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GIGA RP 3
Research Programme 3:
Socio-Economic Challenges in the Context of Globalisation
This research programme is concerned with socio-economic challenges in the context of globalisation. Globalisation has led to a new global and regional division of labour, increasing flows of goods, capital, migration, and technology transfers. The impacts have varied across and within countries, with some social groups profiting more than others. There is increasing concern regarding increasing income inequality, and it seems that the poor are gaining less than the rich from globalisation, especially in developing countries. Many question how a more just globalisation can be facilitated. In response to this question, we must understand the globalisation phenomenon as such, including its underlying processes, and the opportunities and risks it generates.
News and Highlights
The three research teams (RT) focus on three central challenges for people confronting a globalised world: RT 1 is concerned with the issue of “Poverty and Vulnerability”, RT 2 works on “International Migration – Social and Economic Interaction”, and FT 3 concentrates on “Innovation and Growth”. In the following, the central issues and questions of the respective research teams are outlined:
Research Teams:
1. Poverty and Vulnerability
- What are the limitations (and possibilities) that currently inhibit a significant improvement in the living conditions of various social actors? How can they be resolved?
- What are the (context-specific) characteristics of poverty and vulnerability? Which groups are particularly affected?
- What kinds of risks and insecurities are these actors exposed to and how do they deal with them?
- How do they react to external structural conditions, for example, globalisation and climate change?
2. International Migration – Social and Economic Interaction
- How are social and value systems being transferred to other social contexts, and thereby adapted and often refined in relation to these new conditions?
- What impact does migration have on the identities and social, cultural and political reference systems of migrant groups?
- What repercussions does interdependence have for political and social participation? What role does active citizenship play in terms of the nexus between civil society and national and local politics, particularly in terms of development and migration controls?
- What gender-specific dynamics exist?
3. Innovation and growth
- What forms of international cooperation exist at the business and state level to resolve the technology deficit (internationalisation of businesses, technology transfer, upgrading international value-chains, joint ventures and foreign direct investment)?
- What innovation systems and development strategies are selected, and how is their development at the local, regional, national and sectoral level comparable internationally and interregionally?
- How can innovation and technology adaption processes be modelled, and how can standard growth models be applied to situations in developing countries?
Selected Publications:
Brach, Juliane (2010): Technology, Political Economy, and Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa”, Review of Middle East Economics and Finance (forthcoming)
Mahmoud, Toman Omar/Trebesch, Christoph (2010):
The Economics of Human Trafficking and Labour Migration: Micro-Evidence from Eastern Europe,
Journal of Comparative Economics
(Full text)
(forthcoming)
Steiner, Susan (2010). How important is the capacity of local governments for improvements in welfare? Evidence from decentralised Uganda. Journal of Development Studies (forthcoming)
Lay, Jann/Narloch, Ulf/Omar Mahmoud, Toman (2009): Shocks, Income Diversification and Inequality in a Growing Economy: The Case of Burkina Faso. African Development Review, AERC-Cornell conference issue, 21 (1), pp. 36-58.
Marfaing, Laurence (2009). Vom Transitraum zum Ankunftsland. Migranten im Sahara-Sahel-Raum als Entwicklungspotential: der Fall Mauretanien. Sociologus, Faist Th./Lachenmann G. (Hrsg), Schwerpunktheft Migration(en) und Entwicklung(en), Heft 1, 59. Jg, S. 67-89.
Neff, Daniel (2009). Richard Layard ‘Happiness: Lessons from a new science’. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Vol. 10, no.1.
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