News and Events

A working holiday visa (WHV) allows young adults to get to know a country for a limited period of time and earn money there. But why do these workers regularly end up in precarious jobs in the gig economy, as delivery drivers or cleaners? In her article "Forging Mobilities, Becoming Ideal Workers? Temporary Migration and the Gig Economy," labour market researcher Barbara Orth attempts to explain this phenomenon. more info

Start-ups benefit from an environment with a high level of entrepreneurial activity, creative energy and a lot of exchange. Such entrepreneurial ecosystems were long thought to be local phenomena. A new article now shows that they are in fact networked across regions, and also explains how such networks come about. The authors have now been honoured for their work. more info

Great hopes are pinned on social innovations in rural development. However, many expected impacts are insufficiently underpinned by methodology and conceptualisation. A special issue published by researchers from the IRS has now been published in the journal "Societies", which addresses current research gaps. more info

German universities are less active in setting up campuses abroad compared to British or French universities, for example. However, some German universities are still expanding internationally and risk reproducing a neoliberal logic of educational commercialization. An article in the journal "Compare" highlights the correlations. more info

Leibniz Labs are a new tool of research organization. Their aim is to bring together the wide-ranging knowledge of the participating Leibniz Institutes in order to contribute jointly to the solution of pressing social problems and to make this knowledge accessible to a wide range of target groups. As part of the first funding round, the Leibniz Association has now selected three labs for funding. The IRS is participating in a lab that investigates how society deals with unexpected, fundamental upheavals. more info

Remote work, in other words working across physical distances, is no longer a niche phenomenon, rather a broad trend with many different forms. It is an expression of far-reaching social transformations. A new European research network aims to understand these transformation processes and make them accessible for policy-making. IRS is involved in the network. more info