Research

Institute for Social and Political Analysis (I)

Focuses on Research

In both teaching and research, the Institute is dedicated to the analysis of social and political institutions and processes. It is concerned both with the structural changes in today’s society, expressed in the transformation of the industrial society into a knowledge and service society with a welfare state, and with the way this change is influenced through political actions. In addition to the problems of socio-cultural change and social-political regulation, the topics addressed include the problems of restructuring employment, gender relations, changes in social inequality structures, the spatial organisation of society and the relationship between society and nature. In these analyses, societies constituted nationally are placed in the context of Europeanization and globalisation. An integrative cross-sectional dimension is provided by studies on the foundations of (interdisciplinary) theory formation and the historical development of sociology.

Professorships and Fields of Work

Social Structure, Social Inequality and Social Conflicts

• Sociology with a focus on social structures and social policy
• Sociology with a focus on women and gender research
• Sociology and social policy with a focus on urban, regional and local political research
• Sociology with a focus on social conflict and socio-cultural change
• Sociology with a focus on social inequality
  
  

The Changing Society and Economy

• Sociology with a focus on industrial and organisational sociology
• Sociology with a focus on the history and systematics of social scientific theory formation
• Social economics with a focus on economic sociology and social policy
• Sociology with a focus on the sociology of industrial societies [in the future: The Transformation of Work]

 

Institute for Political Science (II)

Focuses of Research

The Institute is the centre of political science teaching and research in Frankfurt. The Institute’s research activities are grouped into four key areas: Normative and Conceptual Foundations of Politics, Democracy and State, World Society, World Development and World Order including Peace and Conflict Research, and Didactics of Social Sciences. The long-standing interest and projects in the area of research on North America fit into these topic areas, as do central aspects of gender research, which is a focus throughout the Faculty. (For comparison, see the focuses of research which cut across faculties and institutes in this area.) The Institute works closely with the Center for North American Studies (ZENAF) and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Professorships and Areas of Work

Normative and Conceptual Foundations of Politics

• Political science with a focus on political theory and philosophy
• Junior professorship for political science with a focus on gender/postcolonial studies
• Political science with a focus on international political theory
• Political science with a focus on political theory

Democracy and State

• Political science with a focus on political sociology and state theory
• Political science with a focus on comparative political science
• Political science with a focus on area studies of East Asia
• Political science and political sociology with a focus on state and politics in the Federal Republic of Germany in a European context 

World Society, World Development and World Order including Peace and Conflict Research

• Political science with a focus on international institutions and peace processes
• Political science with a focus on external relations of Western European states
• Political science with a focus on international relations
• Political science with a focus on international relations and the international political economy
• Political science and political sociology with a focus on developing countries
• Political science with a focus on international relations and foreign policy
• Political science with a focus on international organisations
• Political science with a focus on international relations and global order theories

Didactics of Social Sciences

• Didactics of social sciences and teaching of politics

 

Institute for the Foundations of Social Sciences (III)

Focuses of Research

Research and teaching at the Institute focus on the foundations of the social sciences in terms of scientific theory, methodology and social psychology. The Institute tests and develops methods of data collection and analysis, and is dedicated to the continuation of the tradition of sociological social psychology founded by the classics of sociology, namely the connection between personality, society and culture. In addition, it carries out empirical research in the areas of science, culture, communication, biography and education and attends to application-orientated aspects of science by developing new counselling concepts.

Scientific Research

• Sociology with a focus on methods of empirical social research and statistics
• Sociology with a focus on methods of social research, especially qualitative methods and software development
• Sociology with a focus on scientific theory/logic of social sciences
  
  Culture and Communication
• Sociology with a focus on the development of entire societies
• Sociology and Political Science with a focus on culture and development
• Sociology with a focus on biotechnology, nature and society
• Sociology and social psychology
  
  Biography, Education, Counselling
• Sociology and social psychology with a focus on educational sociology
• Sociology and social psychology with a focus on empirical education research
• Sociology and psychoanalytical social psychology
• Sociology with a focus on family and youth sociology