Since October 2004 Prof. Dr. Ebbinghaus holds the Chair in Macrosociology at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Mannheim. From February  2005 until January 2011 he was first Head of Department A and then Director of the Mannheim Centre of European Social Research (MZES). From November 2006 to October 2009 he was Academic Director of the Center for Doctoral Studies in Social & Behavioral Sciences (CDSS) of the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS).

Since January 2011, J. Timo Weishaupt, Ph.D. is Juniorprofessor for the Sociology of Welfare States at the School of Social Sciences, the previous two years he was a Postdoc Fellow at the MZES.

Since December 2006 Claudia Göbel and Dr. Sebastian Koos work as teaching and research associates at the chair. Additional seminars are taught by the Fellows Dr. Jan Drahokoupil, Dr. Dirk Hofäcker and PD. Dr. Thomas Bahle at MZES.

Since November 2009, Dr. Claus Wendt is professor at the University of Siegen, he has been MZES Fellow from October 2005 to September 2009. Dr. Carsten G. Ullrich worked at the chair until 2006 and since the winter term of 2009 he is professor for Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The previous holder of the Chair in Macrosociology, Dr. Johannes Berger, is Professor emeritus since 2004.

With regard to teaching the Chair in Macrosociology offers courses in comparative sociology  in the B.A., Master and Ph.D. programme in sociology. In addition to the B.A. Sociology lecture and seminar courses on Germany's social structure in international comparison, the chair offers undergraduate lectures and seminars for the B.A. module "European Societies in Comparison". In the graduate programme (Master and Ph.D.) it offers seminars (in German or English) in Modul C "Economy and the Welfare State", particularly on topic in comparative welfare state research.

Research at the Chair examines the commonalities and particularities of the European "social models" in an international comparative perspective. Current research at the MZES focuses on the following topics: the role of the social partners within the reform of European welfare states, the institutional transformation of the pension systems, European labour market policies, societal acceptance of the welfare state, changes in European trade unions and the long-term development of European societies. The project on "Welfare State Reform from Belows" is part of the SFB 884 on the Political Economy of Reform.