Miriam Lehnert, M.A.

research project

The present study is being conducted within the framework of the cooperative DFG Research Training Group ‘Doing Transitions’ – The Formation of Transitions over the Life Course at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. The group deals with the question regarding how transitions across the ages are designed and produced on three levels: discourses, institutions and individuals. 

In the context of this research project and with reference to the analysis of the institutional level and the theoretical perspectives of governance research, this PhD thesis deals with welfare state regulation aimed at the transitions to inpatient nursing care for the elderly.

From an international comparative perspective, the differences and similarities of the welfare state regulation of transitions into inpatient nursing care for the elderly between the two cities of Frankfurt (Hessen) and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) will be compared.

On the basis of qualitative interviews with actors involved in the regulatory process (state, market, family) and document analysis, the study will work out how the different governance regimes (market-oriented vs. social security-traditional) shape the regulation and design of the transition into inpatient nursing care for the elderly at the local level and which specific actor relations result from it.

In addition, the questions will be posed regarding whether and to what extent the regulation and management of transitions into inpatient nursing care for the elderly and the resulting specific actor relations (re-)produce dynamics of social inequality.