Research projects

Presented as “Europe’s man-on-the-moon moment”, the European Green Deal’s (EGD) ambitions to gain political traction and societal momentum was made clear from the beginning. This has crucial implications for global interdependencies and transnational social integration. The EU’s claim of a global leadership role in a worldwide green transition has already prompted other global powers to symbolically engage in a ‘green space race’ and strongly shapes current EU foreign relations. At the same time, becoming the first continent to achieve climate-neutrality can only compare to sending the first man on the moon if policies align with public sentiment that sees green prosperity as an extraordinary goal worth the historical and collective effort – in other words, that “all of us must work to put him there” (Kennedy 1961). In light of these global and inner-societal dimensions of a (potential) ‘green space race’, the project is interested in the social legitimacy green transition strategies and their potential for transnational social integration within regional integrations projects (particularly the EU, MERCOSUR and ASEAN). Will regional integration projects be able to unite their population behind a collective effort for the sake of their global power position (and probably for the sake of planetary ecosystems)? Observing the rather precarious reliance on legitimation derived from different and sometimes opposing societal actors and particularistic discourses on ‘the universal’ will provide important insights into the societal embeddedness of green transition strategies, which can become a source of trust in institutions – or provide a platform for a climate of distrust and political failure. 

Involved partners: Vincent Gengnagel, Katharina Zimmermann, Ludwig Ipach, Katrin von der Lancken

Related publications and presentations:

• Special Issue “Global moonshots, European responsibilities: Governance and Contestation of Eco-social Transformation” in der Zeitschrift “Culture, Practice & Europeanization, edited by Vincent Gengnagel und Katharina Zimmermann. [Call for Papers]
• Gengnagel, Vincent; Zimmermann, Katharina: “The European Green Deal – An inclusive moonshot for a climate-neutral yet prospering continent?”. Talk at the European Sociological Association Conference 2021 (31.8. – 3.09.2021).

In the context of the ‘European Green Deal’, the EU has established the ‘Just Transition Mechanism’ (JTM), a financing and governance tool with the aim “to ensure that the transition towards a climate-neutral economy happens in a fair way, leaving no one behind” (EU Commission 2020). The projects is interested in the nature and shape of social policies within the JTM at the European and the national level. Which role does redistributive and productive social policy play in the JTM? How do the social policy measures interact with environmental policies at the EU level and in the member states? How do different actors in the member states engage with the JTM? These questions shall be addressed on the basis of an analysis of member states’ country reports, EU and domestic policy documents, and a series of expert interviews in selected member states.

Projektbeteiligte: Katharina Zimmermann Anne Gerstenberg Leonie Frey Katrin von der Lancken 

The mitigation of climate change and the protection of ecological resources require profound changes in established modes of production and consumption. Social policy is comprehensively challenged here: it must cushion the material risks of the population groups affected by structural change (e.g. jobs in coal mining) and the unequal distribution of burdens of new consumption models (e.g. petrol prices) and is responsible for accompanying labour market policy for a sustainable economy (e.g. through retraining measures). In this context, social policy measures are not only negotiated in terms of their concrete output legitimacy, but also in a broader socio-political context: In most European countries, plans for a ‘green transition’ are accompanied by a cross-cutting mood of optimism, but also heightened uncertainty. On the one hand, ecological protection and value orientations appear in the public perception in combination with a pluralisation of gender orders and family models that are oriented towards the needs of urban middle classes (e.g. preference for public transport instead of motorised individual transport). These cosmopolitan-liberal positions are identified with a green future and the gain in modernisation hoped for from the ‘green transition’. On the other hand, traditional life models that do not follow these developments at the same pace appear as backward-looking modernisation losers. In this mixture, the identification with classic family models, regular employment, rural areas and the nation appears to have an elective affinity with the rejection of climate policy goals. 

The project combines a media analysis, quantitative survey research and qualitative focus groups to analyse attitudes towards social policy measures in the ‘green transition’ in Germany and Italy. The media analysis covers opinion pieces in different print media outlets to identify salient topics in the eco-social context and to distil specific liberal and conservative lines of argument. In a second step, focus groups with participants from different socio-economic groups will be conducted in Germany and Italy to unravel justifications and moral repertoires. All focus group participants will fill in a questionnaire with items of relevant quantitative surveys, so that a link between the qualitatively gathered justifications and the survey items can be made.

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder. 

• Involved partners: Vincent Gengnagel, Katharina Zimmermann, Beke Langosch, Ludwig Ipach, Christian Möstl

Equal participation of men and women in the labour market is a normatively and economically desirable goal in the social investment paradigm, which is to be achieved especially by relieving women of care work - usually by investing in childcare (Hemerijck 2015). However, the social investment approach is also criticised for its one-sided, primarily labour market-oriented view of gender equality (Saraceno 2015). Policy instruments that primarily address women as bearers of the main responsibility for family matters exclude the problem of an unequal distribution of care work within the family. Care Gaps remain and will remain private problems that (can) have serious effects on the burdens and labour market opportunities of women.

Empirical findings on the practical orientation of social investment family policy with regard to the relationship between gainful employment and (intra-family) care work are, however, still limited. Against this background, this project examines how social-investment policies address gender justice and what role the care gap plays.

The project takes place within the framework of the research network "Sorgetransformationen".

Involved partners: Katharina Zimmermann, Laura Lüth, Merle Koch

Related publications and presentations:

• Laura Lüth: Activating the Family – Family Models in Active Social Citizenship. Presentation at IPPA 2021, Barcelona 08.07.2021.
• Zimmermann, Katharina; Chung, Heejung; Heuer, Jan-Ocko (2018): Attitudes towards education, social investment and the labour market. In: Taylor-Gooby, Peter; Leruth, Benjamin (Hrsg.): Attitudes, aspirations and welfare: Social policy directions in changing times. Palgrave Macmillan: 243-272.
• Rakar, Tatjana; Chung, Heejung; Schøyen, Mi Ah; Zimmermann, Katharina; Filipovič Hrast, Maša: „Conditionality and family policy: social rights vs. social investment.” Presentation at 2019 ESPAnet Conference in Stockholm (04.-07.09.2019)

The COVID 19 pandemic is already considered a time of historic upheaval. Current observations indicate that social inequalities are intensifying, both globally and within families. With regard to gender equality, two main theses are being discussed. On the one hand, there is talk of retraditionalisation. On the other hand, tendencies towards modernisation are placed in the foreground. This is accompanied by an emphasis on opportunities arising from the pandemic, as existing inequalities are made visible and can thus be questioned (Carstensen et al. 2020).
During or since the Corona pandemic, a number of things have changed: On the one hand, the amount of time spent working in a home office has increased massively, at least for one third of the employed, probably with a lasting effect; on the other hand, the specific situation that daycare centres and schools were also closed at times has fundamentally challenged the familial division of labour; and this, too, may have lasting effects on the question of task distribution and attribution of responsibilities.
It is already known from research on flexible work that the amount of time spent on care work generally increases when switching to a home office; in heterosexual partnerships, however, this is usually more for women than for men. For women, the home office can therefore mean that unequal divisions are reinforced to their disadvantage; only when only the man works in the home office can an equalisation of the division of labour be observed. Little is known about the division of labour in other family forms when working in a home office.

Against this background, we are investigating the following questions in the ArCoHo research project: How do couples negotiate their family division of labour in and due to the current situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? Do possibilities of working flexibly in terms of time and place (home office) or a 'system-relevant' job become a resource of (new) bargaining power in the negotiations? What is the relevance of welfare state interventions in this context?
We are pursuing these questions in a qualitative study in which we are interviewing parental couples in which at least one parent is increasingly active in the home office about their everyday practices between gainful employment and family work as well as reconciliation conflicts.

The project takes place within the framework of the research network "Sorgetransformationen".

Register here to participate in the study.

Related publications and presentations: Prof. Dr. Almut Peukert, Dr. Tanja Carstensen, Prof. Dr. Katharina Zimmermann, Laura Lüth, M.A., Ludwig Ipach, Maureen Quitzau, Christopher Kirschner

Relevante Veröffentlichungen und Vorträge:

• Peukert; Almut; Beblo, Miriam; Lüth, Laura; Zimmermann, Katharina (2021): Erwerbs- und Familienarbeit im Homeoffice? Innerfamiliale Arbeitsteilung in der Corona-Krise auf dem Prüfstand. To be published in: Sozialer Fortschritt.
• Laura Lüth: Activating the Family – Family Models in Active Social Citizenship. Presentation at the digital IPPA conference 2021, Barcelona (08.07.2021).
• Prof. Dr. Almut Peukert, Dr. Tanja Carstensen, Prof. Dr. Katharina Zimmermann, Laura Lüth, M.A., Ludwig Ipach, Maureen Quitzau, Christopher Kirschner: "Eltern zwischen Homeoffice und Kinderbetreuung – Neuordnung familialer Arbeitsteilung und der Geschlechterarrangements?" Presentation at the digital DGS/ÖGS congress 2021 in Vienna (23.08.2021).
• Peukert, Almut; Zimmermann, Katharina; Menz, Wolfgang: Organisation der Ad-Hoc-Gruppe “Sorgetransformation unter Spannung“ Presentation at the digital DGS congress 2020 (14. – 24.09.2020).
• Peukert, Almut; Zimmermann, Katharina: „Arbeitsteilung revisited? Innerfamiliale Carearbeit und Erwerbsarbeit in Zeiten von Corona“. Presentation at the digital DGS congress 2020 (14. – 24.09.2020).

The dissertation project aims to analyze intra-familial labor division in context of active social citizenship. It argues that contemporary discussions about the institutional promotion of an adult worker family model, fail to grasp the rising focus on self-responsibilities predominant in contemporary European welfare states. While at the same time, contributions about active social citizenship mostly ignore that welfare states do not treat all citizens as individuals but e.g. as dependent family members. Therefore, the dissertation project plans to link feminists’ perspectives on social citizenship with perspectives on active social citizenship. With a cross-country comparison of social rights, the project links empirical research on the normative assumptions about intra-familial labor division that underpin contemporary welfare regulation with the analysis of norms and practices of intra-familial labor division within social citizen’s every-day life.

Involved partners: Laura Lüth

Related publications and presentations:

• International Public Policy Conference (IPPA): Family Complexity and Social Policy around the World (stream), accepted for presentation and paper: Activating the Family – Family Models in Active Social Citizenship. Barcelona [online], 08.07.2021.
• European Social Policy Network (ESPAnet): Unintended consequences of family policies (stream), accepted for presentation and paper: Activating the family – familial social rights in times of social investment. Leuven [online], 31.08.-03.09.2021.
• European Sociological Association (ESA): Intersectionality, the Welfare State, and Women’s Work (RN-session), accepted for presentation: Activating the family – familial social rights in times of social investment. Barcelona [online], 31.08.-03.09.2021.