Research Highlights in a Nutshell. Live Podcast at the In_equality Conference

Hosts: Marius R. Busemeyer – Professor of Comparative Political Economy at the University of Konstanz and Speaker of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”.Gabriele Spilker – Professor of International Politics at the University of Konstanz and Co-Speaker of the Cluster.Guests: Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”, presenting key findings from projects on perceptions of inequality, workplace integration, political elites, and climate-related inequalities.OverviewWhat have cluster researchers learned about the political causes and consequences of inequality in the Cluster’s first funding phase? In this special live episode, researchers present short insights from several major Cluster projects. The conversation shows how inequality is perceived, negotiated, and politicized — in surveys, workplaces, firms, parliaments, and climate-affected communities.Across the projects, one message stands out: inequality is not only about objective distributions of income, risk, or opportunity. It is also shaped by perceptions, institutions, political contexts, and ideas of fairness.Highlights· The Inequality Barometer – Marius R. Busemeyer: Perceptions matter: people often misperceive their own position in the income distribution, and these biases can shape political attitudes and voting behavior.· Automation and Conflict within Firms: The German Way – Sebastian Findeisen Automation does not automatically increase inequality — in Germany, firms with works councils often adopted technological change while providing job security and a fairer distribution of productivity gains.· Integration at Work – Florian Kunze: Political polarization can spill over into the workplace: migrant apprentices experience more social undermining in regions with stronger right-wing voting, negatively affecting their work satisfaction and exhaustion.· Political Elites and Inequality: Information, Heuristics and Policy – Maj-Britt Sterba: Politicians’ perceptions of inequality shape their support for redistribution — and legislators are often more ideologically polarized than citizens.· Perceptions of Wage Inequality – Thomas Hinz: Whether workers perceive their wages as fair depends strongly on absolute wage levels; relative comparisons matter mostly once basic material security is ensured.· Climate Inequalities in the Global South: from Perceptions to Protest – Gabriele Spilker: Climate change-induced environmental events and the related inequalities do not necessarily lead to protest; rather, environmental mobilization is most likely when degradation is severe, persistent, or linked to concrete health risks.Key TakeawaysObjective factors are not the only game in town: Whether people support redistribution, accept automation, feel fairly paid, or mobilize against environmental harm depends on how inequality is perceived and interpreted.Institutions matter too: works councils, firms, political parties, and local communities can either reinforce or help mitigate the political consequences of inequality.The episode highlights the Cluster’s broad interdisciplinary approach — combining surveys, experiments, administrative data, fieldwork, and new datasets to understand inequality across different contexts.Links & Further ReadingMore about the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”: www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/inequality· In_equality Conference 2026: https://inequality-conference.de· Download the slides here: https://t1p.de/n8x55Contact: [email protected] episodes every first Wednesday of the month – subscribe and stay tuned!