News about Global Dynamics of Social Policy

The Collaborative Research Centre "Global Dynamics of Social Policy" is now on Mastodon!

You can also find the latest news about the CRC 1342 on our X-channel.

Furthermore, we also recommend the blog Social Policy Worldwide of the SOCIUM Research Center Inequality and Social Policy at the University of Bremen.

Contact:
Dr. Maximilian Hohmann
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57058
E-Mail: hohmann@uni-bremen.de

"Global Dynamics of Long-term Care Policies"

As part of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1342 on "Global Dynamics of Social Policy", Project A07 on "Global Dynamics of Long-term Care Policies" is researching the generosity of long-term care systems in international comparison as well as the role of international interdependencies in shaping long-term care policies. In working package 1 and 2, the project specifically investigates which inclusiveness criteria shape access to public long-term care benefits and how much of which types of benefits are granted in the respective countries. In working package 3 and 4, we analyse policy transfer between countries and the role of International Organisations in long-term care policy in four case studies in East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan) and Latin America (Uruguay, Chile). You can find more information on the project here. The project team is located at the University of Bremen and the University of Duisburg-Essen. The main project language is English.

We are looking for a student assistant with 30 to 40 hours of work per month (by agreement) at the University of Bremen starting August 2024 (alternatively September 2024). The position is initially limited until 31.12.2024 (extension possible).

Tasks:

• Assist with data collection and data management (e.g., research on international data and documents, compiling and formatting data sets).
• Literature research and management
• Support with preparing publications
• Support in project organisation (e.g. minutes of project meetings, communication with cooperation partners).

 

Requirements:

• Enrolment at a German university
• Student of political, social or health science study programme (e.g. political science, sociology, social policy, public health)
• Interest in comparative social policy research and/or long-term care systems, preferably already knowledge in these areas
• Experience in scientific work (e.g. citation rules and literature research), preferably also in qualitative and/or quantitative empirical analysis and related IT programs (e.g. Excel, Endnote, R, Maxqda)
• Very good command of written and spoken English
• Very good (self-)organizational skills, communication skills and ability to work in a team

 

We offer a collegial working environment in a friendly, interdisciplinary and diverse team. The position provides insights into the work of a university research project and into the practice of empirical, international comparative social policy research. In case of interest, there is the possibility to participate in (online) meetings and lectures of the A07 project, the SFB 1342 and the Socium.

Working hours and location are flexible by arrangement. The salary is based on the usual rates for student assistants at the University of Bremen.

If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to contact Johanna Fischer. To apply, please send your documents including a short letter of motivation, CV and certificate/transcript as a PDF document by 5.6.24 via e-mail to Johanna Fischer (johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de). Please include the preferred number of monthly working hours and the preferred starting month in your application. We look forward to hear from you!

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

Wednesday, April 24, 2024, University of Bremen

The Doctoral Researcher in the team of the Information Management Project (INF) wrote a cumulative dissertation titled "Multimodal and Collaborative Interaction for Visual Data Exploration". Gabriela obtained her PhD ("Dr.-Ing.") from the Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science (FB 03) with a "summa cum laude".

Gabriela Molina León is a computer scientist and visualization researcher. Her thesis contributed to the CS fields of data visualization, human-computer interaction, and computer-supported cooperative work. In her dissertation, she investigated how different interaction modalities and devices can support data experts to visually explore and make sense of data, individually and collaboratively. Through a series of empirical studies applying mixed methods, Gabriela studied how experts interact and wish to interact with spatio-temporal data on tablets and large vertical displays at the workplace. Furthermore, she worked closely with social science researchers to support them in their work. They served as an example of real-world experts who interact with data in their everyday jobs.

The dissertation research was conducted partly during the first and second phases of the CRC 1342. Gabriela is one of the researchers who led the design and development of WeSIS. Accordingly, the first paper of her dissertation presented the lessons learned from the co-creation workshops conducted as part of the A01 project. Three of the four papers involved experiments that included social science researchers of the CRC as participants.

Gabriela Molina León was co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter and Dr. Petra Isenberg (INRIA, France). As part of her research, she had a research stay in Paris, France, last year, which was co-financed by the CRC 1342 and the DAAD.

Contact:
Gabriela Molina León
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57067
E-Mail: molina@uni-bremen.de

Faculty of Social Sciences

On Thursday, April 25, 2024, the "Praxisnacht des FB 8" of Faculty of Social Sciences took place at the University of Bremen from 6 pm to 10 pm. Over 250 students took part and received insights and tips on starting and planning a career from over 30 alumni. Among public authorities, NGOs and commercial enterprises, the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” also took part.

After being welcomed by the Dean of Studies of Faculty 8, Prof. Dr. Julia Lossau, the students chose from four different occupational fields in three time blocks. These included Public Relations and Communication, Public Administration, Business, Media and Journalism as well as Research and Transfer.

The "Praxisnacht des FB 8 – Einblicke und Berichte" takes place every two years. It is aimed at students on Bachelor's degree courses in History, Geography, Integrated European Studies, Political Science and Sociology as well as students on Master's degree courses in Faculty 8.

Organization und contact person: Birgit Ennen [bennen@uni-bremen.de], University of Bremen

Contact:
Dr. Maximilian Hohmann
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57058
E-Mail: hohmann@uni-bremen.de

Elections at the General Meeting

At this year's meeting of members on April 24, 2024, the board of the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 "Global Dynamics of Social Policy" was elected in a new composition. The members of the Equal Opportunities Committee were also elected.

The CRC 1342 is headed by a board elected by the CRC members. The board makes decisions by simple majority and has a quorum if at least two thirds of the board members are present. On the board of directors, the spokesperson is responsible for the administration and management of the CRC. The deputy spokesperson and the representatives of the project directors focus on the coordination of the projects, the cooperation between the projects, and on the central database project.

The members of the board and further information can be found [here].

The EOC is a consultative member of the CRC 1342 board and advises CRC members on all recruitment procedures within the CRC. The EOC advocates gender equality and the reconciliation of professional and family activities. It also advises and informs all members of the CRC on these issues. Additionally, the EOC is in contact with the equal opportunities networks at the University of Bremen.

The members of the EOC and further information can be found [here].

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Herbert Obinger
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58567
E-Mail: herbert.obinger@uni-bremen.de

Kick-off event of the Jour Fixe series with Dr. Kris-Stella Trump on 9 April, 2024.

Dr. Kris-Stella Trump from Johns Hopkins University (USA) visited Bremen for the opening event of the Jour Fixe lecture series of the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 in the summer semester 2024. In her talk, she gave exciting insights into her current research and, in the subsequent discussion with colleagues, exchanged views primarily on methodological issues in the creation and implementation of surveys.

Abstract:

Accurately measuring public perceptions of economic phenomena is complicated, but doing so is important for responsive policy-making. Survey measurement difficulties are particularly pronounced when it comes to economic inequality, which is an abstract and mathematically demanding concept, but perceptions of which have the potential to directly affect the desirability of redistributive policies. In this paper, we compare different ways to ask questions about perceived inequality, characterizing the costs and benefits of different approaches. In particular, we ask whether relatively complicated survey items result in high rates of “satisficing” and/or high rates of non-response, with consequences for survey quality. In a survey fielded to representative samples in Switzerland, Germany, and France, we ask respondents about income inequality in two different ways. First, respondents estimate household incomes at specified percentiles of the income distribution. Later in the survey, they estimate the incomes that qualify a household as rich or poor, respectively. We anticipate that because the percentile questions are relatively abstract, respondents may rely on their prototypes of the rich and the poor when answering, leading to similar answers to the two sets of questions. We also anticipate that because the percentile questions are more mathematically involved, we may see systematic non-response patterns. The results show that in all three countries, the 90th percentile, the 99th percentile, and the rich are seen as significantly different from each other in terms of household income. At the same time, we find significant rates of non-response and uninformative responses in the percentile questions (but not the questions about the rich/poor). We conclude that even apparently low levels of mathematical complexity in question wording can lead to non-response patterns that affect the representativeness of survey samples.

Publication:

Trump, Kris-Stella (2023): “What does it take to be rich? Asking reasonable survey questions about income inequality.” Research & Politics 10(3).

Kris-Stella Trump is a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University. A scholar of public opinion and political psychology, she primarily studies perceptions of deservingness, attitudes toward income inequality, and the politics of distribution. Her regional focus lies in the United States and Western Europe. Kris-Stella joined Johns Hopkins from the University of Memphis, and prior to that, she served as program director at the Social Science Research Council. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. She is Estonian by origin, and also lived in Sweden and the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. You can find out more at: https://www.kstrump.com

Contact:
Dr. Nate Breznau
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
E-Mail: nbreznau@uni-bremen.de

"State, Society & Citizen - Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Welfare State Development"

The 13th NordWel Summer School "State, Society & Citizen - Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Welfare State Development" will take place at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Bremen from 19 to 23 August 2024. On this website you will find further information about the Summer School.

Contact:
Dr. Maximilian Hohmann
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57058
E-Mail: hohmann@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Irina Wiegand
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58508
E-Mail: irina.wiegand@uni-bremen.de

Information Management Project (INF)

The Information Management Project (INF) wrote a report on the experiences with Research Data Management (RDM) in the CRC 1342, which was published in "Bausteine Forschungsdatenmanagement". In order to expand systematic RDM, the article addresses, among other things, the question of how the individual interests of researchers can be harmonised with collective goals in large collaborative projects.

"Governance bei der Co-Creation eines webbasierten Forschungsdatenmanagementsystems in den Sozialwissenschaften"

This article deals with the development of WeSIS on the basis of practiced network governance. What is special about the creation of WeSIS is that it was developed by the participating researchers in co-creation. Coding rules, metadata or tools for the analysis and initial visualization of the data were developed jointly in order to address the needs of the researchers using it. Furthermore, the question of whether co-creation has added value for the joint RDM of the CRC 1342 is discussed. Based on more than five years of experience and the evaluations carried out, it can be concluded that a high degree of communication was required for the joint development of the information system. The article shows that the concept of network governance offers an appropriate perspective for coordinating the communication and decision-making processes in a targeted manner.

Bausteine Forschungsdatenmanagement is a publication of the joint Arbeitsgruppe "Forschungsdaten" of the Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformationen e.V. (DINI) and nestor - Deutsches Kompetenznetzwerk zur digitalen Langzeitarchivierung.

Contact:
Dr. Nils Düpont
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57060
E-Mail: duepont@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Ivo Mossig
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49-421-218 67410
E-Mail: mossig@uni-bremen.de

Jour Fixe with Jonathan D. London on February 28, 2024

As the last event of the CRC 1342 Jour Fixe lecture series in the winter semester 2023/24, Jonathan London from Leiden University gave an insight into his current research on Wednesday, February 28. He presented excerpts from his book "Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia".

In his lecture, Prof. London presented his book, in which he described socio-political expansion tendencies based on a determination of regime types and accumulation regimes in ten Southeast Asian countries - against the backdrop of the increasing marketization of these countries' economies. Despite the expansion of new protection programmes, however, serious problems must be noted. On the one hand, there are considerable differences between the de jure and de facto forms of these social programmes in terms of the scope of benefits and inclusivity. On the other hand, serious shortcomings can still be observed in particularly demanding areas (such as education and health), in which the creation of effective infrastructures, qualified labour etc. is necessary for a sustainable improvement in the situation for broad sections of the population, in addition to the necessary funds. Taken together, this stands in the way of an effective reduction in social inequalities, despite the significant economic development in Southeast Asia.

Jonathan D. London is Associate Professor of Political Economy - Asia at Leiden University's Institute of Area Studies. London's research interests span the fields of comparative political economy, development studies, and the political economy of welfare and inequality. Fluent in Vietnamese, London is sole editor of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam (2023). His 2018 book, “Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia” developed a critique of theoretical literature on welfare regimes analysis and a comparative analysis of 10 East Asian countries.  He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy, Research IV and China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

Project B05: "Inclusion and Benefit Dynamics in the Chinese Welfare Regime"

The B05 project successfully conducted field research in China for the first time after China ended its zero-COVID policy.

Dr. Zhe Yan conducted extensive field research from September to December 2023. The purpose of the research trip was twofold: to investigate the coverage and generosity of both maternity protection and long-term care. The research is timely as China is experiencing rapid population aging, with only 9.56 million births in 2022, the lowest number since records began in 1949. The emerging social reality calls for a social policy response. The country has already piloted long-term care insurance in selected cities and extended maternity leave to encourage women of reproductive age to have children. However, the outcome of these policy initiatives remains unclear and requires rigorous research.

Despite more difficult field access and the securitization of Sino-European knowledge exchange in recent years, data collection was feasible. To collect data, Dr. Yan visited various long-term care facilities and community care centers in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Kunshan, with local colleagues. He also conducted numerous in-depth interviews with Chinese couples with newborns to examine the implementation of the maternity insurance program from the beneficiaries' perspective. Preliminary data analysis suggests that there are gaps between de jure entitlements and de facto policy implementation in both long-term care and maternity protection. This can be partly explained by the conditionality of access to benefits, such as the hukou (household registration) system for admitting the elderly for long-term care, and the extent to which employers are willing to enroll workers for maternity insurance. Therefore, expanding coverage and improving the generosity of social insurance depends on policymakers' determination to address these issues. The B05 team aims to identify the factors that influence the outcomes of recent social policy in these important areas.

While in China, Dr. Yan was hosted by Duke Kunshan University as a Scholar in Residence at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, where he is also part of the local Aging and Care Initiative. To support field research, meet long-standing collaboration partners e.g., from Fudan University, and to establish academic collaborations with local research institutions, Prof. Tobias ten Brink visited Shanghai and Kunshan in October. At Duke Kunshan University, he also met with the Director of the Center to establish future cooperation. Tobias ten Brink also gave a public lecture to the students and faculty members, focusing on the research program of the CRC 1342 and findings of the B05 project.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy, Research IV and China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

Dr. Zhe Yan
CRC 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy, Research IV and China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 200-3474
E-Mail: zyan@constructor.university