WZB - Berlin Social Science Center

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picture alliance / robertharding
picture alliance / robertharding

All Eyes on America

The campaign for the primary elections in the United States is hotting up, but observers have long been transfixed by the political situation over the pond. The roots of the fault lines now cracking the surface of American society run deep, as analyzed in the newest edition of the WZB-Mitteilungen.

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The White House
narvikk/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Trumpism is US

Donald Trump’s presidency did not come out of the blue. Trumpist ideology can be neatly slotted into the history of American democracy. It is held up by the pillars of nationalism, evangelical Christianity, and an emphasis on ethnic identity, each of which is deeply rooted in the traditions and history of the United States, as Peter J. Katzenstein argues.

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Jubiläum 50-KinderS27
David Ausserhofer

Celebrating the WZB's 50th Anniversary

On June 19, 800 guests gathered at the Pierre-Boulez Saal for a grand celebration of the WZB’s 50th anniversary. Highlights included the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s new piece, Labyrinth IV, as well as a performance by children from the art lab S27.

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Two girls pose in superhero costumes.
RichVintage/Getty Images

Peer Effects of Ambition

Anything you can do, I can do better: New research shows we aim higher when we observe our peers being ambitious. In the first ever laboratory experiment to investigate the peer effects of ambition, WZB researchers reveal how we adjust our own goals to match those of our peers, with important implications for educational outcomes and social mobility.

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The word secret is revealed by tearing a hole in blue paper.
Fotogestöber.de / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Who Guards the Guardians?

A new research project is investigating how democracies control intelligence services in their use of digital and transnational surveillance. GUARDINT is an international collaboration between the WZB, the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), Sciences Po in Paris, King’s College London, and Lyon 3 University.

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New research

Popular Populists

Populism is booming, left, right, and at the center of national parliaments, in coalitions with mainstream parties or as wildly successful challenges to the political status quo. Populist parties’ success stems in part from their anti-elitist rhetoric. But what happens when populists are elected into the establishment they claim to oppose? New research by Werner Krause and Aiko Wagner reveals how the reasons voters elect populists shift depending on how established the populist parties are.

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Book cover of "The Struggle over Borders"
Cambridge University Press

The Struggle Over Borders

A new book edited by current and former WZB researchers offers the latest analysis of how economic, cultural, and political globalization has transformed democratic politics.

Job offer

Director in the Field of Democracy Research

The WZB is looking for a director for a new department to be established in the field of democracy research. The new department should address fundamental questions in the field of democracy research, broadly interpreted. We look forward to receiving your application by the deadline of August 15, 2019.

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Hungersnot in Äthiopien, Dürre, Klimawandel
picture alliance / Ricardo Herrgott

Climate Change Refugees

A new study by Marc Helbling and Daniel Meierrieks shows that climate change refugees are accepted by the public in Germany at a far higher rate than economic refugees. 

New publication

Winds of Change

Where do we not observe transformations? Political, social, and economic change is a complex and omnipresent phenomenon. By bringing together contributions from a wide range of researchers, the newly published Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation, co-edited by WZB director Wolfgang Merkel, sheds a fresh, multidisciplinary light on transformation research.

Court Dismisses AfD Thuringia’s Claim against the WZB

On April 9, 2019, the Berlin Landgericht  dismissed a claim filed by the AfD fraction in the Thuringian state parliament against the WZB. The AfD fraction had attempted to force the WZB to abstain from making statements that the party viewed as contravening personality rights. The court reasoned that the study in question was a piece of academic research and thus could not infringe upon the fraction’s personality rights in any way.

New study

China versus the WHO

The outbreak of the highly contagious SARS virus in 2003 gave rise to a norm conflict between China and the WHO. With both parties fearing a backlash, the conflict was never openly acknowledged but exposed in their behavior. In his new study, Christian Kreuder-Sonnen uses this case to exemplify the importance of studying norm contestation that is visible in actions, not words. This more hidden form of “behavioral contestation” had decisive implications for later debates about norms in global health.

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Abteilung Deutsches Internet-Institut

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Forschungsgruppe Globalisierung, Arbeit und Produktion

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Events

15 - 19 July 2019
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
8 - 9 October 2019

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Research

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center investigates fundamental societal issues. Our focus is on education and work, markets and choice, migration, democracy and autocracy, international politics and law. At the WZB researchers from various disciplines work together – mainly from sociology, political science, economics, law and psychology.

 

WZB in the media

Democratic Audit, 2 July
From the European debt crisis to a culture of closed borders: how issue salience changes the meaning of left and right for perceptions of the German AfD party
The New York Times, 26 June
„What Happened to America’s Political Center of Gravity?“
Phoenix, 25 June
Unter den Linden - Geteiltes Deutschland - Wie halten wir unsere Gesellschaft zusammen?

Media coverage