History of the Institute

The MPIfG and the Faculty of Social Sciences and History of Diego Portales University (UDP) in Santiago de Chile set up the Max Planck Partner Group on the Politics of Green Growth in Emerging Economies. Led by Aldo Madariaga, Assistant Professor in the UDP’s School of Political Science, the Group’s research will focus on the extent to which the green economy and associated ecological transformation can drive economic growth in emerging markets, and on the political background to green growth and stagnation processes.

The MPIfG adopts a new research program. Building on the Institute’s existing research tradition, the new program continues to put the economy at the center of the Institute's research agenda and emphasizes the close integration of economic sociology and political economy while opening up new research strands, such as the study of social transformations brought about by technological change.

Two networks in Chile are founded. The Max Planck Partner Group in Chile led by Felipe González investigates the politics of economic expectations in the public sphere. The Socioeconomic Transformations Observatory of the MPIfG in Chile is headed by Aldo Madariaga from Universidad Mayor and Jens Beckert and focuses on current social and political transformations in Europe and Latin America that affect the future economy.

Marion Fourcade, a professor in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Berkeley, becomes an External Scientific Member of the MPIfG. Fourcade’s research in the areas of comparative sociology, economic sociology, and political sociology is distinctive for its historical and comparative approach. (Photo: Dan Komoda)

Director Jens Beckert is awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. The Leibniz prize money will be used to open up a new research strand focusing on the topic of high wealth and its intergenerational perpetuation. (Photo: David Ausserhofer)

The Max Planck Partner Group for the Sociology of Economic Life is founded. Headed by Marcin Serafin, the group researches the social and institutional embedding of economic action. The Group is a joint project between the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and the MPIfG.

Professor Lucio Baccaro is appointed to succeed Professor Wolfgang Streeck. Baccaro's research on the political and institutional foundations of the creation of macroeconomic demand has had a lasting impact on recent discourse in the field and represents an enrichment of the MPIfG's research program. (Photo: Thekla Ehling)

Professor Wolfgang Streeck retires in October. (Photo: Christoph Seelbach)

The Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo) officially opens its doors in October in order to investigate the impact of increasing liberalization, technological advances, and cultural change on industrialized Western societies. Funded in equal parts by the Max Planck Society and Sciences Po, the Center is a unique innovation in Franco-German collaboration in the social sciences. The founding directors are sociologist Marion Fourcade and political scientist Cornelia Woll. Culminating many years of collaboration between the MPIfG in Cologne and Sciences Po in Paris, MaxPo is a major step toward even closer cooperation between the two institutions.

In January the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy (IMPRS-SPCE), the first graduate program in Germany in the field of economic sociology and political economy, is jointly founded by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the University of Cologne. The IMPRS-SPCE explores the relationship between the modern economy and its social and political foundations. (Photo: Jan Knoff)

Professor Jens Beckert succeeds Fritz W. Scharpf as director at the MPIfG. By appointing Beckert, the MPIfG opens up new perspectives in the sociological study of the economy. Professor Kathleen Thelen from Northwestern University is appointed as an External Scientific Member of the Institute. (Photo: Bernd Schuller)

Professor Fritz W. Scharpf retires in February.

In August the MPIfG confirms its intention to remain in Cologne by moving downtown to a new building in Cologne's Südstadt. The increased office space enables the Institute to host more visiting researchers and expand its involvement in international research projects. (Photo: Christoph Seelbach)

Professor Renate Mayntz retires in April. Professor Colin Crouch from Oxford University and the European University Institute is appointed as an External Scientific Member of the Institute. He is a distinguished international scholar whose comparative work spans sociology, political science, and economics. The MPIfG Board of Trustees, whose members come from government, business, and research organizations, is established to promote the exchange of ideas and information between the MPIfG and the general public.

The modified and expanded research program of the MPIfG focuses on the reaction of national political and societal systems of regulation to international economic and institutional integration.

Professor Wolfgang Streeck, Professor of Sociology and Industrial Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988 to 1995, joins the directorate of the MPIfG. He is to succeed Professor Renate Mayntz as director at the Institute when she retires two years later.

The MPIfG Scientific Advisory Board (Fachbeirat) is established to advise the directors on the Institute's research program and to evaluate the Institute's work. The board reports to the President of the Max Planck Society.

Professor Fritz W. Scharpf, Director at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) from 1973 to 1984, is appointed as the second director at the MPIfG. The Institute's research focuses on internationally comparative studies of the interaction between political-administrative intervention and societal self-organization in selected sectors close to the state.

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, MPIfG) in Cologne is founded on November 23 by the Max Planck Society. The Max Planck Society's goal is to provide a solid basis for basic research in social sciences within its organization. The Institute's founding director is Professor Renate Mayntz, Full Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Applied Social Research at the University of Cologne.