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LATINNO is the first comprehensive database documenting participatory innovations in Latin America. The project collects and analyzes data on (non-electoral) forms of citizen participation in 18 countries from 1990 to 2020. Cases are registered according to 43 variables that capture their context, institutional design and impact, and comprise innovations relying on deliberation, direct voting, e-participation and new forms of citizen representation.

The main purpose of the project is to investigate what makes democratic innovations effective in Latin America, and to which extent they can (or can't) enhance the different dimensions of the quality of democracy: responsiveness, accountability, the rule of law, political inclusion and social equality.

Janina Söhn's doctoral thesis explores the role of immigration and integration policies for immigrant children's incorporation into their host country's school system. The empirical focus is on individuals who immigrated to Germany as minors since the end of the 1980s and began or continued their school career in German schools. These recent cohorts of young immigrants encompass a substantial number of persons whose educational attainment, however, has hardly been studied until now. Within this group of first generation immigrants, children of 'resettler families' (immigrants of German 'descent' from Eastern Europe) are compared with non-German immigrants.

This comparative project investigates internationalization and institutional changes at the nexus of advanced general education and specific vocational training in North America and Europe. It reports on contemporary developments in national postsecondary educational systems, examines institutional persistence and change as these systems react to international pressures, and analyzes the consequences of such developments for participation in education and employment as well as social mobility. The analysis goes beyond the cross-sectional, as we ask how national systems developed and why they change as they do. Our focus is on the evolution of these educational systems’ complementary models of preparing young adults for labor market participation and active citizenship.

Ziel des Projektes ist zu ermitteln, welchen Einfluss Institutionen des Bildungssystems und des Arbeitsmarktes auf den Übergang von Jugendlichen von der Schule in das Erwerbsleben haben. Dabei liegt der Schwerpunkt auf der Weiterentwicklung geeigneter international vergleichbarer Indikatoren zur Messung sowohl von Institutionen als auch von individuellen Übergangsprozessen. Die international vergleichende Forschung zu School-to-Work Transitions weist eine Reihe von Lücken auf, zu deren Schließung dieses Projekt einen Beitrag leisten will.

The rising participation rates of women in higher education has led to an increasing number of couples in which both partners hold an academic degree. In these couples, the entwining of dual professional careers – defined as the successful pursuit of a professional career by both partners – becomes ever more important. At the same time, it is an essential prerequisite for the realization of female professional careers. The pursuit of careers in science and private enterprises by both partners requires not only increased negotiation and coordination efforts within the couple but also suitable external conditions in labor markets. However, often couples’ efforts to achieve dual careers fail; most frequently because of restrictions on female professional careers.

Research on economic marginalization of less-educated people mainly focuses on purely quantitative displacement mechanisms: the more high-skill supply there is in relation to the demand for high-skilled employees, the more the labor market position of the low-educated group deteriorates. In our research, we expand the explanation of economic marginalization –unemployment risks, socioeconomic status attainment and earnings – by also looking at qualitative characteristics of groups of low-educated people, and argue that negative competence selection, negative social selection, and discrediting mechanisms are also of importance (see Solga 2008). For investigation we use historical analyses as well as country comparison

This project is undertaking a comparative study of the consequences past unemployment has on individuals’ lives even years after regaining employment. Central questions include:

• Why does unemployment have damaging effects on future careers? An empirical test of existing explanations.

• Which categories of the population are most affected and why?

• Which effect do changing policies have on post-unemployment employment trajectories in Europe?