GERMANY: Berlin
Research
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)
The Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) is one of the biggest social science research centers in Europe. It houses eight research groups and several working groups dedicated to “problem-centered basic research” (WZB: An Overview: 1). The WZB research unit affiliated with the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy is called “Employment, Social Structure, and Welfare States,” which is directed by Professor Jens Alber. This unit consists of three sub-sections, one research group on “Inequality and Social Integration,” directed by Professor Alber, one research group on “Labor Market Policy and Employment,” directed by Professor Günther Schmid, and one working group on Public Health, directed by Professor Rolf Rosenbrock and PD Dr. Hagen Kühn.
Researchers in the research group on Inequality and Social Integration
The research group on Inequality and Social Integration focuses on the impact of old and new types of social inequality, including social class, ethnicity, gender, and generation, on people’s objective living conditions, their life styles and subjective well-being, and on their perception of society and the democratic order. This research group studies quality of life developments in Germany and social conditions in 28 European countries. The purpose of this project is to find out to what extent there is a European social model and how it compares to the one in the U.S., and how recent restructuring of European welfare states has impacted upon objective living conditions and subjective problem perceptions of different social groups
(Sources: Katherine Newman’s and Katrin Križ’ site visit 2003, and WZB: An Overview).
Research areas: comparison of living conditions in Europe; old and new forms of inequality in different European countries; impact of institutional conditions on social structure; international comparisons of the development and reduction in social policies and their dependence on institutional programs and fiscal interests of state elites, especially policies for the elderly and marginalization processes in European and U.S. social policies; historical conditions of democratic stability in Germany; development of voter participation in the U.S.; mobilization of xenophobic national sentiments in the context of German unification.
Research areas: development of welfare; processes of exclusion and integration in unified Germany and in Europe; welfare survey; poverty and living standards in Europe
Research areas: Research on social change and attitudes; analysis of social structure; international comparisons of welfare and quality of life; transformation processes in Eastern Europe and EU enlargement; European integration
Research areas: objective living conditions and subjective wellbeing in unified Germany; living conditions in Germany; historical development of German welfare state; labor market statistics
Research areas: social indicators; residential and urban sociology; residential mobility
Research areas: intergenerational mobility; sociology of migration; social indicators; social capital
Research areas: social structure and party preference; party identification, voter intention, and voter behavior; attractiveness of green party to older voters
Research areas: Sociology of Justice; Euromodule
Research areas: international and German perspective on third sector (civil society); social conditions of East and West German households during unification; democratic development; social indicators of socialist living conditions
Researchers in the research group on Labor Market Policy and Employment
The research group on Labor Market Policy and Employment studies how labor market policy can contribute to solving structural problems, such as unemployment, that are produced by the transition from an industrial to an information society. This research group also examines the effectiveness and efficiency of labor market policy in terms of people’s employment careers, structural changes of work with regard to transitional processes between old and new kinds of employment, such as temporary jobs, multiple employment, part-time employment, etc., and the relationship between labor market and welfare states in reducing new risks of working life (WZB: An Overview: 4-5).
Research areas: member of European Employment Task Force, which studies employment-related policy changes in Europe and identifies reform measures; efficiency of German public employment service; ways towards full employment; urban employment dynamics in Berlin compared to other metropolitan areas; job rotation as a tool to integrate the unemployed; women and structural change; unemployment insurance and active labor market policy
Research areas: privatization in German public employment service; education vouchers
Christian Brzinsky-Fay
Research areas: Data analyses using German Socio-Economic panel (GSOEP); school-to-work transitions; youth unemployment; continuing education; evaluation of active labor market policy; comparative analyses of continuing education in Europe
Research areas: causes of comparatively low participation rate of German companies with regard to continuing training at the workplace; labor markets for artists and writers
Research areas: quantitative analyses of incentive-based performance tests in regional employment services; principal agent-theory; connection between individual compensation and regional unemployment; comparisons of international analyses on qualification methods; regional and sector-specific analyses of qualification needs
Research areas: new technologies and creation of work; relationship between labor market policy and environmental policy; industrial relations and environmental policy
Hugh Mosely
Research areas: comparative and interdisciplinary research on a wide range of labor market topics, especially implementation issues such as public employment service reforms, working time and labor market regulation
Research areas: assessment of employees’ qualification needs; continuing training and emigration of skilled labor in the IT and communication industries; development of labor needs in the IT and communication industries
Jacqueline O'Reilly
Research areas: welfare and work in Europe from a gender perspective; working time changes; labor market policy and evaluation
Frank Oschmiansky
Research areas: empirical comparisons of regional labor market transitions; historical development of German labor market policy; German history in the 20th century; the extreme right
Klaus Schömann
Research areas: lifelong learning; evaluation of labor market institutions and labor market and training policies; application of innovative quantitative and qualitative research designs and the development of longitudinal analyses in evaluations of labor market policies; social selectivity of education; further training and work outcomes; innovative approaches to social security, transitional labor markets and new combinations of working and learning, such as job rotation; effects of employment protection legislation on employment dynamics in the European Union; future skill needs
Research areas: international comparisons of organization, practices and reforms of public administration, policy analysis from an institutionalist perspective; transformation of the public sector; European labor market and social policy
Researchers in Working Group on Public Health
The working group on Public Health takes a multidisciplinary approach to studying health risks and health problems. It explores disease prevention and health promotion in companies and public organizations, interventions in life style and living conditions, changes in health care systems, and the way health-related institutions are regulated and funded in Germany (WZB: An Overview: 8).
Research areas: economy and politics of health care and health services; socially rooted health inequalities; disease prevention and health promotion; worksite health promotion; AIDS policy and politics, prevention and care; health insurance systems
Research areas: sociology and economy of health and health systems; social policy, prevention and health promotion; cross-national research with a special focus on the U.S., sociology of ethics in public health
Eva Barlösius
Research areas: sociology of culture, especially eating habits and food; sociology of social inequality; theoretical and general sociology; sociology of knowledge and science
Research areas: cross-national research on the welfare state (care for the elderly); social services; sociology of professions; gender inequality and social inequality
Research areas: HIV/AIDS prevention; evaluation of preventive measures; role of NGO’s in disease prevention; HIV risk among homosexual men
Data
The data at WZB’s Inequality and Social Integration unit is open to the public. If Inequality Fellows want to use it, they will need to email Christoph Albrecht, Deputy Managing Director, Inequality and Social Integration, at Albrecht@wz-berlin.de.
Library access
Inequality Fellows will have access to the WZB library and to interlibrary loan services.
Research seminars
The WZB organizes lunches for groups of researchers, public lectures and discussions. The best way to get to know and get in touch with WZB researchers is through the WZB intranet.
Practical information
Accommodation
Christoph Albrecht, Deputy Managing Director, Inequality and Social Integration, at Albrecht@wz-berlin.de, offered to help find accommodation for Inequality Fellows by putting an ad on the WZB-intranet. Frau Martina Sander-Blanck, Assistant to Professor Alber, at blanck@wz-berlin.,de, or Frau Nicola Fielk, nico@wz-berlin.de, Assistant to Dr. Georg Thurn, Research Policy and Coordination, may also be able to put an ad on the WZB-intranet.
WZB itself does not own apartments for guest researchers but they may have access to an apartment at the Internationales Begegnungszentrum (IZB) for Fellows who are staying for several months. The cost of a furnished apartment at IBZ is about 500 euros per month, but the WZB would need to know well in advance, at least six months. Another option to find housing in Berlin is through a “Mitwohnzentrale.” Safe areas for students to live in are Prenzlauerberg, Mitte, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg
(Source: Katherine Newman’s and Katrin Križ’ site visit, 2003).
Health insurance
The US State Department provides extensive information on health insurance for Americans traveling abroad.
Office space and computer access
Inequality Fellows will have their own office space, desk, PC and email address. The research unit they will be assigned to will be responsible for providing office space.
Timing
Starting in mid-July, many researchers at WZB are on vacation. The academic year in Berlin starts in October. The summer term runs from the middle of April until the middle of July.
Transportation
A monthly pass for subways, trams and busses costs between 50 to 60 euros. See http://www.berliner-verkehr.de/traffic.htm for information on transportation in Berlin, and Deutsche Bahn for train connections and fares in Germany. For a list of low-cost airlines operating in Europe, visit http://www.discountairfares.com/lcosteur.htm. To print out a location on a map, go to http://www.mappy.com./
Visa information
U.S. citizens do not need a visa if they stay in Germany as tourists for less than 90 days. For longer stays, visitors will need to acquire a residency permit upon arrival in Germany. For the latest visa-related information, see the US State Department’s website and the German Embassy in Washington, DC.
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