WZB - Berlin Social Science Center

In the 50th year of its existence, the WZB ventures to take a glimpse into the future. Our jubilee magazine features questions, analyses and prognoses about the society of tomorrow.

Harvard economist Raj Chetty received the A.SK Social Science Award 2019 on November 5 for his groundbreaking research on upward mobility and the opportunities of disadvantaged groups in the USA. The laudation was given by journalist Sonia Mikich. The award ceremony took place as part of the WZB's 50th anniversary celebrations.

From baby-boomers to millennials to the new protest generation, much can be learned about the shifting state of society by comparing different age groups. The latest edition of the WZB-Mitteilungen does just that. Rather than only looking at what divides generations, it also asks what is passed down from one to the next, and how.

Is Europe that hard to explain? A new blog piece by WZB researcher Christian Rauh seeks to answer that very question. He shows that political actors do indeed struggle to speak about Europe in simple terms, especially when defending European positions. This makes parliamentary speeches about the EU harder than average to understand.

Germany’s Grand Coalition has kept most of its promises so far. Fifteen months into the alliance, the government has already tackled over 60% of the plans set out at the beginning of the coalition. But this success has fallen on deaf ears.