De-Centering Human Rights: Liberalism, Human Rights, and the Global South

Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger, Prof. Dr. Anna Holzscheiter, Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse

Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

Project Description The project examines how representatives of the Global South have engaged with liberal ideas in debates over human rights, both historically and in contemporary institutional settings. Instead of narrowing them down to their liberal enunciation, this approach treats human ...

Einstein Center for Population Diversity (ECPD) - To rethink family caregiving in aging societies

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Hertie School Berliin

Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang , Prof. Dr. phil. Paul Gelert, Prof. Dr. Michaela Kreyenfeld

Jan 01, 2024 — Dec 31, 2029

SCRIPTS looks forward to the upcoming collaboration with the Einstein Center Population Diversity (ECPD). SCRIPTS Principal Investigator Anette Fasang will be one of the PIs at the ECPD.

Exploring gender-specific determinants and contexts of migrant health from an integrated Global Health perspective

Freie Universität Berlin, WZB Social Science Center, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Dr. Joachim Seybold (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin), Dr. Angel Phuti (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin), Dr. Sara Nasser (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin), Prof. Dr. Tobias Kurth (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin), Dr. Stefanie Theuring (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin), Dr. Kerstin Palm (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Zerrin Salikutluk (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal (FU/WZB, SCRIPTS Cluster Professorship Global Sociology)

Feb 01, 2022 — Jan 31, 2025

Germany is an immigration country. However, the United Nations have recently expressed serious concerns on the implementation of the right to health for non-nationals. Multiple access barriers and exclusion mechanisms do exist, including administrative, social, cultural and structural factors, ...

Objects from Afar and Sustainable Liberal Identity - The Contestation of Material Representation in National Museums of the Global North

Prof. Dr. Philipp Lepenies, Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig, Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar, Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert, Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Nov 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

Museums are places in which artefacts or artworks are publicly exhibited. Museums constitute a specific “scene.” Objects play the role of “actors” and interpret specific “plots.” Visitors are guided by a “script” that deliberately captures and directs their attention into ...

Race and Multilateralism: The Anatomy of a Complex Relationship (RAM)

Prof. Dr. Lora Anne Viola

Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

Project Description The project “Race and Multilateralism” (RAM) studies the ways that multilateralism, an institutional form of cooperation central to the liberal international order, has been implicated in creating, recreating, or overcoming the racialised nature of that order. It ...

Reinterpreting the alternative script? War in Ukraine, state-sponsored narratives of block building in authoritarian countries and their public perception

Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka, Prof. Dr. Alexander Libman

Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

The project analyzes the construction of ‘alternative’ narratives by authoritarian governments competing against the liberal script and the way these narratives are perceived, reinterpreted and negotiated by the population of their countries. We focus at Russia and China and the narratives ...

Science Friction: Patterns, Causes and Effects of Academic Freedom Contestations

Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Prof. Mattias Kumm, S.J.D. (Harvard), Prof. Dr. Katrin Kinzelbach, External research collaborators: Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua , School of Law, University of Ghana Prof. Andrés Bernasconi , Faculty of Education, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Prof. Hualing Fu , Department of Law, University of Hong Kong

Sep 01, 2021 — Jan 31, 2025

Academic freedom, both as an individual right and in the form of institutional autonomy, is under pressure in many countries across the world, as the Academic Freedom Index shows. Examples of attacks include the closure of institutions, funding cuts to specific research programs, prohibitions of ...

The Deserving Rich - A Mulit-Disciplinary Analysis of the (Re-)Production of (German)Wealth

Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Dortmund

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gosepath, Prof. Dr. Philipp Lepenies, Prof. Dr. Christian Neuhäuser

Jun 01, 2023 — May 31, 2027

Currently, more than half of the wealth in most OECD countries is not earned but inherited. The central question of the interdisciplinary research project is: How and in what way can the different narratives explain the (re)production of wealth in Germany? Building on the concept of the "deserving rich", the research project will identify discourses, instruments and institutional arrangements of wealth genesis and examine the arguments of "deserved" and "undeserved" wealth. In a historical perspective, the German inheritance tax law of recent German history will be analysed. The results will be used to draw conclusions about social and political transformation processes in the past, present and future.

Varieties of Diversity Scripts

Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar, Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal, Prof. Dr. Kathrin Zippel

Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are sites of deep contestations over key values of the liberal script. Access to inclusion, resources, and power in the HE system is based on the ideal of meritocratic principles, but academic excellence is often constructed in ways that position democratic values of equality and diversity in opposition or in non-compliance with meritocracy. While universities have long been a bastion of training (national) elites and knowledge production, the liberalisation and democratisation of Western societies in particular since the 1960s led to the expansion of higher education. This was based on the proposition that an inclusive higher education (HE) is the foundation of an economically prosperous and democratic society. Since then, higher education systems should not only produce knowledge but also contribute to equality and diversity. "Diversity scripts" reflect debates over what counts and does not count as diversity and how it should be taken into account. Diversity scripts are defined as the ways in which ideals of pluralism, equality, inclusion, and participation are conceptualized in the context of higher education. The project seeks to theorize “varieties of diversity scripts” to explore the different tensions and contestations of equality and meritocracy in HE.

War in Ukraine, Russia’s potential decoupling from the global internet and the changing perspective of emerging powers on internet and data governance

Prof. Dr. Katharina Bluhm, Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse

Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025

The project investigates authoritarian contestations of an important vehicle of liberal values – the open Internet – as well as of the liberal script in the domain of governance of the Internet and digital economy. It examines the models of “sovereign” Internet and “sovereign” digital ...

A 'Common Sense Revolution'?

Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Prof. Dr. Miriam Hartlapp , Dr. Lukas Obholzer

Apr 01, 2019 — Dec 31, 2019

This research project studies contestations within the EU political system, namely that of Eurosceptic parties within European Parliament.

A Longitudinal and Multilocal Qualitative Analysis of Displacement from Ukraine

Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse

May 01, 2022 — Apr 30, 2023

The project investigates the trajectories of displacement of Ukrainians who fled their home country following the Russian invasion in February 2022.

COVID-19 as a challenge to the liberal script

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver

Feb 16, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

Project Description This project was built on the research titled ‘The Politics of Public Allocation of Scarce Goods: Evidence from the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme,’ initially conducted in 2021. It focused on three key areas: liberal strategies for democratic decision-making in times of ...

China-inspired Digital Industrial Policy as a Challenge to the Liberal Script?

Prof. Dr. Katharina Bluhm

Jul 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

The study explores how different European national states deal with the question of digitalization and digital industrial policy inspired by China.

Contesting the Liberal Border Script

Prof. Dr. Christian Volk

Oct 01, 2022 — Mar 31, 2023

The liberal script rests both on the notion of sovereign territorial nation states and the universal promise of fundamental rights for everyone. In recent years, borders of liberal democracies have become more and more militarized, nearly insurmountable for those seeking entry, and frequently ...

Debating the Legitimacy of Borders: How the Admission or Refoulement of Refugees is Justified Across the World

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gerhards, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau , Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig

Oct 01, 2019 — Sep 30, 2022

Project Description In the past years, the number of refugees and asylum seekers has increased substantially across the world. This has increased the pressure on destination countries to open up their borders to those seeking protection. The project aimed to understand how the admission or ...

Does it pay off for authoritarian regimes to organize major sports events?

Dr. Johannes Gerschweski, Dr. Heiko Giebler, Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn, Research collaborators: Dr. Eda Keremoglu (Universität Konstanz) Dr. Sebastian Hellmeier (WZB)

Nov 01, 2022 — Apr 30, 2023

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is held in Qatar, one of the most autocratic regimes in the world. Authoritarian regimes increasingly use major international sporting events to improve their international reputation and distract from human rights abuses.

Financial (re-)allocation after COVID-19

Johannes Petry

Apr 01, 2021 — Sep 30, 2021

Over the course of 2020, global investors poured more than $1 trillion into Chinese stock and bond markets (Lockett & Hale, 2020) and global financial institutions scrambled to reallocate their business activities to China (Bloomberg News, 2020). Despite the US-China trade war and political developments in Hong Kong, China is gaining in importance for the allocation of financial assets globally. The fact that China is the only major economy that experienced economic growth in 2020, only adds to its growing attraction as an investment destination. Similar to other crisis periods, COVID-19 might arguably crystallise as a critical juncture in China’s global rise. This research project therefore aims (1) to analyse the growing reallocation of global finance towards China, as well as (2) its implications for the liberal global financial order.

Gender, Border Expansion, and the Liberal Script

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Jun 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Contemporary political leaders in both liberal and illiberal regimes frequently pitch a masculine imagery of themselves and their countries in order to promote populist and/or repressive political agendas. They construct, control, and contest borders on the international stage by making ...

Gender, Borders, Memory: Contestation of the Liberal Script in the Catalan Separatist Movement

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht , Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig , Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar

Oct 01, 2020 — Sep 30, 2023

Project Description The project “Gender, Borders, Memory” (GBM) aimed to understand the role and influence of gender and memory within border contestations of the liberal script. We examined the extent to which gender and history condition border definitions and border contestations in ...

High Hopes and Broken Promises: Young Adult Life Courses in Senegal

Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert

Aug 07, 2020 — Aug 06, 2023

The research project investigates the demographic, historical and sociological conditions of Senegal that may give rise to contestations of the liberal script, particularly by its young adults. Many post-colonial countries in Africa have followed the liberal script – implementation of democracy, free markets, and expanded education – yet have failed to achieve the liberal promises of meritocracy and prosperity. Such failed promises may lead to disillusioned youths that question the liberal script, resulting often in emigration that in turn threatens the borders and stability of the destination liberal democracies.

Leader Types and (Liberal?) Narratives of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar , Prof. Mark Hallerberg, PhD, Prof. Dr. Slava Jankin

Sep 01, 2021 — Aug 31, 2024

This project compares the key decision-makers in the pandemic, with a focus on leaders,  their health ministers, and their finance ministers and the narratives used during the pandemic. We take into account the role of health and finance ministers because much political and public debate on the ...

Liberal Order, Legitimate Authority and Disagreement: On the limits of legitimate disagreement (LOLAD)

Prof. Dr. Matthias Kumm, Prof. Dr. Stefan Gosepath

Jan 01, 2020 — Dec 31, 2023

Liberal orders are open to difference, pluralism and disagreement. Compared to a wide range of historical antecedents and contemporary competitors liberalism is inclusive. But liberalism also imposes limits on the kind of difference, pluralism and disagreement that is deemed legitimate. In that sense, liberalism is also exclusionary. In a series of colloquia and articles, this project explores the boundaries of liberalism with regard to it inclusionary and exclusionary dimension, focusing on basic constitutional doctrines (e.g. the limits of constituent and amendment power, militant constitutionalism and the right to resist) and its construction of legitimate authority.

Making sense of girls empowerment in Sierra Leone: a conversation

Dr. Anne Menzel, Dr. Dr. Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, University of Sierra Leone

May 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

This small project facilitated and documented a conversation about the emancipatory potentials and pitfalls of girls empowerment as practised, experienced, and judged by Sierra Leonean activists. We discussed views on and experiences of girls empowerment approaches that have been interpreted in ...

Negotiating the Future of Education: The UNESCO’s Futures of Education-initiative and the OECD’s Future of Education and Skills 2030-initiative

Prof. Dr. Florian Waldow , Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger , Prof. Dr. Marcelo Caruso

Feb 01, 2021 — Feb 14, 2024

Project Description In this project, we aimed to analyse how visions of the future of education are negotiated and contested, looking at how narratives about the future of education are constructed by UNESCO and OECD in two projects, Futures of education (UNESCO) and Future of education and ...

Performing the Liberal Script: Audiovisual Arts and the Aesthetics of Self-Determination

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Apr 01, 2019 — Dec 31, 2019

This research project takes a look at the audiovisual and aesthetic components of the liberal script, particularly as they appear in classical music and other forms of artistic expression. The premise is that while the liberal script has yielded positive results, it has failed in selling its accomplishments by way of emotional attraction, aesthetic vision and artistic inspiration.

Political leaders and gender equality: Can female top leaders reduce inequalities in political participation?

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon (University of Pittsburgh)

Jun 01, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

The participation of women in politics is still much lower than that of men in established democracies. Whilst the political representation of women has been steadily increasing in most established democracies, there is still a substantive gender gap in political participation (Coffé and ...

Populism and Perceived Inequality

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Project Description This project examined the connection between perceived inequality and support for populist parties, focusing on how individual perceptions of inequality, rather than objective income disparities, influence voter behaviour. By shifting the focus from macro-level economic ...

Regional Conferences on Contestations of the Liberal Script With the Cluster’s International Partners

Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn , Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse

Apr 01, 2021 — Mar 31, 2024

In the context of the Cluster’s internationalization strategy and in cooperation with the Cluster’s 21 international partners, SCRIPTS has the ambition to “bring the cluster to the world” in the different regions in the world. In this context, we realise the format of “regional ...

Responding to the (Populist) Right: How Moderate Parties Can Win Back Voters

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Petra Schleiter, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Project Description This research project examined the rise of right-wing populist and far-right parties across Europe and investigates how mainstream parties can respond to this challenge. Focusing on Germany, the project explores strategied that moderate parties might use to retain or win back ...

Restrictions of civil liberties and their political legitimation in context: a cross-national survey experiment on citizens’ acceptance of pandemic countermeasures

Dr. Johannes Gerschweski, Dr. Heiko Giebler

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Project Description Under which conditions do citizens accept possibly far-reaching limitations of their individual rights for the sake of the common good? The global COVID-19 pandemic directed renewed attention to fundamental questions on the legitimation and acceptance of political authority ...

Rethinking Individual Self-determination and Women’s Emancipation. Global South Feminism(s) and the Contestation of Liberal Feminist Thought

Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar

Jul 01, 2021 — Jul 31, 2022

While liberal feminists question the liberal script and criticize that the promise of individual self-determination and emancipation of women has not been fulfilled, different feminist currents from the Global South criticize quite fundamentally the idea of individual self-determination as well as ...

Scaring away the young? Electoral maladministration in Berlin and its consequences

Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Dr. Heiko Giebler, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Faas (Otto-Suhr-Institut, FU Berlin)

Feb 13, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

1. Project Motivation and Relation to SCRIPTS While the specific definition and nature of the Liberal Script is a matter of debate, it seems close to impossible imagining an iteration of such a script without collective selfdetermination ensured by democratic procedures. Adopting the Dahlian ...

Social Inequalities, Migration and the Rise of Populist Parties

Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke , Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Martin Kroh

Aug 01, 2019 — Aug 31, 2022

Project Description This project examined the combined roles of socioeconomic inequality, migration, and populist-party rhetoric in the rise of European populist protests. The hypothesis proposed that extremist parties, in their efforts to mobilise voters, have exploited (perceived) inequalities ...

The Challenge to the Challenge: The Belt and Road Initiative’s Implications for Liberal Trade and (Digital) Finance and the Response in Other Countries

Prof. Mark Hallerberg, PhD, Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar

Oct 01, 2020 — Mar 31, 2024

Project Description This project examined the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for the liberal script, with a focus on trade and finance. These two policy areas are crucial in assessing the potential re-allocation of wealth across borders driven by the BRI. Research Questions ...

The Liberal Script in Ukraine's Contested Border Regions

Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse, Prof. Dr. Christian Volk, Dr. Sabine von Löwis

Oct 01, 2020 — Aug 31, 2024

Project Description The aim of this study, located between geography, political science and anthropology, is to analyse different challenges to the liberal script in border regions, in particular with regard to sovereignty, mobility and individual vs. group rights. The case of Ukraine offers an ...

The Not-So-Universal Declarations: Types and Effects of Human Rights Rhetoric in the UN General Assembly

Prof. Dr. Slava Jankin, Dr. Olga Gasparyan, Dr. Niheer Dasandi

Jun 01, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

Respect for human rights is perhaps the defining feature of liberalism (Moyn 2010). It is widely recognised that over the past few decades, international human rights language has come to dominate world politics (Hafner-Burton and Ron 2007). Some scholars have expressed optimism about the ...

The Politics of Public Allocation of Scarce Goods: Evidence from the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Macartan Humphreys

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Project Description This project explored the complex and often contentious issue of public resource allocation, focusing on how governments decide who receives scarce public goods. These decisions are not just administrative but deeply political, touching on societal norms and potentially ...

The ecology of individuals’ disposition for scientific populism

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal

Jan 01, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

This short-term project seeks to provide a systematic study of the macro level mediators of population support or opposition of the liberal script, with a focus on “science populism.” Specifically, it investigates whether, and the extent to which, differential exposure to transnational ...

Towards a Typology of Contestations

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gosepath, Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn

Oct 15, 2019 — Oct 14, 2023

Project Description The research project ‘Towards a Typology of Contestations’ (TTC) aims to construct a typology of contestations of the liberal script that takes the diversity of current contestations on a global scale into consideration. The analysis considered over 30 features of 53 ...

Who wrote the Liberal International Order script? Contributions from the Global South to the international human rights architecture

Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger, Dr. Luis Aue

Oct 01, 2021 — Mar 31, 2022

The aim of this short-term project is to map the state of the art and ongoing scholarly controversies surrounding the emergence of the international human rights regime. In particular, the project focusses on the contributions of actors from the Global South to the emergence of international human ...

‘Transformative Constitutionalism’ and the Borderlines of Liberalism

Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger, Prof. Dr. Philipp Dann

Jan 01, 2020 — Dec 31, 2023

Project Description The project analysed non-liberal conceptualizations of social transformation and their relationship to the liberal script in India. It focused on the concept of transformative constitutionalism (TC) as a central site for the articulation of a non-liberal vision of (future) ...

“Bürgerräte” and the liberal script: A field experiment testing the democratic potential of citizen assemblies

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Felix Hartmann, LL.M. (Harvard) , Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, Tim Wappenhans (HU Berlin)

Feb 13, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

Project Description The research project focuses on citizen assemblies (“Bürgerräte”), which are designed to address critical challenges to the liberal democratic order, such as declining political trust, the spread of misinformation, and inequalities in political representation. These ...