Clara Weißenfels

Clara Weißenfels

@clarawe.bsky.social

Postdoc @ Uni Siegen, Political Economy | Interested in all political sociology and political economy | before: Unis Duisburg, Oxford & Mannheim + Politics

233 followers289 following18 posts

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Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

1/7 Happy to share that my second publication is out in @polstudies.bsky.social! @leoazzollini.bsky.social and I find that the class gap in political participation can be mitigated via youth volunteering. Main findings in the 🧵

journals.sagepub.comClass of origin and voting: The activating role of volunteering during youth - Clara Weißenfels, Leo Azzollini, 2026Differences in political participation between social classes are well documented, yet less is known about the mechanisms that may reduce these gaps. This artic...

Clara Weißenfels reposted

Institut für Sozioökonomie
@ifso.bsky.social

Private wealth ownership and emissions – published by Marla Feldwisch, @miriamrehm.bsky.social and Bruno Brinkmeier in Ecological Economics www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Miriam Rehm@miriamrehm.bsky.social

In Austria, we say „wenn‘s laaft, dann laaft’s” – when it rains, it pours, but in a good way 😉 Another paper is out, this time in Ecological Economics with two of our amazing MA students at @ifso.bsky.social, Marla Feldwisch and Bruno Brinkmeier, on “Private wealth ownership and emissions”. 1/

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

6/7 Our main finding, however: working-class children who volunteer, even when we factor in political interest, personality types and education, are almost as likely to vote as children from the highest class background (professionals).

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

7/7 Governments could therefore increase political participation of the working-class by investing in youth groups. In Germany, at the moment, the contrary seems to be the case.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

4/7 But what we did find is that youth volunteering (spending time in organisations for a common good) increases turnout in adulthood, and that working-class citizens are less likely to vote.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

2/7 The initial thought arose from thinking about my hometown's football club #SVWaldhofMannheim, which has always had a strong presence within the working-class. So maybe training in a (slightly?) politicised context might have, in turn, activated young people.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

3/7 So we twichted the individualisation-hypothesis (the working-class are dependent on political cues from, e.g., unions), combined it with political socialisation theory (early experiences have long-lasting impact) and found: nothing. At least for the football-experience I suspected.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

(2/3) Diese Ungleichheiten sind auch politisch relevant. Auf dem Blog des @difis.bsky.social zeige ich, warum Kinderarmut die politische Teilhabe im Erwachsenenalter deutlich senkt. Kinder, die dauerhaft arm aufwachsen, wählen als Erwachsene mit ca. 18 Prozentpunkten geringerer Wahrscheinlichkeit.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

(3/3) Aber: Armut wirkt nicht überall gleich. Politisches Interesse im Elternhaus kann viele Nachteile abfedern. Mehr dazu im Blogpost + Paper in @electoralstudies.bsky.social (open access)

sciencedirect.comChildhood poverty and political participation: The role of family, gender and economic mobilitySocio-economic background profoundly shapes electoral participation, with early-life economic hardship significantly dampening political engagement. Y…

Clara Weißenfels reposted

Kathrin Ackermann
@ackermannk.bsky.social

🚀 Very much looking forward to our new @dfg.de/ @agencerecherche.bsky.social project RECOGNITION with @mfilsinger.bsky.social 🙏 Big thanks to @nilssteiner.bsky.social and @clandwehr.bsky.social for very helpful feedback on the proposal 🎓 Apply now for one of the PhD positions in the project team ⬇️

Maximilian Filsinger@mfilsinger.bsky.social

In December 2025, @ackermannk.bsky.social and I got the exciting news that our project RECOGNITION: How Social Status and Recognition Shape Attachment to Democracy in France and Germany will be funded by the @agencerecherche.bsky.social & @dfg.de consortium for three years with around 450.000 €! 🎉

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

If you ever wondered about the development of German wealth and its visibility in the public - I highly recommend reading Emma's piece 👏

Emma Ischinsky@emmaischinsky.bsky.social

The first paper of my dissertation is published now in @sociologyjnl.bsky.social! Press coverage of the richest Germans is rare but focused on a minority of highly visible individuals and varies along the historical origins of fortunes. doi.org/10.1177/00380385261428292

Clara Weißenfels reposted

Matthias Haslberger
@mhaslberger.bsky.social

How do workers respond to using AI technology? For @defactoexpert.bsky.social I had the opportunity to highlight the implications of our recent @jeppjournal.bsky.social article. Read more in the blog!

Defacto Expert@defactoexpert.bsky.social

The surprising sociotropic effects of generative AI exposure on social policy preferences – @mhaslberger.bsky.social, Jane Gingrich, Jasmine Bhatia As AI rapidly enters workplaces, a crucial question arises: how do workers respond when they use this technology? www.defacto.expert/2026/02/18/t...

Clara Weißenfels reposted

Lauren Leek
@laurenleek.eu

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

open.substack.comHow Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through itI wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
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Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

5/ Speaking to political socialisation literature, the paper shows that: 1️⃣poverty influences political participation in the context of parental influence and 2️⃣ early-life economic experiences shape long-term political participation patterns

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

6/ This means that the impact of poverty is not the same for all: the less resources (education, political socialisation, longer economic hardship) --> the less likely to participate. 💭 I look forward to hearing your thoughts / whether similar patterns show up in your country 👋

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Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

4/ Key finding 2: ▶️ Upward mobility, however, is not linked to higher turnout, indicating that participation patterns established earlier in life persist and mobility experiences can't uplift those who grew up in poverty.

Clara Weißenfels
@clarawe.bsky.social

2/ Merging German panel data from households, parents and their children, I exploit detailed information on poverty trajectories, political socialisation and political behaviour across around 30 years of respondent's lives.

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