Project Area B

Project Area B comprises nine projects that apply qualitative case study analyses to investigate in detail the causal pathways between international interdependencies and social policy dynamics in selected groups of countries. During the first phase, the guiding question is: by means of which causal mechanisms do interdependencies between states interact with national constellations to affect the introduction, diffusion, generosity and degree of inclusion of social policy? And which types of interdependencies - mediated by which national determinants – explain the different consolidation trajectories and scopes of social policy?

A general objective of Project Area B is to develop a general theoretical framework of social policy dynamics, an approach which overcomes narratives centred solely on the nation state. It will do so by capturing the causal mechanisms leading to the emergence of public social policy due to the interaction between national factors with inter- and transnational interdependencies. This task is the responsibility of a dedicated theory project (B01), which collates the results of the other projects in Project Area B and informs the projects of Project Area A theoretically. Together with the database project of Project Area A (A01), the theory project (B01) thus forms the central bracket around both project areas.