WZB | Berlin Social Science Center

Research project and website

„Double Shift“ – How Jordan provides schooling for school-age refugee children

The morning’s lessons are for the Jordanian children, in the afternoon it’s the Syrians’ turn. Jordan is using a model called Double Shift in order to provide schooling for hundreds of thousands of school-age refugee children from neighboring, war-torn Syria, alongside Jordanian pupils. How is a small country like Jordan able to overcome such a huge challenge? The WZB Berlin and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) undertook a joint research project to examine the Jordanian school system. The research analyzes if the Double Shift system could set an example for other countries dealing with issues of education and migration. The results of the project will be documented on the multimedia Double Shift website. The website is nominated for the German Design Award in the catagory 'Excellent Communications Design/Web'. more

3 minutes with Daniel Friedman

Investigating fast money

Nowadays, tiny fractions of seconds can make the difference between profit and loss on international stock exchanges. High-frequency trading moves enormous sums around at speeds that humans can barely imagine. It’s a business that is almost uncontrollable -- and highly risky. In our short video, economist Daniel Friedman of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who holds the research professorship in Market Design at the WZB, briefly summarises his research. Can his work help to put the brakes on high-frequency trading? more

People

Harald Wilkoszewski new Head of Communications

Harald Wilkoszewski, Foto: MPG/Lina Grün

Dr Harald Wilkoszewski is the new Head of Communications at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Prior to this post, Wilkoszewski (41) was Head of the Brussels Office for Population Europe, a European research network hosted by the Max Planck Society. more

New Study

Long hours and longings: Children’s views of fathers’ jobs

A third of Australian children aged 11–13 years say their fathers work too much, a new study led by The Australian National University (ANU) has found. The study observed around 3,000 fathers and their children as part of the ‘Growing Up in Australia’ study. Lead researcher Professor and former visiting fellow at the WZB, Lyndall Strazdins, said fathers' long hours on the job, including regular night and weekend work and difficulties getting time off work, contributed to their children’s perceptions. Lyndall Strazdin has worked together in this project with Jenny Baxter, Australian Institute of Family Studies, and Jianghong Li, WZB Berlin. more

Study on transition into adulthood

Apprentices as happy with their lives as graduates

Young people in the UK who pursued vocational training rather than university report being just as satisfied with their lives, according to new research by Ingrid Schoon, Research Professor at the WZB and Professor at the UCL Institute of Education in London, and Mark Lyons-Amos, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. more

English WZB Report 2016

Law, Labor, and Democracy

Foto: Cover WZB Report 2016, Ullstein bild / Gisbert Paech

Our recently published English WZB Report 2016 reveals the WZB as an “institution brimming with life and energy”. Essays on global governance, economics and law, social inequality, religion, labor, and democracy show the various research contexts of our institute. While Hildegard Matthies explores the phenomena of “Burnout in the Modern World of Work” Justin Valasek shows the “Inefficiences in EU’s Fiscal Spending”. Silke Gülker explains in her article why it is time to reconsider the relationship between religion and science. Samuel Huntington’s theses are examined by Michael Zürn und Wolfgang Merkel. You will find the entire English WZB Report 2016 here. more

Experiment on learning behaviour

Knowing more about economic gains makes people less cooperative

Existing research suggesting that humans cooperate if they know more about their own payoffs has been rebutted: In the long run, access to information about payoff distributions leads to less cooperative behavior, finds a recent study in Nature Communications by Steffen Huck, Johannes Leutgeb (both WZB Berlin Social Science Center) and Ryan Oprea (University of California, Santa Barbara). The study also shows that knowledge about earning possibilities leads to smaller earnings in the long-run. more

For freedom on research and teaching

WZB supports March for Science in Berlin

The freedom of research and teaching and the autonomy of scientists are under attack worldwide: in Turkey and Hungary, as recent incidents have shown, but also as a result of further restrictions such as the executive orders of US president Donald Trump. The WZB is deeply concerned about this trend. We believe that freedom of science is one of the key principles to ensure that society is ready to meet the challenges of the future. That is why we support the March for Science on April 22, 2017, an event for people worldwide to show their support for academic freedom. As an institute devoted to problem-oriented social science research, the WZB has produced empirically based answers to questions on social change since its foundation in 1969. The free exchange of thoughts and opinions among researchers worldwide is the lifeblood of our work. more

New database in the making

Lessons from Latin America: Democratic innovations in comparison

In Montevideo, citizens are not forced to bite the bullet when they notice potholes in the road or vandalised public spaces. They can register these problems connected to public services in the online geolocation platform “For My Neighborhood”, which forwards them immediately to the city’s Single System of Complaints. This is merely one of many cases the project “Latinno” is currently compiling in the first comprehensive and systematic database on new forms of citizen participation in Latin America. The new database, which has been developed under the guidance of WZB-researcher Thamy Pogrebinschi, will be allowing comparisons across about 2000 institutional designs in 20 countries, including their effectiveness and impact. more

Wolfgang Merkel on the US elections

A Warning Shot for Democrats

Trump-Gummimasken; Foto: Keita Iijima, picture alliance / AP images

"Sedate, complacent, and deaf toward those at the bottom" - political scientist Wolfgang Merkel does not hold back with criticism when speaking about his own class, the better-to-do and the establishment of civil society and politics. The WZB researcher analyses Donald Trump's rise to power for the online journal "Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft" ("International politics and society"), edited by the German social democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Wolfgang Merkel demands a clear commitment for freedom, equality and modernity - but without condescension towards entire sections of society. We present the essay in an English translation. more

Now online

New dataset to improve comparative electoral research

A team of WZB researchers has compiled a comparative dataset of election surveys covering 128 national elections in 51 countries from 1994 to 2011. These election surveys had been collected by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). The new dataset, which was assembled by Bernhard Weßels, Heiko Giebler, Josephine Lichteblau, Antonia May, Reinhold Melcher (now Fern-Universität Hagen) and Aiko Wagner was made accessible via the CSES website on June 1st. more