WILCO - Welfare innovations at the local level in favour of cohesion,

Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Department of Political Science, Germany

The Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Münster University) is one of the major research centres in the country and one of the largest universities in Germany. More than 44 000 students are enrolled in 13 departments. The research activities will be taken up by the Institute of Political Science, which is part of the faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. The Institute counts among the larger institutions of political science in Germany, and it stands out for its gender balance at the faculty level. The Institute is well equipped to host a research programme with the focus on the future of public management/administration because in the last decade it has developed expertise related to these fields. The Institute runs a Double-Diploma Program (B.A.) on Public Administration in co- operation with the University of Twente. The Institute is involved in the national strategy of the German government to strengthen civic engagement. Currently it outlines a state of the art on infrastructure of empowerment and inclusion of citizens in public management procedures in several local communities. The Institute’s emphasis on public administration research is completed by its fine reputation in the field of non-profit management and third sector policy research.

Through Annette Zimmer, the department has played a leading role in European related research activities by active participation in the 4th, 5th and 6th Framework Programmes, e.g. the Research and Training Network “Women in European Universities” (WEU), the Network of Excellence “Civil Society and New Forms of Governance” (Cinefogo), the Network of Excellence “Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation: The Role of the EU“, and the “Third Sector European Policy“(TSEP).

The head of the team will be Prof. Dr. Annette Zimmer, Professor of Social Policy and Comparative Politics at the University of Münster. She was affiliated with the Program on Non-profit-Organizations at Yale University (USA), served as the DAAD Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (Canada) and co-ordinated the EU-funded Research and Training Network „Women in European Universities“. She has served on the Board of the German Political Science Association and on the Advisory Board of the German Volunteer Survey. She is elected member of the Advisory Council of the „Centre for Social Policy“ at Bremen University. Recently, she became chairwoman of the Centre for Non-profit Management that administrates on behalf of Münster University the first university based master program on non-profit management. She is the author of numerous books and articles. Recent publications include Gendered Career Trajectories in Academia in Cross-National Perspective (with Renate Siemienska, 2007), Vereine - Zivilgesellschaft konkret (2007) and Future of Civil Society: Making Central European Nonprofit-Organizations Work (with Eckhard Priller, 2004).

Contact information: Annette Zimmer:

Other members

Maren Meißner Is a scientific assistant at the Department of Political Science at the University of Münster. She studied political sciences, sociology and communication in Düsseldorf, Nantes and Münster and graduated with a Master of Arts in 2010. She specialized in political sociology, her research fields include social and cultural exclusion, especially in the field of education. In her master's thesis, she discussed the german programme "Jedem Kind ein Instrument" ("An instrument for every child") with regard to its chances to improve equal opportunities in the educational system.

André Christian Wolf Is a researcher at the Department of Political Science at the University of Münster. He studied urban planning at Dortmund University and University College London and holds a PhD from Aachen University. Broadly his interests lie in two areas: urban development and civil society organisations. Prior to coming to Münster he worked as a researcher at Aachen University, where he was responsible for the coordination of the EU-funded project GUIDEMAPS dealing with public involvement in local transport projects.