Marius Busemeyer (University of Konstanz): “The consequences of digitalization for education systems and the welfare state: What is the citizens’ view?”
Start time:
2023-03-31 at 12:00
End time:
2023-03-31 at 13:30
Location:
Seminar room B706, floor 7, Saltmätargatan 13-17
Abstract
Digitalization is likely to have a lasting impact on work, welfare, health, education, and the income distribution. It will radically transform not only social risks but also the means by which these are addressed. Much research has been done on the effects of digitalization on labor markets, but its impact on the welfare state and education remains less well understood. In this talk, I want to provide some theoretical perspectives on how and why digitalization affects both welfare state policies as well as the politics underlying it. I also present major findings from a number of recent studies conducted in my working group on the link between technological change and individual preferences on social and education policies. One central finding is that individuals who perceive themselves to be at high risk due to digitalization and automation primarily demand compensation from the welfare state and are less supportive of increasing investments in education and research, even though the latter is often recommended as public policy response from experts. This finding highlights the complexities of the new politics of tech change in the welfare state, which I will elaborate on in the talk.
Bio
Marius R. Busemeyer is a Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Konstanz and Speaker of the Excellence Cluster "The Politics of Inequality". His research interests include comparative political economy and welfare state research, education and social policy, public spending, institutional change theories, and public opinion on the welfare state. Busemeyer holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Heidelberg and has worked as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He has also held visiting professorships and fellowships at various institutions, including Harvard, Oxford, and Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Busemeyer has received two major grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG)’s Emmy Noether program and the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant scheme. He has published extensively in various leading journals and has authored several books, including A loud, but noisy signal? Public opinion and education reform in Western Europe (Cambridge University Press) and Skills and Inequality (Winner of the 2015 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research).