The Dahrendorf project cycle 2017-20 focuses on the strategic challenges posed by recent significant changes in the political landscape of Europe.
This working group addresses the implications of societal change (migration flows, increasing and persisting inequalities, decreased social mobility) for politics (populism, new movements and party formations and voter preferences) and for the public sphere (role of the media, and civil society generally) in Europe. Developments in recent years have seen the focus shift away from labour, social and education policy towards a focus on financial and economic integration. This change in approach has created major social rifts in European societies and polities, which in turn, made the political arena a contested battleground to challenge the role of the media and the public sphere alike. In this context, the working group addresses two central questions, including the formulation of policy recommendations:
- How to understand current political changes, especially populism and its underlying causes?
- How to respond to such changes, especially in view of the public sphere and the (social) media?
Working group co-chairs
Helmut Anheier, Professor of Sociology and past President, Hertie School
Andrea Römmele, Professor for Communication in Politics and Civil Society, Hertie School
Working group members
Johannes Ebert, Secretary General, Goethe-Institut e.V., München
Rachel Gibson, Professor of Political Science / Director of the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research, University of Manchester
Andreas Görgen, Head of department, Culture and communication, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin
Sara B Hobolt, Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the European Institute, LSE, London
Elisabeth Kotthaus, Head of Unit ‘Social Aspects, Passenger Rights and Equal Opportunities’, European Commission Directorate for Mobility and Transport, Brussels
Radosław Markowski, Head of the Comparative Politics Department, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences / Chair of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Wolfgang Seibel, Full Professor of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz; Adjunct Professor of Public Administration, Hertie School
Nico Siegel, Managing Director, Infratest dimap, Berlin
Wolfgang Silbermann, political scientist, speech writer to Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Daniela Stockmann, Professor of Digital Politics and Media, Hertie School of Governance
Post-doctoral fellows
Alexandru Filip, Dahrendorf Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Hertie School
Josefin Graef, Dahrendorf Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Hertie School
Julia Himmrich, Dahrendorf Post-Doctoral Fellow at LSE