The Research Unit Technology, Inequality and Freedom builds on and expands the first-phase (Re-)Allocation RU by placing technological transformation at the center of its analysis of contestations of the liberal script. Earlier work identified broken promises of social mobility, meritocratic fairness, and distributive justice as key endogenous drivers of contestation. In the second phase, the RU examines how advances in automation, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructures, and data-driven governance reshape inequalities, political authority, and both individual and collective self-determination.

 One research strand investigates technology and global capitalism, focusing on how technological change alters labor markets, generates new economic elites, deepens transnational inequalities, and contributes to emerging forms of techno-colonial extraction. The RU examines whether these developments trigger regressive or progressive re-scripting of allocation norms within the liberal script. A second strand analyzes how technology affects freedom and democracy by transforming public spheres, enabling disinformation, facilitating political mobilization, and reinforcing or undermining state capacity in both liberal and non-liberal contexts.

 Integrating economics, political science, sociology, and science and technology studies, Technology, Inequality and Freedom develops a conceptual and empirical framework to understand technology as a driver, arena, and consequence of contestations of the liberal script.

Research Projects

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 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 Leader Types and (Liberal?) Narratives of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Prof. Mark Hallerberg, PhD, Prof. Dr. Slava Jankin, Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar
Sep 01, 2021 — Aug 31, 2024 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 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, Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar, Felix Garten, Nora Kürzdörfer
Sep 01, 2020 — Feb 14, 2024 High Hopes and Broken Promises: Young Adult Life Courses in Senegal
Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert, Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Dr. Noella Binda Niati
Aug 07, 2020 — Aug 06, 2023 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 COVID-19 as a challenge to the liberal script
Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver
Feb 16, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022 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 A Global History of Unemployment: The Search for Global Full Employment, 1940-1990
Dr. Aaron Benanav
Dec 01, 2021 —  Dec 01, 2022 Social Inequalities, Migration and the Rise of Populist Parties
Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Martin Kroh, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer
Sep 01, 2019 — Aug 31, 2022 Populism and Perceived Inequality
Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer
Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021 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 The Politics of Public Allocation of Scarce Goods
Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Macartan Humphreys, Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Dr. Ferdinand Geißler, Felix Hartmann
Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021 Essential Workers, Decent Work: A History of Labor Force Categories
Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert, Dr. Aaron Benanav
Apr 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021 Financial (re-)allocation after Covid-19: Global financial flows to China and its implications for the liberal global financial order
Dr. Johannes Petry
Apr 01, 2021 — Sep 01, 2021 A 'Common Sense Revolution'?
Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Prof. Dr. Miriam Hartlapp , Dr. Lukas Obholzer
Apr 01, 2019 — Dec 31, 2019