– 2021


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Chair in Qualitative Empirical Research Methods

News

 

Dec 21 2021
13:56

Tot ziens!

After almost three years as a research assistant at our professorship, Bastiaan Bruinsma is leaving us at the end of the year for Sweden, where he will take up a position at the University of Gothenburg. We would like to thank Bastiaan for his very successful teaching in our Bachelor's and Master's programs, his great expertise, especially on quantitative text analysis, but especially for the always productive collaboration and the extremely nice togetherness! We wish you, dear Bastiaan, a good start and continued success in Sweden! Since Frankfurt is centrally located on the Gothenburg - Frankfurt - Florence axis, we look forward to seeing you again soon: tot kijk, tot ziens!

 

We are very pleased to announce that the research project Variations of Governance in Hybrid Regimes: Business, State and Civil Society in Contemporary Russia has been extended until September 30, 2022.

The project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is a collaborative project with Prof. Dr. Sabine Kropp and Prof. Dr. Katharina Bloom from the Institute for East European Studies at FU Berlin. We ask what role different patterns of formalized governance structures play in authoritarian systems of rule. Two questions are at the forefront: first, why and to what extent have formalized governance structures formed at the regional level, and second, why is it important to understand these formalized relationships of state and non-state acutators in authoritarian systems. Existing literature focuses almost exclusively on NGOs or other civil society actors when addressing these questions, but in the GovRus project we focus on resource-rich actors such as companies and business associations.

Dr. Benedikt Bender and Prof. Dr. Claudius Wagemann use a qualitative-comparative analysis (QCA) to analyze which specific conditions lead to strong formalized state-business relations in 83 Russian regions and how these can be explained on the basis of political and economic factors. Preliminary results show that the majority of Russian regions have medium to strong governance structures and that these can be explained by a combination of regional, economic strength, and the position of the governor, among other factors. We will complete the analyses in the next eight to ten weeks and prepare the results for publication in relevant journals. 

More information on the research project can be found on the DFG project page.

 

Nov 25 2021
20:42

ProDem Progress Meeting

On November 19, we had the wonderful opportunity to host the first annual progress meeting of ProDem. We welcomed Dan Mercea and Felipe Gonzales Santos from London, Lorenzo Mosca, and Fred Paxton from Milan, Christina Neumayer and Matthias Hoffmann from Kopenhagen, Dana Trif, Diana Margarit and Toma Burean from Cluj, and, as guests, Daria Glukhova and Andrea Pirro from Florence. The international project sheds light on the triple interaction between citizens, social movements, and movement parties. These topics have undoubtably only gained significance over the past few years, with social movements all over Europe entering the political arena in one way or another.

After kicking off the meeting in jolly mood the evening before with a dinner, discovering specialities such as Grüne Soße and Mispelchen, the basis was laid for a very constructive collaboration the next day. Special thanks go to the PRIF staff (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), who stepped in in the last moment to offer a venue in these challenging times. The ProDem team appreciated very much to meet in person, many seeing each other for the first time since the project had been initiated. Now, after this productive meeting, we are all looking forward to two more exiting years of fruitful cooperation and mutual synergy!

Our workshop team consisted of Anna Anlauft, László Boroffka, Lex Metzeld, Max Propadalo, Nils Sartorius and Claudius Wagemann.

 

Nov 16 2021
18:25

Happy Birthday!

Our whole team wishes Benedikt Bender (2nd from left) all the best for his birthday! Not everyone was able to be there in person, but despite all the circumstances, a small group gathered in our tea kitchen to toast the birthday boy with a glass of sparkling wine. A home-baked and extremely delicious birthday cake was also served!
Of course, everything was completely corona-compliant.

 

Nov 9 2021
11:30

​Photo shoot

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Photo shoot

Just in time for the beginning of the winter semester 2021/22 we have new photos of all team members. We would like to thank the photographer Kristin Langholz for her great effort despite adverse weather conditions!