Herr Prof. Dr. Holger Straßheim

Research Areas

• Political Sociology
• Public Policy and Governance
• Science and Policy in World Society
• Critical Policy Analysis (Employment policy, Welfare, Food safety, Consumer policy, Energy, Mobility, Climate policy)
• Organizations and Networks
• Comparative Welfare State Research
• Economic Discourses and Social Regulation
• Time and Public Policy

Research grants (selective)

2023-26 Ethics and Expertise Beyond Times of Crisis: Learning from international varieties of ethics advice (Co-PI, ESRC/UK)
Governments are not always following their own ethical advice during times of crisis, and we want to find out why, what this means for policy decision-making and ultimately, how this influences outcomes for citizens. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought these questions to the fore. National government strategies, public debate and public health outcomes have varied substantially. We will examine the specific role of ethics advice in processes of crisis management, navigating expert knowledge, building organisational networks and policy learning in shaping these international differences, using a case study method to compare UK, Germany and Australia. How can government ethics advice be organised in the future to improve institutional capacity and agility, strategic thinking, pluralistic forms of expertise, and responsiveness to diverse publics? The British-German research project will be funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC UK) with more than 960.000 Euros. It brings together partners from the Universities of Bielefeld, Birmingham, Sheffield, Melbourne, the Nuffield Concil on Bioethics, and the Karlshochschule International University. A pilot study has been funded by the strategic fund of Bielefeld University.

2023 „Evidence-based benevolence? The role of philanthropic organizations global public policies“ (PI, ZIF)
Workshop funded by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF), Bielefeld University, on the role of global philanthropic organizations in areas such as global public health, climate change or poverty alleviation. Applicants and chairs: Prof. Dr. Alexandra Kaasch, PD Dr. Marc Mölders, Prof. Dr. Oliver Razum, and, Prof. Dr. Holger Straßheim (all Bielefeld University) together with Dr. Evelyn Moser (Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, Bonn University).

2022-25 "The Worldviews of Ice: Constructions of the Arctic at the Science/Politics Interface” (PI, DFG)
Research project (principal investigators: Mathias Albert and Holger Straßheim, in cooperation with Daniela Portella Sampaio), funded by the German Research Foundation. The project studies how competing narratives of the Arctic, imbued with geopolitical images, are produced in, and altered through, closely interconnected epistemic communities that link the sciences to politics. The aim of the project is (1) to trace how these images are co-produced at relevant interfaces between scientific and political communities dealing with Arctic issues, (2) to inquire about how these images are transmitted into, and received within, wider Arctic epistemic communities, and (3) to show in an exemplary fashion how such images can influence, and actually have influenced, policy-making.

2022-25 "World politics: The emergence of political arenas and modes of observation in world society", Research Training Group 2225 (Co-PI, DFG)
The Research Training Group (RTG) deals with the emergence of world politics as a specific type of politics. With a pronouncedly research-oriented, interdisciplinary, and international profile, it investigates the pathways that have led to the establishment of world politics as a specific form of politics not somehow resulting from the modern form of the (nation) state, but concurrent with it as well as with the principle of sovereign equality.

2020-21 "Expertise and Ethics in Times of Crisis: Political controversies and ethical dilemmas in the COVID-19 Pandemic“ (PI, Strategic Funding, Uni Bielefeld)
Strategic funding by Bielefeld University to support the development of a research project and to establish an international expert and policy network (in cooperation with Dr. Jessica Pykett, University of Birmingham, and Dr. Robert Lepenies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig

2017 Mapping the Global Networks of Behavioural Public Policy (PI, NUS Singapore)
Research project with Prof. Dr. Michael Howlett, Dr. Sreeja Nair), funded by NUS Behavioural Sciences

2017 The Politics of Simplification, Villa Vigoni Conference, (PI, with Dr. Robert Lepenies, Dr. Kathrin Loer), funded by German Research Foundation, April 2017

2016-19 WZB-Mercator-Forum “Science and Policy” (PI, Mercator Foundation)
Transdisciplinary conference series, Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (with Dr. Dagmar Simon), funded by the Mercator Foundation

2016-19 NEXUS: Challenges at the interface between climate policy, energy policy, consumer policy and mobility (PI, Mercator Foundation)
Research project at Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (PI, with Prof. Dr. Andreas Knie and Dr. Dagmar Simon) funded by the Mercator Foundation

2015-16 Using expertise and evidence in consumer policy and energy policy, Humboldt University Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center (PI, Mercator Foundation)
Research project, with Prof. Dr. Friedbert Rüb and Dr. Dagmar Simon, funded by the Mercator Foundation

2011-14 Studying the Changing Orders of Political Expertise (SCOPE) (PI, Volkswagen Foundation)
Research project at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, (PI, with Dr. Dagmar Simon, Prof. Dr. Michael Hutter), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
The role of science and expertise in society is changing. While the political demand for sound science and evidence has never been higher, experts are confronted with scepticism and claims for public participation. Both tendencies can currently be observed, the scientization of politics and the politicization of science. Focusing on welfare reforms and food safety, this international research project analyses the causes and consequences of changing science-policy relations in Great Britain, Germany, and the US since the mid-90s. By turning to the concept of knowledge orders, we move away from a priori assumptions about the effectiveness or functionality of public policy advice. Instead, we ask how certain modes of expertise and practices of public knowledge production come to be perceived as reliable and how in a given society such knowledge claims are used as a basis for justifying collective choices.

2011 -14 Knowledge politics and welfare state change – German and British labor market policies (Co-I, DFG)
Research project at the University of Darmstadt (with Prof. Dr. Hubert Heinelt), funded by the German Research Foundation
The project aims at identifying the influence of knowledge politics in employment policy reforms in Germany and the UK. We assume that the intensity and depth of welfare reforms depend on the country-specific constellations of knowledge production for decision-making (knowledge orders) and the ability of actors to restructure them.