Since 2016, those affiliated with Social Science Works have published a large number of articles and reports. Long and short articles, detached or polemical, very thorough or more associative, but always written in a way that can be understood by a wider audience. Some articles have appeared only in English, or only in German, some in both languages. The German articles can be found on the German pages of this website. The topics cover the themes central to Social Science Works’ activities: democracy, deliberation, populism, social cohesion, migration and integration, social criticism, science criticism and Usable Knowledge. To make the articles easier to find, they have been divided into categories. However, to make sure you don’t miss anything, below you will find all articles published since 2016 in chronological order.

Since the categories naturally overlap, some articles can be found in multiple places. The following categories have been created.

  • Democratic Theory: empirically based theoretical articles on democracy, deliberation, pluralism, radicalization, extremism.
  • Project and Research Reports: articles about the projects and research we have carried out. Each project always has a research component as well, and also aims to generate general insights into the theme in question. Articles on all other themes can therefore also be found here.
  • Articles on populism: the overlap with democratic theory, among others, is obvious. Nevertheless, a separate category has been created because the articles in question explicitly address the populist movements that can be observed over the past decade in almost the entire Western world.
  • Science Criticism: articles that critically examine existing practices in academia and science.
  • Social Criticism: explicitly socially critical articles, a category with considerable overlap with populism.
  • Refugees and integration: articles that are often unrelated to the projects we have implemented in this field.
  • Urban Sociology and Tourism: integration, social cohesion and development, as well as socially and ethically responsible tourism are close to our hearts.
  • Finally, in order not to miss a single article by your favorite author, the articles are also listed by author.

All English Blog articles in chronological order

Shy Tories & Virtue Signalling: How Labour Surged Online

The calm after the storm has settled in London. The UK has had its third national election in as many years after Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election to shore up her party’s...

Sex trafficking of Nigerian women: how the Italian asylum system deals with victims

In August 2018, I spent one month volunteering at Centro Donna Giustizia (CDG) an organisation that works to end gender violence in Ferrara, Italy. The CDG hosts a number of projects and services including a...

Rural Regeneration by Connecting Bigger Social Solutions

  Complex social issues are often more easily resolved when they are connected up with other societal problems. Habitual approaches to thinking and problem solving, as well as the ways we have divided up our...

Robert A. Dahl on Pluralism, Democracy and Deliberation

Robert Dahl (1915 – 2014) is one of the most influential political scholars of the last century. His ideas on political scholarship, pluralism, democracy and deliberation also influenced Social Science Works. On Dahl, Hans Blokland...

Resisting democratic decline: deliberation and some lessons from Germany and beyond

Democracies around the world seem to lose appeal for growing numbers of citizens. Partly explaining this trend, citizens seem less and less able to steer, on the basis of substantial rational considerations, the course their...

Reform of the refugee shelter market: competition based on actual success indicators

At the end of 2024, there were approximately 3.5 million refugees living in Germany, including 1.2 million people from Ukraine. Around 20% of these people, or roughly 700,000 individuals, were housed in so-called Gemeinschaftsunterkünften (shared...

Recruiting Participants for a Workshop on Gender Equality in Berlin: Lessons Learned

Many of today’s democracies are in crisis, when considering the decreasing levels of voter turnout, party membership, and trust in established political institutions and actors (Blokland 2011, 1ff; Dalton et al. 2004, 124). Political democracy...

Recruiting Men To Civil Society Projects: Trials & Tribulations From The Front Line

This year we have been working with the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung in Brandenburg to recruit German and German-speaking men to work with refugee men in Brandenburg in our buddy project. The idea of the...

Progressive Neoliberalism & the Pull of Populism

In the wake of the turbulent US election, social theorist Nancy Fraser wrote that the progressive neoliberal politics of the establishment served as a major factor in ensuring the success of Donald Trump in ascending...

Politics is no Match for Business: Charles Lindblom, Elon Musk and the Privileged Position of Business

The interplay between Elon Musk and the social democratic government in Brandenburg, where Tesla recently opened a Giga factory, illustrates what Charles Lindblom termed in 1977 the privileged position of business. To make sense of...

Plattelandsjongeren, Politieke Participatie en Sociale Media: Ervaringen met een Project in Duitsland.

De politieke participatie van jongeren in het algemeen en die van jongeren op het platteland in het bijzonder is niet optimaal. De betrokkenen zijn dan ook ondergerepresenteerd in de politiek, hetgeen weer gevolgen heeft voor...

Planning a future together: Could Eisenhüttenstadt use some deliberative democracy?

Political communities occasionally come to crossroads where fundamental, far-reaching decisions must be made. At such times, it can enhance the democratic and substantive quality of decision-making if significant numbers of citizens are invited to participate...