Research
Research Areas
The current multiple crises threaten to intensify existing social and economic inequalities. The ongoing crises and the response to them are taking place in the context of a global financial system that is increasingly failing to fulfil its traditional role of financing investment, increasing inequalities and characterized by hierarchically structured currency relations. Overcoming these crises and the transformation to a less unequal and at the same time lower-emission global economy require high volumes of finance. It is questionable whether the current financial system can cope with these tasks.
The impact of the financial system and inequality is a young but growing field of research. In the Global North, the influence of the financial system on growing inequality between households is being discussed, also in view of the effects of central bank policies. In addition, asymmetric effects on access to capital, development opportunities and economic leeway of countries in the global North compared to those in the South and within regions such as Europe are examined. However, there is a lack of systematic research and country comparisons on the effects of unequal access to financing in the wake of multiple crises and the distribution effects between the global North and the global South. Similarly, there is a lack of research on the question of suitable individual or institutional adjustment strategies and an improved design of the financial system to finance socio-economic transformation.
The doctoral program aims to address the interaction between the financial system and socio-economic inequality at national and global level as well as new conflicts of objectives arising from the financing of the ecological transformation at macro- and micro-economic level. The research will be methodologically pluralistic, multi-paradigmatic and interdisciplinary. The cooperative doctoral program is designed as an innovative pilot project between the FU Berlin and the HTW Berlin.
We have divided the research topics of the graduate school into four thematic research areas. Proposals for PhD research projects should be linked to one of these research areas.