Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Macrosociology

Welfare State Futures

Welfare State Futures: Das Europa unserer Kinder

Project director: Steffen Mau

Postdoc-Researcher: Jan-Ocko Heuer

February 2015 – October 2018

Project as part of the research group “NORFACE Welfare State Futures: Our Children’s Europe”

Funding institution: German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

How European welfare states will develop is hard to predict. People’s current aspirations, ideas and assumptions will be important drivers of change and persistence and of the extent to which conflict and solidarity surround change. This project uses innovative methods (deliberative democratic forums and qualitative cross-national focus group surveys) to develop an understanding of people’s aspirations for the Europe their children will inhabit.

The interactive and discursive methods deal directly with people’s ideas, but are rarely used in comparative welfare studies. The project is essentially forward-looking. It will contribute to theoretical work on the main cleavages and solidarities driving social policy in and to more practical consideration of the parameters of acceptable policy change. It will supply new findings relevant to the politics and sociology of welfare and provide data for reanalysis and as a base-line in future studies.

Research teams in six different European welfare states (United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Slovenia) will start their work on 1 February 2015. The research consortium will be led by Peter Taylor-Gooby (University of Kent, UK).

 

Scientific Animation with results from the WelfSOC-project

Steffen Mau (German PI), Katharina Zimmermann, and Jan-Ocko Heuer were from 2015 to 2018 involved in the research project WelfSOC, which was part of the larger, NORFACE-funded research network “Welfare State Futures”. The network has now produced – as part of its final dissemination package – a scientific animation, with central results from the WelfSOC discussion groups:

https://welfarestatefutures.org/2019/05/14/the-welfare-state-has-a-future/

 

WelfSOC Activities, Presentations and Publications

(last update 2020-12-04, KK)

 

Publications

Katharina Zimmermann,Urban Boljka,Tatjana Rakar and Maša Filipovič Hrast 2020: "The social legitimacy of the universal basic income from a social justice perspective: a comparative analysis of Germany and Slovenia" in: Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 36 , Special Issue 3: Special issue: The Social Legitimacy of Basic Income: A Multidimensional and Cross-national Perspective , November 2020 , pp. 301 - 331 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2020.29

Taylor-Gooby, Peter; Chung, Heejung; Heuer, Jan-Ocko; Leruth, Benjamin; Mau, Steffen; Zimmermann, Katharina 2019: “Regimes, Social Risks and the Welfare Mix Unpacking Attitudes to Pensions and Childcare in Germany and the UK through De-liberative Forums” in: Journal of Social Policy 49 (1), online first.

Zimmermann, Katharina; Chung, Heejung; Heuer, Jan-Ocko 2018: “Labour Market Challenges and the Role of Social Investment”, in: Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth (eds.): Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare. Social Policy Directions in Uncertain Times. Palgrave Mcmillan, pp. 243-273.

Heuer, Jan; Mau, Steffen; Zimmermann, Katharina 2018: „Zur Akzeptanz des Wohlfahrtsstaates: Fixe Meinungen oder Willensbildung durch Deliberation?“, in: Nova Acta Leopoldina 417: 203-220

Heuer, Jan; Mau, Steffen; Zimmermann, Katharina 2018: “Attitudes to inequalities: Citizen deliberation about the (re-)distribution of income and wealth in four welfare state regimes” In: P. Taylor-Gooby, B. Leruth (eds.): Attitudes, aspirations and welfare: Social policy directions in uncertain times. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 93-135.

Heuer, Jan-Ocko; Mau, Steffen 2018: „Ängste in der Bevölkerung bei der sozialpolitischen Integration von Migrant*innen“ In: S. Betzelt, I. Bode (eds.): Angst im neuen Wohlfahrtsstaat: Kritische Blicke auf ein diffuses Phänomen. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 109-145.

Zimmermann, Katharina; Heuer, Jan-Ocko; Mau, Steffen 2018: “Changing preferences towards redistribution: How deliberation shapes welfare attitudes” In: Social Policy & Administration 52 (5), pp. 969–982.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, Steffen Mau 2017: “Stretching the Limits of Solidarity: The German Case”, in: Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth, Heejung Chung (eds.): After Austerity. Welfare State Transformations in Europe after the Great Recession. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 27-47.

Steffen Mau, Jan-Ocko Heuer 2016: „Wachsende Ungleichheit als Gefahr für nachhaltiges Wachstum: Wie die Bevölkerung über soziale Unterschiede denkt“. Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung.
 

 

Presentations

 

Jan-Ocko Heuer, Steffen Mau 2015: “Stretching the limits of solidarity: The German case”. 2015 Annual ESPAnet conference “The lost and the new worlds of welfare”, 3-5 September 2015, Odense, Denmark.

Katharina Zimmermann, Steffen Mau, Jan-Ocko Heuer 2016: “Attitudes towards redistribution – a procedural perspective”. 2016 Annual ESPAnet conference “Re-inventing the welfare state? Pathways to sustainability, equality and inclusion in European welfare states”, 1-3 September 2016, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, Benjamin Leruth, Steffen Mau, Katharina Zimmermann 2016: “Popular opinion on the welfare mix: How citizens in the British and German welfare state regime attribute responsibilities for welfare to state, market, and family – and why”. 2016 Annual ESPAnet conference “Re-inventing the welfare state? Pathways to sustainability, equality and inclusion in European welfare states”, 1-3 September 2016, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, Steffen Mau, Katharina Zimmermann 2016: „Staat, Markt oder Familie – Sozialpolitische Verantwortlichkeiten im Spiegel der Bevölkerungsmeinung im deutschen und britischen Wohlfahrtsstaat: Ergebnisse eines Deliberativen Forums“. 38th Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS), Social Policy Section, 26-30 September 2016, Bamberg, Germany.

Katharina Zimmermann, Jan-Ocko Heuer 2017: “Unravelling deservingness: Which criteria do people use to judge the relative deservingness of welfare target groups?” NORFACE Welfare State Futures Thematic Workshop “The Social Legitimacy of Our Future Welfare States”, 22-24 February 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, Steffen Mau 2017: „Ängste in der Bevölkerung bei der sozialpolitischen Integration von MigrantInnen: Deliberative Foren als Mittel der Sozialpolitikforschung“. Annual meeting of the Social Policy Section in the German Sociological Association (DGS), 22-23 June 2017, Berlin, Germany.

Katharina Zimmermann, Jan-Ocko Heuer 2017: “Rights and obligations in times of austerity: Citizens’ perceptions of welfare conditionality from a multidimensional perspective”. 2017 Annual ESPAnet conference, 14-16 September, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Knowledge Dissemination

Steffen Mau, Jan-Ocko Heuer, 11 May 2016: „Ungleichheit und nachhaltiges Wachstum. Was denkt die Bevölkerung? Was kann die Politik tun?“ Presentation at the Political Breakfast in the German Federal Parliament, Paul-Löbe-Haus, Berlin.

Steffen Mau (in cooperation with Jan-Ocko Heuer und Katharina Zimmermann), 17/18 June 2016: „Zur Akzeptanz des Wohlfahrtsstaates: Fixe Meinungen oder Willensbildung durch Deliberation?“ Konferenz „Gutes Leben oder gute Gesellschaft“, Presentation at the Leopoldina Akademie der Wissenschaften, Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover.

Steffen Mau, 23 June 2016: „And Justice for All…? Wie viel Ungleichheit dürfen sich Wirtschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft leisten?“ Panel discussion, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Berlin.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, 12 July 2016: „Soziale Gerechtigkeit im 21. Jahrhundert: Ungleichheit als Gefahr für Demokratie und Wohlstand?“ Presentation and panel discussion, Fritz-Erler-Forum Baden-Württemberg, Landesbüro der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Stuttgart.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, 15 September 2016: „Soziale Ungleichheit: Entwicklung, Bevölkerungsmeinung, politische Maßnahmen“. Presentation and panel discussion, Fritz-Erler-Forum Baden-Württemberg, Landesbüro der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Pforzheim.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, 27 March 2017: „Justice sociale: Quelles réponses face à la montée des inégalités en Europe?“ Presentation and panel discussion, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Bureau de Paris and Maison Heinrich-Heine, Cité Universitaire, Paris.

Jan-Ocko Heuer, 22 May 2017: „Wie gerecht geht es in Deutschland zu? Soziale Ungleichheit und ihre Folgen“. Presentation and panel discussion, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Landesbüro NRW, Bonn.