Max Koch


Max Koch is a professor of social policy at Lund University, Sweden. He completed both his PhD and Habilitation in sociology at the Free University Berlin, Germany. Prior to his current position, he held research and lecturing positions at Free University Berlin, Programa de Economia del Trabajo (Santiago de Chile) and Queen’s University Belfast (UK). His research has dealt with the ways in which political and economic restructuring is reflected in the social structure, welfare and employment relations and the environment. Recently, he studied issues of ecological sustainability, particularly climate change, sustainable welfare and degrowth/postgrowth societies. He is (co-)author or (co-)editor of nine books in including Postgrowth and Wellbeing: Challenges to Sustainable Welfare, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2017; with Milena Büchs), Sustainability and the Political Economy of Welfare, London: Routledge (2016, co-edited with Oksana Mont), Non-Standard Employment in Europe: Paradigms, Prevalence and Policy Responses, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2013; co-edited with Martin Fritz), Capitalism and Climate Change - Theoretical discussion, Historical Development and Policy Responses, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2012) and Roads to Post-Fordism. Labour Markets and Social Structures in Europe, London: Routledge (2006, second edition 2017). His articles have appeared in journals such as Ecological Economics, Real-World Economics Review, Global Environmental Change, Futures, Environmental Values, International Review of Social History, Journal of Social Policy, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, Critical Social Policy, Journal of European Integration and International Journal of Social Quality. He also published a range of books and articles in German.




Papers Published in World Economics:

Tackling the Double Injustice: How Citizens Evaluate Climate and Welfare Policies

Ambitious climate policies have distributional consequences. These require countervailing social policies to keep climate targets acceptable for the electorate. This article analyses data from the European Social Survey as to whether attitudes in relation to climate and welfare policies converge or diverge. It distinguishes four types of social-ecological attitudes: ‘Synergy’ or support for both kinds of policies; ‘Green crowding-out’ where support for climate policies is not accompanied by approval of welfare; ‘Red crowding-out’ where support for welfare coincides with a rejection of climate policies; Rejection of both types of policies. There are clear differences at country level. While synergy between both kinds of attitudes is most widespread in countries with an already established welfare state, the pattern of red crowding-out predominates in countries having an economy with high fossil-dependence. At individual level, persons expressing synergy for climate and welfare policies are well educated, young, with left-wing political beliefs and live in households with above-average incomes. Individuals who reject both kinds of policies are older, less educated, live in households with below-average incomes and politically orient to the right.

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