Research
Overview
See detailed description below
workpackage One
wp leaders: Katharina zimmermann and bruno palier
Regime theory of eco-social risk regulation
Main research question: How can we conceptualise welfare state responses to eco-social risks? How are responses to these new risks shaped by existing institutions, ideas, interests, risk exposure, and vulnerabilities?
This work package will develop a comprehensive regime theory of responses to 3rd generation social risks.
It delivers the theoretical background for WELRISCC by systematically aligning different literature strands dealing with welfare regimes, growth regimes, or green states. Building on the existing literature, and the data gathered through the WELRISCC research strands and the country case studies, this research will offer new analytical concepts for understanding variation in welfare responses to eco-social risks.
The analytical focus of this work package lies in understanding how welfare state responses to eco-social risks are shaped through the interplay of risk distribution, politicisation, and institutionalisation. It draws on comparative insights into exposure and vulnerability construction (WP5 & WP6), ideational framing (WP3), and interest-based cleavages (WP4), as well as the policy and governance mechanisms through which these dynamics are institutionalised (WP2).
By embedding these dynamics within broader institutional contexts – including growth regimes, territorial structures, and EU-level influences – this work package aims to theorise the emergence of distinct eco-welfare regimes across Europe.
workpackage TWo
Wp leaders: Anne-Laure Beaussier and Tom Chevalier
wp collaborator: Rebecca Newell
Institutions of eco-social risk regulation
Main research question: How do institutions react to indirect and direct social risks?
This work package will compile a unique policy database, which showcases the range of national strategies and policy tools in sixteen countries. The main aim is to compare institutions across different welfare states, assessing their exposure to direct and indirect risks, as well as their risk regulation approaches.
workpackage Three
Wp leader: Vincent Gengnagel
WP collaborator: Christian Möstl
The ideational construction of eco-social risks
Main research question: How do societies realize third generation social risks?
This work package offers a cultural sociological perspective on the construction of third generation social risks. It focuses on the interlinkage of culture and class in different eco-social regimes. Conducting focus groups in Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the UK helps understanding underlying moral paradigms, and the construction and legitimation of socio-political tasks.
workpackage four
wp leaders: bruno palier and katharina zimmermann
WP collaborators: Matteo Mandelli, Lorenzo Mascioli, Larissa Nenning
The interest politics of eco-social risks
Main research question: How are existing political and interest-based cleavages reconfigured in response to eco-social risks, and how do institutional and political actors shape these evolving conflicts across national contexts?
This work package investigates interest cleavages related to 3rd generation social risks and policies.
It focuses on three closely related yet analytically distinct objectives. First, it aims to map the principal conflicts that emerge as social-ecological risks materialize and policy measures are designed and implemented to counteract them. Particular attention is paid to whether and how these conflicts differ across national contexts and from those typically associated with industrial and post-industrial social risks.
Second, it examines the processes through which cleavages arise, seeking to explain why specific conflicts emerge in some contexts but not – or not to the same extent – in others.
Third, it explores how cleavages are received and transformed by institutional actors, including political parties, trade unions, business associations, and governments operating at various territorial levels.
Workpackage five
Wp leaders: Kenneth Nelson and Arvid Lindh
The exposure to eco-social risks
Main research question: How are direct and indirect 3rd generation social risks distributed across social groups and across welfare systems?
This work package examines the prevalence and socio-economic distribution of 3rd generation social risks across different welfare states.
This includes the distribution of direct risks (such as air pollution, water pollution, and extreme weather events) and specific indirect risks, such as the risks and costs associated with car dependence. It asks whether direct and indirect 3rd generation social risks tend to cross-cut or reinforce one another, and whether social policies at the country level can protect individuals against these risks, for instance, by ensuring high levels of income security.
The work package relies on country-comparative analyses, using data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database.
Workpackage six
WP Leader: Maša Filipovič Hrast
WP collaborator: Tatjana Rakar, Tjaša Potočnik
Vulnerability constructions of eco-social risk inequalities
Main research question: How do cultural constructions of risk exposure and vulnerabilities relate to welfare state responses to direct and indirect 3rd generation social risks? How do different societal cleavages relate to risk exposure and vulnerabilities and shape interest structures?
Work package 6 addresses vulnerabilities to 3rd generation social risks and seeks to understand how vulnerabilities and resulting inequalities are perceived and constructed. More specifically, it looks at how perceptions of new vulnerabilities are related to new societal cleavages and how these are discussed in relation to direct and indirect risks as well as how social justice principles and different deservingness criteria. Empirically, expert interviews with relevant stakeholders – such as trade union representatives, civil society organisations and policy makers – will be conducted in Slovenia, Germany, France, Ireland and Sweden. When selecting the interviewees, differences between the various normative principles and societal roles will be taken into account, harmonizing the country cases through the focus on specific direct and indirect social risks.
workpackage seven
WP Leader: katharina zimmermann
wp collaborator: Larissa Nenning
Europe-wide comparative analyses of welfare state responses to eco-social risks
Main research question: How do European welfare states differ in their responses to 3rd generation social risks, and what patterns of variation and convergence emerge across countries?
In the context of this work package, the project will gather comparative data on the institutional regulation, ideational framing, interest politics, socio-economic distribution, and perceived vulnerabilities associated with 3rd generation social risks.
Furthermore, the work package will also address the EU-dimension by including specific features of European Green Deal implementation in the member states. For 16 European countries, structured data will be collected and analysed – both with an eye on the specific dimensions addressed in WP2 – WP6, and with an overall comparative perspective, which will feed into WP1. The data will be gathered by project partners, cooperation partners and external researchers and summarized in country case studies. These will be made publicly available after the project.