Dieser interne Workshop des Projektbereichs B dient dem Austausch der fallstudienzentrierten Teilprojekte und der Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung der theoretischen Konzepte zu Kausalketten und Kausalmechanismen.

• Koordination des Projektbereichs A
• Leitlinien und Richtlinien für den Projektbereich A
• übergreifende konzeptionelle Fragen zur Datenerhebung
• Fragen, über die die Kerngruppe zu entscheiden hat
• Beantwortung von Fragen, die von der Gruppe Datenerfassung gestellt wurden.

Der SFB 1342 stellt sich und seine Arbeit interessierten Oberstufenschülerinnen und -schülern vor. 

Treffpunkt um 12:15 Uhr: Infostand Politikwissenschaft im GW 2.  

Die Veranstaltung ist Teil des Informationstages für Studieninteressierte der Universität Bremen. 

International Organizations (IOs) are vibrant actors in global social governance. They provide forums for exchange, contention and cooperation; they prepare, guide and supervise interna-tional treaties; they direct, finance, and implement projects, and exercise many more duties. The study of IOs in general has tremendously improved and advanced in recent decades. However, our knowledge about the involvement, influence and impact of IOs varies signifi-cantly by policy fields. While scholarship on IOs focuses often on issues areas like security, economics or environmental policies, we know comparatively little about IOs in issues areas related to social policies.

This workshop seeks to fill this gap in IO social governance. Papers prepared for this workshop have two purposes. On the one hand, they will shed light on IO involvement in a particular social policy field by describing the community of engaging IOs. They explore how a particular social policy field is constituted and which major or dominant IOs are setting the trends. On the other hand, the contributions will examine the leitmotifs these IOs promote in "their" field by exploring and analyzing the discourse they produce. By exploring the population of IOs setting and spreading ideas, the papers will provide novel knowledge about the architecture of arguments in global social governance.

The discussions will be guided by the following questions:

• What IOs are active in different social policy fields? How are the social policy fields constituted by specific types and constellations of IOs?
• What ideas are these IOs promoting? How can IO discourses over specific social policy issues be characterized? How has IO discourse developed over time? What were watersheds in the discursive framing of social policy ideas?
• Who are the addressees of IO discourses/activities? What kind of impact does the IO discourse/activity have on these addresses? (vertical perspective)
• How (and why) do IOs cooperate with other IOs/NGOs/commercial enterprises in so-cial policy fields? (horizontal perspective)

Generalising on the different fields presented, we hope to be able to present findings on a more encompassing definition of the "architecture of arguments" in global social governance, and the patterns of discourse characterizing global social policies.

Day 1 – May 24

12:00-13:00 Lunch in the University Mensa (optional)

13:00 Introduction
Alexandra Kaasch (University of Bielefeld), Kerstin Martens and Dennis Niemann (University of Bremen)

13:15-14:30 – Slot 1
Chair: Michael Windzio (University of Bremen)
Global Family Policies and Gender Equality
Rianne Mahon (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Disabilities as a "New" Global Social Theme
Nina Kolleck & Johannes Schuster (Freie Universität Berlin)
Discussant: Sigrid Hartong (Helmut Schmidt University)
Followed by plenary discussion

14:30-15:00 Coffee Break

15:00-16:15 – Slot 2
Chair: Keonhi Son (University of Bremen)
International Standards in Education
Dennis Niemann, Kerstin Martens (University of Bremen)
Children's Rights
Anna Holzscheiter (Freie Universität Berlin & WZB)
Discussant: Rianne Mahon (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Followed by plenary discussion

16:15-16:45 Coffee Break

16:45-18:00 – Slot 3
Chair: Fabian Besche (University of Bremen)
Employment and Youth
Ross Fergusson (The Open University)
Pension and Global Retirement Discourses
Mitchell Orenstein (University of Pennsylvania ), Martin Heneghan (University of Sheffield)
Discussant: Armando Barrientos (University of Manchester)
Followed by plenary discussion

18:00-18:30 Wrap-up day 1

20:00 Dinner (Ratskeller Bremen)

Day 2 – May 25

9:00-10:15 – Slot 4
Chair: David Krogman (University of Bremen)
Care and Migration
Nicola Yeates (The Open University)
Global Social Health Governance
Alexandra Kaasch (University of Bielefeld)
Discussant: Lorraine Frisina (University of Bremen, CRC 1342)
Followed by plenary discussion

10:15-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-12:00 – Slot 5
Chair: Helen Seitzer (University of Bremen)
Global Labour Standards
Friederike Römer (University of Bremen)
Climate Change as a Global Social Challenge
Ian Gough (LSE, University of Bath), Alexandra Kaasch (University of Bielefeld)
Discussant: Heiko Pleines (University of Bremen, CRC 1342)
Followed by plenary discussion

12:00-13:00 Buffet Lunch (in-house)

13:00-14:15 – Slot 6
Chair: Friederike Römer (University of Bremen)
State, Rule, and System: International Organizations and Global
Water Politics
Jeremy Schmidt (Durham University)
Food Security and Agriculture as Social Issues
Matias E. Margulis (University of Edinburgh)
Discussant: Chris Deeming (University of Strathclyde)
Followed by plenary discussion

14:30-15:00 Wrap-up day 2
and future plans

• Koordination des Projektbereichs A
• Leitlinien und Richtlinien für den Projektbereich A
• übergreifende konzeptionelle Fragen zur Datenerhebung
• Fragen, über die die Kerngruppe zu entscheiden hat
• Beantwortung von Fragen, die von der Gruppe Datenerfassung gestellt wurden.

Philipp Rehm hat zusammen mit Herbert Kitschelt und Jacob S. Hacker veröffentlicht und ist durch seine Auseinandersetzung mit Risiko, Risikoungleichheit und Wohlfahrtsstaat bekannt geworden, eine analytische Neuinterpretation des Wohlfahrtsstaats als solcher.

Alle zwei Jahre lädt die Universität Bremen ein zum OPEN CAMPUS, an dem sich Interessiert sich über das Lehrangebot und die Forschungsarbeit der Fachbereich, Institute und Einrichtungen informieren können.

Die Bremer Sozialwissenschaften präsentieren sich in diesem Jahr gemeinsam in drei zusammenhängenden Zelten. Bei Diskussionsrunden, Posterpräsentationen und Rätselspielen können die Besucherinnen die Vielfalt der Bremer Sozialwissenschaften kennenlernen und mit den Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern ins Gespräch kommen.

Das detaillierte Programm der Bremer Sozialwissenschaften folgt in Kürze.

Dieser interne Workshop des Projektbereichs B dient dem Austausch der fallstudienzentrierten Teilprojekte und der Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung der theoretischen Konzepte zu Kausalketten und Kausalmechanismen.

• Koordination des Projektbereichs A
• Leitlinien und Richtlinien für den Projektbereich A
• übergreifende konzeptionelle Fragen zur Datenerhebung
• Fragen, über die die Kerngruppe zu entscheiden hat
• Beantwortung von Fragen, die von der Gruppe Datenerfassung gestellt wurden.

The more the Internet innervates contemporary societies, the more Internet Governance emerges as an important and controversial global policy domain. Notwithstanding the crucial relevance of the issues at stake within this domain, and the long-standing and multifaceted debate around them, there is still a total lack of consensus about how to define Internet Governance, and an ample margin of ambiguity regarding both the concept of governance and the technical "boundaries" of the Internet.

These definitional uncertainties and conceptual ambiguities are not due to the inability of scholars and policy-makers in grasping the essential contours of an emerging policy field, nor to the fast pace of technological innovations. Rather, they depend on the highly controversial nature of political dynamics and institutions involved into this relatively new power arena. Since the early 1990s, in fact, different actors have been producing different definitions, conceptualisations and narratives of Internet Governance, in order to mark off specific sets of legitimated issues, actors and fora. In other words, definitions and discourses have been strategically used as regulative resources by actors struggling for the governance of the Internet.

The lecture will address definitional struggles and discursive interactions in the global Internet governance from a constructivist perspective. Particularly, drawing upon Maarten Hajer's discourse coalition framework, the main controversies around Internet governance issues will be scrutinised as they unfolded through time. Further, some mapping exercises of discourse coalitions in specific fora will be presented, and the hypothesis about an ongoing decline of the "multistakeholderist" discursive order will be discussed.

Es werden zwei Workshops parallel stattfinden (einer für Projektbereich A und einer für Projektbereich B) bis etwa 16 Uhr. Anschließend gibt es einen Vortrag für alle SFB-Mitglieder.

Details zu Workshops und Vortrag sowie zu den Räumen und dem genauen Zeitplan folgen.

Aktuelle theoretische und methodische Entwicklungen in den Sozialwissenschaften fließen in den Ansatz der "mechanism-based explanation" ein. Ausgehend von verschiedenen Disziplinen wie der analytischen Soziologie, der politischen Soziologie, der vergleichenden historischen Analyse und der qualitativen Forschung in der Politikwissenschaft betonen mechanismenbasierte Ansätze, dass Phänomene nicht vollständig durch Korrelationen zwischen Variablen erklärt werden können: Kausalmechanismen sind die "Strippen und Zahnräder", auf die Wissenschaftler stoßen, wenn sie die "Black Box" der Korrelationen öffnen.

Trotz der wachsenden Literatur zu diesem Thema konnten zwei Defizite bisher nicht behoben werden:

1. Es gibt keine überzeugende Zusammenstellung von Mechanismen, die soziale und politische Prozesse vorantreiben. Frühere Vorschläge für eine umfassende Liste von Mechanismen sammeln Elemente auf sehr unterschiedlichen Maßstäben und Ebenen. Es gibt kein einheitliches Verständnis davon, welcher Ebene (Mikro-, Meso-, Makro-) Mechanismen zugeordnet werden sollten und welche Merkmale ein Mechanismus aufweisen sollte, um als solcher zu gelten.
2. Es fehlt auch an einer systematischen Anwendung mechanismusbasierter Ansätze auf ein ganzes Politikfeld. Bisher wurden mechanismenbasierte Ansätze vor allem in Einzelfällen oder vergleichenden Fallstudien mit begrenztem Umfang und Reichweite eingesetzt. Die Anwendung eines mechanismenbasierten Ansatzes zur Untersuchung der transnationalen Dynamik eines gesamten Politikfeldes könnte ein entscheidender Test für die Fruchtbarkeit mechanismenbasierter Ansätze sein.

Diese Konferenz soll die Diskussion über die Charakteristika kausaler Mechanismen anregen und eine engere Verbindung zwischen diesen Konzepten und der Untersuchung sozialpolitischer Entwicklungen herstellen.

Bisher bestätigte Referenten:
Renate Mayntz (Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung)
James Mahoney (Northwestern University)
Peter Starke (University of Southern Denmark)

Download: Call for Papers

Call for Papers

For a combined, three-day event we invite proposals for papers on "International Knowledge Transfer in Social Policy: The Case of the Post-Soviet Region". The event takes place from 7-9 November 2019 in Bremen (Germany).

It begins with a two-day conference on "Causal Mechanisms in the Analysis of Social Policy Dynamics" in the House of Science in Bremen. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Renate Mayntz (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies), James Mahoney (Northwestern University), and Peter Starke (University of Southern Denmark).

On the third day there will be a workshop on "International knowledge transfer in social policy: The case of the post-Soviet region". Participants selected from this call are invited to join the conference and to present their papers at the third-day workshop, which takes place at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen on 9 November 2019. It intends to complement the conference on causal mechanisms with the discussion of research on dynamics of international knowledge transfer in social policy in the post-Soviet region. Special emphasis is made on the policy fields of basic income security (alleviating poverty), health care and education.

The workshop aims to bring together approaches from political science, sociology and other relevant academic disciplines to get a more comprehensive picture of the influence of social policy concepts originating in the OECD world on reform processes in the post-Soviet region and of the role that international actors play in this knowledge transfer. The focus of invited papers should always be on the international knowledge transfer and on the domestic evaluation of these social policy concepts.

Deadline for proposals: 30 April 201

Deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 30 April 2019. In addition to a 300 word abstract, please include a brief biographical statement in your submission. Selected paper-givers will be invited by 31 May 2019. Full papers will be due 15 September 2019.

The workshop will involve around 15 scholars; early-career researchers are especially encouraged to apply. Travel expenses and accommodation costs of invited participants will be covered by the organiser. For further information on our research group, visit our website.

We plan to publish selected workshop papers in a special issue of Global Social Policy.

Paper proposals and any questions should be addressed to:
Dr Andreas Heinrich (heinrich@uni-bremen.de)

Have you ever struggled with a team member, who doesn’t seem motivated? Do you sometimes wonder how to lead without formal authority? Or do you feel "stuck in the middle" between your boss and the team you are leading as a postdoc?

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The advanced PhD and early postdoc years are essential for academic career development. During this period, scientists are often torn between conflicting priorities of intellectual independence, on the one hand, and meeting professional obligations towards their employers, on the other hand. Postdoctoral candidates are expected to develop an independent publication record, apply for external funding, create a distinct research profile, build a teaching portfolio, communicate their research, build a network, undertake research stays abroad, etc. etc. Which of these tasks are particularly important? What are the top priorities? How important is the habilitation? Which time frame is appropriate and compatible with my personal private priorities? Is an academic career what I really want?

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