Latest News

A new study published in the Public Administration Review

This study examines whether street-level bureaucrats' preferences toward algorithmic decision support (ADS) induce a unilateral shift of technology-related risks onto clients of the public employment service. Expanding on public value theory and research on moral agency in public service work, we argue that case managers' choices of ADS designs are shaped by a plurality of professional, service, and efficiency values. To test this argument, we conducted a conjoint experiment on a representative sample of German Federal Employment Agency case managers. Respondents compared pairs of hypothetical ADS systems that differed in their design features, reflecting varying degrees of the realization of public values. The empirical results indicate that case managers' choices do not result in biased design. Instead, case managers balance design features reflecting professional and service values while maintaining administrative efficiency. Case managers appreciate ADS support but firmly reject the mandatory use of such advice.

doi.org/10.1111/puar.70111


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Markus Tepe
Unicom-Building
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58520
E-Mail: markus.tepe@uni-bremen.de

Neue Studie von Frank Nullmeier für die Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58576
E-Mail: frank.nullmeier@difis.org

Markus Tepe als stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW) wiedergewählt

Die Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW) ist mit derzeit über 2.000 Mitgliedern die größte Fachorganisationen für Politikwissenschaft. Sie vertritt nicht nur das Fach etwa bei Anhörungen durch Parlamente oder gegenüber den Kultusbehörden für das Schulfach Politik, sondern schlägt auch die Vertreterinnen und Vertreter des Fachs für die Wahl der Fachkollegien der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) vor. Der neue Vorsitz ist wie der neue Vorstand für eine Drei-Jahres-Periode (bis 2027) gewählt. Markus Tepe war bereits im bisherigen Vorstand (2021-2024) stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Vereinigung.

Markus Tepe ist seit Oktober 2023 Professor für Politikwissenschaft mit dem Schwerpunkt Politisches System der Bundesrepublik sowie Theorie und Empirie des Wohlfahrtsstaates an der Universität Bremen sowie Abteilungsleiter am SOCIUM. Er studierte Politikwissenschaft, Öffentliches Recht und Wirtschaftspolitik in Münster und promovierte an der Freien Universität Berlin. Forschungsaufenthalte führten ihn unter anderem an die Universitäten Stanford und Yale. Tepe war Juniorprofessor für Positive Politische Theorie und zuletzt Professor für das Politische System Deutschlands an der Universität Oldenburg. Seine Forschung befasst sich mit den Determinanten von Wahl- und Entscheidungsverhalten in Politik und Verwaltung.

Weitere Informationen

https://www.dvpw.de/informationen/infos/details/news/neuer-dvpw-vorstand-gewaehlt-1

 


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Markus Tepe
Unicom-Building
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58520
E-Mail: markus.tepe@uni-bremen.de

Two SOCIUM researchers participating in a EU Horizon 2024 project.

The two SOCIUM researchers Sebastian Haunss and Sophia Hunger have been grated a three-year project funded within the EU Horizon 2024 framework. The project will start on January 1st 2025 and also involve University of Bremen researcher Heiko Pleines from the Research Centre for East European Studies.
The goal of the project is a comprehensive comparative analysis of the role of various actors whose actions might affect the patterns of protest culture.
 
Major research objectives:
  • Protesters/activists’ repertoires and framing in the countries with different quality of democracy in the context of ongoing de-democratization processes
  • Authorities’ instrumentalization of the institutional and discursive mechanisms (“hard” and “soft” measures) to challenge protest culture in the target countries;
  • The role of mainstream and social media – their mediation and agency – in triggering or challenging protest culture in the target countries;
  • Citizens’ role in protest culture in the target countries via focusing on the perceptions and practices of three generations
  • Trace the influence of the current patterns of protest culture on the state of democracy in the target countries

Currenty the project is looking for a PhD student (see job advert here)

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Haunss
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58572
E-Mail: sebastian.haunss@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Sophia Hunger
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58579
E-Mail: hunger@uni-bremen.de

Project form Prof. Haunss publishes new data platform

Who protests when, where and about what issue? While election results and population surveys are widely available, this is usually not the case for data on protest dynamics in Germany. Yet valid scientific information on who protests, when, on what issues and with which means is of crucial importance for journalists, civil society and the interested public in order to be able to understand current protest events.
Against this background, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Haunss form the SOCIUM, together with other researchers from the Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies (ipb) have developed an easy-to-use and freely accessible online platform on which systematically collected data on protest events in Germany can be processed and made available to the public. The platform protestdata.eu  contains information on protest campaigns and protest actions from 1950 to 2002 throughout Germany as well as in 18 German cities between 2009 and 2020.

 

protestdata.eu is a joint project of the Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ) and the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). Teams at both institutions are researching the temporal and thematic development of local protest. The idea to visualise the data for a broader public arose from the ongoing cooperation in a working group at the Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies, to which all participants are associated.

 

For questions about the online platform, please contact: fgz.protest@uni-bremen.de.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Haunss
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 7
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58572
E-Mail: sebastian.haunss@uni-bremen.de