAD.de
de Janeiro wird das Projekt die Konstitution von Staatsbürgerschaft im Kontext von Städten analysieren. Drei Sphären der politisch-normativen Räumlichkeit der Staatsbürgerschaft - ihre Rekonfiguration durch den Schutz/die Beschränkung von Rechten, die Errichtung/das Funktionieren von Grenzen und die Entstehung alternativer Formen der Staatsbürgerschaft - werden konzeptionell und empirisch untersucht, wobei die Auswirkungen dieses Szenarios auf die Produktion differentieller Verwundbarkeiten überprüft werden.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Christian Volk                                                        

Duration: 08/2020-12/2021

Funding: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)


Why do coalition governments (not) comply withDFG.de the policy commitments they have made in coalition agreements? Before coalition governments take over executive offices, they typically engage in intensive coalition negotiations and publish a comprehensive coalition agreement in which they provide a detailed account of the policy reforms they plan to enact in government. Even though these coalition agreements are not legally binding, they importantly constrain the behaviour of cabinet parties as coalition parties can be publicly blamed for not complying with the promises they have made in the coalition agreement. However, previous case study evidence shows that only about two thirds of all the policy reforms promised in coalition agreements were actually enacted. Despite the central importance of coalition agreements for the legislative behaviour of multiparty cabinets during their time of office, the literature has been primarily devoted to studying the formation and the survival of coalition cabinets while our knowledge about policy-making in multiparty cabinets during their time of office is still scarce. We therefore aim to close this important gap in the literature by pursuing two major objectives. First, we will develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that conceptualizes the enactment of coalition agreements as a process that is simultaneously affected by internal cabinet factors (salience, conflict, preference tangentiality, bargaining power) and external factors (public opinion, economic performance, institutional veto-players). Second, we will test our theoretical expectations by compiling a new and comprehensive dataset on the enactment of more than 100 coalition agreements negotiated by multiparty cabinets in 24 West and East European countries from 2000 until 2015 and by combining this novel dataset with information on cabinet features, public opinion, economic performance and institutional characteristics.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Hanna Bäck

Duration: 10/2018 - 09/2021

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • Landesverfassungsgerichte und Justizialisierung der Politik in den deutschen Bundesländern 

  • DFG.deWith this renewal proposal, the research project entitled "State constitutional courts and judicialization of politics in the German Länder" is to be expanded, and brought to a conclusion. In the initial project, which will end in March 2021, the extent and causes of judicialization of politics in the German states have been investigated assuming that institutional and personal factors are causal for explaining constitutional adjudication and the degree of judicialization in the German states. In the renewal project, the previously ignored processes of judicial deliberation and decision-making are to be examined building on the data collected and the conclusions obtained so far. Overall, the project will forward the research on subnational constitutional adjudication in three respects. Empirically, it will provide a comprehensive set of data for the analysis of German state constitutional courts. Methodologically, the project enters new territory through the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Theoretically, it will allow to reviewing widespread assumptions about the preconditions, genesis, and possible consequences of deliberation and decision-making in German state constitutional courts.

    Project Management: Dr. Werner Reutter

    Duration: 04/2018 - 03/2021

    Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Eigene Stelle

  •  

  • Die populistische Herausforderung in den Parlamenten

 

DFG.de

The enduring electoral success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) marks the first establishment of a right-wing populist party in the party system of post-war Germany. In light of this historical turning point, political scientists need to investigate the reasons for the AfD’s rise and how it transforms democratic competition in Germany. Many studies have already addressed these questions with a specific interest on the AfD’s electorate, its policy positions, political leadership and strategies. Furthermore, its role in the German state parliaments has been assessed in various case studies and comparative studies.However, major lacunae remain. Having a strong focus on the AfD, many studies neglect how the AfD interacts with established party groups and how the parliamentary arena has changed under its presence. Moreover, while studies are well informed by the literature on populism, too few insights are derived from the literature on legislative studies and party competition. Existing studies are also limited with regard to the parliaments, behavioural aspects and the period of investigation they study.Our project aims to fill this gap and pursues three specific goals. First, using various behavioural indicators, we will analyse the patterns of the AfD’s parliamentary behaviour as well as the underlying preferences and strategies. Second, we will examine the interaction between the AfD and established parliamentary party groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of party competition in the Landtage. Third, synthesizing insights from the literature on populism, party competition, and legislative studies, we will explain the variation in the AfD’s behaviour and in the patterns of parliamentary interaction. Our main focus is on parties’ parliamentary rhetoric, the framing of topics, issue attention, and ideological as well as issue-specific positions. We will analyse parliamentary speeches, parliamentary initiatives (e.g. parliamentary questions, resolutions, amendments) and behavioural data (e.g. voting behaviour for specific issues).Our project advances the state of the art in various respects. First, it provides comprehensive insights into the role of the AfD in parliaments, which will also be of interest to the international study of populism. Second, it employs and enhances the most recent techniques of computer-based text mining in order to compile a novel and extensive data set. These data not only allow for a rich description and robust tests of our hypotheses but will also enable other scholars to investigate questions that are beyond our project. Third, it promises robust and rich insights by using the most recent qualitative and quantitative tools of text analysis, created by the computational social science and eHumanities.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Jochen Müller
Duration
: 2018 - 2021
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


The Jean Monnet Network 'Enhancing Visibility of the Academic Dialogue on EU-Turkey Cooperation' (VIADUCT) brings together 40 partners from 36 countries. In addition to partners from all EU member states, there are  project participants from Turkey, Egypt, Georgia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Switzerland, and Norway.

VIADUCT’s general objective is to foster policy dialogue and to contribute in the exchange of views among academics and pracitioners on recent developments in both the EU and Turkey. The aim is to improve and to enhance the teaching and research on this topic. VIADUCT’s target groups are academics, students and practitioners, civil society and general public.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff

Duration: 09/2017 - 08/2020

Funding: Erasmus+


Das Institut für Sozialwissenschaften (ISW) und das neue in einsteinfoundation.deGründung befindliche Integrative Research Institute Law and Society (IRI LSI) der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin heißen vier Einstein-Gastwissenschaftlerinnen willkommen, die hier aus juristischer und politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive zum Themenkomplex „Demokratie, Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Autokratisierung" forschen werden.

Die Forscherinnen-Gruppe, die aus den Mitteln des Wissenschaftsfreiheits-Programms der Einstein Stiftung Berlin finanziert wird, kooperiert eng mit vier weiteren Einstein-Fellows, die am Berliner Institut für empirische Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (BIM) angesiedelt sind und sich mit Fragen von „Migration und Flucht“ beschäftigen.

Das gemeinsame Forschungsinteresse der Einstein-Fellows am ISW und am LSI gilt verschiedenen Aspekten des democratic backsliding und der Entwicklung neuer Formen autoritärer Herrschaft in der Türkei. Die Forscherinnen untersuchen aus unterschiedlichen disziplinären Perspetiven, wie angesichts der gegenwärtigen globalen Krise rechtsstaatlicher Demokratien Verfahren und Strategien entwickelt werden können, um demokratische Werte, Prinzipien und Institutionen (besser) zu schützen. Die Forschungsprojekte der vier Wissenschaftlerinnen fügen sich hervorragend in den bereits bestehenden Forschungsschwerpunkt am LSI ein.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff (ISW), Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser (Juristische Fakultät), Prof. Dr. Philipp Dann (Juristische Fakultät)

Duration: 08/2018 – 12/2019

Funding: Einstein Stiftung


  • Research Lab: "Constitutional Politics in Turkey" Stiftung-mercator.de

    Against this backdrop, German and Turkish academics of the research lab analyse the history of the state under the rule of law in Turkey and the many challenges it is facing from different disciplinary, methodological, and thematic angles. 

    Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff in Kooperation mit Assoc. Prof. Ece Göztepe (Bilkent Universität) 

    Duration: 2017 – 2019 (2. Phase)

    Funding: Stiftung Mercator (in the programme: "Blickwechsel: Contempopary Turkey Studies").


As Scientific Programme Coordinator for theDFG.de NORFACE Program „Welfare State Futures,“ my proposed coordination strategy emphasizes three different avenues of networking, communication, and capacity-building: the creation of a Project Leader Council; the organization of a series of thematic workshops that would bring together members of different WSF projects; utilizing synergy effects across projects to promote training of young and emerging researchers and the dissemination of research results to both scholars and the public.

Project Management: Prof. Ph. D. Ellen Immergut 

Duration: 04/2015 – 06/2019

Funding: Norface / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


The second project phase aims to establishDFG.de how EU professionals negotiate 'European' and 'local' stocks of knowledge in the context of EU-funded projects and how they influence the implementation of such projects, especially the allocation of financial resources. In addition to the aforementioned two countries Spain will be included in the study to also gain further insights about a Member State much affected by the eurozone crisis. Using the example of two selected areas of EU funding - the EU cohesion policy and the research funding 'Horizon 2020' -, the study places the procurement and translation services provided by funding specialists as well as the apparent difficulties encountered during this process under close investigation. By focusing on the practical dimension of EU-funded projects, Subproject 5 takes a close look at one of the central pillars of Europe's current crisis management strategy and explores the 'technical' implementation of EU policy-making from a sociological perspective, placing special emphasis on employment and knowledge. With these objectives in mind the study is meant to provide a better understanding of problems and challenges of Europeanization triggered by increasing expertization and professionalization of EU governance.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau

Duration: 10/2015 – 10/2018 (2. Phase)

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


How European welfare states will develop is hard toDFG.de predict. People’s current aspirations, ideas and assumptions will be important drivers of change and persistence and of the extent to which conflict and solidarity surround change. This project uses innovative methods (deliberative democratic forums and qualitative cross-national focus group surveys) to develop an understanding of people’s aspirations for the Europe their children will inhabit. The interactive and discursive methods deal directly with people’s ideas, but are rarely used in comparative welfare studies. The project is essentially forward-looking. It will contribute to theoretical work on the main cleavages and solidarities driving social policy in and to more practical consideration of the parameters of acceptable policy change. It will supply new findings relevant to the politics and sociology of welfare and provide data for reanalysis and as a base-line in future studies. Research teams in six different European welfare states (United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Slovenia) started their work on 1 February 2015. The research consortium will be led by Peter Taylor-Gooby (University of Kent, UK).

Project Managemet: Prof. Peter Taylor-Gooby (Universität Kent, GB), deutsches Teilprojekt: Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau

Project Members: Dr. Jan-Ocko Heuer, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau

Duration: 02/2015 – 01/2018

Funding: Norface / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


This post doc project examines the impact of volkswagenstiftung.deconstitutional politics on the stability of autocratic and hybrid regimes. In line with recent research, it argues that constitutions and constitutional politics have a variety of purposes both in substance and in effect in these contexts. Assuming that ruling alone and absolutely is merely a theoretical possibility, political power is always, even in its most absolute sense dependent on a cohesive group and "a device" (following Ginsburg and Simpser) to control this group. In a surprisingly high number of cases, these devices of choice are constitutions. More importantly, hybrid regimes establish a unique form of commitment to constitutions. This results in fierce political conflicts over amendments. Hence, this project aims to understand how and why constitutional rule in autocratic and hybrid regimes helps to consolidate state power. The project utilizes an event-history approach, which allows to estimate the effects of the factors on the dependent variable (duration of the autocratic regime) over time. The preliminary factors found to hold some predictive power are few leadership changes, defeat in war, and low level of constitutional politics in general. The sample includes the constitutions of independent states that have existed between 1918 and 2015.

Project Management: Dr. Anna Fruhstorfer

Duration: 2016 – 2017

Funding: Volkswagen Foundation


Recent protests against austerity measures and DFG.dethe political pressure experienced by governments across the Eurozone point to the vital importance of public opinion about Europeanization for policy-making and political conflict. This research project investigates the causes of citizen attitudes toward European integration and the European Union (EU). My main goal is to determine whether political elites (politicians, experts, and political parties) have the capacity to influence public opinion and to manufacture political majorities for or against European integration. I focus on elite influence through political rhetoric and party competition, and I study the interaction of these types of communication with individual dispositions that are known to be strongly correlated to EU attitudes. The extant literature relies almost entirely on non-experimental observational studies, and has so far failed to provide valid evidence for the extent of elite influence. I address this issue by conducting a series of seven political psychological experiments, combined with an analysis of existing data from public opinion surveys, media content assessments, and party manifesto codings.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Konstantin Vössing 

Duration: 02/2013 – 12/2017

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

DFG.deInternational and domestic developments, both economic and ideational,create challenges for contemporary democracies, such as adapting their welfare states, recalibrating their agricultural policies, and reacting to the phenomenon of growing numbers of immigrants. Such policy recalibration poses a distinct problem for democracy, because recalibration entails a reallocation of resources and recognition from established interests and influential voters to newly mobilizing voters and interests. Thus, we have reason to believe that electoral pressure and political competition might affect the ability of governments to recalibrate public policies. Fear of voter retribution might lead to blame avoidance, and thus to avoidance of the problem of adapting pension systems so as to make them more fiscally-sustainable. Similarly, the vulnerability of politicians to nativist voters might impede efforts to change citizenship laws in light of increasing migration. In the agricultural area, as well, angry farmers might threaten electorally-vulnerable politicians and thus block efforts to reduce trade-distorting and ecologically-counterproductive agricultural subsidies.The purpose of this project is two-fold. First we wish to explain the variance in legislative responses to these challenges across nations, across time, and across policy areas. Second, we wish to develop a robust measure of the electoral vulnerability of politicians that incorporates both features of political institutions and political competition so as to be able to include the factor of electoral vulnerability in analyses of the political determinants of public policies. This project builds upon a data set based on a previous DFG Project, which includes the political characteristics of 186 governments in 16 West European nations from 1980-2005, as well an index of pension reform efforts of these governments. Now we propose to update and improve this data set, and to expand it to new policy areas in order to assess the political determinants of policy recalibration in three areas that vary with respect to the degree of interest intermediation: pensions, agriculture and citizenship.

Project Management: Prof. Ph. D. Ellen Immergut 

Duration: 03/2013 – 09/2017

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

 

Migration and the urban world

Social Inequalities, Migration DFG.deand the Rise of Populist Parties

Project Management: Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Martin Kroh, PhD, Research Team: Dr. Lukas Stoetzer

Duration: 2019-2025

Debating the Legitimacy of Borders: How the Inclusion and Exclusion of Migrants and Refugees is Justified Across the World

Project Management: Prof. Steffen Mau, PhD (HU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gerhards (FU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig (FU Berlin)

Duration: 2019-2025
 

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • Deutscher Islam als Alternative zum Islamismus? Antworten auf islamistische Bedrohungen in muslimischen Verbänden, Gemeinden und Lebenswelten

    Das Forschungsprojekt „Deutscher Islam als Alternative zum Islamismus?“ (DISLAM) verortet sich im Themenfeld II: „Gesellschaftliche Wirkungen von Islamismus“. Während die aktuelle Forschung zu Islamismus den Fokus vornehmlich auf die Auswirkungen des Islamismus auf die Mehrheitsgesellschaft legt, werden die Auswirkungen des Islamismus auf die muslimischen Communities nur am Rande untersucht. Hier sehen wir eine Forschungslücke, die geschlossen werden muss. Islamisten bauen durch unterschiedliche Strategien Druck auf muslimische Communities auf: so z.B. indem sie ihnen vorwerfen, durch die Migration den Zugang zum wahren Islam verloren zu haben oder indem sie aggressiv um Jugendliche werben oder auch indem sie Missionierungsmaterial mitbringen und kostenlos verteilen, etc. Die Umgangsstrategien der muslimischen Verbände, der (Moschee)-Vereine und muslimischer Einzelpersonen mit dem Phänomen Islamismus sind unterschiedlicher Natur. Aufklärungsmaßnahmen für die Gemeindemitglieder gehören ebenso dazu wie Versuche die Islamisten in die Gemeindestrukturen einzugliedern, um somit ihren Einfluss zu neutralisieren oder sie aus der Gemeinde zu verweisen. In einem ersten Modul „Fishing-Strategien“ sollen die Strategien des Islamismus in Hinblick auf deren Rekrutierungsmechanismen durch die Führung von ExpertInnen-Interviews erschlossen werden. In einem zweiten Modul, das als „Community-Defense“ bezeichnet wird, sollen die Umgangsstrategien von muslimischen Verbänden und Vereinen mit dem Islamismus durch qualitative Interviews untersucht werden. Das dritte Modul „Deutscher Islam“ erarbeitet die Transformation und Hybridisierung des Islam in einem theoretischen Rahmen auf Basis der Ergebnisse der empirischen Module I und II.

    Project Management: Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan

    Duration: 09/2020-08/2023

    Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)


  • From Demolition to Immigration? New Perspectives for Peripheral Housing Estates 

    The joint research project „From Demolition to Immigration? New Perspectives for Peripheral Housing Estates” (StadtUmMig) investigates potentials and obstacles in the context of sustainable urban development in three former East-German large-scale residential housing estates. The project is designed as a comparative case study. For a duration of three years, the neighbourhoods Mueßer Holz in Schwerin, Sandow in Cottbus and Südliche Neustadt in Halle (Saale) will be the subject of empirical inquiry.
    Following a long period of urban reconstruction and population decline, these neighbourhoods have seen an increased influx of refugee residents over the last years. This influx generates new urban development perspectives for these residential areas, which are now majorly shaped by migration.

    Project Management: Dr. Ulrike Hamann, Nihad El-Kayed

    Duration: 05/2019-04/2022

    Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research


  • Female Employment after Migration (FEM): A Dynamic Approach to Women’s Work and Family Patterns after Migration

DFG.de

A large body of literature has amassed that investigates the conditions and processes of the labour market integration of migrants. In this context, female migrants have often been viewed as "tied movers" whose migration decision is subordinate to the behaviour of the male breadwinner. How these gendered migration patterns influence the life course of female migrants, however, has often been left unexplored. This project seeks to fill parts of this research gap by adopting a life course approach to examine how female migrants’ employment decisions intersect with the fertility and partnership domain of the life course. Data for this analysis will come from the IAB-Migrant and the Refugee Samples of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the microcensus and the Integrated Employment Biographies Sample (IEBS). Our analytical sample will include the most recent female migrants who have come to Germany in the years 1990–2015. Our project fills a research gap in the following ways: Firstly, we provide novel evidence on recent migrants’ behaviour based on rich longitudinal data that has become available for Germany. Secondly, we bridge the rather unrelated strands of literature that examine the employment and family behaviour of migrants. Thirdly, we investigate how employment intersects with other domains of the life course, in particular how the conditions at migration span forward in time and influence migrants’ family, employment and poverty dynamics.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke

Duration: 02/2019-01/2022 

Funding: DFG-Sachbeihilfe


  • Corona Crisis and Beyond - Perspectives for Science, Scholarship and Society Urban citizenship-making at times of crisis: Building local-level resilience among migrants in Berlin, Copenhagen and Tel-Aviv 

This project examines the role local Volkswagen-Stiftung.destakeholder play for crisis management and asks how their capacity to build urban resilience in relation to migrants' rights can be strengthened. Key results will include insights into the way community organizations and local institutions in three different settings - Berlin, Copenhagen, and Tel Aviv - responded to the Covid-19 health crisis. This will advance our understanding of urban citizenship regimes and how a shift from national 'one-size-fits-all' strategies to nuanced group-specific and spatially sensitive approaches in crisis management can be facilitated.

Project Management: Dr. Henrik Lebuhn, Dr. Tatiana Fogelman (Roskilde University, Dänemark), Dr. Nir Cohen (Bar Ilan University, Israel)

Duration: 2021-2022

Funding: Volkswagen Foundation


  • Collaborative Research Centre  1265: “Re-Figuration of Spaces”: Sub-projectsDFG.de

Project Management CRC 1265: Prof. Dr. Hubert Knoblauch and Prof. Dr. Martina Löw, Technische Universität Berlin

The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective 

In the project “The Borders of the World: Processes of De- and Rebordering in a Global Perspective”, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau and his colleagues analyse territorial borders between different nation-states.
In contrast to earlier assumptions of globalisation literature, which predicted ongoing debordering and a diminishing role of borders, the project conceptualises borders as physical and material barriers. This conceptualisation allows to analyse how border infrastructures affect the appropriation of space, the organisation of territoriality, and the mobility of individuals. In this perspective, rebordering and re-figuration are intertwined.
The project applies a comparative approach in order to survey the material and physical qualities of land border of nation-states. We expect that differing border configurations lead to varying relations of space and spatial stabilisation.
The project aims at surveying all land borders between nation-states. A systematic typology of borders will include borders without barriers, borders with punctual controls and patrols, and those that feature significant fences and walls with barbed wire.
On the basis of this taxonomy, case studies on borders that are highly fortified and militarised will be conducted. The qualitative part of the study is intended to provide in-depth insights on the factors driving the fortification and militarisation of borders as well as their effect on border crossings, interactions and mobility.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau

Duration: 01/2018-12/2021

Holdings: SPC01

The World Down My Street: Resources and Networks Used by City Dwellers

Do neighborhood still matter for our lifes today? Does the increasing mobility in our cities set the ground for new spatial patterns in social networks? Who benefits from new spatial arrangements that organize our daily life? And does it result in new forms of social inequalities in the city? Which local and transclocal belongings come along with it?
The subdivision C04 “The World Down My Street: Resources and Networks Used by City Dwellers“ investigates these research questions. We will conduct a representative quantitative survey as well as qualitative interviews and participatory observations in four neighborhoods in Berlin. The chosen neighborhoods differ in social and economic characteristics, building structures and local facilities and institutions.
We assume that city dwellers develop specific practices in social networks in order to take care of themselves and their families. Studying people´s access to resources, the conventional sociological network approach overemphasizes the density and distance of social ties. Ties which are more fluid, but still relevant, are mostly overlooked. Therefore, we investigate the tension between new translocal spatial pattern in social networks and the situatedness in a location.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Talja Blokland

Duration: 01/2018-12/2021

Holdings: SPC04

 

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • Bricks for a New Social Housing 

The research project analyses the current search movements of city governments and civil society initiatives for concepts of new social housing. The research project focuses on case-study analyses of numerous initiatives and projects that develop and test models for new social housing. It is important to understand socially not only in the sense of affordable, but also in the sense of collectivity and communality. The importance of mutual assistance in everyday life is increasing, because the economization of many areas of life and the reduction of social welfare are forcing larger sections of the population to reduce their living costs.

Project Management: Dr. phil. Andrej Holm 

Duration: 03/2019-12/2020

Funding: Incoming Research Fellowship ‚Immobilienwirtschaft und Standortentwicklung‘ der TU Wien‘


  • Migration und Mitbestimmung im Betrieb Engagementverläufe von ArbeitnehmerInnen mit Migrationshintergrund im Kontext betrieblicher  Mitbestimmung 

Untersucht werden Engagementverläufe von Betriebsräten mit böckler-stiftung.deMigrationshintergrund. Ausgangsthese ist, dass die Strukturen der betrieblichen Demokratie sich positiv auf Prozesse der politischen und sozialen Integration auswirken. Die hohe Beteiligung von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund in gewerkschaftliche Aktivitäten etwa kann aber auch exogen, durch herkunftsbezogene Sozialisationen, induziert sein oder aber von lokalen Gegebenheiten abhängen, etwa der Organisationskultur im Betrieb oder den Gewerschaften. Die Studie geht vergleichend vor (Branchenintern, nach Geschlechterkomposition, regional) und erhebt narratives Interviewmaterial (Biografische Interviews), die ergänzt werden um strukturierte Gruppendiskussionen.

Project Management: Dr. Serhat Karakayali (Berliner Inst. f. empirische Integrations- u. Migrationsforsch.)

Duration: 11/2017-11/2020 

Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung


  •  Welcoming Neighborhoods  

The research project "Welcoming Neighborhoods – Conditions of Social Cohesion in Super-diverse Communities" explores the conditions of social conflicts and social cohesion in urban neighborhoods in Germany. It addresses three key questions: To what extent does new diversity in neighborhoods lead to conflicts and/or new convivial forms of coexistence? How do conflicts contribute to a new understanding of local community and welcome culture? Where do conflicts arise and what role do the socio-economic status and intercultural competence of neighborhood residents play in this context? To answer these questions, we conduct a comparative analysis of four neighborhoods that differ along the axes of socio-economic and socio-cultural diversity.
The aim of the research project is to establish which factors determine local crisis resilience in selected neighborhoods. The four cases will be analyzed in the context of two intertwining crises: the housing crisis – which is currently emerging in a number of places in Germany due to a shortage of available housing as well as rising real estate and rental prices – and the so-called refugee crisis. The two crises have different local effects but are also interdependent and often lead to local conflicts over housing and the arrival of refugees. This applies in particular in urban agglomerations, where housing markets were already subject to a high degree of pressure even before the start of refugee migration to Germany (Holm et al 2015, Schönig et al., 2017, Media Service 2016). Besides creating additional demand for cheap housing, the refugee migration of recent years has also contributed to a sudden increase in the diversity of migration histories, religions, lifestyles and socio-economic conditions among the population in Germany, as well as giving rise to narratives of local areas being pushed beyond their limit, especially among residents in medium-sized and larger cities (Schamann 2017). Against this background, the research project "Welcoming Neighborhoods" examines the question of social cohesion under the condition of increasing diversity in local neighborhoods. Our particular interest lies in determining which factors strengthen social cohesion in times of interconnected crises, and in analyzing the values and norms, experiences and negotiation processes that play a part in bolstering that cohesion. Existing research tends to examine increasing diversity in neighborhoods primarily in relation to the erosion of social capital and social cohesion (Putnam 2007, Alesina/Ferrara 2000, Gundelach/Traunmüller 2010). According to this perspective, the change is experienced by neighborhood residents as crisis-laden and leads to negative results, such as the reduction of mutual trust among residents or their willingness to be active in civil society. Our research project aims to change the perspective by examining the conditions under which new diversity in neighborhoods does not lead to an erosion of social capital, but rather gives rise to successful social conflict management. One example of this type of positive outcome that is of particular interest to the project is the remarkable increase in civic engagement observed in Germany since 2011 in the course of the ongoing refugee migration (see Hamann et al., 2016).

Project Management: Dr. Ulrike Haman, Nihad El Kayed

Duration: 10/2017 - 09/2020

Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research


  • AI Empowered Sustainable Urban Mobility Platform (AISUM)

Urban mobility is undergoing a tremendous change. Under the keyword Smart Mobility, new mobility offers are increasingly being integrated into the urban environment. This process offers opportunities to reduce environmentally harmful emissions, as new mobility services can supplement local public transport and reduce the amount of private car traffic in the city. However, it is also associated with risks, mainly due to the lack of control and integration of new and old urban transport modes. Initial studies on e-scooters and other sharing services indicate, for example, that under the given conditions they do not contribute to the resource-saving transformation of urban mobility, but rather lead to higher environmental pollution due to overcapacity and waste.
The urban population has a legitimate interest in mobility services that are as comprehensive, reliable and comfortable as possible on the one hand, and in urban transport that is as sustainable as possible, especially low-noise and low-emission transport on the other. The combination of real-time data from numerous sharing offers and the public transport network on a user-optimized smart mobility platform offers the possibility of combining both demands for the first time. To this end, cities need mobility platforms that enable the connection and control of old and new mobility services in accordance with social-ecological criteria.
The project aims at establishing a platform for sustainable urban mobility in which climate protection and resource efficiency are structurally anchored. Users should be able to see the ecological costs of different transport options in a transparent manner and be encouraged to use particularly climate-friendly means of transport. Thus, AISUM is connected to an ongoing project of the Berlin public transport authority (BVG), which combines public transport and new, private mobility services (bike, scooter, car and scooter sharing) and provides users with multimodal mobility from one source. However, there is currently still a lack of an intermodal platform solution on the basis of which all mobility services can be combined simply and intelligently to form resource-saving transport alternatives. Moreover, ecological criteria are not taken into account. The project addresses both challenges by combining the data streams of different mobility providers on one platform and evaluating them by means of machine learning. For this purpose, various so-called Green-AI-Use Cases are designed and prototypically implemented.

Project Management: Prof. Philipp Staab, M.A. Dominik Piétron

Duration: 04/2020 – 09/2020

Funding: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety


The project aims to logosbeneficaireserasmusleft_de.jpgfoster a more peaceful generation in Europe and in Turkey that approaches migrants with positive attitudes to overcome prejudices, tackle discrimination and help social inclusion through intercultural communication. It will aim to achieve this objective via an international peace dialogue campus network of university students, led by 30 "Peace Envoys". They will be trained for 2 years in the Peacemakers project to develop their problem solving, critical thinking, collaborative working and conflict resolution skills through rigorous academic preparation, experiential education and leadership development. Both formal (online course) and non-formal (train-the-trainer camps) education methods will be used. The 30 Peace Envoys will be composed of 6 students from 5 partner universities (except Aberta, which is an open university that only offers online education). They will gather in 3 train-the-trainer camps in Istanbul, Florence, Rotterdam respectively. Each train-the-trainer camp will take place for 5 days. In these train-the-trainer camps, the Peace Envoys will be trained as trainers, who will be assigned, right after the Train-the-trainer Camp 1, with the task of training student groups and creating peace dialogue students’ clubs in their home universities, which will finally become a "Peace Dialogue Campus Network".
This program is led by Koc University in Istanbul, with a generous funding from Erasmus Plus. The project will last for 2 years and it will be completed in March 2020.

Partners: Erasmus University in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Gaziantep University (Turkey), Universidade Aberta (Portugal), Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy) and Koc University (Turkey)

Project Management: Dr. rer. pol. Claudia-Yvette Matthes

Participants: Kristin Küter

Former Project Management: Prof. Dr. Gökce Yurdakul 

Duration: 01/2018 - 04/2020

Funding: Erasmus+


Conflicts between religion and secularity (i.e., secular GIF .deand religious discourses, norms, actors, and institutions) are shaped differently in differing socio-legal contexts in the Middle East and Europe. While current scholarship has often studied this tension by focusing on religious rituals (head-scarf, minarets, animal slaughter, etc.), we claim that new light can be shed on the religion/secularity tension by exploring a broader set of examples concerning bodily politics, that is legal contestations over images of the body and authority over the body. To explore the way secularity and religion shape and are shaped by the legal regulation of body politics we focus on three recent controversies: male circumcision, brain-dead organ donation, and abortion in three different countries Germany, Israel, and Turkey.

Project Management: Prof. Gökce Yurdakul, Prof. Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv University)

Duratoin: 01/2016 - 12/2019

Funding: German-Israeli Foundation (GIF)


stiftung-mercator.deThe transdisciplinary research group "Young Islam-Related Topics in Germany" ("Junge Islambezogene Themen in Deutschland“/JUNITED) empirically analyzes the reactions towards Germany as a changing country of immigration, particularly with regard to the topic of Islam and Muslims. Images of Islam and Muslims are taken as an indicator for the societal attitudes towards minorities in an increasingly plural and heterogeneous society. The research group analyzes how existing cultural and national patterns of interpretation ("Narrations of being German") in combination with socio-structural factors frame the discourse around questions of integration and migration in a diversifying society. The project's task is to identify and analyze these interactions between cultural narratives and structural conditions. The study design, aimed at this task, differs methodologically and theoretically from pre-existing studies which either analyze only socio-structural or only cultural factors in order to explain racism and fear of exclusion. In order to test our theoretical assumptions empirically we conduct a quantitative, nationwide telephone survey (N=8400). Through qualitative coding the material is analytically complemented. 

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan, Dr. Coskun Canan

Duration: 06/2012 - 05/2019

Funding: Stiftung Mercator


Europaweit bestimmt die eigene Migrationsgeschichte DAAD.dedie sozial-ökonomische Positionierung der Menschen. Die Positionierung, aber auch die Aufstiegschancen der Migrant/innen in Deutschland sind schlechter als diejenigen der Deutschen ohne Migrationshintergrund. In der selbstständigen Beschäftigung sehen Wissenschaftler/innen eine Chance für die soziale Mobilität der Migrant/innen. Ob jedoch die Unternehmensgründung tatsächlich zum nachhaltigen sozial-ökonomischen Aufstieg führt, und wenn ja, unter welchen Bedingungen, ist höchst umstritten. Diesbezüglich wird auf die „ethnische Falle“ oder auf das erhöhte Armutsrisiko der Selbständigen verwiesen. Jedoch fehlen Studien, die systematisch untersuchen, wie sich Migrationshintergrund, Selbstständigkeit und soziale Ungleichheiten zu einander verhalten. Diese Lücke will das geplante Vorhaben schließen.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka, Prof. Maria Nawojczyk (AGH Krakow, Polen)

Duration: 06/2016 - 12/2018

Funding: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)


In order to prevent the development towards a "Society of Extremes" and strengthen liberal values and institutions, mechanisms of individual and collective radical­ization patterns have to be assessed. Beside the prevention and the prosecution of criminal offenses, incentives for exiting from extremist groups have to be taken. In this context, the project called „Extreme Society. Radicalization and De­­radicalization in Germany" which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will systematically compare and assess the state of radicalization research (right wing, religious and left wing extremism) and will offer options for action and for strength­ening democratic values. It is coordinated by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). The main projects consists of various academic institutions and prevention networks, investigating the processes of radicalization and deradicalization on micro, meso and macro levels, studying the role of the media and the possibilities of evaluating deradicalization methods. 

Our subproject at BIM focusses on group radicalization processes. We will present our findings in various publications and events to make them accessible for policy makers.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan, David Meiering

Duration: 10/2017 - 10/2018

Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research


The TRANSFORmIG project entails interdisciplinary, multi-method research in selected localities in Great Britain, Germany and Poland. Spanning sociology, anthropology, urban and media studies, the project investigates with the help of a longitudinal qualitative study, individual and group interviews, ethnography and discourse analysis how people’s attitudes and skills to act in diverse societies change over time and in dependence with historical and contemporary conditions.

Project Management: Prof. Magdalena Nowicka

Duration: 03/2013-02/2018

Funding: Europäische Union (EU)


Ziel der Studie ist es, durch eine Analyse der Boeckler.deWohnverhältnisse die sozialen Herausforderungen der Wohnungspolitik genauer zu definieren und Kriterien für eine armutsfeste und bedarfsorientierte soziale Grundsicherung im Bereich des Wohnens zu entwickeln. Darüber hinaus soll die Studie durch die Abschätzung der sozialen Versorgungsbedarfe einen substantiellen Beitrag für eine verstärkte soziale Orientierung in den aktuellen wohnungspolitischen Diskussionen erarbeiten. Aufbauend auf den statistischen Auswertungen sollen die Potentiale der bundespolitischen Instrumente der Wohnungspolitik für die Bewältigung der aktuellen Herausforderungen analysiert werden.

Project Management: Dr. rer. pol. Henrik Lebuhn 

Duration: 11/2016 – 10/2017

Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

 

Social and political inequalities as well as work and lifestyle

  1. Project Management: Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Prof. Dr. phil. Andreas Eckert

Duration: 2019-2025

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • W2-Stiftungsprofessur "Soziologie der Sozialpolitik"

Am Institut für Sozialwissenschaften (ISW) der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) wird eine neue Professur für „Soziologie der Sozialpolitik“ eingerichtet. Die auf Dauer eingerichtete Stiftungsprofessur wird in den ersten fünf Jahren mit mehr als einer Million Euro vom Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS) gefördert. Damit soll ein Beitrag zur Stärkung von Forschung und Lehre im Bereich der Sozialpolitik an deutschen Hochschulen geleistet werden. Die Professur soll sich schwerpunktmäßig mit Fragen des Verhältnisses von Ungleichheit und Sozialpolitik beschäftigen. Vor dem Hintergrund des rapiden Wandels der Arbeitswelt, des technologischen Wandels und sozialstrukturellen Veränderungen soll erforscht werden, wie verschiedene Gruppen der Gesellschaft von Änderungen betroffen sind und welche neuen Anforderungen sich dadurch an investive und umverteilende Sozialpolitik stellen. Dabei soll nicht nur eine mehrdimensionale Ungleichheitsperspektive leitend sein, sondern es sollen auch subjektive Aspekte und Copingstrategien berücksichtigt werden. Die Forschung der Professur soll auch Fragen der Neugestaltung sozialpolitischer Instrumente adressieren. Ziel ist es, anhand von empirischen Befunden sowohl für die Politik als auch die Öffentlichkeit transparent zu machen, wie sich unterschiedliche sozialpolitische Entscheidungen sowohl auf den Lebensverlauf von Individuen als auch auf Kenngrößen wie Primärverteilung, Teilhabechancen und zukünftige Einkommensverteilung auswirken. Die Professur wird in Kooperation mit dem Deutschen Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung und dem dort ansässigen Sozio-oekonomischen Panel (DIW Berlin / SOEP) auf Dauer eingerichtet und soll durch die Mitwirkung am Fördernetzwerk Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung (FIS) einen Beitrag zur evidenzbasierten Erforschung des Wandels des Systems der sozialen Sicherung leisten.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau

Duration: 01/2018 - 12/2022

Funding: Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs


DFG.de

This project examines personal wealth of individuals within heterosexual couples. Wealth is an economic resource that provides many advantages that go beyond income. Particularly, personal wealth, which needs to be distinguished from household wealth, is increasingly important to provide economic security over the life course. This is a consequence of less stable intimate relationships and restructuring welfare states. Previous research has established that women mostly own less personal wealth in couples. Thorough examinations of the processes underlying personal wealth accumulation that create gender inequalities within couples are missing, however. To fill this gap the proposed project answers the following overarching research question: What shapes the accumulation of and inequalities in personal wealth in couples? By answering this question, the project's first aim is to understand how being in a couple affects personal wealth accumulation for women and men. Second, it aims to improve on the knowledge about the generation of economic inequalities within couples over time. Third, it aims to identify contextual conditions that moderate the within-couple accumulation of wealth. The project builds on theories of the intra-household distribution of resources in combination with a life course perspective. The main working hypothesis is that well-known processes of accumulation at the household-level have gendered, and so far little understood, effects for personal wealth of partnered women and men. It is also hypothesised that these processes differ across countries, e.g. due to divergent tax systems. To test this, the accumulation of personal wealth is examined from multiple perspectives and by observing individuals within couples over time and in diverse countries. First, quantitative, secondary and longitudinal survey data from Australia, Germany, the UK and US are used. The data are comparatively analysed using empirical models of growth and change and models that capture biographical complexities. Second, these analyses are amended with factorial survey experiments on the subjective attitudes towards personal wealth in couples in all four country cases. These primary data are analysed with multilevel models. The integration of results from both analytical parts allows for comprehensive answers to the overarching research question. Thereby, this timely and relevant project contributes to a better understanding of women's and men's unequal life chances due to wealth disparities.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Philipp Lersch

Duration: 03/2017 - 03/2022

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  •  The Cohabitation Wealth Premium: Comparing France, East and West Germany

In Europe, the stark increase in heterosexuaDAAD.del cohabitation, i.e. women and men living together as a couple without being married, is one of the most important demographic changes in families in the last decades. Our knowledge about how cohabitation, which is differently legally regulated and culturally accepted across social contexts, influences the life chances of individuals across these contexts is limited, however. In particular, the consequences of cohabitation for the economic wealth of couples are not clear. While marriage has been linked to a wealth premium, we do not know whether such positive consequences extend to cohabitation. Therefore, this timely and innovative project examines the association between cohabitation and wealth paying close attention to the distinct legal and cultural contexts in France, East, and West Germany. The project will bring together eminent experts on family demography and wealth and early career researchers from both countries to facilitate a deeper understanding of social processes that create wealth inequalities. By jointly studying commonalities and differences across contexts, relevant new insights can be gained.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Philipp Lersch

Duration: 01/2020-12/2021

Funding: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)


  • Haushaltsstrukturen und ökonomische Risiken während der COVID-19 Pandemie in Ost- und Westdeutschland: Kompensation oder Akkumulation? (KOMPAKK)

Economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic include the loss of income for many individuals and an increase in the risk of poverty. Household structures can decrease or increase the probability of facing these risks, for example through the number of working adults or of children in the household respectively. Social policy measures can compensate for these risks. This project examines the unequal distribution of economic risks and capacities to compensate for such risks in East and West Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic, and evaluates the effect of social policy interventions. In the first step of the project, we develop a typology of household risk-profiles in Germany before the pandemic. The risk profiles are based on the household structure (number of earners, number of dependent children) and on the professional characteristics of household members, considering the extent to which they were affected by the lockdown measures at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Mikrozensus data, we describe the distribution of risk-types in the population with a focus on differences between East and West Germany. In the second step, we use the risk-profiles as a stepping-stone to analyze the accumulation and compensation of risks in households over time. We evaluate the employment trajectories of members within households over a longer period on the basis of longitudinal data (SOEP). The aim is to describe the long-term dynamics of employment-related risks for selected household types leading up to the pandemic. Third, the project considers how social policy measures implemented during the pandemic were able to compensate for different types of risks. We distinguish between measures targeting the individual (e.g. Kurzarbeitergeld - short-time work allowance, Arbeitslosengeld - unemployment benefit) and those targeting households (e.g.  Grundsicherung - basic security benefit, Wohngeld - housing benefit). We use a simulation approach to test counterfactual scenarios of risk distributions, accounting for different “packages” of social policy measures.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Hannah Zagel, Prof. Dr. Anette Éva Fasang, Dr. Emanuela Struffolino

Duration: 09/2020-08/2021

Funding: Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs



  • Inequality, early adult life courses and economic outcomes at mid-life in comparative contextDFG.de

This innovative project adopts a holistic approach to  understanding the dynamics of inequality across the life-course. We analyse how education, labor market and family choices interact to structure accumulated advantage and disadvantage over the life course. Using panel data from five EU countries for over 20 years and cutting-edge statistical methods, including multichannel sequence analysis, we take a comparative approach to exploring how cross-country economic and institutional differences affect inequality outcomes and life courses. Early adulthood is a crucial period of transition where people face multiple choices - about education, jobs, partnerships and childbearing – determining future life. We focus on key turning points, examine their interrelation and explore the cumulative impact on individual and group inequalities.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Anette Eva Fasang

Duration: 03/2018 - 02/2021

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)


  • Income, Rent, and Inequality. Analysis of Housing Conditions and Housing Provision in Large German Cities (2006 - 2018)

The research project "Income, Rent, and Inequality"Boeckler.de is based on an updated and in-depth analysis of housing conditions as an effect and cause of social inequality. In former studies on housing provision we were able to show a fundamental lack of affordable housing for households with low income in mostly all large cities. In the course of this follow-up study, the key figures on housing conditions and supply situations will be refreshing with new data. Questions from the research project are directed at the (1) impact of income inequality on housing conditions, (2) the impact of housing costs on the structure of social inequality in the German cities, and (3) the provision with affordable housing in the large cities.

Project Management: Dr. phil. Andrej Holm

Duration: 01/2020 - 02/2021

Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung


  • Labour market, income and well-being trajectories before and after the birth of the first child


    The aim of this research project is to estimate the parental costs and rewards of childbearing in a life course perspective in three countries: Germany (West and East Germany), Hungary, and the US. Using longitudinal data and methods such as Group Based Trajectory Modeling and Sequence Analysis, we investigate individual labour market and income trajectories before and after the birth of the first child as well as well-being trajectories (subjective and psychological well-being, physical health). Therefore, we are able to assess how the well-being of parents having different labour market and income trajectories change after the birth of their first child. The project is innovative since it takes into account both the material and nonmaterial dimensions of the costs and benefits of childbearing and it also considers not only the short-term effects of having a child on parents’ lives, but also the long-term ones as well. Moreover, the analysis uses a systematic cross-national comparative approach with countries having different social contexts of parenting strategies after the birth of children (i.e. the uptake of parental leaves by mothers and fathers, and the transition back to work). While Hungary is characterized by an exceptionally long and extensively used paid parental leave by mostly mothers but a less flexible labour market, in Germany the paid leave is shorter, but the working arrangements are more flexible. There is also a convergence of West and East Germany in this respect. In the US there is no national program for paid parental leave, and the leave largely depends on employers. The analysis will have important implications for fertility research and policy, since it will shed light on the question why so many couples in Germany and Hungary forego a second child. Furthermore, the life course perspective will make it possible to reach important findings about the labour market integration of parents in ageing societies and how it is related to the well-being of parents.

    Project Management: Dr. Lili Vargha, Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Antonino Polizzi

    Duration: since 02/2021

    Funding: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung


  • Atypical Employment and the Intergenerational Transmission of disadvantage: Britain and Germany in Comparative Perspective

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.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Anette Eva Fasang (HU Berlin), Dr. Bastian Betthäuser (Oxford)

Duration: 02/2019-12/2020

Funding: OX-BER Research Partnership Seed Grant


  • Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Family Formation Policies

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.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Hannah Zagel (HU Berlin), Prof. Mary Daly (Oxford)

Duration: 02/2019-12/2020

Funding: OX-BER Research Partnership Seed Grant


This project analyses the role of family demographic processes (leaving parental home, marriage, divorce, and parenthood) for the probability of being working poor and how it changes over the life course.

The research outputs will make at least three innovative contributions to understanding family demographic processes and in-work poverty in Europe.

First, the researchers will undertake a systematic review of the family-related risk factors for in-work poverty.

Second, they will analyse how the association between family demographic processes and in-work poverty varies across the life course and by gender across western democracies using CNEF data. As an example, they will address the crucial questions on whether entering parenthood and experiencing divorce increase the risk of in-work poverty and whether these associations strengthen or weaken as individuals grow older. Finally, they will study the association between family demographic processes and in-work poverty comparing two countries, Germany and the UK, where welfare measures against poverty differ greatly. This two-country comparison will illuminate whether targeted benefits programs in the UK ameliorate the negative impact of entering parenthood on in-work poverty or whether unconditional family allowances in Germany are more effective. The empirical component will be augmented by a workshop that brings together experts on German and UK family, labour, and social policy and its relationship to social inequalities.The research outputs will make at least three innovative contributions to understanding family demographic processes and in-work poverty in Europe.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke (HU Berlin), Dr. Emanuela Struffolino (HU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Christiaan Monden (Oxford), Dr. Zachary Van Winkle (Oxford)

Duration: seit 2018

Funding: OX-BER Research Partnership Seed Grant


  • 'Co-Parenting‘ and ‚Future Love‘ –
    Parenthood beyond the romantic love complex

If two or more persons found a family, who are neither avolkswagenstiftung.de couple nor in a love relationship, it is called „Co-Parenting“. Yet, it remains an open question how co-parenting affects the (romantic) love complex. To date, a thorough discussion of the missing liaison between family making and romantic love as we find it in co-parenting, is still outstanding. Thus, the aim is to analyse the potential implications of co-parenting for the dyadic romantic love. Love hereby is conceptualized not mainly as an emotion, but as a cultural pattern regarding the organization of intimate relationships. The concept of romantic love was the main foundation of the modern ‘nuclear family’, which was widespread in Germany between 1950 and 1970. The ‘nuclear family’ refers to the conjugal family, which includes a male breadwinner and his economic dependent wife, caring unpaid for the common children.
Do we have to expect consequences like a decline of love? An emotional dystopia, that holds on to the idea of romantic love? Or can we expect a transformation of love, which is open for new types of fami-lies and relationships beyond the heteronormative and dyad-normative romantic love we still need ade-quate definitions for? Or does post-romantic parenthood bear utopic-emancipative potential, which lib-erates women and LGBTIQ*s from patriarchal, hetero- und couple-normative oppressions? Or do vari-ous ambivalences become evident?
In the project, light is systematically shed on future developments of love from a cultural and structural sociologically point of departure. Finally, socio-political challenges are addressed.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. phil. Christine Wimbauer

Duration: 04/2019 - 03/2020

Funding: Volkswagen Foundation


  • Land als Gemeinschaftsbesitz: Variationen über ein soziales Verhältnis

Der Begriff des Eigentums, und insbesondere des Eigentums an Grund und Boden, ist ein Schlüsselthema der modernen Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte. Ausgehend von der These des französischen Philosophen Jean-Jacques Rousseau, dass der Ursprung der sozialen Ungleichheit aus den Privilegien der Landnahme entstehe - der illegitimen Einzäunung und anschließenden Kommodifizierung des Landbesitzes sowie des Ausschlusses anderer Nutzer und Nutzungen - geht diese Arbeit im Umkehrschluss der Frage nach, ob und wie ein gemeinschaftlicher Besitz und das Herauslösen des Bodens aus den Warenströmen zu einer gerechteren Gesellschaft führen könnten. In zahlreichen Gesellschaften, Kulturen und Religionen wurde und wird zum Teil auch heute noch Land als etwas Besonderes betrachtet, als ein Gut, das keine Ware wie jede andere ist und nicht individuell besessen werden kann. Zu nennen wären hier beispielsweise die Allmende im europäischen oder Al-Mashaa und Waqf im arabischen Raum, die Ejidos in Mexiko, die russischen Mir oder die Gramdanbewegung in Indien. Diese Modelle gemeinschaftlichen Besitzes lassen andere Gesellschaftsformen und soziale Verhältnisse aufscheinen. Ziel des Forschungsvorhabens ist es, diese sehr unterschiedlichen Ansätze zu systematisieren und – über die historische und gesellschaftspolitische Analyse hinaus – auf ihr heutiges Potential zu befragen.

Project Management: Dr. phil. Sabine Horlitz

Duration: 07/2017 – 06/2019

Funding: Volkswagen Stiftung


  •  Prekarisierung und Prekarität im Kontext von Anerkennung, Geschlecht und Ungleichheit

Teilzeit, Leiharbeit, Minijobs, Soloselbstständigkeit: Böckler.deImmer mehr Menschen in Deutschland sind prekär beschäftigt, das ist bekannt. Was aber bedeutet das subjektiv für die Betroffenen? Welche sozialen Folgen erwachsen daraus? „Ich gehe davon aus, dass sich Unsicherheiten auch in anderen Dimensionen wie der Fürsorge, der Gesundheit, der Teilhabe, im Wohnen und – was mich besonders interessiert – in Paarbeziehungen und Freundschaften zeigen können“, sagt Dr. Mona Motakef. Sie beschäftigen die Anerkennungsdefizite, die mit einem prekären Job einhergehen können. Können sie durch die Anerkennung in einer Liebesbeziehung abgefedert werden? Steigern sie sich, wenn es auch dort nicht gut läuft? Gelingt es prekär Beschäftigten, ob allein oder als Paar lebend, überhaupt alternative Quellen für Anerkennung zu finden? 

Project ManagementDr. phil. Mona Motakef

Duration: 09/2018 - 03/2019

Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung



Das Forschungsprojekt untersucht Ansprüche anBöckler.de betriebliche Partizipation und lebensweltliche Reproduktion vor dem Hintergrund subjektiver Krisen- und Ungleichheitserfahrungen im Bereich hochqualifizierter Arbeit. Im Fokus stehen die Wahrnehmungen und Handlungsorientierungen von Fach- und Führungskräften sowie betrieblichen Interessenvertretungen. Deren Ansprüche an den Gesamtzusammenhang von Arbeit und Leben, wie er sich insbesondere über das Geschlechterverhältnis vermittelt, werden im Kontext der Umstrukturierung von betrieblichen Leistungsregimen, Personalentwicklungsmaßnahmen und Vereinbarkeitsstrukturen betrachtet. Die arbeits- und geschlechterpolitischen Konfliktlagen, die sich daraus ergeben, sollen im Projekt für das exemplarische Untersuchungsfeld Deutsche Bahn AG empirisch rekonstruiert werden, um Ansatzpunkte für eine Strategie der Demokratisierung von Arbeit zu identifizieren.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. sc. phil. Hildegard-Maria Nickel

Duration: 02/2016 – 12/2017

Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung


  • Unequal Recognition? Work and Love in the Context of Life of Precarious Employees

    DFG.deOver the past several years, precarious work has become a topic of great importance in both scientific and public debates. The existent sociological research on precariousness has focused almost exclusively on individuals and paid work, without taking into account its more broad-reaching social consequences. Though precarious work is not limited to low income occupations, but is closely related to reduced recognition. Though a persistent phenomenon, this correlation between precarious employment and a lack of recognition has received little sociological attention – as is the case with the concomitant issues of the impact on life context and gender relations.

    In light of these lacunae, the proposed project aims to develop a recognition- and gender theory-based analysis of precarious employment that takes into account the life context of those involved. Concretely, the project examines the interactive practices through which precarious workers both with and without relationship partners achieve recognition and reproduce (gender) inequalities. By combining sociological research on work and family, studies of precarious employment and theories on recognition based on the work of Axel Honneth und Judith Butler, the study will investigate the interplay of precarious work and intimate (couple) relationships, the context of their household, other areas of life, gender concept and gender relations.

    The project will conduct both interviews with couples and one-on-one interviews that employ a strictly reconstructive and intersubjective logic of research to investigate the chances of recognition and the relationships among work, life/love, and (gender) inequalities for precarious employees. The research will aim to answer the following questions: How do precarious workers gain recognition in the work sphere and in their intimate relationship? How do they experience the gained recognition? To what degree does the precariousness of work extend into the context of life and into intimate (couple) relationships? Or, alternatively, to what degree do precarious workers use the recognition gained in intimate (couple) relationships to compensate for its absence at work? How do singles cope, who do not have access to the love-based recognition of a couple relationship? Is precarious employment changing traditional gender concepts, images of masculinity, and gender relations? And, if so, then how?

    Project Management: Prof. Dr. phil. Christine Wimbauer

    Duration: 03/2015 – 09/2017

    Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

     

Science studies as well as political theory and social theory

 

Grundlegend steht folgende Frage im Raum:“Wie wirken Indikatoren auf die durch diese Beobachteten und sich selbst Beobachtenden zurück und welche Erfordernisse ergeben sich durch unterschiedliche Formen der Rückwirkung für die Methodenreflektion und Methodenentwicklung in der Bibliometrie?”. Ziel ist es Wirkungsforschung und Methodenreflektion mit einander zu verbinden, um eine neue Form der Reflextionsfähigkeit für die Bibliometrie zu entwickeln. Übergeordnete Ziele der Nachwuchsgruppe sind die Etablierung a) einer theoretisch geleiteten Empirie zur Abschätzung möglicher Rückwirkungen der Anwendung bibliometrischer Indikatoren auf Akteure im Wissenschaftssystem, b) Entwicklung einer theoretischen Grundlage zur Unterstützung der Neu- und Weiterentwicklung bibliometrischer Indikatoren, ebenso wie zur Weiterentwicklung einer Soziologie der Quantifizierung und der (Be-)Wertung, c) Entwicklung kollaborativer Formen der Reflektion zwischen theoretisch geleiteter Wissenschaftsforschung, empirisch orientierter bibliometrischer Forschung und den durch Quantifizierung erfassten Akteuren.

Project Management: Dr. Stephan Gauch 

Duration: 10/2017-09/2022

Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)


Evaluation takes place where highly estimated goods are at stake. In science, the most precious good is scientific quality. Scientific progress has always depended on the assurance of scientific quality that is understood not as external evaluation but as necessarily taking place within the scientific community itself. From the selection of reviewers based on their social trustworthiness in the Royal Society to the current single-, double-, or triple-blind peer review, judging the scientific quality of methods, theories, and empirical discoveries has always been a central mechanism to establish and maintain scientific communities. At the same time, peer review has received a fair share of criticism. Yet, it is still commonly accepted as the gold standard for judging scientific quality.
However, scientific peer review is not as homogenous as debates about its quality might suggest. First, it is applied in a variety of contexts ranging from the selection of journal submissions and funding proposals to selection committees at universities or even online platforms such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu or Google Scholar. Second, even within each of these contexts the peer review process may vary significantly, with respect to the selection of referees, the (technological) infrastructure, metrics, and the regimes of visibility. Respecting the diversity of evaluation procedures in science and higher education, we ask how scientific quality assurance is understood and practiced in different situations and contexts. With an emphasis on comparative empirical research on evaluation practices in science and higher education, we aim to contribute to current theoretical debates in the sociology of valuation and evaluation

Project Management:  Prof. Dr. Martin Reinhart, Dr. Anne K. Krüger

Duration: 10/2016 – 09/2019

Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research


Nicht ein Gespenst geht um in Europa - sondern viele: die Gespenster politischer Ratlosigkeit. Was tun? An Krisendiagnosen und Antwortversuchen mangelt es nicht. Doch eine Theorie politischer Ratlosigkeit fehlt. Denn die Frage "Was tun?" stellt sich nicht von selbst. Wann, wie und von wem wird sie gestellt und dadurch politische Ratlosigkeit überhaupt erst fest- und hergestellt? Politische Akteure haben ein Interesse an dieser Frage. Sie werfen einander Ratlosigkeit vor und antworten darauf mit konkurrierenden Politikangeboten. Politische Beraterinnen und Berater sind gleichfalls an der Frage der Ratlosigkeit interessiert. Um ihren Ratschlägen Gehör zu verleihen, schaffen und vergrößern sie den Beratungsbedarf ihrer Adressaten, den sie mit ihren Ratschlägen bedienen. Ähnliches gilt für Politikberatungs-Theoretiker. Sie erhöhen die Aufmerksamkeit für ihre Theorien und für ihre Meta-Ratschläge über den richtigen Umgang mit Rat, indem sie hierzu Ratlosigkeit fest- und herstellen. Die politische (Ideen-)Geschichte des Rats kann daher als eine Geschichte nicht allein der Reduktion, sondern zugleich der Produktion politischer Ratlosigkeit gelesen und erzählt werden. Vor ihrem Hintergrund lässt sich eine Theorie politischer Ratlosigkeit skizzieren. Diese wird die Gespenster der ratlosen Gegenwart zwar kaum vertreiben. Sie kann sie aber begreifbarer machen, indem sie anstelle schneller Antworten die Frage politischer Ratlosigkeit selbst wieder zum Beratungsgegenstand macht.

Project Management: Dr. phil. Felix Wassermann

Duration: 02/2015 – 08/2018

Funding: Volkswagen Stiftung


Das Projekt "Was ist der 'Islamische Staat'? Netzwerk-StaatenDAAD.de als Bedrohung für offene Gesellschaften" verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens sucht es aufständische Netzwerk-Staaten - am Beispiel des so genannten "Islamischen Staats" (IS) - als einen neuen Typus nichtstaatlicher Gewaltakteure in der internationalen Politik zu beschreiben. Zweitens zielt es auf ein umfassendes Verständnis der spezifischen Bedrohung ab, die Akteure wie der IS für offene multikulturelle Gesellschaften darstellen. Netzwerk-Staaten sind weder Terrornetzwerke noch territorial begrenzte souveräne Staaten, sondern hybride Akteure, die Elemente von Terrornetzwerken und souveränen Territorialstaaten auf neuartige Weise miteinander verbinden. Der IS vertraut einerseits auf globale Netzwerke ausländischer Kämpfer, Gelder und Waffen. Andererseits kontrollieren seine Führer bestimme territoriale Enklaven und generieren dort Legitimität durch die Bereitstellung öffentlicher Güter wie auch durch klassische Guerillataktiken des Terrors und der ideologischen Indoktrination. Am Beispiel des IS bearbeiten wir vier Fragen: 1. Wie lässt sich der gegenwärtige Aufstieg aufständischer Netzwerk-Staaten erklären? 2. Inwiefern, wenn überhaupt, unterscheiden sich heutige aufständische Netzwerk-Staaten von historischen Guerillabewegungen und deren Staatsbildungsversuchen? 3. Wie genau bedrohen aufständische Netzwerk-Staaten offene multikulturelle Gesellschaften im Allgemeinen und Deutschland sowie Australien im Besonderen? 4. Welche Strategien sind am effektivsten, um der von aufständischen Netzwerk-Staaten ausgehenden Bedrohung offener multikultureller Gesellschaften zu begegnen? Das Projekt sieht eine zweijährige Zusammenarbeit der deutschen und australischen Projektteilnehmer mit vier einmonatigen Intensiv-Arbeitsphasen in Berlin und Brisbane vor.

Project Management: Prof. Dr. phil. Herfried Münkler

Duration: 01/2016 – 12/2017

Funding: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)


  • Projects for Internationalization

You can find further information here.DAAD.de

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff

Duration: ongoing

Funding: DAAD