Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Sutterlüty - Research

Research areas

  • Family and youth sociology
  • Sociology of violence and crime
  • Sociology of religion
  • Social inequalities and its semantics
  • Ethnic conflicts
  • Social theory
  • Qualitative methods of social research

Research projects (selection)

  • Religious Ideas and Social Action: Christian Narratives of Justification between Social Criticism and Belief in Legitimacy (Institute for Social Research and Cluster of Excellence "Normative Orders" Frankfurt am Main, 2010–2012)
  • Negative Classifications: Ideologies of Inequality in the Symbolic Orders of Urban Groups (Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2002–2005)
  • Careers of Violence: Youths in a Cycle of Violence and Disrespect (Free University of Berlin, supported by a doctoral scholarship of the Berlin universities' NaFöG commission, 1996–2000; Dissertation Award of the German Sociological Association, 2002)


Conferences (selection)

  • Workshop "Gewaltbezogene Lebensformen". June 8–9, 2023; Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main, organized by Felix Roßmeißl and Ferdinand Sutterlüty.
  • Workshop "Re:making Religion. Zur Neugestaltung des Religiösen in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft". December 9–10, 2022; Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main, organized by Ferdinand Sutterlüty, Nanthiny Rajamannan and Moritz Sohn.
  • Bad Homburg Conferences 2022 "Kindheit und Gewalt. Wie können wir eine Kultur des Wegsehens überwinden?". September 16–17, 2022; Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Bad Homburg, conceptualized and carried out by Sabine Andresen, Ferdinand Sutterlüty et al.
  • Workshop "Sozialpsychologie des zeitgenössischen Autoritarismus und Rechtspopulismus – Dynamiken des Vertrauens und Misstrauens". March 18, 2022; Sigmund-Freud-Institut Frankfurt am Main, organized by Vera King and Ferdinand Sutterlüty in cooperation with the Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main and the Research Initiative "ConTrust: Trust in Conflict – Political Life under Conditions of Uncertainty".
  • Authors' Conference for the volume "Verdeckter Widerstand in demokratischen Gesellschaften". September 9–10, 2021; Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main, organized by Almut Poppinga and Ferdinand Sutterlüty.
  • Workshop "Gewalt: Grenzen der Erklärbarkeit?". October 1–2, 2019; Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main in cooperation with the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and the professorship for Political Sociology at the Max-Weber-Institute for Sociology at University of Heidelberg, organized by Eddie Hartmann, Thomas Hoebel, Stefan Malthaner, Felix Roßmeißl and Ferdinand Sutterlüty.
  • Interdisciplinary Workshop "Agency, Self-Determination, Autonomy: Questioning Key Concepts of Childhood Studies". December 6–7, 2017; Institute for Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, organized by Ferdinand Sutterlüty and E. Kay M. Tisdall in cooperation with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh.
  • Interdisciplinary Conference "Kulturen und Ordnungsformen der Gewalt. Theoretische Ansätze und epochenspezifische Narrative". November 23–24, 2017; Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, organized in the context of the LOEWE-project "Prähistorische Konfliktforschung" by Ferdinand Sutterlüty, Matthias Jung and Andy Reymann.
  • Interdisciplinary Workshop "Zur sozialisatorischen Bedeutung der familialen Triade". October 7, 2016; Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main, organized by Kai-Olaf Maiwald and Ferdinand Sutterlüty.
  • Joint Frankfurt – Tel Aviv Research Workshop "The Dynamics of Suffering: Critical Perspectives on the Interface of Society, Psyche and Soma". December 14–15, 2015; Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University, organized by José Brunner, Sabine Flick and Ferdinand Sutterlüty in cooperation with Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Tel Aviv University.
  • Interdisciplinary Conference "Der Streit ums Kindeswohl. Genese und Deutungen eines spannungsreichen Konzepts". January 16–17, 2015; professorship of Family and Youth Sociology at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, organized by Ferdinand Sutterlüty, Sabine Flick and Christian Zeller in cooperation with the Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main.
  • International Conference "Critical Sociology: Current Issues and Future Challenges". June 23–25, 2014; Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Faculty of Social Sciences, organized by Birgit Blättel-Mink, Alexandra Rau, Stephan Voswinkel, Ferdinand Sutterlüty et al. in cooperation with the Institute for Social Research and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research Frankfurt am Main.