WZB Berlin Social Science Center

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center (, WZB), also known by its German initials WZB, is an internationally renowned research institute for the social sciences, the largest such institution in Europe not affiliated with a university. It was founded in 1969 through an all-party initiative of the German Bundestag. Around 140 German and foreign sociologists, political scientists, economists, historians, statisticians, computer scientists and legal scholars work in the WZB conducting basic research on selected social and political issues, concentrating on the industrialized societies of Japan and the West, as well as the transformations of Central and Eastern Europe and China. The question of globalization is of particular importance. Research areas The WZB is organized into seven research areas: Dynamics of Social Inequalities Markets and Choice Digitalization and Societal Transformation International Politics and Law Dynamics of Political Systems Migration and Diversity Political Economy of Development