Social policy and inequality

Today's societies are facing numerous challenges. Longer-term trends such as the digital transformation may be overshadowed by shorter-term crises such as Covid-19, but do not cause the former to disappear. We do not only face a diversity of problems, but also an increasing diversity of society. On the one hand, this diversity is characterised by complex economic interests and heterogeneous social identities. On the other hand, new technologies have created a hitherto unknown diversity of media. Together, these forces create highly segmented media markets and - in extreme cases - so-called "echo chambers" that drive polarization and seriously endanger the capacity of Western democracies to address societal challenges. Every new crisis therefore harbors the potential to further deepen social divides.

Against this backdrop, our research cluster views the question of distribution as a transversal issue that must always be considered. The aim of social policy is not only to alleviate the greatest hardships or to promote normative concepts of justice pursued by the majority. Its goal is also to contribute to creating the social cohesion that is necessary to be able to cope with the challenges of our time.

Taking these considerations into account, researchers in our cluster are working on the following topics, among others:

• Digital transformation
• Climate crisis
• Covid-19 crisis
• Political polarization
• Gender and family policy as "permanent challenges"

We look forward to collaborating and cooperating with researchers from different disciplines in order to be able to shed as much light on these topics as possible.