Government Social Research
Alexy Buck
Alexy Buck, Deputy Head of the Legal Services Research Centre at the Legal Services Commission and a long-standing GSR member, recently returned from secondment in Berlin at the Social Science Research Centre (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)). Her time in Berlin was the consequence of a T.H. Marshall Fellowship in European Social Policy awarded by the London School of Economics (LSE) and, aside from providing the opportunity to undertake a research project, brought fresh working, cultural and personal insights.
T.H. Marshall was a key theoretician of the formative phase of the western welfare state. He developed the study of social policy and administration at the LSE and had close connections to Germany and, in both his life and work, embodied the double bridge between theory and practice and between the UK and Germany. The T.H. Marshall Fellowship Programme - a UK/German Research Fellowship Exchange in European Social Policy - was set up in recognition of growing European unification. Its aim is to link social policy theory and practice across national borders and create a pan-European network of social policy practitioners and researchers.
The programme is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, one of the main independent funders of social research in Germany, with Fellowships open to mid-career to senior level academic researchers and equally qualified social policy practitioners. Alexy, who applied successfully in 2004 (the first year of the Fellowship), believes that the combination of an innovative research proposal, her experience of working at the interface between policy and research, experience of primary research, and publications in peer-reviewed academic journals were key to her award. Being able to conduct research in German is a key requirement of the Fellowship, and being bilingual (Alexy holds German and British citizenship) also helped.
During her time in Berlin , Alexy was attached to the WZB - the largest research institution of its kind in Europe , with around 140 social scientists conducting research on the developmental trends, problems of adaptation, and possibilities for innovation in modern societies. Research areas include employment, social structure and the welfare state; markets and political economy; organisations and knowledge; and civil society, conflict and democracy. The focus is on the problem-solving capacities of social and governmental institutions, often with a cross-national comparative context being emphasised so as to learn from approaches taken in other countries.
In addition to having an international comparative perspective, the mostly empirical work at the WZB is characteristically multi-disciplinary, as sociologists, political scientists, economists, and scholars from other disciplines work together. Results are disseminated within the wider scientific community, to practitioners in politics, business and industry as well as to a broader audience. Alexy says: 'I really liked its interdisciplinary and international nature and the wide range of research interests. The facilities were amazing - particularly the building, designed by the Scottish architect James Stirling, and the library. I was also impressed by the extensive influence of the WZB in Germany and the professionalism of their research dissemination, publicity and communications work.'
Alexy's project - 'Educating the Citizen in a 21 st Century Germany: New Challenges and Identities and the Unforgettable Past?' - focused on perceptions of policy elites from a predominantly education and civic education background. She conducted qualitative interviews with senior, policy-making employees from a variety of key institutions, with a view to exploring perceptions of changes in German educational ideals of citizenship and shifting ideas of identities in Germany.
She says: 'I specifically wanted to discover how policy elites thought three current challenges facing Germany today might affect citizenship, identity and civic education issues - declining prosperity and welfare state reform, immigration, and Europeanisation. It was important to me to explore their perceptions of changes in education ideals of the citizen and related identity questions in the context of Germany 's past. I also sought to have them connect current challenges and historical developments to the practice-oriented level of civic education of young people in German schools.'
Aside from conducting her research project, Alexy also chose to engage in other activities whilst in Berlin , inspired by a desire to explore differences between practice in Germany and the UK . She attended and participated in meetings of research groups at the WZB, and the 'Science Policy Project Group' proved a useful forum in which to discuss GSR and differences between academic and research careers in the UK and Germany . She also met and built links with German officials with responsibilities comparable to those pursued at the Legal Services Commission and the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Alexy concludes: 'The Fellowship provided me with an exceptional learning experience, both professionally and personally. It really broadened my horizons by giving me the opportunity to conduct research in another country, meet a wide range of German policy-makers, researchers and academics, and understand more about research and current national policy making in Germany . It also highlighted the value of GSR to me - it doesn't exist in a comparable form in Germany and I found that people were interested to hear about, and were often impressed by, the way it is institutionalised as a key process in government policy-making in the UK.'
For more information on Alexy's Fellowship experience and project, contact her on 020 7759 1191 (alexy.buck@legalservices.gov.uk).
Further details on the WZB can be found on the WZB website.
Further details on the Fellowship can be found on the LSE website.