Dr Jenny Pleinen
Jenny Pleinen joined the GHIL in May 2019. Her current research project concerns the political economy of government redistribution in Britain since the middle of the 19th century. She received a Ph.D. in History (University of Trier) for her study of western European migration regimes after the Second World War.
Research Project
The Political Economy of Government Redistribution in Britain 1870–1955
By applying an approach of fiscal sociology to redistributive policies, the project aims to provide a new perspective on the relationship between the state, capitalism, and society in Britain since the middle of the 19th century. It examines how interests, perceptions, concepts, and circumstances shaped debates and decision-making on crucial tax policies, tariffs, government expenditure, and regulations. The project contributes to a history of knowledge by analysing how the findings of commissions and committees influenced (or failed to influence) political debates. It also traces how these policies changed the distribution of income and wealth, both intentionally and unintentionally. By including a social history perspective, it reveals which social inequalities became part of the political debate and which remained an unquestioned part of the status quo.
Responsibilities at the GHIL
- Research Fellow in Modern History
Research Interests
- Political and social history in general (mostly western Europe and the US)
- Political economy
- Fiscal sociology
- Governance
- Elite recruitment
- Elections and party politics
- Social inequality
- Poverty
- Welfare states
- Migration
- (Post-)colonial history
Education and Academic Background
May 2019- | Research Fellow, German Historical Institute London |
Sept. 2018- | Visiting Scholar, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge |
Oct. 2013-Apr. 2019 | Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Augsburg |
Oct. 2012-Oct. 2013 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Project ‘Gute Arbeit nach dem Boom’ [‘Good Labour after the Boom’], funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) |
Apr. 2011-Oct. 2012 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Sonderforschungsbereich ‘Armut und Fremdheit’ [Collaborative Research Centre ‘Poverty and Foreignness’], funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) |
Jan. 2006-Apr. 2011 | Postgraduate Researcher, Sonderforschungsbereich ‘Armut und Fremdheit’ [Collaborative Research Centre ‘Poverty and Foreignness’], funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) |
2011 | Ph.D. in History, University of Trier [Supervisors: Prof Dr Lutz Raphael, Prof Dr Hans Günter Hockerts] |
2005 | MA in History, Political Science, and Modern German Literature, University of Trier |
Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships
2016 | Scholarship to promote international research in the humanities, University of Augsburg |
2016 | Conference grant by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation |
2015 | Scholarship to promote international research in the humanities, University of Augsburg |
2014 | Scholarship to promote international research in the humanities, University of Augsburg |
2012 | Publication Grants by the German Research Foundation, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation and the Johanna Buch Memorial Foundation |
2011 | Conference grant by the German Research Foundation |
2007 | Conference grant by the German Research Foundation |
2003-2005 | Undergraduate scholarship by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation |
Honours and Distinctions
2012 | Award for Ph.D.-thesis, University of Trier |
Memberships and Affiliations
- German Association of Historians
- German Association for the Study of British History and Politics
Publications
Monographs and Edited Volumes
Die Migrationsregime Belgiens und der Bundesrepublik seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, Reihe Moderne Zeit 24 (Göttingen, 2012)
with Clelia Caruso and Lutz Raphael (ed.), Postwar Mediterranean Migration to Western Europe: Legal and Political Frameworks, Social Mobility and Memory (Frankfurt am Main, 2008)
Articles and Chapters
‘Zwischen Zentralisierung und bürokratischem Widerstand: Lokale Behörden in den Migrationsregimen Belgiens und der Bundesrepublik seit 1945’, in Jochen Oltmer (ed.), Migrationsregime vor Ort und lokales Aushandeln von Migration (Wiesbaden, 2018), 293–315
‘Ein Europa von Sonderfällen? Überlegungen zu einer Migrationsgeschichte der Bundesrepublik in europäischer Perspektive’, in Sonja Levsen and Cornelius Torp (eds.), Wo liegt die Bundesrepublik? Überlegungen zum historischen Ort der Bundesrepublik in der europäischen Zeitgeschichte (Göttingen, 2016), 255–73
‘Klasseʾ Version 1.0’, Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 10 Mar. 2015, [https://docupedia.de/zg/Klasse]
‘“Health Inequalities” und Gesundheitspolitik im Großbritannien der “Ära Thatcher’”, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 54 (2014), 245–65
‘Demokratie, Nationalstaat und europäische Einigung: Die politische und rechtliche Stellung von Fremden im Zeitalter der Extreme’, in Altay Coskun and Lutz Raphael (eds.), Fremd und rechtlos? Zugehörigkeitsrechte von Fremden von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ein Handbuch (Cologne, 2014), 331–58
with Lutz Raphael: ‘Die Zeithistoriker in den Archiven der Sozialwissenschaften’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 2 (2014), 173–96