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Research Profile

Since research is a high priority at the faculty, it is focused on both fundamental research and application-oriented work on socially and scientifically relevant topics. The goal is to examine all topics from a holistic social science perspective.


Research Objectives

The Faculty of Social Science is characterized by a comparatively large volume of externally funded research. On the one hand, the acquisition of third-party funding is oriented towards the relevant institutions for the promotion of fundamental scientific research, such as the DFG or the Volkswagen Foundation. On the other hand, application-oriented research is also specifically promoted, with both public institutions such as ministries and private organizations including companies and non-profit organizations acting as cooperation partners and financial supporters. This also includes scientific policy consulting and funding by corresponding foundations.

The faculty participates in both national and international research networks. Its research strength is reflected in the volume and structure of acquired third-party research funds, in the number and quality of PhDs, and in the academic publications of faculty members (e.g., journal articles, monographs, and editorships in nationally and internationally renowned publishing houses, activities as co-editors, advisors, reviewers, etc. in peer-reviewed publication series).

Research Lines of the Faculty of Social Science

Based on a compilation of the research strengths and interests of the faculty's lecturers as well as the expected synergy effects of cross-faculty research collaborations, cooperation opportunities arise such as in the following areas:


Possible Research Areas:

  • Governance as multilateral control of economic globalization and its shaping by societal ideas and interests
  • Governance challenges in complex multi-level systems
  • Tensions and contradictions within globalization textures and their economic and socio-political consequences
  • Interdependencies of social structures and (mobility) practices in transnational spaces
  • Interconnections and transformations of global, national and local knowledge and norm systems

 


Possible Research Areas:

  • Modernization of the public sector
  • Health economy and public health
  • Social and distribution policy in demographic change
  • Family and family policy research


Possible Research Areas:

  • Forms and interactions of the reorganization of labor and value creation chains
  • Pluralization of life styles and gender relations
  • New forms of social inequality and social connections
  • Regulation of labor and change in labor relations


Possible Research Areas:

  • Cultural and social constitution, reproduction and transformation of personal and collective forms of identity
  • Relationships between individuals and groups
  • Cultural exchange: intercultural communication, cooperation and coexistence
  • Self- and world relations of subjects mediated by media and technology
  • Changing gender relations
  • Relationship between collective, socio-cultural forms of knowledge and practice and individual forms of subjectivity