Current Research Projects

Here is an overview of some of our projects.

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Our multinational, comparative, qualitative study “Solidarity in times of a pandemic” examines diverse questions regarding the pandemic situation in different European as well as non-European countries. By means of in-depth qualitative interviews with residents in these countries, we explore questions concerning, for example, the importance of digital practices such as home office working, the meaning of specific policy measures, the role of citizens in managing the crisis, but also the proliferation of contact tracing applications as a policy instrument in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solidarity-based data governance (in short: data solidarity) seeks to increase collective control, oversight and ownership over digital data and resources. Its core premise is that the benefits and risks of digital practices need to be borne fairly and collectively. In this manner, data solidarity helps to realise justice, but it also complements it. It seeks to ensure that individuals get their fair share and proposes ways of owning, overseeing, and governing data that go beyond the individual-focused model.                                                 

The “Work and Corona” project aims to visualize the transformation of work during the COVID-19 pandemic. It cooperates with the Austrian Corona Panel Project and develops quantitative surveys that focus on topics surrounding changes in work itself or work-related attitudes and preferences. The main goal of the project is to create a website to provide the public with tools to investigate changes in attitudes, behaviour, and preferences via an interactive dashboard. In addition, the project provides in-depth scientific analyses on topics such as support for welfare policies, perceived risks of different labour market transformations, and the consequences of working from home on the distribution of paid and unpaid work within households.