2023 - Bernhard Ebbinghaus
Professor of Sociology - Macrosociology
University of Mannheim
Faculty of Social Sciences
Since January 2022 Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ebbinghaus holds again the Chair of Macrosociology at the University of Mannheim. For four years, from 2017 to 2021, he was Professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford and, among other things, Head of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention and Senior Research Fellow, Green Templeton College, Oxford.
From November 2021 to February 2023, Prof. Dr. Ebbinghaus was a member of the European Commission's High-Level Group on the future of social protection and of the welfare state in the EU.
Prof. Dr. Ebbinghaus received his PhD in social and political sciences from the European University Institute (EUI, 1993), followed by a habilitation in sociology at the University of Cologne (2003). He holds a degree in sociology (University of Mannheim 1988).
He was Head of Department A (2005-2008, 2015) and Director (2008-2011) of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), where he led numerous research projects. From 2010 to 2023 he was Co-PI of the project "Welfare States Reform from Below" (A6) at the Collaborative Research Centre Political Economy of Reform.
From 2006 to 2009 he was Academic Director of the Centre for Doctoral Studies in Social & Behavioral Sciences (CDSS) at the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS). In recent years, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Luxembourg (2013-2016), Mercator Fellow (2018-21) at the SFB 884 of the University of Mannheim, OxPo Visiting Professor at CES, Sciences Po, Paris (9/2021) and Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna (1/2023).
12. 01. 2023, 19:00 Uhr: Public Lecture
Die Resilienz des Sozialstaates
als Gegenbewegung in Europas Wirtschaftskrisen
The Public Lecture deals with employment policy in the two major economic crises of the early 21st century: the "Great Recession" that followed the collapse of the global financial market around 2008 and the cumulative health and economic crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020. Both crises can be seen as laboratories for both short-term and permanent changes in Europe. According to Karl Polanyi's thesis of the double movement, the crisis policy of the welfare state represents a counter-movement to the uncertainties of market forces. In a comparison of the European welfare states, the analysis shows how social and employment policy was able to strengthen the resilience of societies by increasing their capacity to absorb and adapt during the crisis. The role of the social partners in overcoming the crisis is also analysed. The empirical analysis focuses on policies to preserve jobs and other strategies to stabilise incomes and reduce unemployment during a crisis.