Project acronym ACCUPOL
Project Unlimited Growth? A Comparative Analysis of Causes and Consequences of Policy Accumulation
Researcher (PI) Christoph KNILL
Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary ACCUPOL systematically analyzes an intuitively well-known, but curiously under-researched phenomenon: policy accumulation. Societal modernization and progress bring about a continuously growing pile of policies in most political systems. At the same time, however, the administrative capacities for implementation are largely stagnant. While being societally desirable in principle, ever-more policies hence may potentially imply less in terms of policy achievements. Whether or not policy accumulation remains at a ‘sustainable’ rate thus crucially affects the long-term output legitimacy of modern democracies.
Given this development, the central focus of ACCUPOL lies on three questions: Do accumulation rates vary across countries and policy sectors? Which factors mitigate policy accumulation? And to what extent is policy accumulation really associated with an increasing prevalence of implementation deficits? In answering these questions, ACCUPOL radically departs from established research traditions in public policy.
First, the project develops new analytical concepts: Rather than relying on individual policy change as the unit of analysis, we consider policy accumulation to assess the growth of policy portfolios over time. In terms of implementation, ACCUPOL takes into account the overall prevalence of implementation deficits in a given sector instead of analyzing the effectiveness of individual implementation processes.
Second, this analytical innovation also implies a paradigmatic theoretical shift. Because existing theories focus on the analysis of individual policies, they are of limited help to understand causes and consequences of policy accumulation. ACCUPOL develops a novel theoretical approach to fill this theoretical gap.
Third, the project provides new empirical evidence on the prevalence of policy accumulation and implementation deficits focusing on 25 OECD countries and two key policy areas (social and environmental policy).
Summary
ACCUPOL systematically analyzes an intuitively well-known, but curiously under-researched phenomenon: policy accumulation. Societal modernization and progress bring about a continuously growing pile of policies in most political systems. At the same time, however, the administrative capacities for implementation are largely stagnant. While being societally desirable in principle, ever-more policies hence may potentially imply less in terms of policy achievements. Whether or not policy accumulation remains at a ‘sustainable’ rate thus crucially affects the long-term output legitimacy of modern democracies.
Given this development, the central focus of ACCUPOL lies on three questions: Do accumulation rates vary across countries and policy sectors? Which factors mitigate policy accumulation? And to what extent is policy accumulation really associated with an increasing prevalence of implementation deficits? In answering these questions, ACCUPOL radically departs from established research traditions in public policy.
First, the project develops new analytical concepts: Rather than relying on individual policy change as the unit of analysis, we consider policy accumulation to assess the growth of policy portfolios over time. In terms of implementation, ACCUPOL takes into account the overall prevalence of implementation deficits in a given sector instead of analyzing the effectiveness of individual implementation processes.
Second, this analytical innovation also implies a paradigmatic theoretical shift. Because existing theories focus on the analysis of individual policies, they are of limited help to understand causes and consequences of policy accumulation. ACCUPOL develops a novel theoretical approach to fill this theoretical gap.
Third, the project provides new empirical evidence on the prevalence of policy accumulation and implementation deficits focusing on 25 OECD countries and two key policy areas (social and environmental policy).
Max ERC Funding
2 359 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
Project acronym GLOBALDIVERCITIES
Project Migration and New Diversities in Global Cities: Comparatively Conceiving, Observing and Visualizing Diversification in Urban Public Spaces
Researcher (PI) Steven Allen Vertovec
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary How can people live together, with ever more diverse characteristics, in the world’s rapidly expanding cities? The UN estimates a doubling of world urban population by 2050. Meanwhile, global migration flows show profound diversification of migrants’ nationality, ethnicity, language, gender balance, age, human capital and legal status. Everywhere, migrants with complex ‘new diversity’ traits dwell in cities alongside people from previous, ‘old diversity’ waves. The dynamics of diversification – despite their increasing ubiquity – remain seriously under-researched. We know little about how people in diversifying urban settings create new patterns of coexistence, or how and why they might tend toward conflict.
This project’s core research question is: In public spaces compared across cities, what accounts for similarities and differences in social and spatial patterns that arise under conditions of diversification, when new diversity-meets-old diversity? The project entails inter-disciplinary, multi-method research in New York (a classic city of immigration with new global migrant flows in a broadly supportive political context), Singapore (dominated by racial-cultural politics, and wholly dependent on new, highly restricted migrants), and Johannesburg (emerging from Apartheid with tensions around unregulated new, pan-African migrant flows). Spanning anthropology and human geography to research the changing nature of diversity and its socio-spatial patterns, strategic methods entail ‘conceiving’ (exploring how old and new diversities are locally understood), ‘observing’ (producing ethnographies of interaction) and ‘visualizing’ (using images and innovative data mapping). Findings will significantly advance social scientific understanding of far-reaching global trends.
Summary
How can people live together, with ever more diverse characteristics, in the world’s rapidly expanding cities? The UN estimates a doubling of world urban population by 2050. Meanwhile, global migration flows show profound diversification of migrants’ nationality, ethnicity, language, gender balance, age, human capital and legal status. Everywhere, migrants with complex ‘new diversity’ traits dwell in cities alongside people from previous, ‘old diversity’ waves. The dynamics of diversification – despite their increasing ubiquity – remain seriously under-researched. We know little about how people in diversifying urban settings create new patterns of coexistence, or how and why they might tend toward conflict.
This project’s core research question is: In public spaces compared across cities, what accounts for similarities and differences in social and spatial patterns that arise under conditions of diversification, when new diversity-meets-old diversity? The project entails inter-disciplinary, multi-method research in New York (a classic city of immigration with new global migrant flows in a broadly supportive political context), Singapore (dominated by racial-cultural politics, and wholly dependent on new, highly restricted migrants), and Johannesburg (emerging from Apartheid with tensions around unregulated new, pan-African migrant flows). Spanning anthropology and human geography to research the changing nature of diversity and its socio-spatial patterns, strategic methods entail ‘conceiving’ (exploring how old and new diversities are locally understood), ‘observing’ (producing ethnographies of interaction) and ‘visualizing’ (using images and innovative data mapping). Findings will significantly advance social scientific understanding of far-reaching global trends.
Max ERC Funding
2 291 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30
Project acronym PrivatePieties
Project Private Pieties, Mundane Islam and New Forms of Muslim Religiosity: Impact on Contemporary Social and Political Dynamics
Researcher (PI) Roman LOIMEIER
Host Institution (HI) GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGENSTIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary Muslim societies have been impacted since the 19th century by far-reaching processes of social and economic change as well as the development of an array of both Islamist and counter-Islamist movements. The present research project proposes to focus on Muslims whose ideas of piety are characterized by their private and individualistic character: they maintain that their piety is not subject to scrutiny by Islamist movements which value public religion as a means of societal control. Insistence on privacy (and individuality) may appear as rather a-political stance, yet, forms an eminently political position as it challenges claims to hegemony of interpretation of both established religious (and political) authorities as well as the leaders of Islamist movements. The present project asks which social and political consequences the movement towards private piety has and what private piety actually means for the social development of Muslim societies, for the development of Islamist movements and their ability to mobilize Muslims for political aims: what happens to politics in such a case? How do Islamist groups react that have to fear most from such a social movement? How also can we assess the role of women in patriarchal societies who appear to gain most from the move towards private piety? The project will approach these questions in the form of a comparative study of social and political contexts in Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan as well as Muslim (Senegalese, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc.) diasporic communities in Europe. Our trans-regional comparative perspective will enable us to identify the social dynamics linked with the movement towards private piety and will be central to respond to the question whether such dynamics of change impact on processes of democratization in the countries chosen as case studies by our research group.
Summary
Muslim societies have been impacted since the 19th century by far-reaching processes of social and economic change as well as the development of an array of both Islamist and counter-Islamist movements. The present research project proposes to focus on Muslims whose ideas of piety are characterized by their private and individualistic character: they maintain that their piety is not subject to scrutiny by Islamist movements which value public religion as a means of societal control. Insistence on privacy (and individuality) may appear as rather a-political stance, yet, forms an eminently political position as it challenges claims to hegemony of interpretation of both established religious (and political) authorities as well as the leaders of Islamist movements. The present project asks which social and political consequences the movement towards private piety has and what private piety actually means for the social development of Muslim societies, for the development of Islamist movements and their ability to mobilize Muslims for political aims: what happens to politics in such a case? How do Islamist groups react that have to fear most from such a social movement? How also can we assess the role of women in patriarchal societies who appear to gain most from the move towards private piety? The project will approach these questions in the form of a comparative study of social and political contexts in Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan as well as Muslim (Senegalese, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc.) diasporic communities in Europe. Our trans-regional comparative perspective will enable us to identify the social dynamics linked with the movement towards private piety and will be central to respond to the question whether such dynamics of change impact on processes of democratization in the countries chosen as case studies by our research group.
Max ERC Funding
2 494 455 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
