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Familiale Ereignisse wie die Gründung einer Partnerschaft und die Familienbildung wirken nicht nur auf das Erwerbverhalten von Frauen, sondern auch auf das der Männer ein. Auf welche Art und Weise familiale Übergänge das Erwerbsverhalten von Männern prägen, hängt sowohl von individuellen und familialen Faktoren als auch von gesellschaftlichen Kontexten ab. Das Forschungsprojekt geht vor allem der Frage nach, inwiefern der Effekt familialer Übergänge auf das Erwerbsverhalten von Männern unter verschiedenartigen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen variiert.

Since the late 1990s, the left has become a major political actor in Latin America and the scholarly community seems to assume – implicitly rather than explicitly – that the right is virtually irrelevant in the region. However, this image is too simplistic and could lead to a false impression. On the one hand, right-of-center parties have a significant electoral presence in several Latin American societies and they govern countries like Chile, Colombia and Mexico. On the other hand, Latin America’s turn to the left was not necessarily caused by a structural realignment towards the left, but has occurred in great part due to contingent factors (e.g. citizens’ economic discontent with incumbents and traditional parties in the immediate aftermath of the Asian financial crisis).

Germany’s political decision of a 'transformation of the energy system' (known as the 'Energiewende') calls for a fundamental restructuring of the energy supply system over the next decades. Apart from employing renewable energy sources to an unforeseen extent, a decentralized and smart energy network system (“smart grid”) will become crucial. Smart grids are IT-based communication networks connecting energy production, storage media (e.g. batteries) and consumption. With some renewable energy sources being only available non-permanently (e.g.

Does it make a difference if researcher with different cultural backgrounds cooperate in one team? Does this kind of heterogeneity influence the process of investigation? The project addresses these questions theoretically and empirically and, thereby, works on central research gaps of the Science Studies. The discipline aims to investigate the „social embeddedness“ of scientific work. However, potential cultural differences in the production of knowledge are underestimated so far, but scientific communities are widely seen as homogeneous entities. In contrast, the project focus on the individual biographies of the researcher and their potential influence on the process of investigation.

In her dissertation, Jonna M. Blanck explores the transitions into vocational training of secondary students with so-called “learning disabilities” to identify individual and institutional factors that complicate, impede or support those transitions. By pursuing this research question, she builds on studies that address the effects of educational poverty on career opportunities using a life course perspective. Her inquiry follows a mixed-method approach: On the one hand, she draws on data collected in the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) to perform a quantitative analysis of those transitions. On the other hand, she uses interviews with experts and document analyses to learn more about the ways in which institutions structure the educational trajectories of youth.

The rise of non-Western powers, such as the BRICS or IBSA states, has entailed competing claims about how these powers act among each other and how they behave vis-à-vis the established powers. Do the rising powers form a counterhegemonic bloc to confront the “old” powers, creating potentially dangerous tension in international politics? Or do we observe an alignment of interests between old and new powers, suggesting accommodation and harmony? To examine rising power behavior systematically, this paper analyzes their voting behavior in the United Nations General Assembly (GA). We employ a spatial modeling technique (W-NOMINATE) to analyze more than 1,000 GA votes through which states reveal their policy preferences.

This project theorizes patterns of international public authority and translates them into a data model that is suitable for the analysis of how various types of international institutions govern national and international politics. The project is motivated by a qualitative shift in international relations: the phenomenon that international institutions, and especially International Organizations (IOs), gain in public authority and profoundly influence internal affairs of states by reducing their room of maneuver. As a result, the principle of national sovereignty is transformed and loses its significance and structuring quality for international and domestic politics.

In International Institutions in Hard Times. A Theory of Global Governance present blockades and norm violations are interpreted as an expression of the institutional deficits of Global Governance. The crisis of European integration, the unilateralism of the USA, growing opposition against international organizations, and the insistence on national sovereignty of emerging countries such as China or India are therefore resulting from deficits in world order. The theory of Global Governance is devoted to questions regarding the emergence, function, and effect of world order. Moreover, it aims to explain current blockades in international politics, as well as the parallel deepening of international institutions.

This project departs from the observation that legitimacy has become important for international institutions but is also strongly contested. Far from constituting a ‘property’ of international institutions, legitimacy is performed and disputed through discursive practices. While international organizations seek legitimacy, states and other actors engage in dynamic processes of (de-)legitimation. Legitimacy talk is utilised as a tool for political contestation, but can also serve important mediating functions. Rethinking the legitimacy of international institutions needs to take into account two key dimensions: the meanings attached to concepts of legitimacy as they play out in political disputes, and its capacity for adaptation and change over time.

A shifting distribution of international power is a fundamental contemporary trend. Emerging powers are changing the global balance of power, altering the character of the global political economy, and bringing new interests and ideas into the international arena. At the same time, international politics is characterized by a growing number of international institutions. These range from formal intergovernmental organizations like the WTO and IMF, to informal clubs like the G7, BRICS and IBSA forums, to commonly accepted ideas and norms. Few of these institutions are unaffected by the economic shift towards emerging markets or by the power shift between national governments.