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Research

Research

Leibfried directs a 2003-2014 Bremen Collaborative Research Center on Transformations of the State (Sonderforschungsbereich TranState; see http://www.state.uni-bremen.de for all projects involved) and co-directs a research center at Bremen University, the Centre for Social Policy Research (CeS; http://www.zes.uni-bremen.de), founded in 1988 through a seed grant of the Volkswagen Foundation – CeS is presently co-directed by Frank Nullmeier and Herbert Obinger (political scientists), Heinz Rothgang and Stefan Traub (economists), and Karin Gottschall (sociologist).

Leibfried co-directed the Bremen Collaborative Research Centre on Life Courses Studies (Sfb 186, 1998-2001) and the now Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS; http://www.bigsss.uni-bremen.de), which started as GSSS in October 2002, again supported by the Volkswagen Foundation; since 2007 it is financed as a Graduate School of the First Funding Line of the German Excellence Program. The school focuses on an interdepartmental Ph.D. program, where Leibfried is co-responsible for the element “Social Integration and the Welfare State”.

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Research interests

    Leibfried’s research areas embrace
  • comparative studies of welfare state development – especially poverty – in Germany, the US and the UK
  • the effects of European integration on national welfare states
  • lasting effects of a reintegrating world („OECD“) markets with welfare state development after World War II („interdependence“)
  • comparative studies of post-1970s nation-state development
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Individual Research Projects relying on Third-Party Funding (a selection)

2003-2014 (with Herbert Obinger [Austria]) Project on “Social Politics in Small Open Economies”; financed by the DFG - Sfb “Staatlichkeit im Wandel” (project C1).
2002-2006 (together with Jens Alber) Project on “Low-Qualified Individuals in Germany and England: A Contrast of the Institutional Interfaces of the Educational and Employment Systems”; DFG funded, with Achim Schmid.
2001-2011 Project on Banana Legalism (WTO and Juridification); successfully applied for funding at the Volkswagen Foundation with Elmar Rieger.
2000-2002/3 Project on “Territorial Employment Pacts in the EU” with Petra Kodré, Martin Roggenkamp, Elke Scheffelt (Hans-Böckler Foundation).
1988-2001 Multi-Year Longitudinal Project on “Welfare Careers” in the German National Science Foundation’s (= Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) Collaborative Research Center “Status Passages and Risks in Life Course” at Bremen University. Research Assistants and Associates were Petra Buhr, Lutz Leisering, Monika Ludwig, Wolfgang Voges, and then Michael Zwick, Benjamin W. Veghte and Andreas Weber
1995-1998 (together with Paul Pierson, Harvard) Project on “Business and the Welfare State” in the then Transcoop Program of the German American Academic Council.
1988-1989 Project on “Work and Welfare” in the State of Bremen, financed by the Hans-Böckler Foundation, with Tom Priester (precursor to the DFG “Welfare Careers” longterm project).
1981-1986 Project on “social policy and subsistence minima in Germany” together with Dr. Eckhard Hansen and Dr. Michael Heisig (research assistants). This project was financed by the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) via a National Research Programme.
1972-1983 Project on the state's fiscal infrastructure (“Staatshaushaltssystem”) together with Dr. Klaus Groth (research assistant) and Prof. Wolf-Dieter Narr, both Berlin, financed by the Volkswagen Foundation