Publications - MPIfG

tween institutions, in particular economic institutions in advanced capitalist societies.
Both projects take up issues and questions that arose within previous research,
for example on the impact of internationalization on German labor relations.
Science, Technology and Systems of Innovation
Responsibility for this group of projects is shared between
the directors. The group included a number of
projects and covered a range of subjects that were carried
over from the first research program, in particular
relating to the development and governance of
large technological systems (großtechnische Systeme)
and to the operation of science as a social system.
Other projects focussed on the influence of national
and local institutional settings on the capacity to
innovate and on the societal impact of technical
innovations, in particular the Internet.
A research project conducted by Renate Mayntz on
the interface of science and society at Max Planck
Institutes was undertaken in response to a request of
the President of the Max Planck Society. It examined how the social environment
of institutes affects the choice of research topics and thus, in the aggregate, the
direction of scientific development. The work of Helmut Voelzkow and others on
the governance of innovation in local economies was carried out in close cooperation
with the External Member of the MPIfG, Colin Crouch, of the European
University Institute in Florence. Analyzing specialized clusters of small and
medium-sized enterprises in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, the study showed
the diversity of the forms and effects of the integration of small firms into local
production systems. A spin-off from this larger project was Ulrich Glassmann’s
study on the institutional infrastructure of the mechanical engineering sector in
Baden-Württemberg and Emilia-Romagna, which will result in a doctoral dissertation.
The MPIfG is also strongly represented in the rapidly growing field of research
on the Internet. Raymund Werle finished a project on its evolution and development.
The comparative study identifies institutional factors that explain the success
of the Internet, which has developed from a research and education network
into a commercially viable global network while similar European networks failed.
With its global expansion, the mode of coordinating and controlling the network
has changed. In his dissertation project – finished at the end of 2002 and
supervised by Raymund Werle – Volker Leib looked at the emergence of a private
organization called ICANN. First devoted merely to technical coordination,
Project Areas and Research Projects
Volker Leib Raymund Werle
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