The Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professorship invites renowned international scientists to present and discuss interdisciplinary research on current economic and social challenges. This winter, Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Chair of Macrosociology at the University of Mannheim, serves as the fourth Polanyi Visiting Professor. Ebbinghaus is a sociologist, studying the political economy of advanced welfare states from a comparative perspective with a focus on Europe.
During his visit to Vienna, he will offer the workshop “Welfare States in Crisis or for Crises? Reconsidering Welfare State Resilience” at Central European University (CEU) on January 27, moderated by CEU Department of Political Science Associate Professor Anil Duman and Professor Carsten Schneider, Pro-Rector for External Relations. Commentators will include Dorothee Bohle and Bernhard Kittel from the University of Vienna and Dorottya Szikra and Bela Greskovits from CEU.
“The Karl Polanyi Visiting Professorship is an excellent platform for CEU to collaborate with outstanding partners in Vienna and beyond,” comments Schneider, who is part of the selection committee for the Polyani Guest Professorship and a co-organizer of the activities. He adds, “With colleagues from University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Economics and Business, CEU organizes events of high academic standard and public visibility.” Additional activities during Ebbinghaus’s Vienna visit include a public lecture (in German) at Urania on January 12 and a PhD-seminar at the University of Vienna.
In selecting the visiting professors, the committee seeks high-profile researchers who would otherwise not be accessible to a broad public in Vienna. Previous guests of the Polyani Visiting Professorship have been Nancy Fraser, Fred Block and Ayse Bugra. Schneider highlights that “CEU organizes the workshop for the visiting professors, and they attract audience across various CEU academic departments. The same is true for the students attending classes by the Visiting Professors. They, too, come from various disciplines.”
The Polanyi Visiting Professorship aims to advance interdisciplinary research on contemporary challenges; to gain insights for contemporary analysis by continuing and rediscovering Karl Polanyi's intellectual legacy; to actualize the Viennese heritage of lively academic and political debate from "Red Vienna" in the 1920s, which inspired Karl Polanyi´s reflections in "The Great Transformation"; and to intensify cooperation between Viennese universities as well as other educational institutions in understanding and shaping ongoing transformations.
This cooperation project includes CEU, University of Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) and the Volkshochschule Wien (VHS Wien) and is supported by the Vienna Chamber of Labour and the City of Vienna. The IKPS is an association of engaged citizens, researchers, teachers, activists, journalists and professionals from diverse policy fields based on the rich intellectual, moral and political legacy of Karl Polanyi and the vivid scientific and public debates he has inspired.
For the full schedule of Ebbinghaus's upcoming Polyani Guest Professorship programs, visit here.
