Teaching and Research Profile
Teaching Profile
Sociology is taught in Halle with a focus on the following areas:
- Social structure: Description and analysis of the structural conditions of coexistence and its transition, with a particular focus on demographic change and how it affects different social areas (such as individuals and family, school, work, the welfare state);
- Theory: Description and analysis of key terms and theoretical frameworks of sociology from an historical and comparative perspective; in particular, structuralist and functionalist theories, holistic and individualistic theories, system theories of rational actors, and exchange and interaction theories;
- Methods: Teaching sound expertise using quantitative and qualitative methods of empirical social research, applying these when collecting and evaluating data, and modelling social processes;
- Sociology of education: examination of the processes of education and upbringing with respect to interaction, organisation and the relation to other social areas (above all employment and politics), and under the aspect of a global society;
- Economic and organisational sociology: Description and analysis of forms of economic activity in various socio-cultural contexts, the embedding of society in ecological correlations, knowledge for a sustainable society and for sustainable management.
- Environmental sociology: Understanding and analysis of environmental change from social sciences perspectives – social drivers, processes, and outcomes of such change; discussion of societal transformations at individual, community, institutional levels and experiments for testing what can improve equitability and sustainability of social-environmental relations.
Research Profile
- Social structure of modern societies: How is the demographic reproduction of society changing and what are the consequences of generational change for the career paths of social actors and for important socialisation agents such as family, education and work?
- Methods of empirical social research: What are the determinants of social change in modern societies? How can social change in an actor’s life course be quantitatively and qualitatively described and explained over time and from a comparative perspective?
- Sociological theory: How do the cultural characteristics of obligation and reciprocity behave and change under current social conditions? What are the elements that cause these changes? How does this impact the relationship between the social actors, and the socialisation agents of modern societies?
- Sociology and education: How does an increasing expansion of academic education impact the world of employment? Which relationships currently exist between the development of study programmes and the emergence and modification of professional fields for academics, between the generation and typification of academic working capacity at universities, and the development of and change in positions for academic personnel in work organisations?
- Economic and organisational sociology: Which relationships between economic actors, socio-political institutions and individual actors in a society are threatened by events such as the financial crisis or the destruction of the environment and nature?
- Environmental sociology: To what extent can environmental change be understood as social change? What are the differences and similarities of social-environmental challenges in relation to nature, biodiversity, climate, forests, land, water? What is a desired change and what can change environmental governance and human-environment relations in a desired way? What drives behavioral and institutional change?
The research profile of the Institute of Sociology provides accent-setting perspectives for the core research area “Society and Culture in Motion” and the area “Knowledge – Communication – Education”. In addition to a primary focus on basic research, the elements of applied social research for this line of research are studied in depth with regard to their regional relevance.