The Research Unit Orders investigates how liberal political orders respond to deep contestations and how these responses shape processes of adaptation, transformation, and erosion. During the first funding phase, the RU showed that contestations of liberal orders are closely linked to conflicts over democratic legitimacy, authority, and institutional design. In the second phase, Orders focuses on the consequences of contestation: it examines the range of possible trajectories—from stabilization and progressive or regressive re-scripting to de-scripting and replacement by illiberal models.

 The RU studies how crises are interpreted and mobilized by political actors, including governments, populist movements, and transnational networks. Crisis framing is analyzed as a mechanism through which legitimacy is challenged or reinforced, expectations are shaped, and social trust is eroded or restored. A second research strand investigates how protest and mobilization in times of crisis alter the depth and direction of contestations. A third strand examines institutional counter-strategies, including emergency measures, regulatory reforms, and democratic innovations intended to stabilize political authority.

 Drawing on political theory, comparative politics, sociology, international relations, and law, Orders aims to clarify the institutional and societal conditions under which liberal orders maintain or regain resilience. The RU thereby provides analytical tools for understanding how liberal governance evolves under conditions of crisis.

Research Projects

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 Race and Multilateralism: The Anatomy of a Complex Relationship (RAM)
Prof. Dr. Lora Anne Viola
Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025 Varieties of Diversity Scripts
Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar, Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal, Prof. Dr. Kathrin Zippel
Sep 01, 2022 — Aug 31, 2025 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 Science Friction: 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
Sept 01, 2021 – Aug 31, 2024
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 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 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 The ecology of individuals’ disposition for scientific populism
Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal
Jan 01, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023 ‘Transformative Constitutionalism’ and the Borderlines of Liberalism
Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger, Prof. Dr. Philipp Dann, Uday Vir Garg, Vikram Aditya Narayan
Sep 01, 2019 – Dec 31, 2023 Towards a Typology of Contestations
Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn, Prof. Dr. Stefan Gosepath, Prof. Dr. Andrew Hurrell, Dr. Johannes Gerschewski, Nieves Fernández Rodriguez, Lena Röllicke, Max Weckemann, Sukayna Younger-Khan
Sep 01, 2019 –  Oct 14, 2023 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 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 China-inspired Digital Industrial Policy as a Challenge to the Liberal Script?
Prof. Dr. Katharina Bluhm
Jul 01, 2021 – Dec 31, 2021 Pandemic Rationalities: Sources and Dynamics of Uncertainty and Non-Compliance in Germany
Dr. Anne Menzel, PD Dr. med. Michael Knipper
May 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021 Making sense of girls empowerment in Sierra Leone: a conversation
Dr. Anne Menzel, Dr. Aisha Fofana Ibrahim
May 01, 2021 – Dec 31, 2021 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
May 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Reading Lists

The Research Unit Borders meets in the form of jour fixes to reflect on and discuss research themes connected to the Research Unit on the basis of shared readings.

Jour Fixe "The role of (neo-/liberal) education in the liberal script" (summer 2021)  

• What is the role of liberal education in the liberal script – in historical and contemporary perspectives?
• What kind of subject is imagined and cultivated in liberal education, generally, and in educational institutions, in particular, and to what extent is this “subject of freedom” normative?
• To what extent is decolonisation of curricula a possible path to pursue?

Readings:

• Robbie Shilliam 2016: The Aims and Methods of Liberal Education: Notes from a Nineteenth Century Pan-Africanist. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 29: 251–267. Additional material for those interested: Edward
  
• Wilmot Blyden 2020 [1881]: The Aims and Methods of Liberal Education for Africans. Educational Sciences 17, https://academicworks.livredelyon.com/edu_sci/17   

Jour Fixe "Neoliberalism and the Liberal Script – Component, Contradiction, Contestation?" (winter 2020/21)  

• Which topics or questions related to neoliberalism are of central relevance/great interest in the context of SCRIPTS? If so, which are these?
• How does the Research Unit members’ work on neoliberalism so far relate to the Cluster’s key questions and interests?

Readings

• Biebricher, Tomas (2015) ‘Neoliberalism and Democracy’, in: Constellations 22:2, 255-266.
• Cahill, Damien, Melinda Cooper, Martijn Konings and David Primrose (2018) ‘Introduction’, in The SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism edited by Damien Cahill, Melinda Cooper, Martijn Konings and David Primrose. London et al.: SAGE, xxvii.