Globalisation and Governance
Research
Research Program
The center aims to increase the understanding of the processes and effects of globalization and to contribute to the development of ongoing empirical research as well as the theoretical and methodological frameworks used to analyze the interaction between globalization and development in individual societies. In a research program running from 2009 to 2014 entitled “Globalization and Change in Institutional Constellations,” the CGG developed a thematically innovative research profile that is significantly different to the profile of comparable research centers. Specifically, it deals with an international comparative analysis of the (sometimes highly contradictory) change in institutional constellations caused by processes such as globalization, EU integration, and endogenous processes of change in national societies when this is accompanied by changes in governance structures. The program also explores the development of institutions and governance structures in multi-level systems (at the local, national, international, and transnational levels). Furthermore, the question is asked how actors and social networks influence change and what role is played by new forms of social networks at the different levels of the international multi-level system.
The CGG investigates the following research questions:
- How do key institutional departments and governance structures change in contemporary societies in the context of globalization and endogenously induced social change? How can international differences be explained?
- What is the importance for change of cultural values, actor constellations, and social networks?
- What characterizes the shift from interstate to global forms of governance?
- What are the consequences of these processes in terms of work, the economy, social inequality, and social cohesion?
At present, almost 30 professors are carrying out research at the CGG in addition to more than 70 junior academics from various disciplines such as sociology, political science, business, economics, law, journalism, publishing, communication studies, and meteorology.
Work at the CGG is currently divided into five Research Areas, each of which examines change in institutional constellations and governance structures as well as change in multilevel systems in various areas of society, including business, the welfare state, environmental protection, international relations and constitutionalism, paid employment and the family, and social networks.