Social Security in Crisis Mode (SoSiKri)

Subproject A investigates the impact of ecological crisis anticipation on reform proposals on the national level of Germany using perspectives from policy analysis, innovatively complemented by the role and function of crisis anticipation and building on conceptual frameworks of ideas and power.

Research questions:

1. How do actors and alliances advance their ideational agendas for eco-social policy reforms in social security amidst ecological crises affecting Germanys social security system?
2. How do concepts of futures and crisis anticipation function as instruments of power in shaping eco-social policy reform proposals in Germanys social security system, particularly with regard to issues of inequality?
3. What does it take for an eco-social reform proposal to push through? A case study.

Methods:

Mixed-methods – quantitative methods of text and network analysis (critical discourse policy analysis/discourse network analysis) and qualitative methods (qualitative content analysis).

Researcher:

Nicolas Alexander Barden

Subproject B reconstructs the global spread of existing reform proposals that are formulated as responses to ecological crises.

Research questions:

1. What variants of crisis-induced reform proposals exist?
2. Are there regional emphases of crisis-induced reform proposals? Preliminary work of the junior research group leader points to a special laboratory function of the global South, for example in the case of the models of “adaptive social protection” or “shock-responsive social protection”.
3. In what temporal phases have reform proposals been adopted?

Methods:

Statistical methods of a quantitative large-n country analysis with the goal to construct a system of indicators and a typology of reform proposals, in addition to explaining the patterns of crisis-induced reforms and reform proposals.

Researcher:

Tiantian Li

Subproject C undertakes a qualitative, comparative analysis of the ideas and discourses surrounding social security reform proposals at both the global and world-regional levels. It explores the underlying power dynamics that shape these proposals and traces their evolution over time, focusing on how ecological crises influence these developments.

Research questions:

Guided by the leading research question "What is the power of transnational ideas in shaping global social security reform in response to ecological crisis?", subproject C poses the following sub-research questions:

1. How, and in what relationship to one another, do transnational actors push ideas of social security reform in response to ecological crisis? What role does power play in this dynamic?
2. What kinds of transnational ideas lead to the emergence of different reform proposals at the national level, and how?
3. Since when has social security reform been developed as a response to ecological crisis, and how does the power of future crisis anticipation influence (the) idea(s) of global social security reform?

Methods:

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on the basis of paradigms of Grounded Theory.

Researcher:

Olivia Jane Whelan

Subproject D systematises main concepts of the project, in particular the types of crisis anticipation and their effects, and reconstructs general transformations of social security in the face of crises. It does so on the basis of and in cooperation with the other subprojects.

Research questions:

1. How are crisis expectations translated by (national) reform proposals, and which role does crisis anticipation play in comparison with other influences on eco-social reforms?
2. How do paradigms of social security change through crisis anticipation?

Methods:

Qualitative content analysis.

Researcher:

Dr. John Berten