PPE Institute for Social and Institutional Change (ISIC)

Vision and Mission

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The PPE Institute for Social and Institutional Change (ISIC) was founded in 2020 by members of the Department for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Witten/Herdecke University. Its mission is to foster and promote the unique approach of PPE research on topics of social and institutional change. PPE research goes beyond multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches by synthesizing philosophy, political studies and economics into a distinctive and transdisciplinary scientific environment. It considers the three fields as interrelated perspectives on social reality.

Philosophy offers rigorous analytical tools and methods for normative analyses. Political science provides an awareness of power relations and the legitimacy of institutions. Economics generates knowledge of the production and distribution of wealth, exchange in markets, and their institutional embeddings. To coordinate these three perspectives is a promising strategy for approaching the complexity of social reality. It allows for a richer understanding of the phenomena and thereby creates a more comprehensive research process. Undertaking PPE research means "to think together what belongs together", referring to the interdependencies between the economy, society and politics. Moreover, it means connecting theory and practice in order to make research relevant for policy making.

With these guiding principles, ISIC is committed to promoting excellence in research that is relevant and internationally visible. ISIC develops formats for scientific exchange with public impact, and participates in practical change projects and initiatives at the interface of philosophy, politics, and economics.

Central Activities of ISIC

Regular colloquia

PPE Conference on Social and Institutional Change

PPE Young Scholars Award for Social and Institutional Change

Are you a young scientist who is challenging conventional disciplinary boundaries? The PPE Institute for Social and Institutional Change (ISIC) at Witten/Herdecke University believes in aspiring young scientists. We invite applications for the annual “PPE young scholars award for social and institutional change”, endowed by the Board of Trustees of Witten/Herdecke University.

“PPE” refers to the variety of theoretical approaches and normative positions on topics and problems at the intersections of philosophy, politics, and economics. For this reason, nominations are open to different theoretical and normative schools. The only criteria are originality and creativity.

With this award, the board of trustees of Witten/Herdecke University and ISIC aim to encourage promising researchers to leave the beaten track and break new ground in research and teaching. The prize is awarded to a young scientist who is contributing to the methodological and thematic diversity within and across economics, political science, and philosophy with new ideas and approaches.

The prize is aimed at junior scientists working in Germany (but not necessarily with German nationality) up to the age of 35 years. It is endowed with 1000,- EUR.

Nominations (including self-nominations) for the Young Scholars Award 2023 should be submitted to the director of ISIC, Prof. Dr. Joachim Zweynert (Joachim.Zweynert@uni-wh.de) by Friday 15 December 2023. Documents should include a CV, list of publications, and a cover letter summarizing the content and relevance of the candidate’s research (not more than 2 pages).

A search committee consisting of five members of ISIC will review all nominations after the deadline and inform all candidates on short notice.

Past Award Recipients:

2022: Dr. Björn Bremer, Max Planck Institute for the study of societies, Köln
2022: Dr. Madelaine Fitzgerald Moore, Bielefeld University
2021: Dr. Millicent Churcher, SFB “Affective Societies” at Freie Universität Berlin
2021: Dr. Donal Khosrowi, Institute of Philosophy, Hannover University
2020: Dr. Philippe van Basshuysen, Institute of Philosophy, Hannover University
2020: Dr. Stefan Wallaschek, Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (ICES), Europa University Flensburg

Best Paper Award for Annual PPE Conference (organized by students)

UWH debates

ISIC Lecture Series

PPE research working paper series

The Originality and Novelty of PPE Research on Social and Institutional Change

The social is the matrix of all coordinated human interaction. It is permanently changing through innumerable processes of socio-cultural evolution, which occur through human activities. It may be planned, as within the framework of organizational design or political governance. It can be contested through processes involving political struggle, or by existing vested interests. It can be influenced by factors such as competition or economic crises. And in the wake of catalysts such as demographic shifts or climate change it also often occurs in an unplanned and uncontrolled fashion.

Social and Institutional Change occurs when a social or institutional structure undergoes a significant transformation amounting to a quantitative or qualitative shift. A “social structure” can be understood as a collection of individuals that stand in significant relationships to another, where these relationships are associated with actions, conventions, and rules. An institution is a (sub-)set of such conventions and rules most generally speaking.

Social and Institutional Change can be welcome to some and dreaded by others; it can be beneficial or detrimental; it can be faster or slower, more or less risky and more or less predictable. Especially when change is widespread with far-reaching consequences, as evidenced, for example, in the growing list of ecological concerns, the rising rates of inequality, or the increasing incidence of social disruption, and political destabilisation, it is the very institutions governing social change which must be transformed. This provokes pressing and difficult questions: What new forms of governance are emerging? Who are becoming the dominant participants in the public sphere? What are the underlying structural forces driving the change? How do global power relations function today? Which methodological tools and theoretical approaches best equip social scientists to address such queries? How can the perspectives of philosophy, politics and economics be synthesized in order to provide new answers?

At ISIC we seek to rigorously engage and critically assess the problems and potential of such material and ideological transformations by applying our comprehensive PPE approach. The cross-fertilisation of new ideas and intertwining perspectives fosters new conceptual strains and engenders new research projects. ISIC as a center for PPE research thereby nurtures and gains from a continually fluctuating, rebalancing and heterogeneous environment.