News aus dem Teilprojekt B05


(c) Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature
(c) Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature
Out now in open access: Teil der Buchreihe "Global Dynamics of Social Policy"

Der Sammelband wurde von den SFB-Mitgliedern Andreas Heinrich, Monika Ewa Kaminska, Heiko Pleines und Tobias ten Brink herausgegeben und bündelt das Werk internationaler Expert:innen zur Sozialpolitik in (post-)sozialistischen Staaten.

Das Open-Access-Buch "The Generosity of Social Policies in Socialist and Post-Socialist States" beleuchtet und vergleicht das Design, die Implementierung und die Resultate von nationalen Sozialpolitiken in (ehemaligen) sozialistischen Staaten. Es analysiert wie die Generosität von Sozialpolitiken – verstanden als die Kombination aus Inklusivität und Leistungsumfang – in den verschiedenen nationalen Kontexten konzeptualisiert wurde und wie diese Konzeptualisierungen den Inhalt von Sozialpolitiken geprägt und beeinflusst haben. Des Weiteren beschäftigt sich das Buch mit der tatsächlichen Umsetzung und Einführung von Sozialpolitiken. Damit decken die Einzelbeiträge die ideellen, rechtlichen und tatsächlichen Aspekte von Sozialpolitik in (post-)sozialistischen Kontext ab.

Mit seiner globalen Perspektive auf alle sozialpolitischen Politikfelder bringt der Band Beiträge einer Vielzahl von Teilprojekten des SFB 1342 zusammen (A04, A05, A06, B05, B06, B09, B10 und B12).


Kontakt:
Dr. Andreas Heinrich
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik
Klagenfurter Straße 8
28359 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-57071
E-Mail: heinrich@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Monika Ewa Kaminska
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58639
E-Mail: m.e.kaminska@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Heiko Pleines
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Forschungsstelle Osteuropa
Klagenfurter Straße 8
28359 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-69602
E-Mail: pleines@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

(c) Gong Sen
(c) Gong Sen
Jour Fixe mit Prof. Dr. Gong Sen am 08.07.2025

Zum Abschluss der Jour Fixe-Vortragsreihe im Sommersemester war Prof. Dr. Gong Sen von der Zhejiang Universität in China am 08.07.2025 zu Gast am Sonderforschungsbereich 1342. In seiner Präsentation zum Thema "Major Factors for the Good Practices of AI R&D and Wider Application of AI in Hangzhou, China" stellte er Hangzhou City als Innovation Hub im Bereich der Künstlichen Intelligenz vor und diskutierte mit den Teilnehmenden Auswirkungen auf den Gesundheits- und Bildungssektor.

Abstract:

Hangzhou City has become an innovation hub in AI research and development recently because of the emerging "six little dragons" including Deepseek. There have been many accounts for the success of Hangzhou compared to many other cities in China and beyond. There have been also many debates about the major factors for its success, which include the role of the state comparing with the market, and the role of locally-trained talents comparing to talents back from overseas.

Besides R&D, Hangzhou City has also been a pioneer in AI application in China. The speaker is going to review the rich practices in employment and education sector, and examine the impacts and insights for others. In terms of employment, the speaker is going to showcase the new jobs created by AI such as labelling and the existing jobs replaced by AI such as general health practitioners. As for the education sector, the speaker is going to introduce the pilots of AI application conducted by the staff members of Zhejiang University in the education sector at various levels from primary school to higher education, and from micro-curriculum for social science students through minor course for physical science students to major course for computer science students.

In comparison with other innovation hubs, the speakers is going to develop a framework to explain the good practices of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, as well as to provide some prospect for the future.

Gong Sen, Ph.D., is a special hired Professor as a leading scholar in social science at the School of Public Affairs of Zhejiang University, China. He received his PhD in Social Policy in Sheffield University, UK. He is also the Director of the Centre for International Studies on Development and Governance Research Centre (CiSDG) at Zhejiang and Zhejiang University.

His main research interests include social security, healthcare, employment, and other social policies as well as development. In recent years, he is also working on a number of projects on international development and sustainable development. He is the Lead principal investigator of over 40 major national and international projects funded by UN agencies and World Bank, international development agencies such as DFID and international NGOs such as Save the Children. He has received numerous awards for excellent research at provincial or ministerial levels. He has published over 10 books, including "Improving Social Development, Rebuilding Social Order," "International Comparison of Welfare Systems and Social Policies," and "Focusing on People's Livelihood: Promoting Inclusive Growth Social Policy." He has published more than one hundred research articles in peer reviewed journals in English and in Chinese. He has over 30 policy briefs on development being accepted by the governments at central and local levels in China.

He is a Co-Chief Editor of the Asian Review of Political Economy, a board member of the Guangdong Qianhai International Affairs Research Institute. He also serves as Chairman of the Social-Legal Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party Central in China.

Prior to coming to Zhejiang University, he worked in the Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council as a senior researcher at DDG level for 3-4 research departments and institutes. Throughout his career, he has served on numerous advisory committees and boards, such as for United Nations Committee for Development Policy, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Health in China. Because of his important contribution to China’s social policy, he is now an expert receiving the special allowance from the State Council which is an honour for leading experts in the country.


Kontakt:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

Artikel in der "WirtschaftsWoche"

Dr. Armin Müller aus dem Teilprojekt B05 "Inklusions- und Leistungsdynamiken im chinesischen Wohlfahrtsregime" wurde von der WirtschaftsWoche interviewt. In dem Beitrag "Altersvorsorge: Chinas Renten-Zeitbombe tickt" (paywall) gibt er seine Einschätzung zum Umgang mit der Alterung der chinesischen Gesellschaft.

Der Artikel untersucht die finanzielle Nachhaltigkeit des chinesischen Rentensystems, welche laut jüngster chinesischer Studien prekär ist. In der Volksrepublik werden, ähnlich wie in westlichen Ländern, Debatten über den demographischen Wandel und eine Erhöhung des Renteneintrittsalters geführt. Das Interview half insbesondere bei der Kontextualisierung der Debatte und der Beleuchtung wichtiger Hintergründe. So ist das Renteneintrittsalter insbesondere für Frauen mit 50, bzw. 55 Jahren besonders niedrig. Die Rentnerinnen spielen danach aber häufig weiter wichtige soziale Rollen, wie die Betreuung von Kindern, welche den Frauen der nächsten Generation die Vollzeitarbeit ermöglicht. Eine Anhebung des Renteneintrittsalters senkt zwar die Kosten bei der beitragsfinanzierten Rentenversicherung, erhöht dafür aber an anderer Stelle den Bedarf an Kinderbetreuung. Zudem deckt das diskutierte System primär Beschäftigte im formalen Sektor der Städte ab. Die überwiegende Mehrheit der Chinesen kommt nicht in den Genuss einer Rente, welche eine eigenständige Lebensgrundlage darstellt, und wird in der Diskussion kaum berücksichtigt.


Kontakt:
Dr. Armin Müller
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3473
E-Mail: armmueller@constructor.university

Palgrave Macmillan, London. Springer
Palgrave Macmillan, London. Springer
Jour Fixe mit Jonathan D. London am 28.02.2024

Im Rahmen der letzten Veranstaltung der Jour Fixe-Vortragsreihe des SFB 1342 im Wintersemester 2023/24 gab Jonathan London von der Universität Leiden am 28.02.2024 einen Einblick in seine aktuelle Forschung. Dabei stellte er Auszüge aus seinem Buch "Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia" vor.

Prof. London stellte in seinem Vortrag sein Buch vor, in dem er auf der Grundlage einer Bestimmung von Regimetypen und Akkulumationsregimen in zehn südostasiatischen Staaten – vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Vermarktlichung der Wirtschaften dieser Länder – sozialpolitische Expansionstendenzen beschrieben hat. Trotz der Expansion neuer Schutzprogramme sind jedoch gravierende Probleme festzuhalten. Einerseits bestehen beträchtliche Unterschiede zwischen De-jure- und De-facto-Ausprägungen bezüglich Leistungsumfang und Inklusivität dieser Sozialprogramme. Andererseits sind in besonders voraussetzungsvollen Bereichen (etwa Bildung und Gesundheit), in der neben der notwendigen Mittel auch die Schaffung wirksamer Infrastrukturen, von qualifizierten Arbeitskräften etc., notwendig für eine nachhaltige Verbesserung der Lage für breite Bevölkerungsteile ist, weiterhin gravierende Fehlleistungen festzustellen. Zusammengenommen steht dies einer wirksamen Reduzierung von sozialen Ungleichheiten im Weg, trotz der teilweise signifikanten Wirtschaftsentwicklung in Südostasien.

Jonathan D. London ist außerordentlicher Professor für politische Ökonomie - Asien am Institute of Area Studies der Universität Leiden. Londons Forschungsinteressen erstrecken sich auf die Bereiche vergleichende politische Ökonomie, Entwicklungsstudien und die politische Ökonomie von Wohlfahrt und Ungleichheit. London spricht fließend Vietnamesisch und ist alleiniger Herausgeber des Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam (2023). Sein 2018 erschienenes Buch „Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia“ enthält eine Kritik der theoretischen Literatur zur Analyse von Wohlfahrtsregimen und eine vergleichende Analyse von zehn ostasiatischen Ländern. Er hat an der University of Wisconsin-Madison in Soziologie promoviert.


Kontakt:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink and Dr. Zhe Yan in China
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink and Dr. Zhe Yan in China
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.


Kontakt:
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

Dr. Zhe Yan
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3474
E-Mail: zyan@constructor.university

New article in "The China Quarterly"

Dr. Armin Müller, postdoctoral researcher in the project B05: "Inclusion and Benefit Dynamics in the Chinese Welfare Regime", wrote an article for "The China Quarterly" published online by Cambridge University Press.

The article "Cooperation Between Colleges and Companies: Vocational Education, Skill Mismatches and China's Turnover Problem" analyzes how market failure in skill formation is tackled in China from a collective action perspective. The state intervenes by providing vocational education in public middle schools and colleges, trying to provide companies with the skilled labor they need. However, much like in the Italian system, weak bureaucracy undermines the implementation of state regulation and the effective creation of vocational skills. Therefore, under the surface, skill formation is still dominated by market dynamics, and hence market failure. The article focuses on the role of collaborative projects between vocational colleges and private companies in mediating the dynamics of market failure. While such projects somewhat decrease the skill mismatches in the labor market, they are voluntary negotiated agreements that cannot tackle the underlying redistributive problems between companies and workers. Overall, the status quo drives the polarization of skills in the long run, thus reinforcing economic inequality.

Abstract

The Chinese government promotes cooperation between colleges and companies in vocational education to improve the supply of skilled workers and increase labour productivity. This study employs the concept of positive coordination – negotiations concurrently addressing productive and distributive questions – to analyse the advantages and limitations of voluntary cooperation embedded in networks. In terms of production, many projects focus on updating, narrowing and deepening curricula to lower the costs of initial training borne by companies and the risk of labour turnover. In terms of distribution, however, the deep and narrow curricula are at odds with students’ preference for general and transferable skills; and the mutual commitments of both companies and students are uncertain. The solutions provided by cooperation are partial and unstable. Overall, they reduce skill mismatches but cannot control turnover or overcome market failure, which undermines tertiary vocational education's contribution to labour productivity.

Armin Müller is a postdoctoral researcher at Constructor University, Bremen, Germany, and member of the project "Inclusion and Benefit Dynamics in the Chinese Welfare Regime" at the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 "Global Dynamics of Social Policy" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). He formerly worked at Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany. His research focuses on social protection and the healthcare system in the People’s Republic of China, as well as vocational education and migration. He wrote his PhD about China’s rural health insurance at the University of Duisburg-Essen and spent one semester with the Transnational Studies Initiative at Harvard University studying transnational forms of social security.


Kontakt:
Dr. Armin Müller
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3473
E-Mail: armmueller@constructor.university

Prof. Yuegen Xiong sorrounded by CRC colleagues
Prof. Yuegen Xiong sorrounded by CRC colleagues
CRC 1342 Jour Fixe with Prof. Yuegen Xiong on January 10, 2024

The first event of the new year was a lecture by Prof. Yuegen Xiong from Peking University, China. As part of the CRC 1342 Jour Fixe he gave a talk on "Social Security Reform in Transitional China. Post-pandemic Challenges and Policy Reformulations" on January 10, 2024.

Yuegen Xiong described China’s socio-economic scenarios after the pandemic and analyzed its impact on the social security system. Following up on this, he elaborated the answers to the questions, how China adjusted its social policies to respond to the changing international atmosphere and domestic situations and whether the rural revitalization will be a new policy drive for social security system integration.

In his talk he gave an overview of the complex interdependencies and goal conflicts between various agendas in social and economic policy in urban and rural China. He particularly focused on policy change in health policy, health insurance and hospital payment; pension insurance and social assistance; and unemployment, economic recovery and the rural revitalization agenda. Furthermore, he elaborated on important aspects of public opinion and the anti-corruption campaign that are relevant for social policy. His insights are of considerable importance for contextualizing the findings of ongoing research on Chinese social policy.

Yuegen Xiong is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Social Policy Research (CSPR) at Peking University, China. He is the author of Needs, Reciprocity and Shared Function: Policy and Practice of Elderly Care in Urban China (Shanghai Renmin Press, 2008) and Social Policy: Theories and Analytical Approaches (Renmin University Press, 2009). Xiong graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a PhD in social welfare in 1998 and joined Peking University as a faculty after completing two-year post-doctoral research in the Department of Sociology. He was the British Academy KC Wong Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford during November 2002-September 2003, the Fellow at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study (HWK), Delmenhorst, Germany during December 2003-February 2004, the JSPS Fellow at the University of Tokyo in October, 2005 and a visiting professor at Jacobs University Bremen during October-December, 2015 and visiting professor at the Center for Modern East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany in December, 2017. In the past years, he has published extensively in the field of social policy, comparative welfare regimes, social work, NGOs and civil society. He is the editorial member of Asian Social Work and Policy Review (Wiley), Asian Education and Development Studies (Emerald), the British Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (UK) and International Journal of Community and Social Development (Sage). Prof. Xiong has been acting as the Co-Director of the Academic Committee, LSE-PKU Summer School Program since 2018.


Kontakt:
Dr. Armin Müller
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3473
E-Mail: armmueller@constructor.university

Prof. John Gibson, University of Waikato

John Gibson, Professor of Economics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, visited the Collaborative Research Center 1342 on Thursday, October 26, 2023, for a Jour Fixe in the winter term 2023/24. In his talk "Big Data gone bad: Effects of measurement errors in popular DMSP night-time lights in empirical political economy," he spoke about the uses and abuses of night-time light satellite data in the social sciences to measure economic activity and assess local inequality.

Abstract:
Economists and other social science researchers increasingly use satellite-detected night-time lights, as one of the most popular “big data” sources. The most widely used series of night-time lights data are from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), which was initiated in the 1960s to observe clouds to aid US Air Force weather forecasts. Initial use of these data by social science researchers was as a proxy for economic activity at the national or aggregated regional level but increasingly these data are used to evaluate local impacts of interventions and to estimate local inequality. When measurement errors in these data were originally considered it was in a framework that just required that the errors were independent of errors in conventional economic statistics. However, more recent studies use DMSP data directly as a proxy and so the nature of their measurement error becomes important because under certain circumstances these errors could cause bias that distorts conclusions.

This talk provides two such examples: first, when estimating local inequality in China and the United States the level of inequality is understated and a misleading trend is introduced, because of spatially mean-reverting errors in the DMSP data. Second, in a difference-in-differences evaluation of the impact of a sanction on North Korea the sanction impact is understated due to mean-reverting errors and bottom-coding in the DMSP data. These errors reflect some of the inherent limitations of DMSP data. Where possible, applied economists and other social scientists should switch to using newer, more accurate, night-time lights data that were designed for research purposes, even if that means they have to work with shorter time-series.

See also: Popular Big Data on Night-Time Lights Underestimate Inequality

John Gibson is Professor of Economics at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He also is the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Development Review, and non-resident Visiting Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo. His research, inter alia, focuses on economic development and social inequality. Since receiving his PhD from Stanford University, he has worked in numerous countries including Cambodia, China, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

Publications:

Using multi-source nighttime lights data to proxy for county-level economic activity in China from 2012 to 2019 (2022), with X Zhang, Remote Sensing.

Which night lights data should we use in economics, and where? (2021), with S Olivia, G Boe-Gibson, C Li, Journal of Development Economics.

Better night lights data, for longer (2021), Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.

How important is selection? Experimental vs. non-experimental measures of the income gains from migration (2010), with D McKenzie, S Stillman, Journal of the European Economic Association.


Kontakt:
Dr. Armin Müller
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3473
E-Mail: armmueller@constructor.university

Lehren ziehen im Autoritarismus

Dr. Armin Müller und Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink aus dem Teilprojekt B05 "Inklusions- und Leistungsdynamiken im chinesischen Wohlfahrtsregime" verfassten einen Beitrag, der in "Asian Politics & Policy" erschienen ist.

In dem Artikel "Lesson‐drawing under authoritarianism: Generosity and cost control in China's hospital payment reforms" (Asian Politics & Policy 2023) untersuchen Armin Müller und Tobias ten Brink (TP B05) jüngere Reformen der Krankenhausfinanzierung in chinesischen Städten vor ihrem historischen Hintergrund. Mittels Process Tracing rekonstruieren die Autoren zwei Reformwellen aus einer Lesson-Drawing Perspektive, wobei unterschiedliche Datenquellen (Expert*inneninterviews, Verwaltungsdokumente, akademische Studien und Zeitungsartikel) trianguliert werden.

Lokalregierungen waren die treibende Kraft hinter einer ersten Reformwelle in den 1990er Jahren. Sie wurde von vereinfachten Versionen internationaler Modelle dominiert, die keine starken prospektiven Vergütungskomponenten enthielten und somit die Interessen der Lokalregierungen und Krankenhäuser schützten. In einer zweiten Welle ab den 2000er Jahren ging der Impuls von der Zentralregierung aus, was zu einer verstärkten Übernahme von Synthesen internationaler Modelle und Anpassungen mit stärker prospektiven Vergütungskomponenten – und einer stärkeren Orientierung an den Interessen der Patienten – führte. Es wird festgestellt, dass ein erheblicher Druck von Seiten der Zentralregierung notwendig war, um die bürokratischen Eigeninteressen der Lokalregierungen an einer kostengünstigeren Reform zu minimieren.


Kontakt:
Dr. Armin Müller
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3473
E-Mail: armmueller@constructor.university

Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university

In "Social Policy & Administration" haben 7 Teilprojekte des SFB 1342 Fallstudien sozialpolitischer Dynamiken im Globalen Süden vorgelegt. Deren Synthese zeigt: Das Konzept der kausalen Mechanismen ist gut geeignet, solche Entwicklungen zu analysieren.

Sieben Teilprojekte aus dem Projektbereich B des SFB 1342 haben eine Sonderausgabe von "Social Policy & Administration" veröffentlicht: Causal mechanisms in the analysis of transnational social policy dynamics: Evidence from the global south. Die zentrale Forschungsfrage, der die Autor*innen nachgehen, lautet: Welche kausalen Mechanismen können die transnationalen Dynamiken der Sozialpolitik im Globalen Süden erfassen?

Um Antworten auf diese Frage zu finden, präsentieren die Autor*innen vertiefende Fallstudien zu sozialpolitischen Dynamiken in verschiedenen Ländern und Regionen des Globalen Südens sowie in unterschiedlichen sozialpolitischen Feldern. Alle Beiträge konzentrieren sich auf das Zusammenspiel von nationalen und transnationalen Akteuren bei der Gestaltung von Sozialpolitik. (Die Beiträge dieser Special Issue sind unten aufgeführt.)

Die zentralen Erkenntnisse der Autorinnen und Autoren sind:

  • Erklärungen der Sozialpolitik im Globalen Süden bleiben unvollständig, wenn nicht auch transnationale Faktoren berücksichtigt werden
  • Dies bedeutet jedoch nicht, dass nationale Faktoren nicht mehr wichtig sind. Bei sozialpolitischen Entscheidungen sind nationale institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen und Akteure von zentraler Bedeutung
  • Die mechanismusbasierte Forschung kann das Zusammenspiel zwischen transnationalen und nationalen Akteuren und deren Einfluss auf die Gestaltung sozialpolitischer Ergebnisse plausibel nachzeichnen. Die Artikel identifizieren eine Vielzahl von Kausalmechanismen, die dieses Zusammenspiel erfassen können
  • Das Ergebnis sozialpolitischer Entscheidungen ist komplex und kann oft nicht durch einen einzigen Mechanismus erklärt werden. Die Untersuchung der Kombination und des möglichen Zusammenspiels mehrerer kausaler Mechanismen kann tiefer gehende Erklärungen liefern 
  • Das Konzept der Kausalmechanismen kann auch in vergleichenden Analysen angewendet werden
  • Mechanismen können induktiv in einem Fall aufgespürt und dann auf einen anderen Fall übertragen werden.


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Johanna Kuhlmann & Tobias ten Brink (2021). Causal mechanisms in the analysis of transnational social policy dynamics: Evidence from the global south. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12725

Armin Müller (2021). Bureaucratic conflict between transnational actor coalitions: The diffusion of British national vocational qualifications to China. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12689 

Johanna Kuhlmann & Frank Nullmeier (2021). A mechanism‐based approach to the comparison of national pension systems in Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12691 

Kressen Thyen & Roy Karadag (2021). Between affordable welfare and affordable food: Internationalized food subsidy reforms in Egypt and Tunisia. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12710

Monika Ewa Kaminska, Ertila Druga, Liva Stupele & Ante Malinar (2021). Changing the healthcare financing paradigm: Domestic actors and international organizations in the agenda setting for diffusion of social health insurance in post‐communist Central and Eastern Europe. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12724

Gulnaz Isabekova & Heiko Pleines (2021). Integrating development aid into social policy: Lessons on cooperation and its challenges learned from the example of health care in Kyrgyzstan. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12669 

Anna Safuta (2021). When policy entrepreneurs fail: Explaining the failure of long‐term care reforms in Poland. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12714

Jakob Henninger & Friederike Römer (2021). Choose your battles: How civil society organisations choose context‐specific goals and activities to fight for immigrant welfare rights in Malaysia and Argentina. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12721


Kontakt:
Dr. Johanna Kuhlmann
Prof. Dr. Tobias ten Brink
SFB 1342: Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik, Research IV und China Global Center
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-3382
E-Mail: ttenbrink@constructor.university