LOGO

Recently the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) elected some of the bodies of the DFG. In doing so it elected one of the members of SOCIUM in two important committees. Karin Gottschall, Professor of Sociology at Fachbereich 8 and Department Head at SOCIUM, became member of the Senate Committee on Collaborative Research Centres of the DFG and at the same time member of the Grants Committee on Collaborative Research Centres.

The task of the Senate Committee on Collaborative Research Centres is to participate in the preparation, assessment and decision-making on financing the applications for Sonderforschungsbereiche (Collaborative Research Centers) at the DFG. It consists of 40 scientists from all disciplines.

The Grants Committee, as its name indicates, decides about the financing of applications for Collaborative Research Centers by the DFG. It consists of the 40 members of the Senate Committee plus one representative of the Federal Ministry and one representative each for the 16 Länder governments.

On March 26th, 2019 already the second cohort of the joint Master program of the University of Bremen together with the Università degli Studi di Milano successfully finished its studies. Chiara Bresan, Sinem Dogan, Verena Sattler and Laura Rappold defended their Master theses which dealt with issues of comparative European industrial relations as well as inequality in the labour markets. Following the defenses they were allowed to don, as a sign of their successes, the customary laurel wrath (“corona d’alloro”).

Already since the Winter Semester of 2015/2016 the Università degli Studi in Milano, Italy and the University of Bremen cooperate in a university program that awards a double degree (both in Germany and Italy) as a “European Master in Labour Studies and Social Policy”. Central contents of this program are industrial relations in international comparative perspective including trade unions, employers’ associations and their political and social embedding. An additional focus of this two-year program with the first year at the University of Bremen and the second at the Università degli Studi is the comparative analysis of inequality and social policies. The deadline for applications for this international Master program is June 15th, 2019. Both universities accept such applications.

A huge success for the SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy at the University of Bremen: The funding and support network "Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research" approved the application submitted by the Bremen Professor of Sociology, Karin Gottschall, for the provision of an endowed chair titled "Life Course Oriented Social Policy". The chair, embedded in the Faculty of Social Sciences and the SOCIUM research center, will be financed by the FIS with 1.1 million euro for the following five years. Research and teaching under the new chair will focus on the relationship of employment biographies, social policy, and social inequality.

Risks in the Life Course
For decades, the German labor market has been characterized by high and persistent unemployment of specific groups and the increase of insecure employment relations. The idea of continuous employment up until retirement seems to be more and more unrealistic. This topic will rank high on the agenda of our society in the years to come. Against this background, the endowed chair will focus on new and old risks of changed employment relations and ways of life. Moreover, consequences of recent social political reforms in the labor market and old-age provision in Germany will be investigated in an international comparison. Research will take into account specific groups such as women, people with migration backgrounds, low-wage earners, and the self-employed. Special emphasis will be given to the question of how individuals and groups perceive and address social risks in the life course and in everyday life.

At the same time, the chair will transfer sound sociological knowledge to the public on controversial issues like basic income and poverty risks. It also aims to further sustainable social- and labor-market policies which are sensitive to changing life course demands. The chair's approach promotes the newly established integration of social policy research and sociological inequality research at the SOCIUM and allows for sharpening the profile of interdisciplinary welfare state research at the University of Bremen.

The Bremen SOCIUM
The SOCIUM is nationwide the only social science research institute which empirically and theoretically investigates question of inequality and social policy as well as social and political interdependencies. The focus of this work lies in interdisciplinary research on social, economic, political, cultural, organizational, legal, historical, and social-medical conditions.

The funding and support network "Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research"
The funding and support network "Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research", which was set up in 2016 by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs, funds junior research groups, research projects and endowed chairs with the aim of promoting innovative approaches in social policy research.

Further Information:
Funding and support network "Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research"

Loss of income, educational panic or burn-out problems in the middle classes keep making headlines. The question of whether the middle classes are disturbed in their 'comfort zone' and whether the seemingly self-evident security is no longer valid for their own children is the subject of various and controversial public debates. In fact, little is known about the lifestyle of the middle classes in Germany. Sociologists from various departments of the SOCIUM will now investigate in a research project recently approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) which events and developments lead to insecurity and how middle class people deal with these irritations.

In the three-year study (funding volume approx. 400,000 euros) with the title "Investing in Status as a Mode of Living: Practices, Conditions, Disturbances" members of different subgroups of the middle class, also in comparison to members of lower classes, are intensively interviewed on several areas of life such as work, partnership, investments to find out to what extent irritations in these areas affect the entire lifestyle.

The study is part of a larger research programme prepared by Uwe Schimank, Betina Hollstein and Karin Gottschall in collaboration with other sociologists at the University of Bremen and beyond. In addition to the qualitative study mentioned above, in which the postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students Nils C. Kumkar, Rixta Wundrak and Stefan Holubek will also be involved, further projects will investigate the lifestyle of the middle classes in a representative, longitudinal and international comparative manner.

Around 30 percent of the GDP in Germany are produced or consumed by the welfare state. More than 40 percent of the federal budget is allocated to social policies. Nevertheless, due to a reduction in the number of professorships on social policy social scientific research on the welfare state is in decline. The “Network Promoting Interdisciplinary Research on Social Policy”, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, attempts to reverse this trend. Endowment chairs, promotion of young scholars, financial support for research activities – there is a broad spectrum of possible initiatives which will be supported by various sponsors already starting in 2017/18. The new-established interdisciplinary Advisory Board is primarily tasked with quality management.

In recent years various observers in Germany deplored the declining number and importance of social scientific research on the welfare state while at the same time the political, social and financial importance of social policies increased. Universities changed the designation of new chairs in social sciences. Research institutes realigned their focus. This leads to a major gap in research at a time when social and global developments result in pressing new questions regarding welfare and social justice. In February 2016 the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities organized a conference with sociologists, political scientists, economists, law scholars, historians as well as Christian social ethicists on the question of “Is there a Crisis of Social Policy Research?” in which several members of the SOCIUM participated. One result was the foundation of the “Network Promoting Interdisciplinary Research on Social Policy” based on a funding guideline of the Federal Ministry. The newly established Advisory Board convened on June 2nd, 2016 for its inaugural meeting and discussed funding for different types of research and networking. The program is to be announced by July 2016. Approved research proposals will commence in 2017/18.

In the faculty council meeting of June 12, 2013 of faculty 8 Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Bernd Zolitschka was elected Dean. Prof. Dr. Karin Gottschall was proposed and appointed by the council to become Vice Dean. Both will assume office in the upcoming winter term and their appointment will be valid for two years. 

Private households' demand for support in housekeeping, childcare and care of elderly is increasing. In Germany, it is met mainly by undocumented work.

The report shows that this constellation is eased by legal and institutional regulations: Social as well as tax legislation promote a marginal employment of married women. Restrictive rules for additional earnings in the social welfare law and high charges on low wage incomes are often a hindrance to the improvement of welfare recipients' and low-paid workers' precarious economic situation by regular work. Foreigners from a non-EU member state eventually have - due to restrictive immigration legislation - few possibilities to take up legal work in Germany. The interest in regular work might be raised (i.a.) by an increase of the upper limits on additional earning and the promotion of employment which ensures livelihoods in domestic services.

Publication:
Gottschall, Karin; Schwarzkopf, Manuela, 2011: Legal and institutional incentives for undocumented work in private households in Germany. Stocktaking and problem-solving approaches, 238/2011, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

Further information and order of the working paper:
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung