18th annual conference of the Forum Junge Staats-, Policy- und Verwaltungsforschung (FoJuS)

HSU

4. March 2025

Nina Felgendreher and Freya Brockstedt participated in the 18th annual conference of the Forum Junge Staats-, Policy- und Verwaltungsforschung (FoJuS), the junior organization of the Section ‚Policy-Analyse und Verwaltungswissenschaft‘ within the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft (DVPW), held at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, where they presented their own papers. In engaging discussions – both during the conference and informally – they exchanged ideas with other young researchers and gained valuable new perspectives.

New Publication

HSU

27. November 2024

Maximilian L. Nagel: The Challenge of Balancing Innovation and Tradition in the Public Sector: The Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Digital Transformation

This conceptual article investigates the critical role of street-level bureaucrats (SLB) as potential “eliminators” of dysfunctional policies and drivers of digital change in the public sector. Working on the front lines of government, they have a distinctive viewpoint that allows them to challenge persistent ineffective policies.

Check out the article here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00953997241296100

Maximilian Einhaus, Tanja Klenk,The end of fragmented welfare state governance?, in: sozialpolitikblog, 31.10.2024

HSU

8. November 2024

With the social platform (Sozialplattform), Germany is taking a visible step towards a digital welfare state.As a central portal, it enables online applications, a personalised ‘social benefits finder’ and online appointment bookings, among other things – proactive allocation of benefits by means of automatic data processing of linked registers is also being considered.

However, the implementation of the platform project is confronted with a traditionally decentralised welfare state governance and a resulting IT landscape which is heavily fragmented due to the boundaries of federal states and municipalities with very different software solutions for the same welfare state services.

Due to the lack of standardisation in German administrative digitilization, the dangers or potentials (depending on the point of view) of a central social platform that brings together previously disparate data does not appear to play a discernible role.

https://difis.org/blog/?blog=136

Presentation by Sarah Cardaun at the SOG workshop in Münster

HSU

8. November 2024

The workshop “Structure and Organization of Government”, Research Committee 27 of the International Political Science Association, took place in Münster on October 17th and 18th, 2024. The event was organized by the German Police University. In the panel “Public service delivery and policy implementation” Sarah Cardaun presented a contribution on the topic of civil society and resilience. The workshop, attended by an interdisciplinary and international group of researchers, addressed the key question “What does democratic resilience mean for the public sector?” and examined this from the perspective of administration, management and politics.

Participation at the Working Group 4 meeting of the CoREx project at KU Leuven

HSU

14. October 2024

As part of the EU COST Action project CA22150 – Comparative Research on the Executive Triangle in Europe (CoREx) – Nina Felgendreher participated in a two-day meeting of the Working Group 4 (WG4) on Accountability and Transparency in the Executive Triangle in Europe at the KU Leuven. In small subgroups, the workshop worked on finalising the WG4 coding protocol that will guide the data collection by country experts.

The exchange on national approaches to political transparency and accountability was very enriching and the well-organised working atmosphere supported the fruitful outcome of the meeting.

DVPW Congress

HSU

19. September 2024

From September 24 to 27, 2024, the 29th Scientific Congress of the DVPW will take place at the University of Göttingen on the theme “Politics in the Polycrisis.” #dvpw2024

Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will deliver the keynote address at the opening of the congress.

More information here: https://www.dvpw.de/dvpw2024

Prof. Dr. Tanja Klenk Receives “Social Services & Digitality” Fellowship at DIFIS

HSU

19. July 2024

From July 2024 until the end of the year, Prof. Dr. Tanja Klenk will be awarded the “Social Services & Digitality” Fellowship at DIFIS. This fellowship is part of Research Field 5, “Social Policy as a Process,” at DIFIS and will explore the significance of social services and social counseling in the provision of welfare state services. The focus will particularly be on questions related to the digitalization of social services and counseling.

Digitalization, as one of the major societal trends, is often seen as a key to the sustainable and reliable provision of social services. However, the digitalization of social services and counseling has lagged significantly behind other societal fields. Although administrative software, electronic case files, and online appointments via video calls are utilized in the context of social services and counseling, digital tools and media are often used only as supplements to traditional analog operations. Their implementation and actual use depend on specific configurations at the political, organizational, and individual user levels. As a result, model projects and isolated solutions prevail rather than widespread and uniform structures. The much-discussed Online Access Act (OZG) in recent years has only led to an electrification, rather than a digitalization, of existing processes.

These inconsistencies in the digitalization process are problematic because they create inequalities in access to social services and contradict the equality promise inherent in the welfare state. The digitalization of social services is an ambivalent process: if uncoordinated, it can create new disadvantages or exacerbate existing ones. Conversely, it is conceivable that digitalization could help reduce inequalities, for instance, between urban metropolitan regions and rural areas where travel to social counseling centers is long and public transport is infrequent.