Call for Proposals
The Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) invites nominations for the
A.SK Post-doctoral Fellowships 2009
The fellowships support (with up to € 50,000 per year) research on public policy with a focus on economic and governmental reforms. Fellowships will be awarded for a maximum of three years. Each fellowship offers a monthly stipend of € 2,400-3,000. Please submit nominations to the WZB with supporting material (CV, publications and unpublished papers) by September 1, 2009, along with two letters of recommendation.
In the spirit of the A.SK mission statement, the WZB honors research presenting new ideas on economic reform and government reform in a global perspective, such as:
(1)
the role of entrepreneurs and competitive cooperation for economic well-being and development
the micro- and macroeconomic features of systems where employees participate more in the ownership of their companies through ownership components of salaries
the allocative and distributive qualities of systems where individual land ownership rights are limited to long-term leases
the possibilities for the financial sector to have more direct links to the national production of goods and services in order to prevent monetary instabilities and speculative deformations
(2)
the possibilities of governmental reforms
civil society and the contribution of non-governmental organisations to democratic and effective governance
the potential of multi-level democracies
preconditions of good governance in state and society
The post-doctoral fellowships are part of the A.SK Academic Prize program that also includes the A.SK Social Science Award awarded bi-annually to outstanding research on social and governmental reform. The prizes are named after their sponsors Angela and Shu Kai Chan.
A.SK Mission Statement
The A.SK academic prizes honor academic work in the social sciences. The bi-annual A.SK Social Science Award will be awarded to promote studies on economic and government reform.
Our mission is to encourage social system reform, to facilitate and broaden people’s productive activities with fair wealth distribution, as well as to competently address current social issues. Society is rapidly changing and old systems have become incompatible with new realities. New problems can only be solved with new solutions.
Today, the economy forms the basis of society more than the political system itself. The political structure provides security for society, while the economy creates wealth and quality of life for the people. The problem with capitalism is not free enterprise and free markets, which lead to highest efficiency in production, but rather that capital and profit are concentrated in small groups. In contrast, socialism favors workers with increased wages and social benefits, but without increasing productivity, resulting only in higher production costs and inflation.
While the nature of society has changed dramatically, dominant government structures have remained largely the same. These structures seem to reward politicians who care mainly about re-election and power, regardless of the long-term consequences of this behavior. It is necessary to reform democratic political systems so that they are better capable of handling problems which reach beyond the time-horizon of elected politicians. We need political structures which allow the rational management of a wide range of critical issues and divide some power. We also need a new checks and balances system of power.
Previous A.SK Social Science Fellows
Dr. Felix Kolb, Verden (Aller)
Dr. Janine Leschke, Brussels
Dr. Andreas Leutzsch, Bielefeld
Please direct proposals including all relevant information to the chairman of the A.SK Social Science Award Committee:
Prof. Dr. Werner Abelshauser
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Reichpietschufer 50
10785 Berlin
Germany
Phone +49 - 30 - 25491 - 506
Mail a.sk@wzb.eu