Grzegorz Lechowski

Short profile

Grzegorz Lechowski is an economic sociologist with a research focus on the processes of technological, organizational and regulatory change in the globalized industrial and digital economy.

His current research topics include in particular: the policy discourse of the digital and technological “sovereignty” of the EU; the geopolitics of global value chains in the tech sector; the transition to electromobility and its implications for the transnational organization of work and production in the automotive industry.

In his cumulative dissertation project (Freie Universität Berlin), he develops case studies on EU and German policies and business strategies in the digital sector in the context of the growing geopolitical tensions.

Recent output

2025

Lechowski, G., & Weis, N. (2025). German Industrial Model in Transition: Electromobility Challenges in the Automotive Sector. In M. Krzywdzinski, G. Lechowski, J. Humphrey, & T. Pardi (Eds.), Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Markets, Firms and Technologies in the Age of Geopolitical Disruption. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Lechowski, G., Krzywdzinski, M., Humphrey, J., & Pardi, T. (2025). Global Shifts in the Automotive Industry. Outlining the New Arrangements between Technology, Policy, Firms, and Markets. In M. Krzywdzinski, G. Lechowski, J. Humphrey, & T. Pardi (Eds.), Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Markets, Firms and Technologies in the Age of Geopolitical Disruption. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Krzywdzinski, M., & Lechowski, G. (2025). Industry 4.0 and Its Implications for the International Division of Labor in the Automotive Industry. In M. Krzywdzinski, G. Lechowski, J. Humphrey, & T. Pardi (Eds.), Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Markets, Firms and Technologies in the Age of Geopolitical Disruption. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Humphrey, J., Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., & Pardi, T. (2025). Introduction. In M. Krzywdzinski, G. Lechowski, J. Humphrey, & T. Pardi (Eds.), Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Markets, Firms and Technologies in the Age of Geopolitical Disruption. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., Humphrey, J., & Pardi, T. (Eds.). (2025). Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Markets, Firms and Technologies in the Age of Geopolitical Disruption. Palgrave Macmillan.

Lechowski, G. (2025). Globaler Strukturwandel im Automobilsektor. Die deutsche und die europäische Wirtschaftspolitik stehen vor neuen Herausforderungen. WZB-Mitteilungen, 187(März 2025), 54-57.

2024

Dupuis, M., Greer, I., Kirsch, A., Lechowski, G., Park, D., & Zimmermann, T. (2024, forthcoming). A Just Transition for Auto Workers? Negotiating the Electric Vehicle Transition in Germany and North America. ILR Review. 

Gorwa, R., Lechowski, G., & Schneiß, D. (2024). Platform lobbying: Policy influence strategies and the EU's Digital Services Act. Internet Policy Review, 13(2).

2023

Lechowski, G., Krzywdzinski, M., & Pardi, T. (2023). A government-driven sectoral transformation? French and German policy responses to the COVID-crisis in the automotive industry. International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 23(1), 5-21.

Lechowski, G. (2023). Between Domestic Entrepreneurship and Global Technology Chains: Upgrading Paths of Two Large IT Firms from Poland. In Y. Kouli & U. Müller (Eds.), The Middle-Income Trap in Central and Eastern Europe. New York: Berghahn.

Lechowski, G., & Dąbrowska, E. (2023). Die Zukunft wird multipolar. Geopolitische Verschiebungen in der Digitalwirtschaft. WZB-Mitteilungen, 180, 6-9.

Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., Ferdinand, J., & Schneiß, D. (2023). The German path to electromobility and its impacts on automotive production and employment. In B. Galgóczi (Ed.), On the way to electromobility – a green(er) but more unequal future? Brussels: ETUI, 179-206. 

2022

Lechowski, G., & Krzywdzinski, M. (2022). Emerging positions of German firms in the industrial internet of things: a global technological ecosystem perspective. Global Networks, 22(4), 666-683 .

Lechowski, G., Köppl-Turyna, M., & Wanka, S. (2022). Verflechtung macht verwundbar. Die EU muss ihre wirtschaftlichen Abhängigkeiten neu denken. WZB-Mitteilungen, 176, 49-52. 

Lechowski, G., & Köppl-Turyna, M. (2022). Reframing economic interdependency. WZB-Blog: War in Europe: Causes and Consequences.

Lechowski, G., & Wanka, S. (2022). Securing Supply Chains for the Low-Carbon Economy: The Case of Electric Batteries. 49security. Views on Germany's National Security Strategy.

2021

Lechowski, G. (2021). Die Industriecloud als zweite Chance. Europas neuer Anlauf in der globalen Plattformökonomie. WZB-Mitteilungen, 171, 35-37.

Lechowski, G. (2021). European Policy Interventions into the Emerging Industrial Cloud: Towards a Regionalization of the Digital Economy? Paper presented at the Virtual SASE Conference 2021.

Lechowski, G., Krzywdzinski, M., & Pardi, T. (2021). Government Response to COVID-Crisis in the French and German Car Industries: A Case of State-Led Sectoral Transformation? Paper presented at the Virtual SASE Conference 2021. 

2020

Humphrey, J., & Lechowski, G. (2020). Lieferschock, Nachfragekrise, Technologiewandel. Die Pandemie kann die europäische Autoindustrie nachhaltig verändern. WZB-Mitteilungen, 168, 60-62.

Humphrey, J., & Lechowski, G. (2020). COVID-19 and European Industry: Global Shocks, Local Shocks and Value-Chain Restructuring. Coronavirus and its Societal Impact – Highlights from WZB Research.

Lechowski, G., & Krzywdzinski, M. (2020). Digitalization and new technological interdependencies in the German manufacturing equipment sector. SASE Virtual Conference 2020.

2019

Lechowski, G., & Krzywdzinski, M. (2019). Governing “digital transformation” through transnational technological standards. Paper presented at the SASE conference, The New School, New York City.

Lechowski, G., & Krzywdzinski, M. (2019). Industriestrukturen im Umbruch. WZB-Mitteilungen, H. 163, Sonderausgabe zu 50 Jahre WZB: “in touch. Forschung und Gesellschaft”, pp. 64-65 (see English version here).

Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., & Mählmeyer, V. (2019). Lean work and gender inequalities: manufacturing consent at a multinational car plant in provincial Russia. Global Labour Journal, 10(2), 123-141. 

2018

Lechowski, G. (2018). Beyond “dependent development” in a high-tech industry? The interplay between domestic institutions and transnational sectoral governance in the trajectories of emerging Polish IT firms. Discussion Paper SP III 2018–302. WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, pp. 1-38 (see final version here).

Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., & Jürgens, U. (2018). The inevitability of change in Chinese and Indian automakers’ low cost productive models. La Nouvelle Revue du Travail, 12, pp. 1-20.

Public talks

• Lechowski, G. (2023). Zukunftsgespräche: Globale Wertschöpfungsketten neugestalten. Futurium, 18.03.2023.

Recent projects

• Book project on the “global shifts” in the transnational automotive sector (under contract with Palgrave, forthcoming; together with co-editors M. Krzywdzinski, J. Humphrey, T. Pardi).
• Strategic Response to COVID-Crisis in the Automotive Industry: Comparing European and Global Approaches (funding: VolkswagenStiftung; duration: 03.2021-01.2023).
• Blankensee Colloquium on global digital economy (funding: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Fall 2022; together with main applicants: F. Butollo and G. Raj-Reichert).

Teaching

• Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Lecturer: Globalisierung von Industrie und Arbeit (Globalization of industry and labor), Fall 2021; Einführung in die Soziologie (Introduction to Sociology), Fall 2020