The Institute of Sociology is committed to top-quality research and teaching. Our research priorities are anchored in seven research units.
Sociological Theory, History of Sociology, and Philosophy of Science
The research unit coordinates research and teaching in the areas of theory, history, and philosophy of the science of sociology.
Empirical Social Research Methods
The research unit devotes itself to research and teaching in the area of empirical social research methods. Thanks to its size, all essential paradigmatic currents in empirical sociology research are represented at the Institute of Sociology.
Social Stratification, Social Inequality, and Education
We are concerned with the relationships between actors and their social positions in society from a sociological perspective. Membership in certain social groups is frequently linked to different resources and life chances, which constitutes social inequality.
Microsociology, Social Psychology, and Culture
How does society enter the subject and how does the subject, despite all external influences, develop into a self-determined and distinct individual? How do social integration and individual development in democratic societies interrelate? How are sociocultural orders created, stabilized, transformed in practice? How do collective horizons of significance grow to become a matter of course?
Gender, Diversity, and Migration
What do gender orders in the social world look like and how do they change? How are powerful distinctions created between ‘We’ and ‘Others’ in social institutions and organizations? How do identities and affiliations develop in the context of globalized societies and what role do migration processes play?
Sociology of Economics, Work, and Organizations
The “Sociology of Economics, Work, and Organizations” research unit is dedicated to fundamental and current social science research and teaching embedded in the complementary fields of economic sociology and sociology of work and organizations.
Knowledge, Technology, and Environment
The “Knowledge – Technology – Environment” research unit is concerned with knowledge forms, epistemic cultures and their practical foundations. It also deals with the conditions and modes of action of technologies and techniques as well as with practical everyday and political questions related to the environment.
