Doctoral Dissertation Research: Expert and Popular Views of Currencies: The Case of the Euro Debate in Germany

研究生乌苏拉·达林豪斯将在何凯伦博士的指导下，研究如何在德国培养对新欧元的经济素养。自1989年以来，德国人一直在争论两个高度紧张的经济一体化项目的结构、效果和意义：1990年德国统一，引入了德国马克货币，并将截然不同的社会主义东德和资本主义西德经济联系在一起；以及2002年1月引入欧元。初步研究表明，许多德国人将这两件事联系在一起，因此认为欧元是一种货币损失，尽管汇率有利，经济指标积极。在这个项目中，达林豪斯将系统地研究这一发现。研究人员将测试这样一种观点，即经济一体化的公开辩论重新构建了欧元的纯粹货币定义。她将通过研究德意志联邦银行(德国中央银行)在法兰克福和莱比锡与欧元相关的公关工作，以及莱比锡欧盟中心以欧元为重点的项目，来调查专家们如何以及在多大程度上弥合对一种货币的正式和公开解释之间的差距。她将采用一系列社会科学研究方法，包括对德国央行工作人员的结构化和开放式采访，参与观察法兰克福和莱比锡的经济拓展活动，以及对有关欧元和经济一体化的媒体和官方出版物进行文本分析。来自机构、官员和专家的数据将通过收集东德和西德人的个人财务历史来补充。这方面的研究将记录德国和欧洲货币联盟如何了解有关货币的日常做法，如消费、信贷和债务关系、预算战略和金融投资。这项研究将产生实际应用，以改善金融机构和公众之间的对话，同时提高对专家和公众对其货币和经济稳定经验的多重背景的批判性意识。它还将为社会科学家的教育做出贡献。

Graduate student Ursula Dalinghaus, supervised by Dr. Karen Ho, will undertake research on efforts to build economic literacy for the new euro currency in Germany. Since 1989, Germans have debated the structures, effects, and meanings of two highly charged projects of economic integration: German unification in 1990, which introduced the Deutsch Mark currency and tied the vastly different socialist East and capitalist West German economies together, and the introduction of the euro in January 2002. Preliminary research has suggested that many Germans link these two events and thereby experience the euro as a monetary loss despite favorable exchange rates and positive economic indicators. In this project, Dalinghaus will investigate this finding systematically.The researcher will test the idea that public contestations of economic integration reframe purely monetary definitions of the euro. She will investigate how and to what effect experts work to bridge the gap between formal and public explanations of a currency by studying euro-related public relations work of the Deutsche Bundesbank (German Central Bank) in Frankfurt and Leipzig, and euro-focused programs of the European Union Center in Leipzig. She will employ a range of social science research methods, including structured and open-ended interviews with Bundesbank staff, participant observation of economic outreach activities in Frankfurt and Leipzig, and textual analysis of media and official publications on the euro and economic integration. The data from institutions, officials, and experts will be complemented by collecting personal financial histories of East and West Germans. This aspect of the research will document how both German and European currency unions have informed daily practices surrounding money, such as consumption, relations of credit and debt, budgeting strategies, and financial investments.This research will yield practical applications for improving dialogue between financial institutions and the public, while raising critical consciousness about the multiple contexts in which both experts and the public situate their experiences of money and economic stability. It also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.