During his Max Weber Fellowship, Paulus Wagner is working on comparative mixed-methods research on policy feedback effects of welfare reforms in European countries. Notably, he tests hypotheses on whether welfare cuts, increasing welfare conditionality and social investment-oriented policies each show different short- and long-term effects on support for inclusive vs. exclusive conceptions of public solidarity among recipients. Paulus also takes an interest in workplace sociology and the effects of workplace relations on political attitudes, as well as in the study of right-wing populism.

Paulus defended his PhD in Comparative Politics from Sciences Po Paris in November 2023. He holds an MRes (Social Science) from EHESS, an MA (International Political Economy) from KCL, and a BA (Translation/Interpreting) from the University of Vienna. He has been a visiting student researcher at UC Berkeley in Sociology (2019-20). He has further experience in the study of post-socialist and specifically Russian political economy/political sociology. As Co-PI of the interdisciplinary research project ‘Building Bridges in Polarized Societies’ (funded by the City of Vienna MA-7, 2021-23) he has experience of collaboration between social science and film.

Paulus has taught BA-level courses on Introduction to Political Science and Comparative Politics and MA-level courses on European Welfare States, Political Populism, and Political Analysis at Sciences Po Paris. He is proficient in qualitative and quantitative methodologies of social scientific research and speaks German, English, French, and Russian at C2 level.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

Mentor

Anton Hemerijck