Events at the MPIfG

The conference will explore the dynamics of entrepreneurship within the broader context of social inequality, centering on the pivotal concept of “opportunity hoarding” as proposed by Charles Tilly. We will examine how access to entrepreneurial opportunities is often monopolized by specific groups or networks. [more]

This workshop seeks to explore how a systematic study of law and courts might broaden our understanding of political economy. We will discuss the promises and limits of law - how law can be grounds for progressive change ensuring protection for labor and consumers, but also how it often falls short in challenging and transforming entrenched systems of power and inequality in the absence of direct action. [more]

Employing the lens of the life and work of Otto Kahn-Freund, we investigate the invention of labor law as a distinct field of legal doctrine and scholarship. Invention and reinvention are understood here to be ongoing political and scholarly processes, involving the defense of existing institutions and the development of new ones. We consider developments across the twentieth century. [more]

Die Wissenschaftsfreiheit ist essenziell für eine funktionierende Demokratie und in Deutschland im Grundgesetz verankert. Allerdings ist sie auch ein soziales Konzept, das vor dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlichen Wandels fortlaufend neu politisch und juristisch ausgehandelt wird. Die Idee der Wissenschaftsfreiheit ist daher stets umkämpft – insbesondere in Zeiten gesellschaftlicher Polarisierung. [more]

The main cause of the climate crisis is the burning of fossil fuels. This talk will turn the question around and aim at identifying the social problems that were meant to be solved by burning fossil fuels, looking in particular at critical junctures in human history. [more]

The talk will give an overview of Germany’s transformation to a “world export champion” (Exportweltmeister), a concept that first appeared in 1986. The talk will mark the most important turning points and highlight in particular the institutions and instruments that have been created over more than a century by an elite network of politicians and businesspeople in promotion of the German export drive. [more]

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