Working group Prof Dr Straßheim: Political Sociology

Ongoing research projects

2023-2026 Ethics and Expertise Beyond Times of Crisis: Learning from international varieties of ethics advice
Governments are not always following their own ethical advice during times of crisis, and we want to find out why, what this means for policy decision-making and ultimately, how this influences outcomes for citizens. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought these questions to the fore. National government strategies, public debate and public health outcomes have varied substantially. We will examine the specific role of ethics advice in processes of crisis management, navigating expert knowledge, building organisational networks and policy learning in shaping these international differences, using a case study method to compare UK, Germany and Australia. How can government ethics advice be organised in the future to improve institutional capacity and agility, strategic thinking, pluralistic forms of expertise, and responsiveness to diverse publics? The British-German research project will be funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC UK) with more than 960,000 Euros. It brings together partners from the Universities of Bielefeld, Birmingham, Sheffield, Melbourne, the Nuffield Concil on Bioethics, and the Karlshochschule International University. A pilot study has been funded by the strategic fund of Bielefeld University.
 

2022-2025 "The Worldviews of Ice: Constructions of the Arctic at the Science/Politics Interface". Research project (principal investigators: Mathias Albert and Holger Straßheim, in cooperation with Daniela Portella Sampaio), funded by the German Research Foundation. The project studies how competing narratives of the Arctic, imbued with geopolitical images, are produced in, and altered through, closely interconnected epistemic communities that link the sciences to politics. The aim of the project is (1) to trace how these images are co-produced at relevant interfaces between scientific and political communities dealing with Arctic issues, (2) to inquire about how these images are transmitted into, and received within, wider Arctic epistemic communities, and (3) to show in an exemplary fashion how such images can influence, and actually have influenced, policy-making.

Completed research projects

2020-21 "Expertise and Ethics in Times of Crisis: Political controversies and ethical dilemmas in the COVID-19 Pandemic". Strategic funding by Bielefeld University to support the development of a research project and to establish an international expert and policy network (in cooperation with Dr Jessica Pykett, University of Birmingham, and Dr Robert Lepenies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig)

2017 Mapping the Global Networks of Behavioural Public Policy, Humboldt University/National University of Singapore (PI, with Prof. Dr. Michael Howlett, Dr. Sreeja Nair), funded by NUS

2017 Behavioural Sciences and the Politics of Simplification, Villa Vigoni Conference, (PI, with Dr. Robert Lepenies, Dr. Kathrin Loer), funded by German Research Foundation, April 2017

2016-19 WZB-Mercator-Forum "Science and Policy". Transdisciplinary conference series, Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (with Dr Dagmar Simon), funded by the Mercator Foundation

2016-19 NEXUS: Challenges at the interface between climate policy, energy policy, consumer policy and mobility, Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (PI, with Prof. Dr Andreas Knie and Dr Dagmar Simon) funded by the Mercator Foundation

2015-16 Using expertise and evidence in consumer policy and energy policy, Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (PI, with Prof. Dr. Friedbert Rüb and Dr. Dagmar Simon), funded by the Mercator Foundation

2011-14 Studying the Changing Orders of Political Expertise (SCOPE), WZB Berlin Social Science Center, (PI, with Dr. Dagmar Simon, Prof. Dr. Michael Hutter), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation

2011 -14 Knowledge politics and welfare state change - German and British labour market policies, University of Darmstadt (with Prof. Dr. Hubert Heinelt), funded by the German Research Foundation DFG

Teaching profile

The department is primarily responsible for the BA degree programme "Political Science" and the MA programme "Political Communication". In addition, the department offers political science courses in all degree programmes of the Faculty of Sociology - especially in the BA programme "Social Sciences" as well as in the MA Sociology and the International Track. With (transnational) social policy and political sociology, further courses are available that are not exclusively political science courses. There are also courses on the doctoral programme. By promoting literary skills (LitKom), the department participates in the university-wide project "richtig einsteigen" (getting started), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the federal-state programme for better study conditions and more quality in teaching.

Courses

Please refer to the electronic course catalogue (ekvv) for events organised by the working group.

FAQ on the final module examination in BA Political Science

We have compiled important information (FAQ) on the final module examination 30-M17 Political Communication and Organisation in the BA Political Science degree programme (core and minor subject).