26 March 2026

The DFG Research Unit "Big Structural Change" (BISC) held its annual project meeting in Vienna from March 23–25, 2026. The workshop featured keynote lectures by Alessandra Casella, Joël van der Weele, and Jean-Robert Tyran, as well as project-internal presentations, including our own contribution, "How Policy Failure Escalates into Demand for Disruptive System Change?". Dedicated discussion groups fostered exchange across subprojects, complemented by a guided tour of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. 

BISC investigates large structural change from a micro-level perspective, combining laboratory and survey experiments with other causal inference methods to study how externalities, beliefs, and legitimacy interact in response to major drivers of change such as climate change, globalization, technological change, and mass migration. Prof. Grischa Perino and Susanne Rhein contribute to the project by investigating how dissatisfaction with climate policy interventions may erode perceptions of output and input legitimacy, thereby facilitating demand for disruptive system change.