Research Projects at Department II: Social Sciences

Das Projekt ist eine aus Mitteln des Zukunftspakts und der Leistungsvereinbarung des Landes mit den Hochschulen finanzierte Verstetigung des Projekts eSALSA zum Aufbau einer zeitgemäßen Supportstruktur für digitale und digital unterstützte Hochschullehre in Sachsen-Anhalt.

View project in the research portal

Six universities, one goal! Together with Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, Harz University of Applied Sciences, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, we are developing a cross-university, flexible module system based on microcredentials - compact, clearly structured learning units with a recognized qualification.

The demand for skilled workers in our federal state is a great incentive for us.

The project focuses on three main areas:
I. Strengthening key skills: The content development of microcredentials is being driven forward, particularly for the acquisition of key skills
II. enabling permeability: By establishing quality standards, microcredentials will be made comparable and creditable nationwide from the outset - both in studies and on the job market.
III. networking through technical infrastructure: The implementation of a central platform for the transparent presentation, administration and recognition of microcredentials enables students to easily select suitable offers - and the administrative acts run in the background in a service-oriented manner.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Previous research projects on “Risks and Opportunities of Loneliness in the Digital Work and Living Environment of Saxony-Anhalt” as well as “Housing Forms and Social Networks and Their Influence on Experiences of Loneliness” have already produced initial findings on the burdens of loneliness for specific population groups in the federal state. The current research project builds on these insights and investigates potential links between digitalization processes, mental health, and loneliness.
Within a mixed-methods research design, a theory-driven, representative survey for Saxony-Anhalt will be developed and conducted. The aim is to examine overall loneliness burdens in the state, to analyze urban-rural differences and variations by educational background and age, to identify factors that promote or mitigate different forms of loneliness, and to explore the political dimensions and consequences of loneliness. In addition, qualitative approaches—particularly guided and ethnographic interviews—will provide in-depth insights into the contexts in which loneliness arises and into individuals’ concrete experiences of loneliness.
Based on these findings, a loneliness-focused and milieu-specific mapping of the social space in Saxony-Anhalt can be produced as a publication format grounded in scientific evidence. This mapping will serve as a basis for developing strategies for policy and society to address loneliness.

View project in the research portal

Previous research projects on “Risks and Opportunities of Loneliness in the Digital Work and Living Environment of Saxony-Anhalt” as well as “Housing Forms and Social Networks and Their Influence on Experiences of Loneliness” have already produced initial findings on the burdens of loneliness for specific population groups in the federal state. The current research project builds on these insights and investigates potential links between digitalization processes, mental health, and loneliness.
Within a mixed-methods research design, a theory-driven, representative survey for Saxony-Anhalt will be developed and conducted. The aim is to examine overall loneliness burdens in the state, to analyze urban-rural differences and variations by educational background and age, to identify factors that promote or mitigate different forms of loneliness, and to explore the political dimensions and consequences of loneliness. In addition, qualitative approaches—particularly guided and ethnographic interviews—will provide in-depth insights into the contexts in which loneliness arises and into individuals’ concrete experiences of loneliness.
Based on these findings, a loneliness-focused and milieu-specific mapping of the social space in Saxony-Anhalt can be produced as a publication format grounded in scientific evidence. This mapping will serve as a basis for developing strategies for policy and society to address loneliness.

View project in the research portal

International studies indicate that students are affected by mental health problems to a high degree and in many different ways. In particular, the entry phase into the university setting is associated with numerous upheavals in the lives of students, some of which are accompanied by psychological stress.
The reasons for the increase in the significance of mental health or illness can be divided into individual, interpersonal and institutional factors. While individual and interpersonal factors among students have been well researched, the constellations of conditions that promote the occurrence of mental health problems/illnesses through the interplay of individual dispositions and institutional framework conditions remain largely unexplained. Institutional framework conditions refer to university structures and the rules and norms of the academic field, but also to the inherent laws of the academic environment. Changes at university level since the expansion of education include the education and study reforms of the 1970s and 1980s and the establishment of reform universities, as well as the current modularization of degree courses (Bologna Process) and the formalization, competition and market orientation of university structures in which academic research, teaching and studying are regulated.

While higher education research focuses on the health science topic of students' mental health with comparatively little analytical depth, the findings of health research have proven to be insufficiently sensitive to the particularities of the student population. For example, there are studies that certainly allow statements to be made about study conditions, such as NEPS (National Educational Panel Study), but which allow comparatively few indicators of the health situation, especially mental health (FDZ-LIfBi 2024). Other studies that allow precise statements on health conditions and mental health, such as the NAKO study (national health study) or the socio-economic panel (SOEP), do not examine university structures and could therefore not relate them to each other.

This problem highlights the need for interdisciplinary cooperation between university research and health research, which is to be implemented with the project proposed here. As a result of this cooperation, the project aims to contribute to closing important gaps in research, thus producing significant application knowledge in the short and medium term, as well as contributing to a refinement of the methods used to date in this area of research in the long term.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project is a continuation of the eSALSA project for the development of a modern digital infrastructure for university teaching in Saxony-Anhalt, financed by funds from the Pact for the Future and the state's performance agreement with the universities.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The consecutive degree program Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) at Otto von Guericke University (OVGU) is a two-year, English-language Master's degree program that aims to prepare young specialists and managers from all over the world for professional activities in (post-)conflict regions that contribute to the establishment and strengthening of governance and civil society structures. It provides internationally recognized knowledge at level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning and was part of the EPOS funding line from 2005 to 2019. The focus of the course is on the critical examination of causes of conflict and solution-oriented policy development for the development of state, economic and social structures in post-conflict regions. Conflict analyses of the students' home regions play just as important a role as the topics of human security, regional governance and sustainability, security and development policy, good governance and development cooperation. A unique feature of the degree program is the practical teaching of skills in the areas of applied mediation and conflict and security governance. These specializations enable our students to become specialists and managers at the end of their studies and to play a creative role in solving governance-relevant problems.
By analyzing concrete conflicts from their home regions, the course provides students with the theoretical knowledge and skills to deal with these conflicts in practice after their return home by developing governance and civil society structures. This degree program asks key questions about the development of social and state structures in conflict regions: How can local actors be integrated into (development) processes and governance structures? What global responsibility and what opportunities do Western states have in cooperating with developing and emerging countries? How can global and regional actors contribute to security governance? How must conflict resolution approaches be designed in order to support effective governance structures in the long term? How can international actors and regimes be integrated into the processes? With PACS, we therefore offer an ideal addition to the range of topics of the Helmut Schmidt degree programs with a security and conflict governance perspective and clear added value through our focus on the fundamental prerequisites for building sustainable structures. At the same time, the alternative approaches of the other courses to public policy and good governance are an enrichment for us, as they allow us to experience perspectives to which we otherwise have little access, so that there will be cross-fertilization in the sense of multi-perspectivity.
The objectives achieved by the degree program as part of the EPOS funding include: 1.) Implementation of new study and examination regulations with a new focus on regional governance as well as the successful conversion of the degree program to English in the winter semester 2017/18. 2.) Since 2004, 13 graduating classes with 262 graduates who have embarked on a variety of responsible, international career paths[1]. 3.) Significant expansion of alumni work with the implementation of alumni meetings, an alumni database, newsletters and alumni surveys[2]. 4.) New marketing concept with an increased focus on social media and the online presence (www.pacs.ovgu.de) as well as the design and realization of a new logo and a new flyer[3].We hope that the new funding will lead to a more comprehensive, sustainable internationalization of the degree program. In this context, internationalization means two things: on the one hand, people from Germany and specifically from Saxony-Anhalt are to be trained for tasks in the field of international conflict transformation; on the other hand, students from other regions of the world, especially from developing and emerging countries, are to be given the opportunity to benefit from the interdisciplinary, theoretically sound and practice-oriented academic education of the programme. The program therefore operates at the interface between the local and the global. For example, transnational issues in the field of international public policy and global governance are discussed in order to then place them in the context of local and regional governance, including problems and topics such as xenophobia and right-wing radicalism in Saxony-Anhalt.
With the complete conversion of the program to English, the number of applicants from developing and emerging countries has increased enormously[4]. However, many of these highly suitable applicants are unable to finance their stay in Germany without funding. This is not only a loss for the international applicants and their regions of origin, but also for our domestic students and the location here. Domestic students benefit greatly from the exchange and networking with their international fellow students and thus also acquire otherwise untapped skills. This is already evident in the degree program's stable alumni network. Through further support, this network will also become more profitable for the (international) alumni of the degree program and it will become more attractive to maintain or actively seek contact with the degree program again. Furthermore, we hope that funding will enable us to expand our alumni work, e.g. by continuing and intensifying the annual PACS alumni meetings or increasing the use of the DAAD alumni portal - goals that would not be achievable to the same extent without this funding. Beyond this networking, we also hope that the funding will lead to an increased exchange with the other degree programs of the funding line, which will also open up completely new interdisciplinary perspectives for our students, especially within the framework of the AGEP. Furthermore, the funding offers the opportunity to organize thematic workshops and to participate in summer schools, which further develop the interdisciplinary qualifications of the students. In the past, we have held a number of very well-received workshops on topics such as non-violent communication, UN climate negotiation simulations, water conflicts and a winter school on forced migration from Africa. These were also attended by numerous students from other AGEP degree programs.
Furthermore, we hope that funding will further increase the international visibility of the degree program and thus increase the attractiveness of Magdeburg as a university location and the state of Saxony-Anhalt. This increased attractiveness will facilitate further international cooperation with universities and non-university stakeholders, which in turn would benefit the degree program.

In summary, we have the following goals in the event of funding:
In the short term (until 2024):
- Networking with at least five other degree programs at local and national level (e.g. recognition of CPs, workshops, co-teaching)
- Opening up new interdisciplinary perspectives (at least one interdisciplinary workshop per year)
- Promotion of more highly qualified international applicants (target: 50% international students)
In the medium term (until 2029):
- Strengthening interdisciplinary qualifications (diversification of the internship network to at least 10 partner organizations from the region)
- Expansion of the alumni concept (at least three alumni lectures per year, annual increase in the proportion of active alumni*ae)
- Internationalization of the degree program with radiance in the state of Saxony-Anhalt (5 additional international cooperation institutions)
In the long term (until 2034):
- Expansion of the international visibility of the degree program (website user statistics)
- Increasing the attractiveness of Magdeburg as a university location and the state of Saxony-Anhalt
- Collaboration in the establishment of the certificate on sustainable development envisaged by the AGEP

The situation of the degree program has developed enormously for the better in recent years. After the future of the degree program was still uncertain in 2015 as part of a large-scale cutback decision by the state, it is now one of the university's flagships. This is evident in the excellent staffing situation for example. This has been secured with the appointment of Prof. Dr. Alexander Spencer as W3 Professor of International Relations, whose focus on security governance, terrorism and conflict research fits perfectly into the profile of the course. In addition, the new, closely cooperating Professorship for Sustainable Development with Prof. Dr. Michael Böcher and his focus on policy analysis and regional governance as well as the Professorship for Governance in the European Multilevel System with Prof. Dr. Eva Heidbreder clearly place the degree program in the core area of the Helmut Schmidt Program. In addition, the faculty of the degree program has also grown, in particular with the addition of lecturers with regional expertise and their own experience in developing countries and in practical conflict work[5]. Furthermore, the course portfolio was diversified in the revised and already accredited study regulations[6] and the practical professional references were deepened in the modules on research methods (PM 5) and conflict management (PM 3 & PM 4). At the same time, the program was switched to English as the language of study with a few additional German-language courses in the compulsory elective area. As a result of these further developments, the degree programme is the most popular Master's degree programme in the Faculty of Human Sciences and was portrayed as a best-practice example[7] in the publication of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) on internationalization and multilingualism in studies and teaching.

[1]See attachment: Alumni profiles
[2]See attachments: Newsletter and alumni survey
[3]See attachment: Study program flyer
[4]See attachment: Applicant statistics
[5]See attachment: Thematic publication list of lecturers in the PACS degree program
[6]See appendix: Study and examination regulations and module handbook
[7]See attachment: Best-practice manual of the German Rectors' Conference
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project investigates societal dissatisfaction. First, it aims to develop indicators of satisfaction with society and measure the extent of (dis)satisfaction. Second, it examines who (which groups?) are satisfied or dissatisfied and why (for what reasons?). Finally, third, it aims to identify contextual, social, and psychological effects that are likely to increase societal dissatisfaction.

View project in the research portal

transPORT is a transfer space funded by the BMFTR initiative of the same name (T!Raum). The aim is to further develop Magdeburg's science port into a lively urban quarter where people research, live and work. transSCIENCE is one of the workshops under the umbrella of the transPORT consortium. Formats for science communication are developed here, such as real-world laboratories, but also new forms of visualization and the transfer of technological innovations.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The Jean Monnet Chair in Democratic and Effective Governance (DEG) addresses how key EU policies can be delivered against the background of rising contestation, dissent and active anti-EU positioning. DEG follows the JMC on Interactive Multilevel Democracy, shifting emphasis from participatory governance to policy delivery in the digital and green transformation. Whilst paying continuous attention to university teaching and the dissemination of academic insights into public administration and civil society, early career researchers in EU studies across the EU are addressed as key target group in DEG. Three areas of activity facilitate and strengthen the key objectives: First, excellence in teaching will be enhanced in
university structures (BA, MA, post-grad.), in vocational training, and in actively integrating early career staff. At the heart lies the promotion of cross-boundary concepts (university/practice; multinational; interdisciplinary). Second, academic excellence will be promoted by projects on both basic and
applied research to enhance our understanding of and develop policy responses for effective EU governance in times of contestation. Applied research is of particular relevance regionally, given strong anti-EU sentiments. Third, dialogue and dissemination focus on the exchange between academics, policymakers, and society in interactive formats, again fostering in particular early career scholars to gain experience and promote their careers. To guarantee a sustainable impact, DEG (a) advances the JMC methodology currently in place, (b) formulates concrete targets and tasks for each team member, © links the JMC to new initiatives in at the host institution and in international networks. Methodologically, the team-based approach that invests into people will be further refined to even stronger address early career teachers and scholars as special target group with a high potential to act as multipliers with a long-term impact.

View project in the research portal

The RehaWege research project is dedicated to the question of why people with health restrictions do not take advantage of benefits for participation in working life (LTA), i.e. vocational rehabilitation measures, even though they are entitled to do so. Against the backdrop of far-reaching structural change in the world of work, demographic change and new health problems, the project is investigating both the structural and individual causes of this phenomenon.

The aim of the project is to identify gaps in care, to better reach underserved groups of people and to provide impetus for the further development of occupational rehabilitation services. To this end, the LTA risk index (RI-LTA) is being developed as part of the project. This index is based on routine data from the German Pension Insurance (DRV) and the Federal Employment Agency (BA) and is intended to make it possible to identify people with a high risk of occupational rehabilitation or reduced earning capacity at an early stage, even if they have not yet applied for rehabilitation. As a prognostic tool, the RI-LTA is intended to help identify needs in a targeted manner, facilitate access to rehabilitation and tailor advice and service structures more precisely. Furthermore, the project uses a mixed-methods approach and a cross-agency approach to investigate whether LTA services are up-to-date and take sufficient account of the needs of, for example, a) a changing demographic population and increased female labor force participation, b) a pull effect of the labor market and c) changing expectations of social policy. The motives for not claiming social policy benefits, such as LTA, are explored qualitatively.

Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OvGU) is responsible for the qualitative research in the project. The Chair of Microsociology is conducting interviews with those affected who do not make use of rehabilitation services despite being entitled to them, as well as interviews with those involved in vocational rehabilitation (e.g. from job centers, pension insurance or educational institutions) and group discussions with stakeholders from the field. The aim is to make the subjective interpretations, motives and hurdles associated with (non-)utilization of LTA visible. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether and how trust in socio-political institutions, knowledge of existing benefits or new employment orientations influence behavior.

An innovative element of the project are future workshops, which are carried out in cooperation with practitioners and stakeholders in vocational rehabilitation. These participatory events serve to reflect on the research results and jointly develop practical solutions. The focus is on how the risk index can be applied in practice to improve access to rehabilitation, for example by addressing people at an early stage, providing targeted information and developing new service formats.

The project is a cooperation between the OvGU, the University of Lübeck and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). While the partners in Lübeck and Nuremberg are responsible for the quantitative analyses and the development of the risk index, the focus of the OVGU is on the qualitative survey and evaluation as well as on the dialog with practitioners.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The OVGU is one of the beneficiaries to receive funding from the European Union (EU) to establish the Jean Monnet Network called PROSPER (Project to Research Opportunities to Strengthen Prosperity and Economic Resilience in the EU), coordinated by Dublin City University Brexit Institute & Dublin European Law Institute under the lead of Professor Federico Fabbrini. It involves 12 academic institutions from 12 different EU member states. Professor Heidbreder is to be the university's academic lead.
The aim of this network of 12 academic institutions from 12 different EU member states is to strengthen knowledge sharing, promote best practices, and address contemporary challenges facing the EU through interdisciplinary research and educational initiatives. It focuses on exploring and enhancing economic resilience within the EU, by identifying and promoting strategies that can bolster economic stability and growth, particularly in the context of challenges such as globalisation, climate change, and economic disparities among member states.
The multidisciplinary team of the OVGU, led by Professor Heidbreder, also consists the team of the Jean Monnet Chair that signs responsible for the BA and MA European Studies.
PROSPER is the only project that has received funding from the EU under the Jean Monnet internal network call of 2024. The 12 academic institutions that are involved are: Dublin City University (IE), Central European University (HU), Free University of Bolzano/Bozen (IT), University of Copenhagen (DK), Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL), Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona (ES), Jagiellonian University Krakow (PL), Universitè Libre de Bruxelles (BE), University of Luxembourg (LU), Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (DE), Université Paris-Est Creteil (FR), and Aristotele University of Thessaloniki (EL). The Jean Monnet Network PROSPER is overall coordinated by Professor Federico Fabbrini, Professor of EU Law & Policy and Founding Director of the DCU Brexit Institute & Dublin European Law Institute.

The Jean Monnet Network PROSPER is led by Professor Federico Fabbrini of Dublin City University Brexit Institute & Dublin European Law Institute. Professor Eva Heidbreder, Chair for Multilevel Governance in Europe and Jean Monnet Chair will lead the team at the OVGU.

View project in the research portal

The graduate school "Navigating the Chaos of Innovation and Transformation" (NACHOS) at Otto von Guericke University investigates how innovations can be successful from a technical, economic and social perspective. The aim is to research and link social, cultural and economic factors in the introduction of innovations. A particular focus is on the active involvement of employees, customers and society in the innovation process.
NACHOS is a joint project of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics and the Faculty of Human Sciences and pursues an integrated approach. It uses perspectives and methods from the humanities and economics to specifically examine the social and cultural factors of innovation and their interaction with economic or technical aspects.
The guiding question is how an innovation can be technically, economically and socially successful and how these three dimensions relate to each other in order to ultimately improve the conditions for the success, adaptation and dissemination of innovations. Methodological approaches from the economic and human sciences are combined for this purpose.
This text was translated with DeepL on 28/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Description
CoREx creates a unique pan-European network of researchers studying the relationships of executive politicians, top civil servants, and ministerial advisers (‘the executive triangle’) from an internationally comparative perspective. These three actors and their mutual relationships significantly shape policymaking. Their capacity to solve problems and to make legitimate decisions are at the core of democratic governance. While pressing contemporary policy problems require professional top civil service competence, executive politicians demand political advice from personally trusted individuals to navigate their increasingly polarized and mediatized environments. CoREx addresses this tension between professional competence and political craft by taking a system-perspective on the executive triangle. Through pan-European networking and knowledge sharing across all regions in Europe, it develops a common conceptual and methodological framework revolving around different dimensions of politicization to collect comparative data from across Europe. Thereby, CoREx bridges currently disconnected research on the top civil service and ministerial advisers, as well as disparities in geographical coverage and research capacities. CoREx will generate comparative datasets and analyses on the institutional set-up, career backgrounds, roles and interactions in policymaking, and accountability and transparency of the executive triangle across regions and over time. In an innovative way, CoREx will provide systematic comparative knowledge about trends, causes, and consequences of different configurations of the executive triangle. CoREx contributes to a better understanding of democratic governance in times of increasing political polarization and populist politics. The unprecedented results will be relevant for the scientific community, stakeholders, and the public at large.
Action keywords
top civil servants - ministerial advisers - politicization - comparative public administration - policymaking

View project in the research portal

Description
CoREx creates a unique pan-European network of researchers studying the relationships of executive politicians, top civil servants, and ministerial advisers (‘the executive triangle’) from an internationally comparative perspective. These three actors and their mutual relationships significantly shape policymaking. Their capacity to solve problems and to make legitimate decisions are at the core of democratic governance. While pressing contemporary policy problems require professional top civil service competence, executive politicians demand political advice from personally trusted individuals to navigate their increasingly polarized and mediatized environments. CoREx addresses this tension between professional competence and political craft by taking a system-perspective on the executive triangle. Through pan-European networking and knowledge sharing across all regions in Europe, it develops a common conceptual and methodological framework revolving around different dimensions of politicization to collect comparative data from across Europe. Thereby, CoREx bridges currently disconnected research on the top civil service and ministerial advisers, as well as disparities in geographical coverage and research capacities. CoREx will generate comparative datasets and analyses on the institutional set-up, career backgrounds, roles and interactions in policymaking, and accountability and transparency of the executive triangle across regions and over time. In an innovative way, CoREx will provide systematic comparative knowledge about trends, causes, and consequences of different configurations of the executive triangle. CoREx contributes to a better understanding of democratic governance in times of increasing political polarization and populist politics. The unprecedented results will be relevant for the scientific community, stakeholders, and the public at large.
Action keywords
top civil servants - ministerial advisers - politicization - comparative public administration - policymaking

View project in the research portal

Cumulative dissertation on the topic: A Union of Equality? An Examination of the Gender Equality Strategy 2020 - 2025.
This cumulative dissertation examines the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 of the European Union, with the aim of assessing the progress and challenges in terms of gender equality at European level.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The initiative transSCAPE - Cultural Spaces of Knowledge - promotes the development of Magdeburg's Port of Science through culturally supported transfer formats into an open and diverse place of knowledge.
With a view to developing the Port of Science into a modern urban quarter and ecosystem, transSCAPE is playing a key role in developing the quarter into an attractive urban space, cultural hotspot and an interesting and sustainable residential landscape. The scientific approaches anchored in transSCAPE from spatial, culture-led transformation for the spatial, social and ideational structural change to the new high-tech ecosystem in the Port of Science also provide suitable innovative transfer formats. Tailor-made spatial design and urban curatorial elements are intended to bring urban culture and knowledge culture together physically and materially in the overall transPORT initiative and allow them to grow together innovatively. A cultural annual program to be developed specifically for the Port of Science with its various social transfer formats always serves the exchange and development of knowledge. The focus here is on the identity-creating potential generated by the participation of all transPORT participants from science, society and business in the planned events.

The aim is to stimulate the interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge between culture, medicine and technology on the one hand, and to promote the transfer between science, business and society on the other. To this end, the various interests and needs of local people are actively addressed and numerous stakeholders are involved in the visionary revitalization of the district. The Port of Science opens up as a think tank and space of opportunity and invites everyone interested to shape the future of the Port of Science with a strong network. Ultimately, this is about designing and practicing new forms of collaboration.

transSCAPE is one of ten sub-projects of the overall initiative transPORT - Transferhafen Magdeburg, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the program line T!Raum - Transfer Spaces for the Future of Regions.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Culture-led urban regeneration, especially of former port districts of de-industrialized or post-industrial cities, has been used as a veritable means of urban and structural development since the 1980s. In order to prevent strictly homogeneous utilization concepts and the associated socio-economic inequalities, new approaches are based on 'sustainable' cooperative formats. The aim of the "transSCAPE: Cultural Spaces of Knowledge" project is to use culturally supported transfer formats to transform the Port of Science into an open and diverse place of knowledge (lieux de savoir) that not only promotes the guiding ideas of the envisaged structural change but also represents them spatially, socially and ideally. The workshop focuses on cultural spatial design, cultural knowledge transfer as well as cultural participation, interaction and innovation. The establishment of a common interaction space for transPORT serves the sustainable transfer of knowledge. The spatial-creative design of the innovation hub is to be developed into a visible link between the cultural and scientific port in order to build an immaterial bridge from the industrial past to the technological future. Creative formats are intended to stimulate the interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge between culture, medicine and technology and to promote the transfer between science, business and civil society. The different interests and needs of all stakeholder groups will be actively addressed in the pilot process and numerous stakeholders will be involved in the visionary revitalization of the district. The social sustainability of the initiative is underpinned by the low-threshold, integrated participation of urban society in the development of the knowledge hub. This will generate a new type of knowledge culture overall.

View project in the research portal

[The project, funded by the German Federal Pension Insurance (DRV), aims to make a practical contribution to increasing the effectiveness of LTA measures by avoiding discontinuous courses of two-year qualifications (retraining) in vocational training centers (BFW). The question of the prevention of such discontinuous courses and the restoration of continuity in the event of premature termination of measures with an unclear participation perspective will be examined from the perspective of all those involved in the process (participants, rehabilitation providers, BFW specialists). During the 5-year period, the data basis will be developed using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and relates the results to each other. Initially, a retrospective perspective will be taken by looking at completed cases of rehabilitants. Subsequently, a more process-accompanying, prospective perspective is adopted, in which rehabilitants are accompanied at critical points in the course of the measures and enriched by the perspective of BFW specialists and other experts in vocational rehabilitation. The results of the various surveys and methodological approaches are used to develop recommendations for action for process design in the participating BFWs in regular participatory future workshops - also with the involvement of external expertise. The focus on discontinuous processes opens up the perspective of previous research efforts on the topic of dropout processes in BFW. Generalizable findings are expected beyond the type of institution BFW. The BFW Bad Wildbad and Birkenfeld represent the practical fields of the model project and provide comprehensive support for the research.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project aims to make a practical contribution to increasing the effectiveness of LTA measures by avoiding discontinuous courses of two-year qualifications (retraining) in vocational training centers (BFW). The question of the prevention of such discontinuous courses and the restoration of continuity in the event of premature termination of measures with an unclear participation perspective will be examined from the perspective of all those involved in the process (participants, rehabilitation providers, BFW specialists). During the 5-year period, the data basis will be developed using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and relates the results to each other. Initially, a retrospective perspective will be taken by looking at completed cases of rehabilitants. Subsequently, a more process-accompanying, prospective perspective is adopted, in which rehabilitants are accompanied at critical points in the course of the measures and enriched by the perspective of BFW specialists and other experts in vocational rehabilitation. The results of the various surveys and methodological approaches are used to develop recommendations for action for process design in the participating BFWs in regular participatory future workshops - also with the involvement of external expertise. The focus on discontinuous processes opens up the perspective of previous research efforts on the topic of dropout processes in BFW. Generalizable findings are expected beyond the type of institution BFW. The BFW Bad Wildbad and Birkenfeld represent the practical fields of the model project and provide comprehensive support for the research.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

This project considers the potential of using the highly acclaimed video game Disco Elysium as a teaching tool for (critical) Peace Building in the political science classroom. The article holds that the video game, which is set in a conflict riddled post-revolution/post-intervention city of Revachol, can provide an analytical frame for seminars concerned with the difficulties of peace building in post-conflict societies following international interventions and internal war. By using the game as a narrative teaching tool which focuses on the narrative elements of setting, characterization and emplotment it allows students the possibility of thinking about how the existing dynamics of power, foreign intervention, economic despair and socio-political fragmentation contribute to the failure and unintended consequences of liberal peace building projects. While the analysis shows the parallels between the critical peace building literature and the game which both emphasise unintended consequences and the inevitable failure of liberal peace building, the project argues that the games can offer more than the critical literature as it provides a story world beyond reality which is free of the limiting boundaries of the “realistic”. The possibilities of interaction and decision-making provides a hook for group discussion of highly political issues in a fictional setting which encourages students to escape the shackles of their own politics. A fictional story-world in the video game Disco Elysium can provide students with the possibility of thinking outside the box as they are able to considers “unrealistic” possibilities and alternative forms to liberal “peace building”.

View project in the research portal

The project deals with the further development of the AGEP online learning program of the EPOS network. The project was launched in 2020 with 17 courses, offered by 6 EPOS degree programs as well as by external lecturers. Student demand was greater than expected, with waiting lists for all courses. For the technical skills courses (Data Analysis in R, QGIS), the waiting lists were so long despite the repetition of the course in the summer and winter semesters that these students are now hoping to repeat the course in 2022. This confirms the network's assessment that interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary further education should be promoted and expanded, and the project was relaunched in 2021 with 35 courses on offer. All courses offered were taken up and there were again waiting lists of varying lengths. The evaluations and feedback from students and coordinators can be read in part in the 2021 project report. They make it clear that a continuation is desired and can be expanded. At the time of application, 38 different courses can be offered for the summer and winter semesters in 2022, some of which can be offered in both the summer and winter semesters (Methods in Peace and Conflict Studies, Data Analysis in R, Holistic Science and Systems Thinking, Strategic Environmental Assessment). This means that the range of courses on offer has increased slightly compared to 2021. Some ECTS courses are currently not on offer, as the universities are currently switching back to face-to-face teaching. Instead, new courses have been added in the area of interdisciplinary qualifications. As a trend, it is to be expected that the range of courses on offer will continue to develop slightly in the future. And it is possible that more courses will be opened up for exchange in the EPOS network in the winter semester.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The research project "A comprehensive rethink of the vocational integration pathway" [BEWEGUNG] is part of the federal rehapro program. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS). During the planned funding period, the pilot project will open up a new range of services in the form of the occupational-medical integration module for clients from the SGB II legal system with complex, work-related and socio-spatial problems. The key innovative element is the creation of an occupational setting in which individually necessary rehabilitation medical services are embedded in the course of the measure and occupational biographical orientation is made possible by means of biographical coaching. The aim is to enable active participation in working life and work under the health conditions and to strengthen the perception and use of the potential of work as a resilience factor.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

As part of the project, all residences (royal palaces) of the German kings of the Middle Ages (up to 1250) in the territory of present-day Saxony-Anhalt will be recorded. This will provide a reliable tool for further research, enabling comparative studies in particular. At the same time, the existing research gap for the central royal landscape of the 10th century will be closed.
Project management: Prof. Dr. Stephan Freund
Project collaborators: Dr. Christoph Mielzarek; Alena Reeb; Michael Belitz

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (Frankfurt am Main) and the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeology (Halle/Saale). A sub-project concerning the archaeology of royal palaces is being carried out at the Martin Luther University in Halle (Prof. Gärtner).
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

This research deals with the interconnectedness of popular culture, world politics and gender. It is situated within the Popular Culture and World Politics field of study, which has examined the importance of popular artifacts such as films, video games, comics, etc. in shaping international political events. It also contributes to the feminist research in international relations by recognizing the crucial role played by gender in international relations. More specifically, it explores the multiple interactions between gender and conflict, following Cynthia Enloe's assertion that the personal is political is international.

Empirically, the focus of this project is on films and videos. It examines the significance of these popular and visual media for the gendered representation of armed conflict. At the heart of the investigation is the question of how gender is represented in popular culture and in relation to war and militarization, and more specifically, how militaristic ideas and beliefs become embedded in our everyday lives. To answer these research questions, I mainly work with visual methods and film analysis within a feminist post-structural framework.

This doctoral thesis is divided into several thematic areas.

• A first article, already published, deals with women involved in political violence and examines the representation of Kurdish women fighters in French films. It discusses how their struggle is simplified and instrumentalized within the Kurdish freedom movement, contributing to gender essentialism, nationalism and Islamophobia.
• The second article is dedicated to the TikTok videos posted by Ukrainian soldiers at the onset of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It examines several TikTok videos posted by soldiers at the beginning of the conflict and reads them in the context of the upheaval of gender neo-traditionalism underway in Ukraine and against the conceptual framework of militarized masculinity. It concludes that while the soldiers' portrayals challenge models of military masculinity, they do not completely disrupt the gender order.
• The third article is in preparation. This article examines promotional videos developped and disseminated by weapons manufacturers on YouTube. The aim is to question how military artificial intelligence is marketed and sold to the general public. Particular attention is paid to the popular and gender-specific imaginaries in which this marketing is embedded.

View project in the research portal

As a product of reflexive modernization (Beck, 1986), climate change produces specific forms of inequalities that manifest themselves between social groups within nations on the one hand and between countries of the global North and South on the other. The cumulative doctoral project explores and systematizes these inequalities on the basis of empirical quantitative data. It analyses along which fault lines socio-ecological conflicts are to be expected and in which areas climate change as a modernization risk can trigger transformative social dynamics.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Member states of the European Union (EU) and closely associated neighbouring states are deeply integrated, accordingly the coordination of EU policy-making has become a crucial element of domestic politics and policy-making. How EU coordination is managed varies across EU member states and has been confronted with severe new challenges due to deep-cutting crises that had to be dealt with in the framework of a new Treaty that took effect in 2009. Both for the functioning of the EU and for the legitimacy of shaping policies questions about EU policy coordination are crucial. The only comprehensive comparative study on these questions dates back to 2000/2001 (see below). The project will follow up on the comprehensive volumes and assemble country studies and cross-country comparative studies. The project will assemble contributions for all member states and selected associated neighbouring states (UK, Norway, Switzerland) as well as selected comparative analyses (informal Council coordination, intense policy coordination, institutional reform).
The project is led by Eva Heidbreder (OVGU) and Hussein Kassim (University of East Anglia, UK). Work on the project started in November 2022. A contributor workshop will take place in December 2023 at the Villa Vigoni (IT).

Kassim, H., Menon, A., Peters, B. G. and Wright, V. (eds.) (2001) The National Co-ordination of EU Policy: The European Level (Oxford: OUP).
Kassim, H., Peters, B. G. and Wright, V. (eds.) (2000) The National Co-ordination of EU Policy: The Domestic Level (Oxford: OUP).

View project in the research portal

Dissertation project as a monograph on welfare state change in the basic security for jobseekers since 2003. Using a qualitative research design (content analysis), legal texts, plenary minutes and social court/constitutional court rulings on SGB II are analyzed.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The question and scientific objective of the research project is to identify political framework conditions and success factors that positively influence regional climate protection. In addition, a transdisciplinary project design should ensure that the transfer of knowledge in the project runs in both directions: On the one hand, political science findings on success factors from science into regional practice, and on the other hand, experiences of the relevant practical actors from the regions and municipalities into the research project in order to find new success factors or improve the theoretically described factors. Networking within the framework of workshops is also intended to promote the exchange of knowledge between the regions and their stakeholders.
The aim is to expand the state of scientific research on political processes in the context of regional climate governance, to support regional actors with concrete advice on success factors and to improve a method for self-assessment of one's own process so that this can ultimately be made available to all interested parties, even beyond the project. In addition, successful and innovative climate protection projects and processes are to be documented.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The research project uses historical-anthropological, micro-historical and gender studies approaches to examine the living conditions of women, men and children during the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). By analyzing various types of sources - including personal testimonies, diaries and chronicles, but also official correspondence and militaria - the living conditions and war experiences, people's confrontation with violence and their perceptions are deciphered. By contextualizing these encounters and experiences with everyday life during the war, i.e. by placing them in the specific background of the war and the circumstances that caused it, the aim is to relativize, correct or deepen the scientific findings on the Thirty Years' War and the Seven Years' War that have so far only been obtained through macro-historical studies. The project attempts to close research gaps by using source-based analyses to address the question of whether the postulate of the "tamed Bellona" of the enlightened age, which was first taken up by Gerhard Ritter and has hardly been questioned to date, is true or whether the wars that have apparently been "contained" since this time continued to be characterized by massive violence, and not only on the battlefields. It represents a first micro-analytical focus on the Central German region and aims to make an important and critical contribution to the re-evaluation and reassessment of wars and catastrophes on the path of Germany and Europe into the modern age.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The research question this project seeks to answer is: How is the metaphor of the „orc“ for Russian troops used in the discourse on the war in Ukraine and what potential consequences does this have?
By employing a method of metaphor analysis, it will show that based on insights from literary studies many of the defining characteristics of the “orc” such as brutality, strength and simplicity have consequences for how we plausibilize some policy decision in the war on Ukraine, while at the same time marginalizing others. By considering the theoretical insights from cognitive linguistics on the role of metaphor in the human thought process in which we transfer knowledge from a (familiar) source domain to a (abstract) target domain the paper shows that the metaphor of the “orc” can contribute to the dehumanization and depoliticization of the Russian soldier and produce an overconfidence in the contribution of superior technology to ultimate victory.

View project in the research portal

Our project aims to investigate the impact of Europeanization on the conditions of access to social rights and benefits in Germany and France - from Europeanization that shifts the repertoires of compensation for social inequalities to a repertoire of struggle against discrimination. The concept of social citizenship, by which we mean (i) a narrative of social cohesion, (ii) a relationship between individual participation and social protection and status, and (iii) a territorially constituted relationship, offers an innovative analytical framework for this. France and Germany from the 1950s until today have been chosen as comparative contexts, whose contrasting traditions of social citizenship enter into different entanglements with Europeanization. In France, this is based on an abstract concept of equality and a universally understood social integration that differentiates according to social status and thus allows concrete objectives to be set for public action. In Germany, on the other hand, it is based on belonging to a cultural community and is generally delegated to intermediary bodies, allowing for more disparities thanks to decentralized organization. We examine social inequalities and discrimination in access to social rights with regard to women and migrants. These two population groups have been historically marginalized in the labour market and in the context of social security in both countries. Our project has three interrelated objectives. 1. On the basis of available literature, we develop an overview of (i) the forms of problematization of access to social rights, (ii) the legal codifications and (iii) the policy instruments of public action regarding social inequalities and discrimination based on gender, migration or ethnicity in France and Germany. 2. take stock of European provisions and regulations on access to social rights and benefits on the basis of administrative and legal documents. 3. we examine the effects of Europeanization processes on the definition and regulation of social rights and benefits in both countries, particularly with regard to the selected population groups. We focus on the period after 2000, after the adoption of the European Anti-Discrimination Directive. The project aims to identify the changes, adaptations and difficulties in legal codification and in the development of policy instruments on the basis of which inequalities are compensated and discrimination is combated. We work on the basis of symmetrically designed case studies with a thematic focus on access to basic social security and vocational training measures.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

More recent diagnoses of the times paint a rather gloomy picture of social conditions, such as "Escape to the future: the culture of success of the present" (Neckel 2008), the "society of fear" (Bude 2014) or the "descent society" (Nachtwey 2016). The contrast to the social diagnoses before the turn of the millennium is remarkable. Paradigmatic for the optimism of the 1980s and 1990s was Gerhard Schulze's (1992) thesis of the adventure society: in view of the material abundance for broad sections of society, modernization had turned from the outside in, away from an orientation towards status and material success towards the almost playful "project of the beautiful life". As a result, social inequalities have also become largely irrelevant in people's everyday lives, which Schulze describes as subjective de-verticalization. Confronted with the latest diagnoses of the present and the increasing economic inequality and insecurity discussed there, the exciting question arises: Is the adventure society history again? Or are we still - and perhaps even more than ever - living in an adventure society? Or has society recently developed in a completely different direction in the face of new socio-ecological crises and challenges (keywords: sustainability and post-growth)? In this field of tension between diagnoses of the times, the proposed project aims to determine the position of German society against the backdrop of the theory of the experience society, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022. We are investigating whether the shift towards the experience society is still intact despite the increasingly fragile framework conditions (scenario "rise of the experience society") or whether it has reversed again (scenario "fall of the experience society"). The project is also open to the possibility that society has taken a new direction of development with the new existential problem of "sustainable living" (scenario "transformation of the experience society") In order to be able to determine this position, the project focuses on two basic assumptions of Schulze's theory: that of inward-looking modernization in the direction of experience orientation and that of the subjective de-verticalization of society. We examine these basic assumptions in a population-representative way over time (from approx. 1980 to the present) for Germany and additionally with current cross-sectional data in an international - especially European - country comparison (from approx. 2000 to the present). The research project is largely based on secondary analysis; we are only planning an explorative primary data collection for the topic of transformation. Our project is not only highly relevant to the diagnosis of the times but, apart from a few isolated studies, has long represented a sociological research desideratum.

https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/465345673
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

One trend in recent decades has been growing economic inequality. What are people's subjective reactions to this? Do they also perceive society as generally more unequal? How do they locate themselves in the status structure? And how does inequality influence their subjective well-being? The project examines these questions from the general perspective of subject-centered inequality research. Against the background of structural changes in post-industrial societies, particular attention is paid to class-specific reactions. The research in the project is quantitative-empirical and uses survey data from all major European and international survey projects.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Due to various developments, the social cohesion of today's societies is considered to be at risk. This raises the question of how it can be strengthened. There are various socio-political concepts that all claim to promote cohesion: liberal, social democratic, communitarian, conservative and nationalist. The project deals systematically with these socio-political concepts. Firstly, their intellectual origins are described and it is worked out which structural prerequisites and cultural resources are emphasized as promoting cohesion in each case. A comparison of European countries in particular then examines the extent to which these assumptions are covered by social reality: Do we find a connection between the respective postulated structural or cultural preconditions on the one hand and a strong social community on the other? And if so, for what kind of cohesion? The aim of the project is to determine the right socio-political strategy for modern social cohesion.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

AI Engineering (AiEng) encompasses the systematic design, development, integration and operation of solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) using engineering methods as a model. At the same time, AiEng builds a bridge between basic research on AI methods and the engineering sciences and makes the use of AI systematically accessible and available there. The project focuses on the nationwide development of a Bachelor's degree program in AI Engineering, which combines the training of AI methods, models and technologies with those of engineering sciences. AiEng is to be designed as a cooperative study program between Otto von Guericke University (OVGU) Magdeburg and the four universities in Saxony-Anhalt: Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Harz University of Applied Sciences, Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences and Merseburg University of Applied Sciences. The interdisciplinary degree program will enable students to develop AI systems and services in the industrial environment and beyond and to provide holistic support for the associated engineering process - from problem analysis to commissioning and maintenance / servicing. The AiEng curriculum provides comprehensive AI training, supplemented by basic engineering training and in-depth training in a selected application domain. In order to achieve a symbiosis of AI and engineering education, a new action-oriented framework is developed and taught, which describes the complete engineering process of AI solutions and methodically supports all phases. AIEng is characterized by a cross-module interlocking of teaching and learning content within a semester as well as by a cross-faculty and cross-university tandem teaching concept and pursues a student-centered didactic concept, which is supported by many practice-oriented (team) projects and a wide range of Open Educational Resources (OERs) with an (e)-tutor program.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Application-oriented and decentralized:
AI Engineering relies on cross-university cooperation. Teaching content is to be offered at all university locations.

Living cooperation:
AI Engineering is being developed across universities from the outset. All project activities are carried out and supported by each university. The universities contribute their special expertise and focus areas.

Involve companies consistently:
AI Engineering is an application-oriented degree course. In order to identify the needs of companies for such a degree course, surveys are carried out at an early stage and incorporated into the development of the course.

Degree course starts in 2023: According to current planning, the course is expected to start in the winter semester of 2023.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

DEFA is supporting 10 Kyrgyz universities in their efforts to find new ways of autonomous self-management. In cooperation with the responsible Ministry of Education and Science, new modes of financial management are being tested and consolidated. The project also focuses on the further development of national regulations for the self-management of universities in the country.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The research project relates to 100 years of women's suffrage in Germany and Saxony-Anhalt. In a pioneering study, it aims to make the first scientific and explicitly state-historical contribution in Germany to the participation of women in politics and society, the emergence of the modern community and the promotion of the democratization process in Saxony-Anhalt between 1893 and 1933. The aim is to make politically active women visible through their involvement in the "First German Women's Movement", in the women's suffrage movement that emerged from it, through to the elected female politicians in urban and rural communities. In this field of activity, they were hardly noticed from the perspective of contemporary gender-specific standardization - even to this day. Individual female personalities from the Saxony-Anhalt region, known in historical analysis as leading figures of the German and in part international women's (suffrage) movement, and early contacts with the initiators of the "First Women's (Suffrage) Movement" in Leipzig point to a very special role in Saxony-Anhalt and a considerable female political-participative potential that has not yet been scientifically analyzed. The new findings of the project will serve to establish the identity of the inhabitants of Saxony-Anhalt. They will be published in a monograph, but some of them will be made available to an interested public in advance via a project website.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

More recent diagnoses of the times paint a rather gloomy picture of social conditions, such as "Escape to the future: the culture of success of the present" (Neckel 2008), the "society of fear" (Bude 2014) or the "descent society" (Nachtwey 2016). The contrast to the social diagnoses before the turn of the millennium is remarkable. Paradigmatic for the optimism of the 1980s and 1990s was Gerhard Schulze's (1992) thesis of the adventure society: in view of the material abundance for broad sections of society, modernization had turned from the outside in, away from an orientation towards status and material success towards the almost playful "project of the beautiful life". As a result, social inequalities have also become largely irrelevant in people's everyday lives, which Schulze describes as subjective de-verticalization. Confronted with the latest diagnoses of the present and the increasing economic inequality and insecurity discussed there, the exciting question therefore arises: Is the adventure society history again? Or are we still - and perhaps even more than ever - living in an adventure society? Or has society recently developed in a completely different direction in the face of new socio-ecological crises and challenges (keywords: sustainability and post-growth)? In this field of tension between diagnoses of the times, the proposed project aims to determine the position of German society against the backdrop of the theory of the experience society, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022. We are investigating whether the shift towards the experience society is still intact despite the increasingly fragile framework conditions (scenario "rise of the experience society") or whether it has reversed again (scenario "fall of the experience society"). The project is also open to the possibility that society has taken a new direction of development with the new existential problem of "sustainable living" (scenario "transformation of the experience society") In order to be able to determine this position, the project focuses on two basic assumptions of Schulze's theory: that of inward-looking modernization in the direction of experience orientation and that of the subjective de-verticalization of society. We examine these basic assumptions in a population-representative way over time (from approx. 1980 to the present) for Germany and additionally with current cross-sectional data in an international - especially European - country comparison (from approx. 2000 to the present). The research project is largely based on secondary analysis; we are only planning an explorative primary data collection for the topic of transformation. Our project is not only highly relevant to the diagnosis of the times but, apart from a few isolated studies, has long represented a sociological research desideratum.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Research on the connection between insurgency and forced migration either considers a direct link between the two phenomena where one leads to the other or an indirect connection in which insurgency contributes to the creation of a certain environment which is then conducive to migration. This research note is predominantly interested in the later and focuses specifically on the role of media reporting on insurgency. It calls for research on how the predicative framing of urgency in newspapers can contribute to a feeling of insecurity in the population which contributes to forced migration. In an illustrative case study of the media reporting on Boko Haram in Nigeria it will indicate that predicates of urgency potentially contribute to the increase of forced migration in situations of insurgency. By employing a discourse analytical method of predicate analysis to reports in Nigerian newspapers between 2012 and 2022 and combining it with data on the levels of violence and forced migration it will show that it is the levels of urgency in media reporting rather than the actual level of violence which correlate with levels of forces migration.

View project in the research portal

Expert report on Gender Mainstreaming in the German Länder that examines which recommendations and actual implementation tools international instruments offer and how these can be realised, in particular deploying action plans, on the level of a Land, with special attention on Saxony-Anhalt.

View project in the research portal

Within the framework of EU Jean Monnet funding and in cooperation with experts from the state administration, this project fills a gap both in the literature on German European policy and in applied research that provides (potential) actors in EU policy-making with the necessary basic knowledge.
The project consists of the creation of a handbook that fills these two gaps.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The Jean Monnet Chair in Interactive Multilevel Democracy in Europe takes a forward-looking approach to the timely issue of democratic participation in the EU system. In face of substantive democratic challenges on the EU- level and in the member states, the JMC contributes to the theoretical understanding, the work of policymakers, and the hands-on engagement of citizens. IMUDE promotes three key objectives. First, innovative teaching ap- proaches and IMUDE-related content enhance excellence, interdisciplinary and internationality in teaching. Meth- odologically, the JMC builds on the recent reforms of a BA and MA in European Studies and formulates concrete improvements to boost the quality and scope of the programmes; an additional vocational training module comple- ments the efforts. Second, research on the conditions for active citizenship in the EU boundary-crossing democracy will produce tangible research outputs on the guiding theme. Starting points are publications which form the scien- tific canvass on which to analyse recent democratisation and participatory initiatives, and to offer hands-on guid- ance for practitioners. Third, the JMC will develop formats for public debate to establish a regular interactive dia- logue between academia, policy-makers and citizens. The third-mission activities that open the university to a wider public are of extreme relevance in face of increasing anti-democratic and anti-EU voting behaviour. To guarantee a sustainable impact, the JMC a) builds on a firm background of prior work, b) formulates concrete projects that invest into people, structures and instruments, c) links the three focal points to mutually advance the underpinning key objectives. IMUDE as lead theme is therefore not only a topic that is taken up in teaching, re- search and outreach but the Jean Monnet Chair itself is dedicated to the ideal of a more interactive multilevel democratic approach.

View project in the research portal

The project is concerned with the further development of the AGEP online learning program of the EPOS network. The MA Peace and Conflict Studies program is part of this network and regularly opens seminars for other programs throughout Germany. At the same time, our students benefit from the courses offered at other universities. The financial resources come from the TH Köln via a forwarding contract and are used for the administrative processing of participation in seminars.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), examines the change in the logic of academic fields from a competition for knowledge to a competition for third-party funding and visibility. Three aspects in particular are of interest: the narrowing of paradigmatic diversity in an academic field, the changing patterns of cooperation between academics, and the transformation and increasing standardization of academic career paths. The project examines these developments for the field of sociology in a comparative empirical study in which the changes in US and German sociology are analyzed in comparison for the period 2000 to 2019. In order to test our research hypotheses and generate hypotheses related to the study of changes in the academic field at the levels of countries, institutions and researchers, we combine different types of data: Publication data (e.g. article abstracts on SCOPUS), network data (collaborations, e.g. co-authorship and citations between researchers, appointment data), CV data, institutional data (e.g. financial resources of departments) and interview data generated in qualitative surveys of sociologists, which should provide insights into the personal experience of the assumed change. Methods of geometric data analysis, network analysis, quantitative text analysis, sequence analysis and qualitative-reconstructive social research are used to evaluate this data.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The phenomenon of humour stands at the intersection of politics, culture and society. Humour practices are an essential aspect of culture which can be used as both a form of criticism of and resistance to politics as well as a form of legitimation of politics by the political elite in order to gain support from the public. The proposed special issue will be interested in how humour intertwines culture, politics and society and how the practices of humour are used as a means of resistance to and legitimation of political power in societies. The special issue will engage with the subject of humour from an interdisciplinary perspective and includes international scholars who explore questions regarding the politics of humour form various disciplines such as political science, philosophy, sociology and law studies to tease out the functions of humour practices as a tool for resistance and legitimation of power.

Social Sciences recently discovered the funny side of politics as a topic worthy of scientific attention and in the last years one can point to a growing interest in humour in a number of disciplines. The Special Issue “Humour and Global Politics” in Global Society by Brassett, Browning and Wedderburn (2021) can be seen as a starting point for research on the use of humour on a more international level of politics. Only recently, the Special Issue “The politics and aesthetics of humour in an age of comic controversy” by Nieuwenhuis and Zijp (2022) in the European Journal of Cultural Studies observed a “re-politicisation of humour” in the 21^st century. Hence, our Special Issue builds on these ideas and focuses on (re-)politicization and the question of resistance to and legitimation of politics in society. It furthermore adds the interconnected and contradictory trends of absence of humour, as well its proliferation into new political environments like authoritarian contexts.

Humour has for a long time been associated with resistance and being a weapon of the weak (Fluri 2019) and therefore, predominantly positive characteristics are ascribed to it (Billig 2005). Following this tradition, humour has been seen as revolutionary and only in recent years has the focus shifted to an increasingly counter-revolutionary and conservative role of humour in parts due to its disincentivising (Brock 2018) and camouflaging effects (Beck and Spencer 2021; Brassett et al 2021). Especially in times of uncertainty, crisis and autocratization, shifts for the use of humour from entertaining to serious means and from censorship towards instrumentalized humour as style of politics become visible. In this current seemingly inverted world, a reassessment is needed. Therefore, this Special Issue is especially interested in cases where humour is used against all odds or when common expectations are not met. While one might expect funny late-night hosts, our volume shows serious entertainers and funny dictators instead. By looking on (un)funniness against all odds, the volume thereby contributes to the central tension between humour, critique and legitimacy.

Humour scholars have become increasingly interested in strategies involving satire and comedy which play a key role in the transformation of the public sphere and the self-representation of new authoritarian and populist leaders. In recent years, it could be observed how humour is in democratic contexts a strategy of the powerful. Politicians often behave like entertainers who use humour to distract attention away from their own mistakes. In times of crisis, the role of comedians and funny politicians becomes highly ambivalent. While some comedians are more serious, others become political actors themselves. Due to their professionality, they test and challenge the legal system, as political actors who have previously been comedians show. Here, the limits of humour and what the law can do against hate speech when humour is involved are of interest.

The shifts observed in this Special Issue are ambiguous. Specific practices and forms of humour are intrinsic to political power, even in regimes where they are not expected. While authoritarian regimes have a limited tolerance against jokes on their own cost, there seems to be the trend that even dictators use strategic humour for their means: Through blaming adversaries and spreading fake news. The value of humour for liberal public culture and an ethical and moralistic outlook are of philosophical interest. At the same time, the rise of illiberal use of humour provokes a moralist critique of such tasteless humour. The changing landscape of humour in politics also includes the necessity of reflecting about ethics/ethical questions. A further shift concerns the role of humour in debates about what constitutes a human subject and who gets dehumanized. The quality of being humorous is highly desired and only ascribed to independent human subjects. This tension is also visible in the scandalization of dehumanized subjects who are enjoying humour and who are usually not associated with being in the joke.

Overall, the Special Issue will contribute to this increased interest by bringing together papers from international scholars which examine the new role and function of humour in public culture and politics. The following questions are therefore of key-interest for the Special Issue:

How does humour contribute to uncertainty and the (de-)legitimation of (political) ideas?

How is humour used by the powerful in politics, society and various forms of organizations as a form of defence/insulation against criticism?

What is the role of moralism in times of abundant illiberal uses of humour? Who is allowed to laugh and enjoy humour?

How does humour work in times of crisis? Does political humour decrease or increase uncertainty and ontological security?

View project in the research portal

This project follows up on the Scholarship in Residence which I received in 2023. The funders (Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt Stiftung and City of Hamburg, via the Europakolleg of the University Hamburg) support this collaborative publication project that is to result in an edited volume.

View project in the research portal

Sociological studies on solidarity focus either on empirical solidarity practices or solidarity potentials in the population or on the significance of solidarity institutionalized by the welfare state, without linking these two levels. Using Germany as an example, the project therefore examines the interactions and tensions between civil society and welfare state solidarity since 2003 and analyzes the extent to which major crises such as the financial crisis change the meaning and functioning of solidarity ideas and practices in comparison to day-to-day social policy and civil society activities. To this end, the project analyzes not only the welfare state dynamics of the idea of solidarity on the discursive and instrumental level using the example of statutory health insurance and basic benefits for jobseekers (Alg II), but also the practices and uses of solidarity in civil society. The aim is, firstly, to determine the relationship between institutionalized socio-political guiding ideas ('solidarity from above') and civil society ideas and practices of solidarity ('solidarity from below') and, secondly, to compare the dynamics and conflicts of day-to-day solidarity with those in times of financial crisis and the Covid-19-induced crisis (solidarity during the crisis).

The European Social Model during and after the pandemic (with Martin Seeleib-Kaiser), 2020-2021

In combing political science and sociological perspectives, the publication project debates the lasting effects, potential chances and emerging challenges of the pandemic with respect to social policy. Among other questions it asks whether Covid-19 will end austerity, or strengthen existing tendencies in the long run or which social groups are the winners and which the losers of the pandemic-related reforms?

Cooperation partner in the project ACCESS: Access to social rights in Germany, France and Europe (project management: Monika Eigmüller and Olivier Giraud), Franco-German research program funded by ANR-DFG, 2020-2025
The idea and practices of solidarity in statutory health insurance, 2019-2020
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Under what conditions do scientific findings flow into global sustainability policy and what role do transnational networks of experts play in this? I am investigating these questions in my habilitation project using comparative studies. After all, which experts politicians listen to and which knowledge is used for political decisions is the subject of extremely controversial debate in research and society. In addition, the number of initiatives aimed at integrating science more strongly into sustainability policy has not only increased rapidly in recent years, but they also seem to be increasingly steering the processes at the interface between science and politics. However, today we know very little about who is behind these initiatives, how scientific policy advice is organized there and how they influence political decisions.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

In times of war, “heroes” play a key role. The romantic construction of the “heroes” that defend a righteous cause against a more powerful and unjust enemy, often serves as a means to legitimize political narratives and violent actions. The iconic phrase “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” uttered by a Ukrainian border guard during an imminent Russian attack on Snake Island in February 2022, became a globally-known symbol of heroism and resistance that generated great solidarity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Taking up notions of hero studies in political science and IR, and utilizing a narrative analysis method that focuses on the elements of setting, characterization and emplotment, this project examines how British media outlets (Guardian; The Times & The Sun) construct the figure of the romantic “hero” within the context of the Snake Island incident, while it also delves into the unintended consequences of such heroization.

View project in the research portal

"eService Agency of Universities in Saxony-Anhalt" (eSALSA) is a cooperation of eight universities in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. By 2024, we will create the conditions for a meaningful digital service structure in which all university locations in the state of Saxony-Anhalt will be networked on the topic of digital higher education. Pooling potential and creating synergies are important goals of our project.
Digital higher education is being created and further developed at the locations. In addition, we are developing sustainable forms of organization in the areas of technical equipment as well as support and qualification of teaching staff.
The recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities on digitalization in teaching and studies are an important basis for discussion and further development.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The PhD project aims at investigating the relationship between power and influence in the case of the EP in the CCP. Investigating whether and under which conditions the increase of EP powers translates in influence in the CCP, this PhD will thus contribute to the literature on EP empowerment and more specifically the literature on the EP’s empowerment in trade policy. In addition, it will make a theoretical contribution to the question how institutional empowerment connects to influence.

First of all, the project conceptualises power and influence. Hereafter, the EP’s influence on trade agreements will be measured as the dependent variable. The dependent variable will be measured through a thorough analysis of the negotiation process of trade agreements in two steps: First, the dependent variable, influence, shall be measured by quantitative text analysis. Second, the so far under-researched mechanisms of how empowerment translates to influence will be investigated through process tracing. In this second step, intervening variables will be identified. The empirical base of the PhD project are trade agreements that have been negotiated since the enforcement of the Treaty of Lisbon.

View project in the research portal

Within the framework of this dissertation project there will be an examination of recognition in international relations, especially with regard to the (non-) recognition of states. In the context of current cases, state-of-the-art considerations are also being considered for (non-) denying statehood.

View project in the research portal

Hamburg-Vigoni Forum
The University of Excellence Hamburg, the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and the German-Italian Center for European Dialogue Villa Vigoni are launching a joint project: the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum.
It is located at the interface of science and politics and focuses on three thematic areas that represent both "classic" challenges of science and current challenges of politics in Europe and on a global scale: Identity, Sovereignty and Space.
It is planned to run for three years. Expert discussions will take place at Villa Vigoni with the participation of young academics from Italy and Germany. In Hamburg, the results will be presented and discussed for a larger audience with the participation of prominent politicians.
Publications on the three thematic focal points are planned.

The University of Excellence of Hamburg, the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, and the German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue Villa Vigoni together are promoting a new project: the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum.
It is a cross-disciplinary project on the border between science and politics and takes into consideration three thematic focuses representing both classical challenges in the scientific domain and the current challenges of European and global politics: identity, sovereignty, and space.
The project lasts three years and involves specialized meetings of young Italian and German scientists at Villa Vigoni. There will be events in Hamburg to present and discuss the results obtained during the specialised meetings; these manifestations will be opened to the public and relevant political personalities will participate.
It is expected to publish the results concerning the above-mentioned thematical focuses.

https://www.hamburg-vigoni.de/vigoni.html

https://www.villavigoni.eu/hamburg-vigoni-forum/?lang=en
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

At North-South borders, hegemonic structures become particularly clear when border crossing becomes a privilege and permeability is unequally distributed depending on direction and passport.
At the same time, concepts of cosmopolitan responsibility are also focusing more on post- and de-colonial contexts and North-South dynamics without, however, being able to clarify the problem conclusively.
This is where the thesis comes in and attempts to propose a solution in the field of tension between cosmopolitan responsibility and North-South borders in an empirical and theoretical examination of the problem.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Whilst anarchism is gaining more and more traction in the social sciences (Havercroft and Prichard 2017, 5; see: Levy 2019, 4) critical peacebuilding has not yet explored this field of thought. Anarchism, theorizing a social order without domination (Gordon 2007, 37-38), could for example navigate two dilemmas critical peacebuilding faces, being: (1) Recommending a certain vision of a peace for others and thereby being oppressive^[1] and (2) the danger of bottom up peaces to be oppressive in themselves (Richmond and Mac Ginty 2015). The aim is to address "the lack of a critical alternative” (Chandler 2010, 153) a need for which also Seyferth sees, as according to him, postmodern approaches tend to have sometimes cynical and hopeless tendencies (Seyferth 2015, 30). The anarchist contribution acts thereby as "a more positive theoretical project of proposal and the study of alternative practices” (Reedy 2014, 652). The question of my research shall therefore be: How can anarchist philosophy contribute to critical theory in international relations? The closest attachment point here might be in the radical approaches to peacebuilding, which will therefore serve as first field to test my argument on, which can then be translated to the wider debate within international relations. This means that this research asks what more emancipatory^[2] forms of peace could look like? A question to which anarchist theory, which sees violence as antithetical to its idea, as it’s a further form of domination (Springer 2011, 532; Llewellyn 2018, 262), is most suitable to answer and thereby foreshadow how post-liberal peace(s) might look? And what are guiding principles and how can such peace(s) be build and sustained?

[1] Or as David Graeber described anarchism’s potential: "Contemporary anarchist ‘theory’, such as it is, is most explicitly not intended to provide a comprehensive understanding that will instruct others in the proper conduct of revolution. It is not an ideology, a theory of history. It tends, rather, towards a kind of inspirational, creative play. It is more than anything else an extrapolation from and imaginative projection of certain forms of practice” Graeber (2009, 221).
[2] Emancipation is understood as a normative conceptualization that attempts to envision society outside any form of oppression Booth (2005, 183). It is thereby analogous to the concept of positive peace by Galtung as Llewellyn (2018, 261) argues, as Galtung sees violence as the force that increases the distance between an individual’s potential and actual life quality Galtung (1969, 168). Llewellyn (2018) and Prichard (2013, 159) contend that anarchism can contribute to the same project of emancipation or positive peace.

View project in the research portal

The Magdeburg research initiative SmartProSys (Smart Process Systems Engineering) researches methods and approaches for the transformation of chemical and biotechnological production processes towards a sustainable circular economy.
Scientists from the fields of logistics, mathematics, sociology, political science and psychology are involved in SmartProSys.
The research network pursues the goal of excellence as defined by the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. The Chair is involved in the "Societal Support & Individual Appropriation" sub-cluster and is leading the sub-project: Institutional and technical options for transforming bioeconomy to circularity. New ways for decarbonization and de-fossilization through policy integration and novel conversion pathways.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The Research Training Group focuses on science management and science communication. These are central topics for a research-based practice of science system development in the context of social transformation.
The two framework topics thus defined concern both the internal and external relations of science. The projects pursued in the research training group are guided by the assumption that (a) the internal relations of science must also be shaped and researched with regard to the external contacts of science and (b) the external communication of science can only succeed if its internal functioning is taken into account.
The problem of the collegial orientation can unfold in various directions. Interested parties can develop and pursue project ideas within the following six thematic corridors:

• Conflict governance in science: To what extent do steering instruments have beneficial, neutral or counter-intentional effects with regard to scientific performance and quality development?
  
• Digitization-driven organizational change: Which organizational adjustments to digitization are necessary, which "digitization policies" produce supportive vs. counterintentional effects?
  
• Academic teaching as communication about science: How can the organization and content of academic teaching and learning be most effectively adapted to transformation requirements and changing social expectations?
  
• Globalization and internationalization: How can science deal with the tension between the internal scientific orientation towards global (universal) validity claims on the one hand and the role as a regionally and nationally effective driver of innovation on the other?
  
• Digitally delimited science communication: How can the necessary "translation service" for the transfer of scientific knowledge between different addressees (within and outside science) be most effectively achieved?
  
• Scientific advice as science communication: Science is caught between the conflicting priorities of non-research-related purpose on the one hand and lack of influence while maintaining scientific standards on the other. The question is whether practical influence can only be achieved at the price of opportunistic entanglement or whether scientific integrity can only be achieved by accepting the lack of influence
.

This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Social Sciences and other disciplines recently discovered the funny side of politics as topic worthy of scientific attention. The trend of using strategic humour in political communication, campaigns or attacks of adversaries is of special interest, especially in times of uncertainty, crisis and autocratization. Humour has for a long time been associated with resistance and being a weapon of the weak and therefore, often positive characteristics are ascribed to it. While it has previously been seen as revolutionary it is increasingly seen as counter-revolutionary due to its disincentivising and camouflaging effects. For example, researchers have become increasingly interested in strategies involving satire and comedy which play a key role in the transformation of the public sphere and the self-representation of new authoritarian and populist leaders ascribed to. Others have started looking at the role of emotions in humour used by political leaders, movements and parties. Overall, the project wishes to contribute to this increased interest by bringing together research which examine the (new) role and function of humour in public culture and politics.
Amongst others, following questions are of interest:

How can various disciplines contribute to a systematization of different styles and genres of humour?

• What can we learn from a performative lens on humour?
• How can political humour be investigated from an aesthetic perspective in performance and popular culture?
• How is humour connected to the debate about emotions in political communication and how can humour cause emotions?
• What can be said about the role of satirists and comedians in politics?
• How can humour be integrated in theoretical concepts like carnival, populism, authoritarianism, liberalism?
• How is humour used by the powerful in politics, society and various forms of organizations as a form of defence/insulation against criticism?
• How does humour contribute to uncertainty and the (de-)legitimation of (political) ideas?
• How can the recently successful figure of be tricksters and clownish figures connected to legitimacy?
• How is humour related to fake news, post-truth, attention and shareability?
• How does humour work in times of crisis? Does political humour decrease or increase uncertainty and ontological security?
• What does humour do in times of uncertainty and autocratization and how does it function in debates?
• How can the changing landscape of humour in the public sphere be transferred to fields like conflict resolution, tolerance, feminism, anti-racism and migration?

The project is interdisciplinary and we hope to address scholars who explore questions regarding the politics and constitution of humour form various disciplines such as political science, sociology, linguistics, literature theory, visual anthropology as well as film studies, media studies and visual culture. The end result should be a Special Issue in a leading international peer review journal.

View project in the research portal

In this project, we first address the most pressing issue, the nexus of violence, conflict and radicalization The second section focuses on deradicalization and forms of prevention, while the third and last part looks on new case studies. The edited volume allows for a contribution of new insights through case studies in all the three parts.

View project in the research portal

The project is concerned with the further development of the AGEP online learning program of the EPOS network. The MA Peace and Conflict Studies program is part of this network and regularly opens seminars for other programs throughout Germany. At the same time, our students benefit from the courses offered at other universities. The financial resources come from the TH Köln via a forwarding agreement and are used for the administrative processing of participation in seminars.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project serves to process the current international state of the art of environmental policy research. The results are published in the form of a "Handbook Environmental Policy", which presents the state of research in around 40 chapters in cooperation with numerous international authors.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The role of bioenergy in the energy system is being renegotiated at the beginning of the 2020s against the backdrop of debates on the bioeconomy, climate protection and the circular economy. This dissertation analyzes bioenergy policy in Germany from a political science perspective, on the one hand as a conceptual sub-area of the currently emerging bioeconomy policy and on the other hand as a regulatory field of the institutionally already established energy policy. The focus is on political processes in the electricity and heating sector in the period from 2000 to 2020. The work emerges from the research project "Political processes of the bioeconomy between economy and ecology - Bio-Ökopoli" (BMBF, funding line "Bioeconomy as social change") and aims to identify and describe specific dynamics of bioenergy policy in Germany on the basis of qualitative case studies at European, national and sub-national level.
The work is categorized as policy field analysis and political science sustainability research. It is based on literature and internet research, on theory-led, qualitative content analyses of transcribed expert interviews and primary documents as well as on the exchange with experts in the form of lectures, poster presentations and discussions at specialist events and beyond (method triangulation). Michael Böcher and Annette Elisabeth Töller's approach of self-dynamic political processes (AEP) serves as a theoretical framework. The analysis is presented in the paper along the AEP explanatory factors of problem structures, situational aspects, institutions, actors and their actions as well as instrument alternatives. Using the example of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED, case 1), political processes at European level are traced in detail, using the example of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG, case 2) and the Renewable Energies Heat Act (EEWärmeG, case 3) at national level. Analyses of bioenergy policy at sub-national level (Master Plan 100% Climate Protection Magdeburg, Case 4; Bioenergy Villages, Case 5) are included in the cross-case presentation of results. One focus is on the AEP explanatory factor problem structures.
The work empirically proves the basic assumption of the AEP that political processes are not pure problem-solving processes and shows which factors and dynamics of their own shaped bioenergy policy in Germany in the period from 2000 to 2020: highly complex problem structures, their cross-cutting nature, path dependencies, a diverse, small-scale actor landscape and a system of political regulations in various policy fields that is difficult to keep track of. In the 2000s, win-win narratives, the introduction of political support programmes, a bioenergy boom at all levels and an increasing Europeanization of energy policy were decisive factors; in the 2010s, critical and emotional debates about (alleged) environmental impacts and social consequences of bioenergy promotion, the introduction of new political instruments such as sustainability certificates, bonuses and tendering procedures, as well as the increasing professionalization of the work of bioenergy associations. In some cases, political decisions and measures in bioenergy policy were diametrically opposed to overarching goals in the areas of bioeconomy, climate protection and the circular economy. For the 2020s, a stronger alignment of bioenergy policy in the sense of smart bioenergy with these overarching goals and thus a stronger focus on a cross-sectoral view of the energy system, on an understanding of bioenergy as part of the carbon cycle and on the discussion of negative emission technologies can be expected.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

"Shared Society" is a new approach in a dynamic field of research at the interface of peace and conflict research and sustainability research on social development. A shared society program focuses on enabling all social groups and individuals to participate equally and fully in society and is thus a sustainable model for the challenges facing democracy in the 21st century.
This new and innovative approach is equally suitable for examining challenges and dilemmas in multi-ethnic or multilingual societies against the background of increasing migration (e.g. Germany and Italy), conflicts within society (e.g. Ireland or Kosovo) and discrimination against minorities (e.g. Israel).

The aim of the five-year project is the critical examination and further development of knowledge, innovative methodological approaches and the establishment of a network of experts in the context of "Shared Society - Diverse Community". The project brings together renowned experts from five countries to advance their scientific and practical work in an international learning community. The partner countries include Germany, Israel, Belgium, Norway and Northern Ireland.

As part of the project, an international summer school for experts from academia and practice, students and young researchers will be held in a different one of the five partner countries each year. The first summer school will take place in October 2018 at the Givat Haviva Campus in Israel and is also the start of the multi-year project.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Activities for teaching-related quality development are increasingly taking place in university networks. It is hoped that these university alliances, which are usually created through third-party funding, will benefit from cooperation and exchange and have a greater impact on quality development. However, the success factors and obstacles of such alliances have not yet been sufficiently scientifically clarified. The joint project NetKoop is therefore investigating the conditions for successful cooperation in alliances. The project is being carried out jointly with the Halle-Wittenberg University Research Institute HoF (Prof. Peer Pasternack), the University of Hamburg (Prof. Marianne Merkt) and the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

In recent years, biomedical research has seen an exponential increase in scientific publications. Critics contrast this development with the lack of reproducibility of research results and complain about their limited benefit for society and patients. The 'Electronic Laboratory Notebook' (ELN) as an integral part of transparent research data management is a possible instrument for quality assurance. The implementation of the ELN in biomedical research is being scientifically supported in the RE-PLACE joint project. The project is being carried out by the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (with the sub-project RE-PLACE-Charitè: Formative and summative evaluation of ELN implementation) and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (with the sub-project RE-PLACE-OVGU: Experimental research on the effectiveness of ELNs). The task and aim of the study is the evidence-based assessment of the value and benefit of ELN implementation. The results of the project form the empirical basis for decision-making processes for the development of targeted control measures with regard to societal interests such as safeguarding research processes and research data quality.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The projetc deals with the growing use and importance of humour in International Relations. Humour is used by state and non-state actors for specific reasons. Topics include humour and satire as a tool for criticism, the stabilizing function of humour for society and its instrumentalization for political reasons.

View project in the research portal

The ultimate aim of the ACSOL project is to expand adult digital skills training provision through online learning targeting two covid-19 vulnerable sectors: workers in social care/health support and workers in the entertainment, arts and culture sector.
To this purpose, the Consortium will design and develop an e-learning toolkit, which will enhance the digital literacy skills and specific skills of current low-skilled workers, through training so that they can cope with the crisis caused by COVID-19 and increase their chances of improving their working conditions.

• To create the conditions for making lifelong learning and employability a competitive advantage for workers in social care and entertainment, arts and culture activities in our participating regions.
• To develop new digital approaches to training matching specific sectorial needs on social care and entertainment, arts and culture activities.
• To provide low-skilled workers and micro size companies with digital skills through open educational resources.
• To increase the awareness of EU business and VET community about the importance of supporting workers with digital skill.

View project in the research portal

With advancements in information technology and growing interlinkages between the international media landscape and world politics, the discipline of International Relations has recently taken up questions of visuality and representation (Bleiker 2018; Schlag/ Heck 2020). Scholars in the field of Critical Security Studies in particular have begun to explore the influence of visual artefacts, like films, maps, satellite images, cartoons and graphs, on contemporary security discourses and policies (e.g. Kearns 2017; Hansen 2018; Vuori/ Andersen 2018; Massari 2021). The thesis contributes to this evolving field of research and zooms in on the role of visualizations in the definition and communication of climate change as a threat to peace and security.

Taking the approach of the theory of securitization as a starting point, the study puts forward the argument that our understanding of what constitutes a threat is fundamentally influenced by the way an issue is (re)presented and mediated through different channels of communication. Seen through this prism, security and insecurity have no essential quality of their own, but the content of those terms is constantly negotiated and contested in discursive processes reflecting distributions of power in society (Buzan et al. 1998; McDonald 2008; Stritzel 2014). Although much research has been conducted on security speech acts and verbal forms of security discourse, little is known about other modes of securitization. However, visual representations constitute an important part of today’s political landscape and security discourse. Images, films and other visual artefacts can convey security messages in a much more visceral, emotional and direct way than written or spoken words. Therefore, understanding their role in global politics warrants more systematic scholarly attention.

The project follows an interdisciplinary research design to accomplish two main goals: On a theoretical level, the study builds a heuristic framework to analyse processes of visual securitization in film material. Incorporating concepts from the field of film studies, visual culture and media und communication studies the thesis sets out to widen the scope of applicability of the original model of securitization. In the second part of the study the utility of the analytical framework is demonstrated in two case studies. The topic of climate change is considered one of the most pressing challenges of the coming decades with considerable implications for international politics. Media and visual representations are crucial ways through which the public interprets climate science. Conversely, films are hugely relevant and influential in shaping public discourse surrounding the climate crisis. In an analysis of the two documentaries "An Inconvenient Truth - A Global Warning” (2006) and "Before the Flood” (2016) the thesis shows how specific ways of filmic representation can contribute to a visual securitization of climate change.

The study’s original contribution to knowledge lies in providing an applicable model of visual securitization that can be used for different topic areas. This allows for a more thorough reflection of current media discourses of security and a deeper understanding of the interlinkages between visual representations and policy effects.

Keywords: critical security studies, visual securitization, climate change, film analysis

View project in the research portal

Climate change, environmental disasters and sustainability crises are by no means gender-neutral. Women, men and diverse people contribute to them in different ways, deal with their effects in different ways and are affected unequally by their consequences. This raises questions about the links between gender and climate or environmental crises, and indeed about gender-specific perspectives. Questions can also be asked about the connections between gender affiliation or gender order and environmental diseases, environmental factors, sustainability, resource distribution, ecological rights or gender aspects in environmental and climate protection or design, right up to the positions of a recently much-discussed eco-feminism.
The lecture series planned at Otto von Guericke University in the coming winter semester 2022/2023 aims to focus on all of these diverse aspects and examine how they are interwoven with the category of gender and with "doing gender" - also outside of the binary discourse.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

EU research in the past decade has been preoccupied with the Union’s polycrisis. Theoretically, this has boosted enquiries into contestation and politicization, as has been theorized prominently in postfunctionalism, the return of intergovernmentalism, adapted in notions such as discursive intergovernmentalism, and advances in understanding and explaining differentiated integration and disintegration. The empirical crises experience and the theoretical innovations to understand its origins, dynamics and consequences of these events took shape in the adapted institutional context of the post-Lisbon EU. Accordingly, the changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon have attracted considerable attention. Due to the high politics involved, the risen role of the Council, the changed role of the European Parliament and the increased involvement of national parliaments and the responsiveness of EU and national actors to increasingly EU-sceptic publics have been studied. Much less attention has been paid to incremental dynamics that the Treaty of Lisbon triggered in sub-state venues of EU policy-making. To fill this research gap, this panel brings together papers that look at sub-state actors and their changed involvement in EU policy-making along the four grand themes of recent EU research: 1) the contribution and changed role of sub-state polycrisis and subsequent Covid-19 crisis; 2) the response and perception of sub-state actors in face of rising contestation and politicization of EU policy-making and integration; 3) inter-institutional power-shifts since the Treaty of Lisbon and the polycrisis; 4) sub-national actors as motor and subject to differentiated (dis)integration.
The pilot study is (a) is entitled:

Eva G. Heidbreder (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg)
Daniel Schade (Cornell Univeristy)
Brexit as Democratic Catalyst: Participation in Germany's Negotiation Management

View project in the research portal

Collaborative programming is a core component of everyday professional life in computer science. These complex processes on a technical and social level are often treated abstractly in computer science studies and play a subordinate role in specialist concepts for learning programming. In the context of group work, learners have to organize, coordinate and regulate their learning processes - cognitively demanding activities. In order to exploit the potential of collaborative forms of learning for learning programming languages and promoting social skills, learners must receive didactic support as required, both before and during the learning process. In the DiP-iT-OVGU sub-project, we will develop and evaluate a digital subject concept for collaborative programming learning based on empirical studies and supported by the project partners, which contains relevant (media) didactic approaches. In doing so, we aim to enable transfer to other universities. At the information technology level, a process model will be developed for this purpose that enables the reusability of research data and the transferability of data models (e.g. for adaptive didactic support) to other courses or teaching-learning systems. The sub-project is part of the overall project with the following objectives:
[]

Analysis and systematization of attitudes and previous experiences of the actors,

Development of conceptual, media-didactic criteria for the integration of collaborative programming learning in courses,

Development of suitable teaching-learning scenarios and creation of a corresponding digital subject concept,

empirical foundation through formative and summative evaluation,

Investigation of the effectiveness of forms of instructional guidance based on the needs of learners,

Supporting the transfer of findings, in terms of content and technology

.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The body is not just a body, it has social power. This power is linked to the classification of body weight into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese and the associated evaluation and stigmatization. This is done using the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is therefore the gatekeeper between the healthy and pathological body and thus the bearer of biopower. In this context of structural oppression, a globally active community has developed online, which has so far mainly been researched in the US. The research project aims to investigate the impact these developments can have on the everyday lives of affected individuals in Germany. The community that formed in Germany from the 2000s onwards with the emergence of online forums offers a particularly good opportunity for this analysis. Of particular interest is whether the pathologized body and its pictorial visualization on social media using self-descriptive terms such as "fat", "plus size", "curvy" or "body positivity" show possible interweavings with feminisms, whether and how a possible digital emancipation of the "fat body" has an impact on the reality of life of those affected and to what extent the gender of the person influences the possibility of emancipation. By focusing on the aspect of what consequences this could have for the triad of social inequality sex, class, race, the planned dissertation aims to expand basic theoretical positions in gender studies. The aim is to locate forms of agency in order to be able to subsequently analyze whether this is an expression of emancipatory resistance.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Civic education can be a central element and instrument in the democratization of societies. Particularly in transition societies after the end of the East-West conflict in 1990, the question arises as to how the concept of democracy has been and is being implemented in the education system, as well as which state and civil society, internal and external actors are active in this field.
It is examined whether and how political education influences the political awareness of the populations in these transition countries and what effects this has on the social system and the respective state. In other words, how is the stabilization of a democratic system of rule communicated to the populations of different states with the help of political education? First of all, an international inventory of active measures for democratization through education will be undertaken in order to shed light on the developments of the countries selected so far (Poland, Romania, Hungary, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of South Africa), also with regard to criteria of good governance; the possibility of the failure of democracy will also be taken into account.
The aim of the project is to develop best-practice models and future fields of action and options that will advance political education in transition societies in terms of stable and comprehensive democratization.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The aim of the TALENT Erasmus+ project (2019-2021) is to establish a two-year master programme in HRM in six universities in Central Asia.

Coached by EU universities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and Greece, two universities in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan are developing an innovative academic environment to teach and study HRM insights and practices adapted to the needs and specificities of the socio-economic challenges the Central Asian region is confronted with. The first cohort of students is expected to start its education in September 2020.

Through its various objectives and activities, such as teacher trainings and seminars, the TALENT project intends to develop a network between universities and public and private actors allowing for a long-lasting exchange of expertise in HRM as well as to create the incentives for mobilities between the partner universities of students, teachers and researchers interested in HRM in Central Asia.

View project in the research portal

The thesis aims at exploring why member state governments vary in their responses to the preferences of citizens when forming their positions for EU-level crisis decision-making. Given the high public salience of European policy issue in times of crisis, why are some national governments responsive and others not, even though population opinion is similar across member states?

View project in the research portal

In cooperation with the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum (headed by Prof. Dr. Kotzur, University of Hamburg), the Jean Monnet Chair has produced a study to mark the 30th anniversary of the European Conference of Ministers of the Länder (EMK). The study develops development options and formulates concrete recommendations based on a critical analysis of the EMK's work to date.
The study makes a highly visible contribution in the field of applied research. The study was presented to all European ministers of the federal states at the EMK on September 28, 2022. The chair of the EMK (Saxony-Anhalt) and the subsequent chairs have announced a follow-up process, and further background discussions are taking place.
The study will be officially published at the end of 2022 via the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Recent years have seen a growth of interest in the role of humour and joking in global politics. While there is a venerable tradition of critical inquiry on the resistant and subversive potential of humour (Hart 2007, Sorensen 2008), less research has been conducted on the questions of how jokes are playing an increasingly regrettable role in ‘normal politics’. Politicians joke, comedians ‘become’ politicians, and public messaging on issues as diverse as military recruitment, Covid lockdowns and Brexit are relayed in humorous terms. Due to the mediatised nature of modern political campaigning where domestic and international politics is increasingly subject to the demands of the 24hrs news and social media cycle, humorous memes and Instagram posts have been one avenue by which politicians can promote their message. Indeed, the theory and practice of new diplomacy and nation branding has embraced the everyday capacity of jokes to cut through the traditional silos of modern politics to generate a sense of authenticity, approachability and relevance. Yet, insofar as such jokes promote the laughter of identification for those who share a political message, the ambiguity of humour - both its meaning and reception - can also raise important questions about inclusion and exclusion Who gets to joke, about what and whom? From the use of memes by populist politicians in the US and UK, to the (in)direct use of irony and pranks in the hybrid warfare of Russia, the ‘comed-ification’ of global politics can present some serious diplomatic challenges. More reflexively, insofar as certain forms of humour like satire are associated with liberal ideals of democracy and free speech, events like the Danish Cartoons crisis and Charlie Hebdo point to further dilemmas of how jokes circulate within and beyond borders. Humour is a widely used and resonant form of everyday political communication that can both construct emergent forms of political identity and community, while excluding, ridiculing, or otherwise humiliating subjects and groups it performs as ‘other’.
The aim of this project is to draw together and define the contours of this emerging set of research questions on humour and global politics. The focus will however NOT be on humour as a form of resistance and critique of the state and those in power (which already is fairly well established), but as a form of legitimation and means of establishing ontological security in situations of crisis and anxiety by (authoritarian) governments and populist movements. Here the research questions the project will be concerned with are:

• How is humour used by states and those in political power and how does this differ from humour used by those challenging the status quo?
• What methodological framework is suited for the analysis of humour in politics?
• What role does humour play in situations of political anxiety and crisis?
• What does the use of humour by authoritarian regimes and populist do politically? How does is contribute to ontological security, anxiety and crisis?
• How can humour by authoritarian governments and populist movements be addressed by democratic governments and civil society actors?
• What role are the various societal and immediate contexts playing for the success of humour?

Building on the previous research on humour and ontological security, political legitimation, and everyday geo-politics, the research group will make a timely and significant contribution to the study of humour in global politics. This project will therefore provide a twofold contribution that defines and elaborates the terms of inquiry. First, the applicant and co-applicants will refine and consolidate the theoretical and methodological framework for analysing the everyday geopolitics of humour. This will ultimately yield to a series of case studies that will serve as the basis of papers and publications. Second, the applicant and co-applicants will use the project workshops (UK and Germany) and related conference panels (EISA and ISA) to generate innovative research results as well as disseminate these research findings to a broader public where humour us still seen as "inherently good” (Billig 2005). This process will also help to bring together an emerging network of researchers concerned with humour and global politics We elaborate on these points below:
Theoretical and Methodological Framework: Humour cuts across established perceptual divides of the private/political, the individual/societal, the domestic/international, and especially, the everyday/geopolitical. To capture humour’s interaction and movement across these divides the project will utilise and further refine emerging work synthesising theories of humour with theories of ontological security management (Brassett et al. 2021; Croft 2012; Steele 2021) and research on political communication by authoritarian states and populist movements (Gil and Brea 2021)
While theories of humour emphasise how jokes can function as a form of (i) stress relief, (ii) community building/bordering, and (iii) resistance to (or reassertion of) power relations, these all speak directly to ontological security theorising’s concern with the ability of agents to manage extant anxieties, not least through the maintenance and cultivation of coherent and satisfying biographical narratives of self-identity. Rendered as an everyday practice of ontological (in)security management an empirical focus on humour can help to animate the contemporary (geo)politics of anxiety. In some cases, jokes will assure and affirm established notions of identity (e.g. when populists joke about nationality or ‘woke’ intersectionality), yet also, and especially where such humour tries to be ‘edgy’ or transgressive, jokes can work to activate anxieties in others especially in situations of crisis. For example, when President Trump deployed Game of Thrones memes, he not only utilised an everyday reference from popular culture, but did so precisely to frame emerging anxieties about a an emerging trade war with China. Equally, China has mobilised well-circulated western jokes about both Trump’s incoherent bombast and Biden’s old age to position its own geopolitical imaginary of Chinese power and influence.
The originality of this approach is to think of humour as a productive component of world politics. Very often, the humour of authoritarian leaders and populists or the right is dismissed as ‘offense comedy’ or ‘merely unfunny’. On one hand, this could risk overlooking the vast empirical archive of jokes, memes, and humorous aesthetics such as comic book allusions (e.g. Boris Johnson as ‘the Hulk’) that now form part of the everyday stuff of global politics. How populists mobilise irony and humour to both spread their message and disarm potential criticism is a crucial ethical and political question. On the other hand, we argue, by rendering certain case studies of humour in global politics as active (if uncertain) practices of ontological security management our project can discern important dynamics in everyday geo-politics. For example, the use of irony can be a way for certain states to affirm their reflexive or postmodern status as post-national polities. Conversely, the Russian Embassy in London sent a series satirical tweets about the Salisbury poisoning which arguably fell flat in the UK and Europe, but which affirmed a vision of Russia-phobia that circulated well with Putin’s base. In this regard, NATO has argued that the strategic use of humour is now a central part of Russian strategies of ‘hybrid warfare’, in which humour also manifests as a form of ‘anxiety geopolitics’ (Eberle and Daniel 2021); cultivating Western anxieties about Russian efforts to undermine social cohesion, democratic legitimacy and public support for Western foreign policy.
Consolidated International Network and Outreach: This is an intellectually driven research project cutting across cultural studies (humour), sociology and IR (ontological security), political science (legitimation dynamics) and communication/media studies (nation branding a public diplomacy). It is focused on addressing the (geo)political implications of everyday contemporary practices of humour with a particular emphasis on exploring the relationship between humour and the politics of anxiety, while in turn considering what humour does to practices of ontological security management. This will be achieved via a related set of case studies focused on comedy in the intersections between (new) public diplomacy, nation branding, and popular geopolitics. These will be organised around a more specific focus on humour as a form of (populist and authoritarian) (de)legitimation and where populism is seen to be creating a mood and set of dynamics particularly attuned to the deployment of humour as a mechanism and manifestation of the new ‘anxiety (geo)politics’.
In concrete terms, the project brings together two established teams of researchers that each are about to established an important early ‘proof of concept’ for the study of humour in global politics. The interdisciplinary project aims to culminate in a research monograph on the topic aimed at the scientific community as well as a set of pod-casts in the form of interviews and discussion, aimed at a general public, with some of the leading comedians in the UK and Germany on the results of the project on the dark side of the relationship between humour and politics. f. Moreover, the project will further consolidate the emerging network of scholars working on humour and global politics in Germany, the UK, the US, Sweden and Denmark. Crucially, this network will be the basis for organising and disseminating research progress and findings via the 2 workshops and 6 conference panels proposed in this project.

View project in the research portal

Departing from theories of existential security, our research question is how the Corona pandemic impacts on people’s values and social orientations. This is analyzed in a panel design on individuals from two countries which have been differently affected by the pandemic, Germany and the UK. Our project generates unique insights into how the crisis may alter otherwise deeply held values. Moreover, the nature of the change in belief systems has strong repercussions for support for democracy and international co-operation. We engage beyond academia to disseminate our findings widely.

View project in the research portal

The German and French governments have committed to achieving a high share of renewable energy by 2030. The project aims to gain a better understanding of the economic, social and political issues at stake, as well as the conditions that influence the energy autonomy sought by some sub-state actors through the use of renewable energies.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Climate protection is also regional development. Through cooperation between municipalities, rural districts and other regional players, a regional scope can be achieved that enables cooperative "climate protection business models". Regional governance approaches tested in model projects for rural regional development should be used to promote cooperative climate protection in partner rural districts. Rural districts can play an important mediating and multiplier role in orchestrating the interaction between municipal and regional levels. Regional governance stands for the guiding star of a development that would relieve the burden on the federal level and support it in achieving its climate protection goals if successful pilot projects are perpetuated.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Political responsiveness can be understood as a normative ideal of democracy as a form of governance, society and life. It is closely related to representation and participation. The three dimensions combine to form a triad that constitutes democracy.
But responsiveness takes time. However, time is a scarce commodity for humans, since as natural beings we are subject to time. As cultural beings, we try to rise above our natural temporality, but in doing so we set systemic acceleration processes in motion. Social acceleration in turn leads to a scarcity of time as an overload of experience through expectation. This excessive demand induces stress both at the individual level of each person and in the political system. According to the thesis on which this work is based, the reaction to this stress is the subjugation of democratic processes to constraints at the expense of responsiveness. The result is a "tyranny of the now", i.e. a short-term orientation of politics, which inevitably leads to an acceleration dynamic of democratic processes. This connection between acceleration, time scarcity and democracy is to be examined in the research work on the basis of institutional analyses.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The "Politische Landeskunde" was produced in cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt State Center for Political Education. In the second edition, the articles are supplemented by municipal developments at local authority and district level and a comprehensive socio-structural analysis of Saxony-Anhalt parliamentarians since 1990.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Foreign policy research is fascinated by mistakes and failures. Prominent examples of this are Britain's policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany before the Second World War (cf. Huncker 2008), the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 (cf. Wohlstetter 1962); the occupation of the Suez Canal in 1956 (cf. Verbeek 2003); the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 (cf. Dunne 2011); the Vietnam War (cf. Khong 1992); the attempted liberation of the US hostages in Iran in 1980 (cf. Houghton 2001); the UN mission in Somalia in 1992/1993 and the genocide in Rwanda (cf. Brunck 2008); the Iraq War in 2003 (cf. Mitchell/Massoud 2009) or the UK's withdrawal from the EU (cf. Richardson/Rittberger 2020).
The main interest of research is why these mistakes occurred (cf. Janis 1989; Walker/Malici 2011). In this regard, error research points to cognitive restrictions, misperceptions and emotions of individual decision-makers (Jervis 1976; McDermott 2004; Brummer 2016); socio-psychological dynamics in small decision-making groups, such as groupthink in particular (Janis 1982; Hart et al. 1997); bureaucratic politics and organizational routines (Allison/Zelikow 1999; Levy 1986) or domestic political constraints (Schweller 2003). An important strand of literature also deals with the question of what can be learned from mistakes (May 1992; Levy 1994; Howlett 2012) and how these can be avoided in the future (Rose 1991; Kruck et al. 2018; Bürgin/Oppermann 2020).
However, an important shortcoming of previous research on foreign policy mistakes is that it generally takes the assessment of the analyzed decisions as "mistakes" as a given (Marsh/McConnell 2010: 567). Errors are seen as objective facts that can be identified and verified according to predetermined standards. In particular, policy decisions are understood as errors if they fail to achieve certain objective criteria or objectives (McConnell 2010: 349-351; Gray 1996: 76) or if their costs are higher than their benefits (King/Crewe 2013: 4; Dunleavy 1995: 52).
However, this objectivist error research (cf. Howlett et al. 2015) neglects that 'errors' are not an inherent attribute of policy, but that they are assessments and evaluations of that policy. Political decisions and policy outcomes do not speak for themselves, but only become successes or failures through the meanings assigned to them in political discourse. The question of the intersubjective perception of foreign policy and foreign policy decisions as 'failures' has so far remained relatively unaddressed (Oppermann/Spencer 2016a; 2016b; 2018; Spencer/Oppermann 2020). Not least, there is a gap in research on the question of why some foreign policy and foreign policy decisions are seen as mistakes and others are not.
The project addresses these blind spots in research into foreign policy mistakes. Following Mark Bovens and Paul 't Hart (1996: 4-11), it pursues a constructivist approach, according to which foreign policy mistakes can be understood as intersubjectively shared attributions of meaning in political discourse. Accordingly, the project defines foreign policy mistakes as "foreign policies or foreign policy decisions which are widely seen by socially and politically relevant actors to involve blameworthy mistakes of the responsible decision-makers" (Bovens/'t Hart 1996: 15). Such attributions of error are usually controversial and result from discursive debates. Assessments of foreign policy are influenced by the values, identities and interests of the observer and reflect prevailing power positions in politics and society (Bovens and 't Hart 1996: 21-32; Brändström/Kuipers 2003: 279-282; Marsh/McConnell 2010: 566-568). Labeling a foreign policy decision or measure as a "mistake" is also a highly political act (Gray 1998: 16), which can be used to discredit political opponents and gain political advantage (Howlett 2012: 547). The accusation of having committed a "mistake" challenges the rejection of this accusation and thus leads to a conflict over the interpretation of foreign policy decisions (Boin et al. 2009: 82-85).
Based on this state of research, the guiding question of the project is what characterizes convincing and assertive constructions of error and why some prevail in political discourse and others do not.
To answer this question, we build on our own preliminary work, in which we have shown how foreign policy errors are constructed in discursive debates between error narratives and counter-narratives that reject the attribution of errors. Such disputes are an essential feature of democratic politics, in which foreign policy controversies are often characterized by dichotomous narratives of error and counter-narratives of government and opposition (Oppermann/Spencer 20016c; 2018; Spencer/Oppermann 2020). Here, narratives can be understood as a form of verbal representation (White 1987: 26) that structures and organizes discourses. Narrative analysis is a specific type of discourse analysis that, similar to metaphor analysis (Oppermann/Spencer 2013), focuses on certain elements of discourse (Spencer 2017). This method has become established in political science and international relations (IR) and is used by a number of authors to address an increasingly broad range of political issues (Miskimmon/O'Loughlin/Roselle 2013). This includes, for example, analyses of national identity (Campbell 1998; Hønneland 2010) and security (Hansen 2006; Krebs 2015), foreign policy decisions (Ringmar 1996; Browning 2008), non-state actors (Kruck/Spencer 2013; Spencer 2016; 2019; Pfeifer/Spencer 2019), populist mobilization (Freistein/Gadinger 2019) or public opinion (De Graaf/Dimitriu/Ringsmose 2015).
From the perspective of this research, narratives are central to political science for two reasons. Firstly, findings from cognitive linguistics and narrative psychology show that narratives are a fundamental instrument of human thought and information processing (Sarbin 1986; Turner 1996; Sommer 2009). Secondly, work in historical studies and in particular the research of Hayden White (1987) show that narratives are found in every form of culture and play an essential role in community building and the construction of a shared identity (Suganami 2008; Erll 2009; Fludernick 2009). People understand their social environment through and in the form of narratives, derive identity from narratives and legitimize actions with narratives (Gadinger/Jarzebski/Yildiz 2014). Narratives "perform political work" (Kohler Riessmann 2008: 8) by contributing to the constitution of norms, identity and ideologies and are fundamental to the construction of the social and political world (Somers 1994; Shenhav 2006; Krebs 2015; Spencer 2016).
The project builds on these insights of interdisciplinary narrative research and builds on methodological, theoretical and empirical research findings of the applicants in previous publications (Oppermann/Spencer 2016b, 2018; Spencer/Oppermann 2020). It develops a specific method of narrative analysis (Spencer 2016), according to which narratives are characterized by three structuring elements: (1) the setting of the story, (2) the characterization of the actors and (3) the causal and temporal emplotment of the events.
Using this type of narrative analysis, the applicants have already examined the narrative construction of foreign policy mistakes in the context of the German abstention on UN Resolution 1973 on the intervention in Libya in 2011 (Oppermann/Spencer 2016b), the debate in the USA on the nuclear agreement with Iran (Oppermann/Spencer 2018) and the Brexit referendum in the UK (Spencer/Oppermann 2020) in previous publications. However, the open question of this preliminary work, which also remains unanswered in the theoretical debate on narrative research, concerns the reasons for the dominance or marginality of (error) narratives in political and public discourse: Why do certain error narratives prevail and not others? Possible explanations focus on the power and authority of the narrators of a narrative (Krebs 2015; Van Ham 2002), the structures and content of narratives (Oppermann/Spencer 2018) or the intertextuality of narratives, for example their consistency with established narrative genres (Spencer/Oppermann 2020). What has been lacking so far, however, is a formulated theory that could explain the dominance and marginality of error narratives and thus the discursive construction of foreign policy errors and that has been empirically plausibilized across several cases.
Conclusion: There is a long, mostly positivist, tradition of analyzing foreign policy mistakes, which primarily focuses on the causes of such mistakes. However, foreign policy research has so far not systematically addressed the question of why some foreign policy decisions are (or can be) constructed as mistakes in political discourse and others are not. The project aims to close this research gap. To this end, it uses a method of narrative analysis and formulates for the first time a theory of the social construction of foreign policy mistakes. A better understanding of how and under what conditions foreign policy decisions are interpreted as mistakes in political discourse is of great relevance in at least two respects. First, political controversies about foreign policy often involve conflicting interpretations of foreign policy as either a mistake or a success. Secondly, the outcome of such disputes in political discourse influences the reputation of foreign policy decision-makers as well as the positive or negative lessons that are drawn from a foreign policy decision for the future.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The annual conferences of the Association for Peace and Conflict Research (AFK) are being held for the first time.
The AFK has become a central place for academic exchange in peace and conflict research. With an open call for papers and panels, the AFK invites all scholars working in the field of peace and conflict research to submit contributions from their current research.
for discussion at the colloquium. The general topic creates a content-related
Focusing and profiling central peace studies topics through the colloquia. The
The topic is so broad that a large circle of interested parties is addressed and a theoretical,
methodologically and institutionally diverse conference program can be designed, which also meets the
identification of new fields of research.
As the 2020 colloquium had to be canceled at short notice due to the coronavirus pandemic, the
However, the AFK Board decided that the topics of this year have by no means lost their relevance,
to reissue the same call for papers and panels. The participants of the 2020 colloquium were asked to resubmit their contributions to confirm their participation in 2021.
A large majority of panelists responded to this call. In order to reach as many researchers as possible, it was again possible this year to submit contributions for panels outside the topic. As with other large scientific conferences, the Executive Board felt it was important to give the event a thematic framework, but at the same time not to exclude scientists researching other topics from the outset. The quality of the contributions was the central criterion for selection.
In this way, the annual AFK colloquia deepen networking within the peace and security community.
conflict research and its institutions. Through the adoption of internationally
conference formats will also promote scientific communication within the German-speaking world.
Peace and conflict research has been continuously professionalized. Features of the AFK colloquia are
the targeted promotion of young talent and the explicit integration of alternative presentation formats
(such as roundtables and fishbowls) in the conference program. These will also be offered in the online format of the 2021 conference. With the latter, we combine internationalization and
Professionalization of peace and conflict research in German-speaking countries with its
particular methodological and didactic innovation potential. Furthermore, these alternative
Presentation and discussion forms rated as very positive in the feedback on the last colloquium.
Following the positive experience with this concept of the AFK Colloquia since 2011, the AFK Board has issued a call for contributions in German and English for the 2020/2021 event entitled "Global/local crises as a challenge for peace and security studies".
Conflict Research" was published. The response was overwhelming, with submissions for 10 panels and 27
individual contributions in addition to the 9 panels and 7 individual contributions that will be repeated this year.
were at a good level (2013: 6 panels and 11 individual contributions, 2014: 12 panels and 14 individual contributions).
Individual contributions, 2015: 17 panels and 19 individual contributions; 2016: 16 panels and 19 individual contributions; 2017: 14
Panels and 53 individual contributions, 2018: 20 panels and 16 individual contributions, 2019: 10 panels and 17
individual contributions). This shows that the AFK has established itself as the central academic association of the
peace and conflict research in German-speaking countries (and beyond). The
submissions also make it impressively clear that the format does not just promote productive exchange.
not only across institutional and disciplinary boundaries, but also between science,
political practice and the public.
Due to the ongoing restrictions in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic and the
University of Magdeburg, it will not be possible to organize an event in presence with
participants from all over the world. Instead, the AFK Board has decided to do so,
to organize a digital hybrid colloquium and, if the situation and the measures of the
University in March 2021 to allow students of the Master's program "Peace and Conflict
Studies" to participate in panels broadcast via video systems on site. With this
By making science tangible for students in Magdeburg, the hybrid form of the event can support the promotion of young talent, which is important for the AFK. The hybrid concept means that each panel will take place in both a digital room in Zoom and a physical room at the University of Magdeburg. The digitally participating panelists and external viewers will be transmitted to the lecture hall in Zoom via beamer and the students at the University of Magdeburg will participate on site in the lecture hall. The lecture hall will also be broadcast into the Zoom room with a room camera to give the digital panelists and participants a more traditional conference feel. Participating students, like all other participants, will of course have the opportunity to take part in the discussion.
The assistant responsible for the technical implementation is appointed in cooperation with the
Chair/moderator organize the discussion contributions of the students on site. Participation before
Location in Magdeburg is only for students of the Master's program "Peace and Conflict Studies" (PACS)
and is carried out under the strict hygiene regulations of the university. Should the
infection figures make it impossible to participate on site at that time, the
Students can of course also participate digitally.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

For the period of the late Roman Republic, the study examines what was considered a religious offense in law and society. It can be assumed that there was no legally established sacred law, so that the Senate and priesthoods sought to make amends for such offenses through atonement measures if necessary.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Research and academic collaboration in the field of political science sustainability research with a focus on international knowledge transfer, social transformation and the further development of inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to sustainable development.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Ce projet de recherche voudrait consolider l'intérêt récent des sciences sociales pour le droit en favorisant un dialogue entre chercheurs francophones et germanophones. Il entend le faire en centrant l’analyse sur une question jusqu’à présent peu abordée par les sciences sociales, celle du rôle actif ou agency des non-juristes dans les pratiques juridiques. Cette question nous
semble de nature à éclairer sous un jour nouveau les mutations générales des rapports entre droit et
société. Compte tenu de la problématique générale, il y aurau une conférence interdisciplinaire et internationale en Janvier 2019, organisée en coopération de l'université Magdeburg avec le Centre Marc Bloch - centre franco-allemand en sciences sociales de la Humboldt Universität Berlin. La conférence est particulièrement innovante dans la mesure où le rôle actif des non-juristes dans la pratique du droit n'a jusqu'à présent guère été sérieusement étudié. Ce projet de recherche entend alors proposer un premier état des lieux sur les pratiques juridiques « profanes » et, ce faisant, reformuler plusieurs hypothèses centrales des sciences sociales au sujet des relations entre droit et société.

View project in the research portal

The overall aim of the project is the further development of a teaching project, which is realized across locations and using digital possibilities in a joint ring seminar of several universities.
The aim of the project to improve teaching essentially consists of two elements. On the one hand, a framework is to be created that facilitates the long-term development, continuation and transfer of the project, and on the other hand, effective short-term improvements are to be made for the teachers and students involved.
This includes the further development of the blended learning concept, which includes a more comprehensive preparation of learning videos and event recordings. The aim is also to increase the proportion of asynchronous learning and further internationalization.
In addition to these short-term sub-elements, the aim is also to fundamentally revise the course and redesign parts of it, which includes a redesign of the common and thus completely transparent assignment handbook for students at all locations, in which students can read the exact requirements, but also the specific contact person and submission deadlines, etc., among other things. In addition, the overall concept of the course is to be further revised based on the experiences of the current semester.
The aim is therefore also to develop a corpus of teaching and learning materials that will support the further development of the project and at the same time enable the focus on other subtasks in the long term, thus allowing capacities to be shifted in favor of other sub-aspects.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

This dissertation deals with the state policy control of barrier-free or barrier-reduced housing. The first point of interest is the extent to which the 16 federal states use the political measures ("policies") available to them in this area of housing policy. Building on this, the origins and concrete form of these policies will be explained. To this end, two policy field analysis case studies examine the political processes in Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse. The approach of self-dynamic political processes (AEP) according to Böcher/Töller (2012) forms the basic theoretical assumptions. As a result, the 16 federal states control barrier-free or reduced-barrier housing to varying degrees, with Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate being particularly active. Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse are neither extraordinarily active nor extraordinarily reluctant in a state comparison. The dynamic interplay of problem structures, institutional regulations and actors' actions can explain why the political processes of the two states nevertheless differ significantly from one another. In Hesse, they are more conflict-oriented and based on the conflicting goals of affordable and barrier-free housing, whereas barrier-free or reduced-barrier housing is higher on the political agenda in Saxony-Anhalt due to the aging and vacant housing markets there and is addressed more consensually as a political problem
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project "Pre-modern long-distance trading roads and regional road network" at the Institut für Historische Landesforschung at the University of Göttingen aims for a reconstruction of high to late medieval long-distance roads, which will be made available within a digital map. Not only will the map and the responding database visualise historical circumstances, but they also provide an analytic tool with which further questions of historical economics, communication and traffic can be addressed.

The sub-project in Magdeburg at the chair for medieval history at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg will identify and specify medieval traffic connections in the area of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt according to the atlas of Hanseatic Traffic Roads by Friedrich Bruns and Hugo Weczerka. The area encompasses about 400 nodes, which will be added to the database with according features of infrastructure.

View project in the research portal

The DFG project "Effects of rapid climate changes and human activity on the Holocene hydro-sedimentary dynamics of Central Europe (model region loess-covered Weiße Elster catchment)" is an interdisciplinary research project that began in 2017. The Weiße Elster model region represents a loess-covered catchment area under a subcontinental climate in Central Europe. The catchment shows an extremely high fluvial-geomorphological sensitivity to abrupt hydroclimatic changes during the Holocene. This is indicated by multiple documented horizontal sediment-soil sequences within the alluvial stratigraphy. We postulate that the floodplains of the Weiße Elster have an exceptionally high potential for archiving global rapid climate change events (RCCs). For the first time, this study aims to demonstrate the influence of global rapid climate changes on the hydro-sedimentary dynamics of Central Europe through the chronostratigraphic reconstruction of a floodplain archive. The well-founded sediment age model will be based primarily on new OSL data. The ages of horizontally deposited flood loams with embedded alluvial soils will be systematically compared with known rapid climate change events with a duration of several centuries. Our aim is to test a possible coupling of Holocene floodplain stratigraphies in Central Europe with rapid climate change events. Within the loess-covered Weiße Elster catchment, we use the chronostratigraphic record of colluvial sequences as potential parameters for human impact on Holocene landscape dynamics. We intend to systematically stratigraphically couple the colluvial and floodplain sequences via interlocking areas at the floodplain margin in order to better detect possible geomorphological thresholds and sediment cascades. In the Weiße Elster catchment area, we are planning for the first time a diachronic reconstruction of the settlement and land use history from the early Neolithic to the High Middle Ages based on the compilation of all published archaeological and historical data as well as excavation reports and GIS data sets from the archaeological state offices in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. For selected sub-catchments, all available data on land use from the archaeological and historical archives are systematically documented, analyzed in depth and, if necessary, corrected with regard to their age. A semi-quantitative approach is used to assess the intensity of land use. The coupling of archaeological and historical data with colluvial and fluvial chronostratigraphies serves to evaluate diachronic relationships between land-use intensities and Holocene sediment redeposition. Finally, we compare temporal and semi-quantitative rapid climate change events with land use intensities and Holocene hydrosedimentary data from the Weiße Elster catchment. The aim is to identify the vulnerability and possible thresholds of the hydrosedimentary system of the Weiße Elster model region to climate and land-use changes in sensitive, loess-covered landscapes of Central Europe.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project is a follow-up project to "Inequality, status anxiety, quality of life. A review and extension of the spirit level theory for Europe. The new project is divided into two components: The first building block, "Everyday experience of recognition and devaluation", examines in which concrete situations people experience inferiority. In doing so, we want to decipher the "social grammar" of these episodes - who feels underestimated where by whom and why? Secondly, positive status experiences are also to be investigated for the first time. Who experiences appreciation from others, in what situations, and with what consequences for subjective well-being? The aim is to obtain a comprehensive picture of status-related everyday experiences with its negative and positive facets. The data basis is an already acquired and realized survey on "Everyday experience of recognition and devaluation" as part of the SOEP Innovation Sample 2016.

The second component of the project, "Striving for success - the status anxiety of the middle class?", explicitly addresses a form of status anxiety that is presumably particularly widespread in the middle class and has far-reaching consequences there. We define the desire for success as the personal importance of being recognized by others for one's social status and achievements. Based on data from the European Social Survey (ESS), we want to compare countries to find out how widespread striving for success is in European societies and in which stratum. Which contextual determinants influence this orientation? Secondly, we want to know whether people with a pronounced striving for success have a lower subjective sense of well-being.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The research investigates processes of bio-economy politics on different state levels. The aim is to assess potential environment-related effects of bio-economy and political conflicts in bio-economy politics.

View project in the research portal

The project deals with audio-visual content produced by armed forces. The spreading of the content leads to a militarization of society, which means that military values are seen as normal and the military becomes part of the everyday life.

View project in the research portal

The thesis aims to examine the question of how people's lives and reconstruction were shaped in the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War and which factors played a role, for example in the reconstruction or abandonment of settlements. Furthermore, the traces of the Thirty Years' War that it left on the people are to be investigated. The following focal points of the work will be considered at the micro level:
1. coping with the material damage caused by the war
2. coping with the mental damage caused by the war (including the spirit of optimism)
3. coping with the human damage caused by the war (the sheer lack of people)
4. dealing with nature
5. dealing with domination
6. changes in culture as a result of the war
Above all, it is interesting to find out in which system of order people found their footing in order to come to terms with the destruction of their world and the setbacks. It is important to note that they continued to be plagued by fires, plagues of soldiers, war burdens and plague epidemics.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The study of foreign policy ‘failures’ has a long history in the discipline of International Relations (IR). Foreign policy decisions usually attract much greater scholarly attention if they are seen to have gone wrong than if they are considered a success. It is small wonder, then, that many of the best-studied foreign policy episodes are precisely those which have been linked to ‘disastrous’ failures or consequences.
The predominant concern of many studies so far is with understanding and explaining why a foreign policy fiasco has occurred and how to avoid them. They take the assessment of a foreign policy episode as a ‘fiasco’ for granted. They do not problematize such judgments but take them as starting points for their explanations of foreign policy failures and for the conclusions to be drawn from these explanations. Explicitly or implicitly, therefore, the analysis of foreign policy fiascos tends to follow the foundationalist and positivist tradition that has long been dominant in policy evaluation studies. According to this perspective, policy failures are objective facts that can be independently identified and verified. Thus, policies count as a failure if they fall short of certain objective criteria or benchmarks for success. In the narrowest sense, the classic model of policy evaluation starts out from a policy’s official objectives and considers the policy a failure if it does not meet these objectives. In a slightly broader sense, rationalist understandings of policy failure may also bring in the costs of a policy, the damage caused by it as well as the policy’s unintended and adverse consequences.
This objectivist approach to studying policy failures, however, fails to acknowledge that ‘failure’ is not an inherent attribute of policy, but rather a judgment about policy. Policy outcomes do not speak for themselves, but only come to be seen as successful or unsuccessful because of the meaning imbued to them in political discourse. This critique is the main point of departure for a constructivist and interpretivist strand in policy evaluation studies, which conceives of policy fiascos as an ‘essentially contested’ concept. Since there are no fixed or commonly accepted criteria for the success or failure of a policy, such judgments are always likely to be subjective and open to dispute. This holds no less for efforts at evaluating policies against the benchmark of officially stated objectives, which will often be vague, diverse and conflicting and which may have been formulated more for their strategic or symbolic functions than as a realistic guide to policy making.
Foreign policies that are seen as successful by some may thus well be dismissed as fiascos by others. Such opposite judgments can come, for example, from differences in the timeframes or geographical and social boundaries of assessing the impacts of a policy as well as from cultural biases or diverging evaluations of available alternatives. They may also be driven by uneven levels of expectation or aspiration. Most notably, however, the designation of (foreign) policy as success or failure is inescapably intertwined with politics. Policy evaluations will thus be influenced by the values, identity and interests of the evaluator and may reflect underlying power relations in the political arena or in society at large. In particular, labelling a policy or decision a ‘fiasco’ is an intensely political act. It makes for a powerful semantic tool in political discourse to discredit opponents and seek political advantage. At the same time, accusations of policy failure are likely to provoke political conflict over the interpretation of a policy.
Along these lines, we follow the constructivist critique of objectivist approaches to policy evaluation and conceptualizes foreign policy fiascos not as facts to be discovered and explained, but rather as social constructs which are constituted in political discourse. While the discursive construction of fiascos will always be subject to contestation, the characterization of a foreign policy decision as a fiasco depends on the extent of intersubjective agreement in this regard, in particular among powerful political and social actors. Similarly, the difference between mere ‘failures’ or ‘mistakes’ and ‘fiascos’ in foreign policy has less to do with any objective measure of the scale of a failure or mistake, but more with their politicization in the public sphere. Political discourse, in this sense, can be seen as a struggle between competing claims which either attribute the ‘fiasco’ label to foreign policy decisions or reject such a label.
We thus understand foreign policy fiascos as significant foreign policies or foreign policy decisions which have been highly politicized in political discourse and which are widely seen by socially and politically relevant actors to involve blameworthy failures and mistakes of the responsible decision-makers. While we subscribe to a constructivist and interpretivist understanding of foreign policy fiascos, we reject purely relativistic accounts according to which foreign policy success or failure is completely ‘in the eye of the beholder’. Rather, we start out from the assumption that not all foreign policy decisions are equally likely to be constructed as ‘fiascos’ in political discourse, but that some claims to this effect are more convincing and powerful than others. Specifically, we suggest that foreign policy fiascos are constructed through narratives and that these narratives are more compelling if they can draw on arguments and characterizations that are widely seen in a certain context as plausible criteria and ingredients of foreign policy failures.

The role of narratives
While narratives can be simply understood as ‘someone telling someone else that something happened’ they nevertheless do political work as they play an important role in the constitution of norms, identities and ideologies and are fundamental to the construction of not only the individual and past historical world but also the current political world. There are two overlapping perspectives for why narratives are important for politics: A cognitive perspective based on the insights from narrative psychology and a cultural perspective inspired by research into historical narratives.
The cognitive perspective emphasizes that narratives are a fundamental part of human cognition. Narratives here are considered to be part of human mental activity and give meaning to experiences. Similar to metaphors or analogies, already adopted into the realm of politics and IR, narratives illustrate a cognitive process of making sense of the world through narration as humans general consider their life as a more or less coherent story.
From a cultural perspective narratives are a culturally embedded phenomenon which is part of every society. Myths and stories of the past and thereby information about our forefathers are an essential, not necessarily intentional, part of all forms of community, nation or state building where the constitution of a common identity is sought. Groups, be they local or regional communities, nation states or (international) organizations, narrate and re-narrate events of the past in order to establish shared values and norms and constitute and shared cultural identity.
Taking these two perspectives together, one can argue that individuals as well as communities make sense of themselves and of the social world around them through narratives which constitute their identities. As indicated above the analysis of narratives is of relevance particularly for political science and IR as it is relevant to our understanding of political reality and therefor essential for explaining or understanding political behaviour on all levels of political life in a community such as the family, the state or the international community. By placing oneself or a community (not necessarily consciously) in a particular narrative and thereby constituting identity narratives guide action.

A narrative approach to ‘failures’
Apart from the reasons for why narratives are important for politics, literary studies and Narratology point out that narratives are made up of three important elements including setting, characterization and emplotment which offer a framework for the analysis of narratives of foreign policy ‘failure’. We hold that all these narrative elements are needed in order to tell a story of failure to the general public.
With regard to the setting the idea is that similar to a stage play or a film the background or location in front of which the story unfolds is of importance for the narrative as a whole. In the case of narratives of failure in foreign policy, the setting, for example the diplomatic realm of the UN Security Council, has important implications for what is considered to be suitable behavior on the international stage. The representation of the setting indicates the set of norms and values the reader considers to be appropriate for the situation. Furthermore, narratives on foreign policy fiascos involve settings which allow for the possibility of alternatives and different behavior. Narratives in which agents are left with no alternative but to act the ways they did are generally not told as a fiasco.
The second essential part of narratives is the characterization of the agents involved in a story both on an individual and a collective level. We are all highly interested in what an agent in a story is like. In narratives of ‘failure’ this can include the characterization of individual decision makers such as head of government and the departmental ministers responsible for foreign policy, most notably the foreign minister. Specifically, the narrative construction of foreign policy fiascos can be driven by characterizations of decision-makers which cast doubt on their competence, credibility and sincerity. Examples include allegations of inexperience, weakness, dishonesty or arrogance as well as the imputation of personal or domestic political motives for foreign policy decisions. Furthermore, on the collective level the characterization can also focus on deficient process characteristics of policy making found in institutions such as the relevant government departments. Prime examples of such deficiencies include undue haste, excessive informality, biased information processing, ineffective checks and balances and lack of broader consultation.
Thirdly, the event and the emplotment are essential for a narrative: in a narrative something has to happen. In particular the causal dimension in relation to events and action is of importance here. What has commonly been termed ‘causal emplotment’ elaborates the relationship between the elements of a story mentioned above. It is through the emplotment of events and the actions of characters in front of a setting that they gain a narrative meaning. Emplotment allow us to weight and explain events rather than just list them, to turn a set of propositions into an intelligible sequence about which we can form an opinion. The notion of causal emplotment illustrates how events hang together. In the case of a fiasco narrative, the emplotment starts out with the labeling of an event or action as a fiasco, mistake, disaster or similar concept which highlights the significance of the policy in question and the severity of the damage done. The event or policy which is constituted as a fiasco and its consequences are described as highly negative. The fiasco is emplotted into a chain of events which have resulted in an event considered undesirable. In particular, ‘fiasco’ narratives may put foreign policy decisions in the context of doing harm to a country’s national interests, of not being effective in addressing the foreign policy problem at hand or of being inappropriate in view of international or domestic norms and expectations. What is more, the emplotment of narratives of foreign policy fiascos involves the explanation of why a failure has occurred and importantly who is to blame for it. Firstly, narratives of foreign policy fiascos depend on establishing a causal link between the actions or non-actions of one or more agents and the policies or consequences which are described as undesirable. Secondly, the narrative needs the allocation of responsibility and blame as a crucial ingredient to any social construction of policy fiascos on which the audience can form an opinion.
In order to further develop narrative analyses of foreign policy fiascos and to examine their empirical and methodological usefulness, one may identify at least three avenues for future research. First, the empirical scope of analysis needs to be expanded from a single case study to a broader comparative case study design. Most notably, such a comparative endeavor holds the promise of identifying common discursive elements of narratives of foreign policy fiascos. Second, future research should be mindful of the relationship between ‘fiasco’ narratives and counter-narratives. Counter-narratives contest the construction of foreign policy as a ‘fiasco’ and represent the legitimation discourse of foreign policy decision makers. Research should attend more specifically to the conditions under which they succeed or fail in avoiding the construction of foreign policy decisions as ‘fiascos’ in political discourse. Third, it would be fruitful to investigate cases of attempted but ultimately ‘unsuccessful’ narrative constructions of foreign policy fiascos. In particular, the inclusion of ‘near misses’ and ‘non-fiascos’ would promise insights into the discursive and contextual conditions under which fiasco narratives will likely be most compelling.

View project in the research portal

The project brings together innovative research papers on the study of visualization in peace and conflict studies. While the importance of visualization has gathered great momentum in the discipline of International Relations, far less has been said about the concept of visualization in peace and conflict studies. The project has three central aims including the politics (1), the policy (2.) and the pedagogy (3) of visualizing peace: 1.) It will reflect on how peace is visualized in artifacts such as films, comics or posters and consider what these representations of peace do politically. In other words what is presented in the picture of peace and what is left out? What consequences can that have for the construction of politics? While there has been tremendous research on the depiction of violence, war and notions of self and other, very little has been done on the visualization of peace. 2.) Connected to the first aim, the special issue will reflect on how visual artifacts can contribute to real world peace after violent conflict. How can visualization in film, comics or posters help build peace and contribute to conflict resolution? Films are often seen as a means of contributing to the dichotomous construction of others and thereby aiding the legitimization of violence and conflict. If this holds, then film also can play a role in peace processes. (3.) Finally, the project will consider how visual artifacts of peace can used to teach students about a variety of issues in peace and conflict studies, conflict resolution and transitional justice.

View project in the research portal

This project deals with a selection of recruitment videos by the Swedish and the British Armed Forces. A narrative analysis uncovers which type of humor is used and how the use of humor contributes to a militarization.

View project in the research portal

In view of the changes in the world of work, such as work intensification and subjectivization on the one hand and the ever-lengthening career biographies due to demographic change on the other, issues relating to safeguarding the employability and health of employees are becoming increasingly important. Company integration management (BEM), which since its legal introduction in 2004 has functioned as an instrument for the reintegration of employees with long-term illnesses (§ 84 SGB IX), has become increasingly established in recent years, especially in large companies.

The project examines how previous experience with BEM can be used to develop early preventative measures to secure the employability of employees and how the design of BEM processes can be optimized. The focus is on reconstructing the professional biographies of employees whose employability is at risk (ongoing BEM procedures) or was at risk (completed BEM procedures), flanked by a structured document analysis of BEM files. In addition, the project focuses on company and inter-company actors as BEM alliances through expert interviews. In particular, the focus is on SMEs, as there are hardly any institutionalized procedures for occupational health management and co-determination. The stakeholders must therefore rely heavily on situational solutions in the event of health restrictions that call the employability of employees into question. Based on the reconstruction of occupational biographies of BEM cases, central episodes, events, critical stages and communicative negotiation requirements can be worked out, which can be used as a starting point for preventive strategies and, if necessary, to optimize BEM processes. In the second part of the study, participatory workshops are used to ensure the transfer of theory to practice.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

In view of the changes in the world of work, such as work intensification and subjectivization on the one hand and the ever-lengthening career biographies due to demographic change on the other, issues relating to safeguarding the employability and health of employees are becoming increasingly important. Company integration management (BEM), which since its legal introduction in 2004 has functioned as an instrument for the reintegration of employees with long-term illnesses (§ 84 SGB IX), has become increasingly established in recent years, especially in large companies.

The project examines how previous experience with BEM can be used to develop early preventative measures to secure the employability of employees and how the design of BEM processes can be optimized. The focus is on reconstructing the career histories of employees whose employability is at risk (ongoing BEM procedures) or was at risk (completed BEM procedures), flanked by a structured document analysis of BEM files. In addition, the project focuses on company and inter-company actors as "BEM alliances" through expert interviews. In particular, the focus is on SMEs, as there are hardly any institutionalized procedures for occupational health management and co-determination. The stakeholders must therefore rely heavily on situational solutions in the event of health restrictions that call the employability of employees into question. On the basis of the reconstruction of occupational biographies of BEM cases, central episodes, events, critical stages and communicative negotiation requirements can be worked out, on which preventive strategies can be based and BEM processes can be optimized if necessary. In the second part of the study, participatory workshops are used to ensure the transfer of theory to practice.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The discussion of the working conditions of the police has been increasingly echoed in the course of the refugee movement, especially since 2015. The latent lack of personnel, faulty or inadequate equipment and an immense accumulation of overtime were repeatedly criticized in the course of the increased workload due to the escorting of border crossings, the distribution of refugees among the federal states, the protection of properties at asylum seekers' homes and the escorting of political demonstrations (GdP 2015). This was preceded by various structural reforms and successive cost-cutting measures in the police force. The persistently high sickness rate in the police force is also seen as a factor in the relatively high health burden on duty. The sickness rate in the police force in Saxony-Anhalt has been increasing since 2004 and stood at 8.3 percent in 2013 (MI LSA et al. 2013). In comparison, the sickness rate for statutory health insurance companies was 4.0 percent (DAK Gesundheitsreport 2014). However, the significance of determinants such as sickness rates for the police and the mechanisms behind them remain largely unnoticed. In view of the already increased sickness rate, the deteriorating working conditions and the additional workloads that have piled up in recent years due to the refugee movement, the question now arises as to whether the intertwining of stress potentials is particularly evident in the phase of increased professional demands due to the "refugee crisis".
The dissertation examines the effects of the refugee movement on the everyday working lives of police officers, the subjective stresses and strains that become apparent for officers and the patterns of interpretation they use to meet the demands of their everyday working lives.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Politische Landeskunde" was produced in collaboration with the Saxony-Anhalt State Center for Political Education. In 16 informative articles, the reader learns what makes up, moves and shapes Saxony-Anhalt. An appendix lists the state's governments from 1990 to 2017.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The encyclopedia presents women from the beginning of the 19th century to 1945 who, in the area of today's Saxony-Anhalt and in some cases far beyond, achieved something special in very different areas or led a life that was unusual for women. In over 130 biographical-bibliographical portraits and over 140 short portraits, the lives and commitment of well-known women and celebrities such as Käte Kruse, Louise Aston, Elisabeth von Ardenne, Fontane's "Effi Briest", Jenny Marx or Hedwig Courths-Mahler, protagonists of the First Women's Movement such as Gertrud Bäumer, Elisabeth Gnauck-Kühne, Jenny Hirsch and Lily Braun, entrepreneurs such as Selma Rudolph or the actresses Henny Porten and Lia Wöhr are presented in a new way. For the first time, the merits of previously unknown, forgotten or not yet researched women lawyers, politicians, resistance fighters, scientists, women's rights activists, writers, educators, doctors, artists, sportswomen, directors or entrepreneurs are also honored and given a place in history. The articles, written by experts in the field, provide specific suggestions for further research by citing literature and archive material.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project comprised a major international conference (Faith and Gender - Gender Reformation) from 29.6.2017 to 1.7.2017 and will be documented in a conference volume to be published by Böhlau Verlag in 2018.

The Reformation was driven by the religious commitment of the laity, an awakening that opened up completely new opportunities for women to act and permanently changed the gender order in European countries. It therefore not only brought about a radical change through the first opportunity to choose between faiths, but also had a lasting impact on the roles of men and women, mothers and fathers and the ideas of how the sexes should live together through the marriage teachings of Martin Luther and other reformers. Despite ecumenism, gender issues and the inclusion of women still form the repeatedly emphasized difference between Catholicism and Protestantism today - as the last bastion of one denomination and the liberal figurehead of the other.
The interdisciplinary and international conference "Faith and Gender - Gender Reformation" aims to examine this fundamental topic of the Reformation, particularly from the perspective of the interrelationships between "faith and gender". It looks at relationships that were first established and lived by women and men in the Reformation movement of the 16th century and which, beyond denomination and personal faith, still represent a cultural asset of the Western world today. In doing so, she examines the contributions of men and women to the church and religiosity as well as their roles, spaces, tasks and paths in life that were founded or conditioned by religion, their gains, losses and lines of continuity up to today's society.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Represents a sub-project in the "Spurenlese" program of the "Reformation Anniversary 2017" research network founded in 2011.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The UKs departure from the EU will have far-reaching consequences for its European neighbours and the EU institutions, as well as the UK itself. This important project will examine the approaches taken by the governments of the remaining member states (EU27), the EU institutions, and the UK to the Article 50 negotiations and to the negotiations concerning the UK s future relationship with the EU.
Bringing together leading experts from across the EU to form a cross-national observatory and funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, `Negotiating Brexit will:

• provide informed commentary as the negotiations develop via a dedicated website, blogs and downloadable texts aimed at a general readership in the UK and beyond
• hold conferences open to all at important stages of the negotiations
• create a digital depository of key documents available to anyone interested in the UK s changing relationship with the EU
• deliver a collective volume that tracks the approaches of governments and EU institutions from David Cameron s 2013 Bloomberg speech, through the June 23 referendum, the formal triggering of the Article 50 process by the government of Theresa May, to the negotiations themselves
• examine in an edited collection the domestic politics of Brexit across the EU
• contribute to academic scholarship on preferences, preference formation, and international negotiations

The team will work closely with the `UK in a Changing Europe , a programme funded by the ESRC to provide independent and expert analysis to decision makers, stakeholders, the media, and the general public.
The project is led by Professor Hussein Kassim, University of East Anglia, and Dr Simon Usherwood, University of Surrey.

View project in the research portal

In line with transactionalist integration theory, it can be assumed that European social integration arises from the transnational actions and experiences of Europeans. Against this background, sub-project 4 of the Horizontal Europeanization research group examines the cross-border actions and attitudes of EU citizens in order to investigate the extent to which Europe is establishing itself as a specific level of socialization or communitarization between nation and global society. On the basis of survey data (mainly Eurobarometer), the extent, social stratification and social driving forces of transnational action and thinking of Europeans were researched in the first funding phase, primarily at the individual level for the EU-27 countries.

While the first funding phase pursued a country-comparative approach to individual transnationalization, the second funding phase will focus on a relational, network-analytical approach. European socialization and communitarization are to be analysed and explained via cross-border flows of people and communication (socialization) and mutual perceptions and attitudes (communitarization) of the populations. Using the method of social network analysis, which allows a differentiated investigation of transnationalization and Europeanization via dyadic data, the concrete form of cross-border transaction networks and their determining factors (geographical proximity, political regulation, cultural similarity, sympathy, economic relations) will be investigated. Particular attention will be paid to the development of transnational/European practices and attitudes over time, to the internal structure of the European social space (e.g. center-periphery relations) and to the influence of the euro and financial crisis.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

This article applies a method of narrative analysis to investigate the discursive contestation over the ‘Iran nuclear deal’ in the United States. Specifically, it explores the struggle in the US Congress between narratives constituting the deal as a US foreign policy success or failure. The article argues that foreign policy successes and failures are socially constructed through narratives and suggests how narrative analysis as a discourse analytical method can be employed to trace discursive contests about such constructions. Based on insights from literary studies and narratology, it shows that stories of failures and successes follow similar structures and include a number of key elements, including a particular setting; a negative/positive characterization of individual and collective decision-makers; and an emplotment of success or failure through the attribution of credit/blame and responsibility. The article foregrounds the importance of how stories are told as an explanation for the dominance or marginality of narratives in political discourse.

View project in the research portal

Extension of the project that ran from 01.01.2015 to 31.08.2017.
The project examines the overarching motive of the authors to enforce their subjectively perceived rights with the help of supernatural forces on the basis of all ancient curse tablets.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The Spirit-Level theory as recently developed by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett claims that egalitarian societies have less social problems and allow their citizens better lives than inegalitarian societies. The assumed causal mechanism is inequality-induced status anxiety, which leads to behavior by which individuals harm themselves and society at large. However, neither Wilkinson and Pickett s book nor follow-up research has provided convincing evidence for this causal mechanism. To fill this gap, this project proposes to examine the impact inequalities have on status anxiety and further on individual and societal quality of life, in a cross-national perspective involving the member states of the European Union. The following key questions are addressed: (1.) How widespread is status anxiety in Europe, and which groups of people are especially affected by it? (2.) Which societal conditions cause status anxiety, and how important are social inequalities in this respect? (3.) Which consequences does status anxiety have for individual and societal quality of life? (4.) Provided status anxiety does not mediate between societal conditions and (low) quality of life: what else could be the key socio-psychological mechanism? The project is designed as a quantitative cross-country comparison, covering the member states of the European Union. The main data source is the European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS) from 2003, 2007 und 2011/12. The project promises to provide new insights into how society should be organized so that all citizens feel respected.

View project in the research portal

Due to increased life expectancy and far-reaching advances in medicine, doctors today are much more confronted with the treatment of chronically ill patients than they were just a few decades ago. Medical lectures have therefore proven to be an important instrument in both acute and, above all, rehabilitation clinics in order to impart knowledge to chronically ill patients in the sense of secondary and tertiary prevention within the framework of collective and thus time-saving settings and thus to train them in accordance with the demands for an "informed patient" and to advise and guide them with the aim of empowerment so that social participation and a certain quality of life can be ensured and the illness can be "managed".

Looking at the current state of research, however, it is clear that the role of medical lectures during and for the treatment of patients as well as the different interaction strategies of doctors and patients during these group mediation and counseling settings are still largely unexplored. In addition, interviews with patients show that the influence of the lectures on coping with the illness can hardly be reconstructed - mainly because the memory of the treatment process is often obscured by the direct discussions with the doctor, thus preventing reflection on the influence of the lectures.

The qualitative dissertation research therefore focuses on the interaction strategies and, in particular, the doctors' mediation and counseling activities as reflected in the lectures. In particular, the various mediation dimensions, the lines of work that emerge and the methods and mechanisms of medical presentations are examined. The role of the patients during and for the medical-educational setting "medical lecture" is also examined in more detail.
For this purpose, 12 medical lectures to breast cancer patients at acute and rehabilitation clinics were observed and recorded, logged and transcribed and analyzed using sociolinguistic process analysis (Fritz Schütze).
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

This interdisciplinary and transnational research platform has been networking history, media and communication scholars in Central Europe since 2013; member of the Advisory Board and cooperation partner with a focus on gender and war
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

FINE - Research Initiative NRW in Europe
The Forschungs-Initiative NRW in Europa (FINE) is based in Düsseldorf, in close proximity to state politics and other relevant players. FINE wants to use this "locational advantage" over other research institutes to set a special accent in the confusing landscape of European integration science and regional research. We assume that there is a lack of political science regional research with European references. The starting point of this initiative is therefore to place political decision-making processes in their regional dimension at the center of political science research on Europe. Among other things, this involves analyzing negotiation systems and interest mediation processes that play a decisive role in shaping European development.

Our aim is to offer a broad spectrum of scientific services and transfer services. To this end, FINE's activities focus on the areas of research, communication and cooperation. In addition to carrying out our own research projects, we are particularly interested in establishing a North Rhine-Westphalian network in which researchers and practitioners can exchange ideas.

SEE http://fine.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fine/aktuelles/
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The current refugee crisis has primarily led to a confrontation with our own culture. Since the late summer of 2015, we have not been discussing with the Syrians, Afghans and people from Equatorial Africa, but we have been arguing about them. The subject of the work is therefore not the nature of intercultural encounters, but the intra-cultural clash of divergent and competing values, i.e. the struggle for the right world view, the lines of tension that were inherent in our own culture and have now broken out in the context of the debate about multiculturalism, which has become unimaginable. In the mirror of foreigners, our own cultural image is fragmented, so to speak, and we have to find (new?) answers to the question of who we are, where we come from, who we want to be in the future and what our cultural assets are. Which way of life is worthy of recognition, good or even desirable? Which cultural characteristics can and would we like to identify with and come to terms with, which can we accept or at least tolerate? In the context of these questions, which have become unavoidable, our 'own' cultural assets that provide meaning and orientation are put to the test - in one way or another! In this context, it is less revealing to ask along which socio-structural borderlines the debate takes place, but rather how these supposed ideological demarcations are actually created, solidified - or (can) be kept open?
The answer to these questions presupposes a reflection on the constitution of cultural identity - more precisely: the relationship between cultural background and identity formation. Charles Taylor in particular has focused on this connection in his examination of multicultural problems. His thesis is that an actor can only provide information about who he wants to be and how he wants to live, what is good, desirable or despicable, by drawing on a culturally colored background language. In other words, it is the reference to the moral topography of a cultural community that enables the individual to determine the parameters of their lifestyle in the first place. Karl Mannheim also focuses on the connection between the socio-cultural positioning of an actor and their way of relating to themselves, to things and to other people. However, he emphasizes the dynamic structure of this interrelationship much more strongly than Charles Taylor does. Karl Mannheim works out that actors are not only placed in a socio-cultural space, but above all in a socio-historical space in which they are affected by historical conditions specific to their age, class and milieu and in this sense are faced with different challenges. This social embedding produces unequal experiences and the associated heterogeneous ways of perceiving, thinking and acting, which are supported by a practical commitment to life, a will to the world.
While Charles Taylor primarily emphasizes the evaluative aspect of cultural identity formation, Karl Mannheim works out that identity-forming commitment to a worldview is constituted in the relational reference to other worldviews, which is unavoidably based on a socio-historical connectedness of being. The thesis of this work is that, firstly, the socio-moral self-positioning (values) and the socio-historical connectedness (wills) that are constitutive of cultural identity formation are inextricable and of the same origin and, secondly, that intra-cultural disputes, i.e. the socio-culturally bound ideological commitment to a way of life, can only be understood from the dynamic relationality of different states of being.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The curse tablets (defixiones) are understood as a means for the authors to assert their subjectively perceived rights. Using the formulas contained in the texts, the project aims to trace the development of this text genre throughout antiquity and to show the geographical and chronological connections.
The existing database TheDeMa (Thesaurus Defixionum Magdeburgensis) will be supplemented by a further 800 or so tablets.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

We all make mistakes. Mistakes are human. Mistakes happen not only in our individual lives, but also in national and international politics. The project is concerned with mistakes in different areas of international relations including the realms of security, economics and finance, health and development, environmental policy and migration, international organization as well as the media and public diplomacy. While mistakes have always been at the center stage of International Relations as a discipline implicitly, due to the fact that events attract far more attention when they are considered to have gone wrong, the conceptualization of mistakes as an explicit analytical concept and focus so far has been neglected. In political science, research on mistakes or rather fiascos has been dominated by scholars in public policy who have examined various failures of governments around the world from both an objectivist perspective which considers failures objectively measurable facts as well as an interpretivist perspective which considers them social constructions determined in a discursive struggle over interpretation.
The project will take insights from these findings in public policy and investigate their merits for i/International r/Relations. It is interested not only in large scale catastrophic failures or fiascos but also in smaller, lesser known blunders and even instances of `successful failure where policy failures paradoxically contributed to the political success of the responsible actors. By starting out from a broad concept of mistakes as something gone wrong in programmatic (policy performance) or political (reputational) terms, the project allows for a comparison of mistakes of different severity and in very different realms of international relations in order to draw out answers to the following guiding questions:

• How does one identify and research a mistake?
• Why do mistakes happen?
• How are actors made responsible?
• What consequences do mistakes have?
• When and how do actors learn from mistakes?

Leaning on the research in public policy the volume s epistemological stance is open as it will include both parts which consider mistakes to be objective facts as well as parts which consider mistakes to be social constructions.

View project in the research portal

This study examines the emergence and promotion of the “policy coherence for sustainable development” concept in international cooperation. It demonstrates that individual and collective actors within the EU and the OECD have facilitated the circulation of new and controversial ideas on policy coherence for development and promoted its integration not only into the prevailing policies of their member states but also into the global framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 17).
Evidence from member states focuses on institutional approaches, interactions of actors and experiences from France, the United Kingdom and Germany between 2005 and 2015.
Drawing on those insights, I identify three central frames of the concept. Paradoxically, the concept’s alleged weakness – its ambiguity – has contributed to its development as an international soft norm. This analysis shows that centralized policy entrepreneurs have played an important role in international transfer of knowledge within multi-stakeholder networks and in an emerging international epistemic community on policy coherence for sustainable development.

View project in the research portal

The partners of this project contribute to the modernization of the education system in Georgia by introducing a Master's program on European Integration and Employment Relations. The aim is to train specialists in labor relations in order to play a transformative role in society and bring Georgia closer to the EU and international labor standards (see also the negotiations between Georgia and the EU DCFTA). Labour relations are understood here as a broad concept that encompasses legal, labour market, economic, industrial and organizational aspects of the world of work. The aim is to ensure that working conditions have a positive effect on the quality of life. A consortium of three universities in Tbilisi has agreed to introduce such an innovative two-year Master's program in accordance with the Bologna Process after the completion of the three-year project phase. Twenty-five courses and related teaching materials will be developed. For the teachers, an East-West mobility for training purposes to the three European partners will be made possible. In addition to teaching, particular emphasis will be placed on a research-based educational environment. Stakeholders such as ministries and other state institutions, private sector companies, employer and employee organizations and other civil society institutions will be involved in this project (as well as students and representatives of the university administration) in order to implement the project objectives and create sustainable conditions for this Master's program.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project examines how Wehrmacht soldiers came to terms with the discrepancy between their Christian upbringing and their experiences in the total war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Their image of God serves as a fixed point, which is extrapolated through content analysis using field post letters, diaries, interception logs and pastoral care reports. The final aim is to provide an insight into the soldiers' experiences.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

It examines the extent to which indigenous cults continued to exist or were adapted to Roman traditions when the province of Britannia was founded, and which cults were brought into the region by the Romans. The study examines the degree and development of the Romanization of Britannia in the cultic area.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The doctoral project takes an empirical look at the reception of contemporary historical narratives in feature films. Using the example of the novel adaptation The Tower (Uwe Tellkamp 2008), individual appropriations of GDR history on television will be examined. In addition to the perceived images of history that young viewers see in the fictional literary adaptation, the authenticity of TV history is a central research interest. How authenticity as a central category of historical representation and cinematic narrative is perceived and attributed by young viewers in equal measure is to be investigated qualitatively with the help of open guideline interviews in order to better understand how contemporary history television, which is omnipresent today, is dealt with. In particular, the dissertation project focuses on various processes of how viewers give the narratives of TV events the seal of approval of "authenticity".
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

This project aims at mapping social cohesion in Asian societies in a theoretically meaningful and empirically sound manner. The concept and methodology used is based on the Bertelsmann Cohesion Radar, which has been developed in a previous project for the EU/OECD countries. The Cohesion Radar will enable us to meter the level of cohesion in 21 Asian countries, to track trends over time, to learn about specific strength and weaknesses (cohesion profiles), and to investigate key determinants and consequences of strong or weak social cohesion.

View project in the research portal

Memorials play an important role in the culture of remembrance in modern societies. As media for conveying history at the historical site, they are able to visualize the past, which is of fundamental importance for public and private remembrance. This is made possible by the existence of spaces and objects from the period that have survived at the site, which are arranged and presented by the institutions in order to use them for historical and political education. But how exactly do which groups and "generations" of visitors use and encounter these historical and historicizing environments and arrangements? What horizons of meaning do they associate with the offerings? Until now, there has been a complete lack of scientific analyses that look at the perceptions and evaluations of a memorial site by its visitors. This doctoral project aims to close this research gap by examining the interplay between visitors, spaces and objects using classical historiographical source analyses in combination with sociological-ethnographic field research, taking the German Division Marienborn Memorial as a case study.This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

With the help of an empirical reception study, research gaps regarding the impact of cinematic representations of history, especially feature films with historical content on the subject of GDR history, are to be closed. The results of the study will then be used to draw conclusions about the use of feature films in history lessons and to develop appropriate teaching concepts.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The project is part of the research network "History Mediation in the Media Society" of the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna, the Institute of History at the University of Jena, the Institute of Media Research at the Braunschweig University of Art and the Institute of History at the University of Magdeburg in collaboration with Johannes Dicke, Program Planning Department ZDF/3sat (Mainz), and Dr. Katja Wildermuth, Editor-in-Chief of History and Society at MDR (Leipzig).
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The aim of the doctoral project is to investigate for the first time Pietism as a form of faith and religious piety in the county of Wernigerode, where a special, far-reaching and influential form of Pietism was established in the 18th century in the form of Wernigerode Pietism. At the same time, the project pursues a novel and hitherto unresearched investigation into the process of the introduction and manifestation of a manorial Pietism, which was established in the county of Wernigerode during the reign of the count and countess Sophie Charlotte (1695-1762) and Christian Ernst (1691-1771) from above, i.e. in contrast to the Pietist claim to be a popular religious movement. Using social and cultural-historical methods, the aim is to show how this alternative form of faith was introduced specifically through the initiative of a couple of counts and was not mainly based on the initiative and commitment of missionary theologians or the population, as is known from studies on Pietism.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

• Traveling exhibition "SchattenRisse. Women's lives between Altmark and Unstruttal" with accompanying material (leaflet and posters); opening on December 14, 2005 in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt by the president of the state parliament
• Book publication: Elke Stolze, Parlamentarierinnen im Landtag der preußischen Provinz Sachsen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Halle 2007 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag)
• Continuation of the "FrauenOrte" project with the creation of 9 plaques
• Supervision and support of the traveling exhibition 2005-2013

This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Im Winter 2008/9 gründete sich ein internationaler und interdisziplinärer Projektverbund, um die Problemhorizonte einer Geschichtsvermittelung in der Mediengesellschaft vor allem unter rezeptionsanalytischen Auspizien aufzuarbeiten. Ein sogenannter Paketantrag einer Forschergruppe wird im Dezember 2010 bei der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) eingereicht.

View project in the research portal

The research project examines the cooperation (or rather the interaction) of the various civilian and military actors in the surveillance of the interzone and transit route between Hanover and Berlin, including the border crossing points at Marienborn and Drewitz (Drewitz II). In addition to the increasingly sophisticated technical surveillance of the transit route by the armed organs of the GDR and the civilian forces involved, continuities and breaks or problems in the cooperation of the various actors will be examined in the period under investigation from July 1945 to the time of the political upheaval in 1989/90. In addition, it will be examined who was under surveillance and for what reasons, what security concepts were behind the surveillance of the transit route in the broadest sense and to what extent these were influenced by the political relations between the two German states.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

The project compares the problems of supranational water management in Southern Africa and Central Asia. It looks at the water management institutions and their social, economic and political impact in the regions and targets the main factors influencing water cooperation in order to improve water management problems.
Partly funded by the Saxony-Anhalt State Scholarship
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

11 students and two teachers investigate the living conditions of low-income households in two Indian cities, Pune (7 million inhabitants) and Mysore (1 million). In 5 projects on urban planning, health and education, garbage, informal sector and representation of slum dwellers, students gather data by qualitative interviews and observation to map the living conditions of slum dwellers and urban problems. Field research (September 2014) takes place as action research - gathering data on different topics by division of labour within a short period.Cooperation partners:
Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, and Cenre for Renewable Engery and Sustainable Technologies, The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.

View project in the research portal

Since September 2012, there has been a school project in which pupils from Magdeburg Cathedral Grammar School and Stadtfeld/Wernigerode Grammar School have been researching aspects of World War II history relevant to local history and presenting them to the public in their own exhibitions.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

[2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Reason enough to take a look "back", right?To mark this anniversary, the youth competition "1914-1918: Heimat im Krieg" offers young people aged 14 to 22 the opportunity to look at the changes and upheavals for the region of Saxony-Anhalt during the First World War.
The youth competition on the everyday history of the First World War in Saxony-Anhalt is a cooperation project of the lkj Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. and the Institute of History of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg..
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Mit der Systemtransformation vor nunmehr 18 Jahren gilt es zu untersuchen, wie sich die Lebensqualität und Lebensqualität in Kasachstan an die Marktwirtschaft angepasst haben. Hierzu werden verschiedene soziale Schichten in einer qualitativen Untersuchung befragt.
Teilweise Landesstipendium Sachsen-Anhalt

View project in the research portal

The aim is to develop a biographical-systematic study that incorporates new sources or sources that have so far only been analyzed to a limited extent. Based on the cultural-historical approach of a network-like interweaving of structural connections, essential individual-biographical perspectives are to be contextualized with structural-political and social circumstances in the overall view of Tresckow's work.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Die überwiegend ländliche Region mit hoher Arbeitslosigkeit zeigt, dass KMU Probleme des Überlebens haben. Es sollen die Gründe analysiert werden, um eine regionale Entwicklungsstrategie für KMU vorzuschlagen

View project in the research portal

In the spring of 1945, the Allied troops marched into Germany. Nine months later, the first "occupation children" were born. It is estimated that around 400,000 children were born in the first post-war decade whose fathers were occupying soldiers; only in the rarest of cases did they officially acknowledge their paternity. The "occupation children" carried a double stigma: they were born out of wedlock and children of a relationship with the "enemy". Their social environment discriminated against and marginalized them, they were ridiculed and sometimes physically abused. Today, almost seventy years after the end of the Second World War, those affected are beginning to articulate themselves in public and semi-public forums and to assert themselves. The reasons for these search movements lie in the advanced age of their mothers and fathers, but also in the age of the "occupation children" themselves. The research project uses this situation of "ego-historical" openness to realize three cardinal goals: Firstly, the observation of individual psychological and psychosocial developmental dynamics of the occupation children will be interlinked with the elucidation of their social and political horizons of meaning. Secondly, a new type of transdisciplinary survey and analysis instrument is to be developed, which will subsequently be available to the scientific community for further cross-border projects. Thirdly, the research findings on the group of occupation children of the Second World War are to be interpreted for the benefit of stigmatized and discriminated "children of war" in the present and the future and made politically effective through expertise and regulations.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Research applies biographical analysis to investigate the life world of female shamans of different ethnic groups in Nepal. It aims at investigating changing knowledge systems and practices under the influence of urbanization and globalization.

View project in the research portal

The project is dedicated to the life-historical experiences and collective-historical perspectives of the post-war generation (born 1945 to 1955) in the social formation of state socialism in the People's Republic of Poland and the GDR. The empirical basis are forty autobiographical-narrative interviews each in Poland and East Germany with non-prominent everyday people of this generation: with (1) workers and (2) farmers, (3) business people of the time, (4) professional freelancers and scientists, (5) representatives of the local administrations of the time and with (6) representatives of the opposition and the counterculture who were active in local communities and discourse arenas. In terms of basic theory, our research project is based on the assumption, to be empirically examined and differentiated, that the long collective-historical epoch of state socialism in Poland and East Germany had a particularly profound and transformative impact on the relationship between biographical identity development and surrounding collective entities (such as the state and its organizations). In the course of the project, the ongoing transnational comparison will take place in joint bi-national research workshops (including advanced students). Some of the interviews and their results are to be prepared for history exhibitions, popular history workshops and publications aimed at laypersons in order to safeguard the communicative memory of the long state socialist era and thus serve the two national cultures of remembrance, while at the same time making the European dimension of the biographical experiences of state socialism and its formative collective-historical constellations of events clear through transnational cooperation.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, the proverbial "primal catastrophe of the 20th century". The project aims to develop a traveling exhibition on the effects of the war on the region of today's federal state of Saxony-Anhalt by the beginning of 2014 in close cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt Museum Association. From the private history of individual contemporaries in the "homeland" and at the "front" to questions of institutional history, such as the role of the church, schools and associations, to overarching problems of social and economic history and aspects of the culture of remembrance, new topics are to be explored. It is therefore about a research contribution and its practical implementation in an effective public form of history communication. 24.01.2013 - Magdeburg in the First World War - a city on the "home front".
Colloquium in cooperation with the Magdeburg City Archive.12.07.2013 - Growth from catastrophe. Central Germany's industries in the context of the First World War. (6th Economic History Colloquium Wolfen).colloquium in cooperation with the Film Museum Wolfen.Magdeburg in the First World War - a city on the home front.
A comprehensive anthology will be published in summer 2014 in the series "Magdeburger Schriften" (ed. Stadtarchiv Magdeburg), in which some IGES staff and students are involved.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Among the German citizens who volunteered to "fight for the fatherland" at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 were thousands of young Germans of the Jewish faith. "I went into the field as a German to protect my oppressed fatherland. But also as a Jew, to fight for the full equality of my fellow believers." This confession in the will of Josef Zürndorfer, a lieutenant pilot who died in 1915, stands for the attitude and hopes of many Jewish soldiers at the front. Using Magdeburg as an example, the project aims to shed light on the regional dimension of the participation of Jewish citizens in the First World War, which is still a research desideratum. With a view to 2014 - the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War - an exhibition on Magdeburg's Jewish front-line soldiers is being developed.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

Es ist communis opinio, dass der Zweite Weltkrieg als in jeder Hinsicht Totaler Krieg aufzufassen ist. Für die Frauen der kriegführenden Nationen bedeutete dies eine territorial bezogene und soziologisch fassbare Totalität der Inanspruchnahme sowie eine neue Qualität der physischen und psychischen Mobilisierung. Als Soldatinnen beteiligten sie sich erstmals in großem Umfang am Töten. Die tiefe Bruchstelle, die der Totale Krieg der Erfahrung dieser weiblichen Generation schlug und ihre Lebenswege auch nach Kriegsende bestimmte, lenkt die Frage auf die Erfahrungsverarbeitung innerhalb der Nachkriegsgesellschaften sowie auf den Erfahrungstransfer an die nächste Generation. Das Forschungsprojekt fragt, ob die seit den späten 1960er Jahren anwachsenden Artikulationen des Feminismus nicht zum Teil auch eine generationell verschobene Folge weiblicher Kriegserfahrung im Zweiten Weltkrieg sein könnten.

View project in the research portal

In 2012, Saxony-Anhalt is celebrating the 8ooth anniversary of the second part of its name. On February 9, 1212, Duke Bernhard I, founder of the Saxon-Ascan line of the Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg, died. His youngest son, Albrecht I, became duke. The eldest, Henry I, received the Anhalt lands and thus founded the line of the Princes of Anhalt. This marked the beginning of a centuries-long, eventful history, which came to an official end with the liquidation of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the local state parliament on July 25, 1952. The celebrations, events, exhibitions and scientific conferences in the "Anhalt 800" program in 2012 focused on the medieval, early modern and more recent history of today's Anhalt region. The more recent and recent past was largely ignored. The colloquium aimed to compile more recent research results, to identify the research desiderata all the more clearly and to introduce further questions and methods of cultural history and the history of memory to Anhalt's recent history. It was intended as a stimulus for further research and to create a closer network of scholars working on "Anhalt's path into the 'Age of Extremes'".from Duke to Reich Governor.
Published by Justus H. Ulbricht on behalf of the Research Center for Modern Regional History at the Institute of History at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and in cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt State Agency for Civic Education.
Halle 2013 (forthcoming).
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

With the system transfer, market economy institutions were implemented. Now, after 18 years of transformation, the question arises as to what extent the actors have also adopted market society actions and behavior and how this affects earlier patterns of action. With the help of quantitative and qualitative methods, market action is examined in a country and urban-rural comparison with regard to personal responsibility and planning (old-age provision, unemployment, etc.). The focus here is on the question of whether family and friendly security mechanisms are being replaced by organizational ones (banks, insurance companies, etc.). Theoretically, the project is based on the sustainable livelihoods approach.
The aim of the project is to analyze the action patterns of private households of lower and middle income groups in urban and rural regions in order to understand their livelihood strategies. Data is collected by three research groups in the study countries. In addition, the focus is on the further qualification of young researchers. In addition to the applicants (Prof. Dittrich/Prof. Schrader, Univ. Magdeburg), the research group consists of: Dr. Denis Gruber (St. Petersburg State University), Dr. Markus Kaiser (OSCE Academy Bishkek), Prof. Zabirova (Eurasian National Univ. Astana), Prof. Shedenova (Al-Farabi Univ. Almaty), Dr. Gorborukova (American Univ. of Central Asia, Bishkek); Nigina Avganova, Aikokul Maksutova and Batima Mambetalina (Magdeburg).

Publication:
Eckhard Dittrich, Heiko Schrader (Eds.)

"When Salary is not Enough…"
Private Households in Central Asia
Series: Gesellschaftliche Transformationen/Societal Transformations
Vol. 20, 408 p., 44.90 EUR, 44.90 CHF, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90525-3
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The main focus of the research is on women entrepreneurship in Tajikistan (small and medium entrepreneurs). According to the latest national statistics, there are only 3% of such women entrepreneurs. The country suffers from high unemployment and labor migration. In addition, it is not only the country's entrepreneur-unfriendly conditions (laws and policies) that prevent the development of entrepreneurship, but also the patriarchal and Islamic tradition and "unwritten" social rules and moral norms that hinder the motivation and survival and success strategies of women entrepreneurs in a male-dominated economic sector. Since these women entrepreneurs not only provide jobs and employment, but also create sources of income for themselves and others, it is very important to examine their motives for action and performance factors as well as their strategies for asserting themselves in the market and society. The questions investigated in this research are: What are the main factors and key values that influence the survival strategies of Tajik women entrepreneurs? What effect does entrepreneurial activity have on the self-confidence of these women and Tajik women in general, also with regard to the societal gender hierarchy?
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025

View project in the research portal

The doctoral project deals with the cinematic construction of collective memory in Romania and the GDR. The question of the negotiation of the past is at the center of the investigation. The processes and forms of memory that come to light in both countries are critically examined through the exemplary analysis of the "communist resistance fighter" and the "illegalist".
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt fragt nach der Geschichte des nationalsozialistischen Schulungsortes sowie der nach 1945 eröffneten sozialistischen Parteischule Ballenstedt. Anhand dieses konkreten historischen Ortes und seiner Kontinuitäten und Brüche vermag es darüber hinaus, generelle Erkenntnisse über Elitebildung in Diktaturen zu gewinnen.

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt untersucht die spezifischen gesellschaftlichen Konstellationen, die in der DDR als erstem Ostblockstaat die Entscheidung für eine hormonelle Empfängnisverhütung ermöglichten. Die Pille wird dabei als ein Produkt im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes in den Blick genommen, an dessen Ein­führung, Verbreitung und Gebrauch zahlreiche politische und gesellschaftliche Akteure beteiligt waren, die unter den spezifischen Bedingungen der staatssozialistischen Diktatur und der stummen Anwesenheit des Westens auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen und mit unterschiedlichen Intentionen interagierten und kommunizierten.Wissenschaftliche Tagung  „Kulturgeschichte der Fertilität von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart“ In Kooperation mit der Universität Jena und gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Die Tagung fand vom 10. bis 12.1.2013 in Imshausen statt.

View project in the research portal

Um den Geschichtsunterricht zur DDR-Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen und Gymnasien des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt künftig noch nachhaltiger und vor allem handlungs- sowie kompetenzorientierter gestalten zu können, hat der Landesbeauftragte die Zusammenstellung eines entsprechenden Medienkoffers in Auftrag gegeben. Die Teilnehmer des Projekts stellen den Inhalt dieses Koffers zusammen, erarbeiten zu den jeweiligen Medien Begleitmaterialien und zeigen konkrete pädagogische Einsatzmöglichkeiten auf. Der komplette Medienkoffer soll für alle Medienstellen des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt und darüber hinaus ggf. für alle Schulen produziert werden.

View project in the research portal

DasStalag XI-A Altengrabow war eines der größten Kriegsgefangenenlager Mitteldeutschlands, welches während der gesamten Kriegsdauer genutzt wurde. Das Forschungsprojekt fragt nach der politischen, wirtschaftlichen, sozialen, militärischen und der Kulturgeschichte des Lagers sowie seinen vielfältigen Einbindungen in Kommune, Region und Land.

View project in the research portal

Die Mobilisierung und Selbstmobilisierung von Frauen, ihre Erwartungen an den Einsatz und ihre Erfahrungen im Krieg, die kurz- und langfristigen Folgen für die zivilen und militärischen Geschlechterverhältnisse sowie für die Art und Weise der Kriegführung, sind die Schwerpunkte mit denen sich das Projekt beschäftigt.

View project in the research portal

From 1939 to 1945, the Hans Klemm company in Leipzig conducted auctions of so-called "non-Aryan property" on behalf of the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President of Leipzig. The records document auctions on behalf of the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President as well as estate auctions and household liquidations. On the basis of comprehensive research in the relevant archives, the project is investigating the involvement of the auction houses Hans Klemm (Leipzig) and Hermann Thiemig (Leipzig) in the "Nazi-confiscated cultural property, especially Jewish property" process and, on this basis, is creating a database with all relevant data on the sale and acquisition of assets from these documents in the period from 1933 to 1945.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Das Ziel des Projektes ist es, Prozesse der verständnissichernden pädagogischen Wissensvermittlung des Arztes an den Patienten und der identitätsverändernden und -sichernden Beratung über für den letzteren existentiell wichtige Fragen seiner Krankheit und des gesundheitsfördernden Umgehens mit dieser samt der damit verbundenen Unterstützung von grundlegenden Gesundheitshaltungs- und Lebensstilveränderungen als wichtigen Teil der professionellen Arbeit von Ärzten mit Patienten zu untersuchen und diese pädagogischen Handlungskomponenten in ihren medizinsoziologisch, gesundheitswissenschaftlich und erziehungswissenschaftlich relevanten Dimensionen zu beschreiben. Hierbei wird der Arzt – neben seiner dominanten Rolle als Diagnostiker und  Behandler - nicht nur als informierender Wissensvermittler, sondern auch als Pädagoge, der die Veränderung der inneren Haltung des Patienten zu seiner chronischen Krankheit, zu sich selbst, zu seinem Leben und zur Welt gesundheitsfördernd anregen und insbesondere auch die Prüfung und Neubestimmung der fragwürdig gewordenen bisherigen Beziehung zwischen der biographischen Identität des Patienten und dem durch die chronische Krankheit geschädigten Körper unterstützen will, in den Mittelpunkt des Forschungsinteresses gerückt. Die ärztlichen Handlungsschemata der Vermittlung von krankheits-, behandlungs- und gesundheitsrelevantem Wissen in biographisch-fallspezifischer Zuspitzung, der pädagogischen Anregung von Anpassungsprozessen im Bereich der alltäglichen Lebensführung und der Ingangsetzung und Unterstützung von Prozessen der biographischen Arbeit bezüglich der Identitätsveränderung bei Patienten unter Berücksichtigung ihrer einschneidend veränderten Körper-Performanz werden am Beispiel von Ärzten untersucht, die maßgeblich an der Behandlung von Brustkrebs bzw. Herzinfarkt beteiligt sind. Durch die Erfassung und Analyse ärztlicher Orientierungsmuster (auf der Grundlage von Experteninterviews und Gruppendiskussionen) und Handlungsmuster (auf der empirischen Basis von interaktionsgeschichtlichen Fallerzählungen in Verbindung mit den Experteninterviews und von Problemfokussierungen in Gruppendiskussionen sowie von behandlungs- und bewältigungspädagogischen Vorträgen und Schulungen der Ärzte und von entsprechenden kommunikativen Reaktionen der zuhörenden bzw. mitmachenden Patienten auf diese) werden Einsichten in die spezifischen pädagogischen Aufklärungs-, Vermittlungs- und Beratungsaktivitäten von Ärzten generiert.

View project in the research portal

fachwissenschaftliche und fachdidaktische Beratung bei der Erstellung des neuen Lehrplans für das Unterrichtsfach Geschichte an Sekundarschulen des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt in den Klassenstufen 5 bis 10 + Überarbeitung der Erprobungsfassung

View project in the research portal

Historische und politische Bildung in der Schule müssen sich vermehrt audiovisueller Medien bedienen, um Aufmerksamkeit zu wecken und Akzeptanz zu heischen. Vor dem Hintergrund der höchst emotional geführten gesellschaftlichen Debatten um eine Bewertung der DDR als Unrechtsdiktatur oder als Sozialparadies , vor dem Hintergrund auch, dass sich Ostdeutsche und Westdeutsche immer noch (oder schon wieder) als die jeweils Anderen ausmachen, scheint es geradezu zwingend, die heranwachsenden Generationen differenziert aufzuklären. Dabei dürfen wir die Vermittlung nicht allein den Eltern respektive den spezifischen Regeln gehorchenden öffentlichen Medien überlassen. Vielmehr müssen wir die dort angebotenen, hoch erfolgreichen Produkte , allen voran die Filme, moderiert zur Aufklärung der Schüler nutzen. Wenn wir wissen, welche Wirkung welche Filmformate auf Schüler zeitigen, werden wir in einem zweiten Schritt in der Lage sein, Handlungsrichtlinien für Schulen und für Lehrer zu entwickeln, damit diese  die Filme ihrerseits erfolgreich im Unterricht nutzen können.

View project in the research portal

In der 2012 eingereichten und verteidigten Dissertation wird das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen den Zentralgewalten und den Mitgliedspoleis in den griechischen Bundesstaaten untersucht. Durch die Berücksichtigung der regionalen Besonderheiten ergibt sich ein sehr differenziertes Bild solcher Machtverhältnisse.

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt rekonstruiert die Geschichte dieser besonderen Gruppe von „Kriegskindern“ sozial-, diskurs- und biographiegeschichtlich. Es will einen Beitrag zur Kultur- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte der beiden deutschen Nachkriegsgesell­schaften sowie zu einer europäischen und transatlantischen Beziehungsgeschichte liefern.
Aus- und Aufbaustufe: In Vorbereitung ist derzeit eine Erweiterung des Forschungsprojektes auf den Raum Europa: Soldaten der deutschen Wehrmacht sowie der alliierten Truppen zeugten in ganz Europa und darüber hinaus „Besatzungskinder“, die in „fremden“, nicht selten gar feindlich gesinnten Nachkriegsgesellschaften groß werden mussten.wissenschaftliche Tagung „Besatzerkinder. Spätfolgen des Zweiten Weltkrieges in Deutschland und Österreich“ In Kooperation mit dem Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institut für Kriegsfolgenforschung Graz und gefördert durch die Fritz Thyssen Stiftung sowie dem National Center of Culture Warschau. Die Tagung fand am 27.9.2012 in Wien statt.

View project in the research portal

With the introduction of the trial version of the curriculum for history in secondary schools in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2010, methods internships were introduced as a new form of teaching. Materials specially tailored to the exhibition at the Spengler Museum and Spengler House in Sangerhausen have been developed to enable pupils in years 5 and 6 to carry out the "History in factual testimonies" methods internship. These include instructions for carrying out the practical course as well as working materials and will be handed over to the museum in February 2012.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

With the introduction of the trial version of the curriculum for history in secondary schools in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2010, methods internships were introduced as a new form of teaching. Materials specially tailored to the exhibition at the Spengler Museum in Sangerhausen were developed to enable pupils in grades 9 and 10 to carry out the "History in an exhibition" methods practical. The focus is on the history of Sangerhausen during the First World War.
This text was translated with DeepL

View project in the research portal

Es geht um die institutionalisierung der Kooperation von Universitäten und Unternehmen. Abgezielt wird auf die Entwicklung von lernenden Regionen in verschiedenen Ländern des postsowjetischen Raums. Dazu werden transnationale Forschungsdatenbanken und interactive websites entwickelt.

View project in the research portal

Das seit 2008 laufende Forschungsvorhaben hat das Ziel, erstmals die frühe touristische Entwicklung des Harzes von der Mitte des 17. bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts zu rekonstruieren und zu dokumentieren. Ausgangspunkt des Projekts ist die Gegenwartsbedeutung des Tourismus als entscheidender Wirtschafts- und Imagefaktor im Harz. Die Forschungsergebnisse werden in einer Monographie sowie in einer Sonderausstellung präsentiert. Letztere findet in den Räumen der Galerie 1530 in Wernigerode von April bis Dezember 2011 statt.

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt widmet sich den seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts kommerziell betriebenen Walpurgisfeiern auf dem Brocken und im Harz. Ziel ist es, die Hintergründe und Abläufe dieser alljährlichen Feste zu dokumentieren und in den Kontext der touristischen Entwicklung des Harzes einzuordnen. Das Sonderausstellungsprojekt, das im Harzmuseum Wernigerode zwischen Frühjahr und Herbst 2011 realisiert wird, versteht sich als Korrespondenz zu der zeitgleich in der Galerie 1530 stattfindenden Ausstellung zur Geschichte des Harztourismus.

View project in the research portal

In dem neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplan für das Fach Geschichte für die Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts sind erstmals sog. Methodenpraktika integriert. Diese erfordern einen grundsätzlich anderen fachdidaktisch-unterrichtlichen Zugriff sowie eine enge Kooperation der Schulen mit außerschulischen Partnern. Im Rahmen des Projekts erarbeiten die Teilnehmer konkrete Ablaufpläne und Materialien für die Umsetzung des Methodenpraktikums Zeitgeschichte in einer Ausstellung in der Gedenkstätte Marienborn. Gleichzeitig bereiten sie eine einführende Lehrerfortbildung vor, die vom 4.-6. Juli 2011 in der Gedenkstätte stattfinden wird.

View project in the research portal

Die Einführung eines neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplans für das Fach Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts stellte die Schulbuchverlage vor die Aufgabe, die bisherigen Lehrwerke gründlich zu überarbeiten bzw. völlig neu zu konzipieren. In dem laufenden Projekt erarbeiten die Studierenden unter Anleitung für das Lehrwerk Die Reise in die Vergangenheit ein neues, komplettes Schulbuchkapitel für die Klassenstufen 9/10 zum Thema Zeitgeschichte im digitalen Medium .

View project in the research portal

Die Einführung eines neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplans für das Fach Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts stellte die Schulbuchverlage vor die Aufgabe, die bisherigen Lehrwerke gründlich zu überarbeiten bzw. völlig neu zu konzipieren. In dem laufenden Projekt erarbeiten die Studierenden unter Anleitung für das Lehrwerk Die Reise in die Vergangenheit ein neues komplettes Schulbuchkapitel für die Klassenstufen 9/10 zum Thema Zeitgeschichte in einer Ausstellung .

View project in the research portal

Die Einrichtung der Amnestie von Seiten des Staates ist eine Erfindung der alten Griechen. In einem internationalen und interdisziplinären Projekt der Universität Wien soll die Amnestie in verschiedenen Epochen des Altertums untersucht werden, um Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede herauszuarbeiten. In Magdeburg werden die Amnestien der archaischen und klassischen Zeit Griechenlands bearbeitet.

View project in the research portal

Das Medienpaket, das auf Basis von Zeitzeugeninterviews vom MDR ursprünglich für Rundfunk und Fernsehen produziert wurde, wird im Rahmen des Projekts für die Bildungsarbeit im Geschichtsunterricht aufbereitet. Das von den Studierenden zu erarbeitende Begleitmaterial soll neben historischen Zusatz- und Hintergrundinformationen zu den vorgestellten Einzelschicksalen konkrete Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der unterrichtlichen Arbeit aufzeigen.

View project in the research portal

Das Medienpaket, das auf Basis von Zeitzeugeninterviews vom MDR ursprünglich für Rundfunk und Fernsehen produziert wurde, wird im Rahmen des Projekts für die Bildungsarbeit im Geschichtsunterricht aufbereitet. Das von den Studierenden zu erarbeitende Begleitmaterial soll neben historischen Zusatz- und Hintergrundinformationen zu den vorgestellten Einzelschicksalen konkrete Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der unterrichtlichen Arbeit aufzeigen.

View project in the research portal

Ziel des (vorläufigen) Projekts ist die Einreichung eines DFG-Antrags, der folgende Zielsetzung hat:
Erstens Erstellung einer relationalen Datenbank sämtlicher griechischer und lateinischer Fluchtafeln. Zweitens die Auswertung der gesammelten Daten unter der Fragestellung, wie sich die Formeln in den Fluchtafeln zeitlich und regional entwickelt haben, um die Entwicklung dieser magischen Praxis in der gesamten Antike zu dokumentieren.

View project in the research portal

Es handelt sich um ein empirisches Projekt,dessen Daten über Experteninterviews mit Managern gewonnen werden. Als Manager relevant für das Projekt sind solche, die sowohl Erfahrungen in Führungspositionen vor und nach der wirtschaftlichen Wende in den beiden Ländern  haben. Das Projekt  zielt darauf ab, die Unterschiede im Wirtschaftshandeln von Managern in Russland und Ostdeutschland herauszuarbeiten und deren kulturelle Einbettung nachzuweisen.

View project in the research portal

Im Rahmen einer Lehrveranstaltung bereiteten Studierende des IGES zunächst eine mehrstündige, später unter fachlicher und didaktischer Anleitung eine dreitägige Lehrerfortbildung zur innerdeutschen Grenze vor. Im Ergebnis entstand eine Publikation von Darstellungen und Quellen zur Unterrichtsvorbereitung

View project in the research portal

Im Rahmen einer fachwissenschaftlich und didaktisch orientierten Lehrveranstaltung erarbeiten Studierende des IGES Begleitmaterialien für zwei DVD s (Geschichte der Juden in Sachsen-Anhalt zwischen 1933 und 1945 und Herbst 1989 in Sachsen-Anhalt), die auf den neuen Lehrplan der Sekundarschulen abgestimmt sind.

View project in the research portal

Doppelabschlüsse mit der Universität Klausenburg, Rumänien, sollen im Fach European Studies entwickelt werden. Das Projekt dient der weiteren Internationalisierung der Fakultät. Es ist interdisziplinär angelegt und soll integrierte Module für Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften konzipieren. Das Projekt umfasst auch einen Lehrenden- und Studierendenaustausch.

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt untersucht politische Diskurse im Hinblick auf die Herausbildung einer europäischen Identität. Dabei wird der politische Diskurs als diskursiver Raum betrachtet, in dem Identifikationsmöglichkeiten mit Europa und der Europäischen Union bereitgestellt, reproduziert und verändert werden. Zur Untersuchung dieser Identifikationsmöglichkeiten mit Europa werden Textkorpora zusammengestellt, die mit Hilfe lexikometrischer Computerprogramme untersucht werden. Diese Programme ermöglichen sowohl eine textstatistische als auch eine qualitative Analyse von Textkorpora. Als Untersuchungsgegenstand wurde zunächst ein Korpus aus Wahlprogrammen französischer, britischer und deutscher Parteien zu den Europawahlen zwischen 1979 und 2004 zusammengestellt. Eine Erweiterung des Korpus mit Protokollen aus Parlamentsdebatten und Pressetexten zu europapolitischen Fragen wird angestrebt.

View project in the research portal

Stationäre Altenhilfe ist ein wachsender Dienstleistungsbereich. In ihn drängen aufgrund diverser Gründe Arbeitskräfte mit Migrationshintergrund und Aussiedler aus den Gebieten hinter dem ehemaligen Eisernen Vorhang. Das wirft Fragen nach der Kooperation zwischen diesen Personen und den deutschen Mitgliedern in den Arbeitsteams auf. In verschiedenen Einrichtungen der stationären Altenhilfe in Bayern wurde eine qualitative Befragung durchgeführt, um die Integriertheit der Arbeitsteams einschätzen zu können.

View project in the research portal

Der Anteil suboptimaler oder gar gescheiterter interkultureller Wirtschaftskooperationen ist beträchtlich. Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung erfasst aber ausschließlich marktrelevante Kompetenzen eines Unternehmens, daneben steht die Diskussion um weiche Faktoren aus individualpsychologischer und soziologischer Sicht. Reine Finanzbilanzen bilden nun aufgrund ihrer linearen Urteilsbildung die Erfolgsfaktoren internationaler Kooperation nicht ab, da Kooperationsprozesse nicht linear, sondern mehrdimensional ablaufen. Deshalb wird an der Uni Magdeburg ein interdisziplinär angelegter Ansatz zur Beseitigung bestehender Schwachpunkte rein zahlengeleiteter Bewertungsansätze für die Auswahl internationaler Kooperationspartner verfolgt. Konkret untersucht wird die Kooperationskompetenz kooperationswilliger deutscher und indischer Unternehmen sowie deren organisationale Passung untereinander. Die zentrale Forschungsfrage lautet: Kann ein soziologisch und psychologisch fundiertes  Bewertungssystem unter Berücksichtigung kultureller Einflussfaktoren einen positiven Beitrag zur validen Messung und Beurteilung der Kooperationskompetenz potentieller deutscher und indischer Kooperationspartner sowie deren paarweisen Passung leisten? Vorgehen: Zunächst wurden unter Einsatz qualitativer und quantitativer Erhebungsmethoden zentrale Erfolgsfaktoren deutsch-indischer Koop. erhoben. Danach musste diskutiert werden, welche Erhebungsmethoden im Bezug auf die Auswahl int. Kooperationspartner praktikabel sind. Aus den Ergebnissen wurde dann ein Auswahlinstrumentarium erstellt, dass kooperationswilligen Unternehmen eine systematische Auswahl fremdkultureller Partner ermöglicht. Der Ansatz ist dabei nicht auf den indischen Kulturkreis begrenzt, sondern kann auch auf andere Kulturen übertragen werden.

View project in the research portal

The project aims at development of a course book on the above mentioned topic. It is developed interactively with students.

View project in the research portal

Auf der Basis des im Rahmen einer über drei Jahre von der DFG geförderten qualitativen Untersuchung gesammelten Materials wird nun die Buchveröffentlichung vorbereitet. Die Untersuchung war qualitativ ausgerichtet. In Fallstudien wird die Veränderungen im ländlichen Raum untersucht, die die gesellschaftliche Transformation ausgelöst hat.

View project in the research portal

Untersucht wird, inwieweit sich das Strafrecht der römischen Republik bis zum Beginn des Prinzipats entwickelt und ausdifferenziert hat. Das starre institutionelle Schema, das in der bisherigen Forschung angenommen wurde, wird grundsätzlich in Frage gestellt.

View project in the research portal

Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurde ein theoretischer Entwurf vorgeschlagen, mit dessen
Hilfe räumliche Mechanismen der Konstitution kollektiver Identitäten in sozialen Bewegungen erfasst werden können. Dafür wurden bewegungs- und raumsoziologische Konzepte auf der Grundlage des Strukturierungsansatzes in Giddens` Variante verknüpft. Die Grundannahme war, dass die Räume und die geteilten Wir-Definitionen (also kollektive Identitäten) beide im Alltagshandeln von Bewegungsakteuren (re)produziert werden. Der Entwurf wurde empirisch am Fallbeispiel der Berliner ?linken Szene? überprüft. Die Praxis kollektiver Identität in der ?linken Szene? als Bewegungsmilieu wurde in einer ethnographisch orientierten Feldforschung mit Hilfe kombinierter explorativ-interpretativer Verfahren (teilnehmende Beobachtung, Frame-Analyse, qualitative leitfadengestützte Interviews) untersucht. Dies ermöglichte nachzuvollziehen, wie die Konstitution und Reproduktion alltäglicher sowie episodischer Räume in der Bewegungspraxis passiert und wie dadurch die kollektiven Identitäten konstruiert werden. Das theoretische und methodische Design hat sich bewährt. Der ursprüngliche Entwurf wurde allerdings differenziert und erweitert: eine stärkere Berücksichtigung fanden u.a. das emotionale und körperliche Engagement der Aktivisten, die Multiplizität räumlicher Konstruktionen und der ?verinselte? Charakter symbolischer Räume eines Bewegungsmilieus.

Erste Veröffentlichungen:
2006: Golova, Tatiana: Raum-zeitliche Ordnungen linker Identität. In: Krause, B. et al. (Hg.) Chronotopographien : Agency in ZeitRäumen. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, S.161-172

View project in the research portal

Das Projekt ist Teil des internationalen und interdisziplären Projekts "Ordine e sovversione nel mondo greco e romano" (Ordnung und Subversion in der griechisch-römischen Welt), das von der Fondazione Niccolò Canussio, Cividale del Friuli, gefördert wird. In Magdeburg wird der spartanische Kosmos der archaischen und klassischen Zeit daraufhin untersucht, ob er durch die Unterdrückung der Heloten oder andere spezifische Gegebenheiten gefährdet war.

View project in the research portal

In diesem Projekt geht es um die Entwicklung eines theoretischen Rahmens für ein binationales Graduiertenkolleg sowie um die Entwicklung von Forschungspfaden, die konkretisierte Forschungsprojekte zum wirtschaftlichen, kulturellen, sozialen und politischen Wandel ermöglichen.

View project in the research portal

Erarbeitet wird eine Sammlung von repräsentativen Quellen zu den verschiedenen Typen des antiken Asyls von der griechischen Frühzeit bis in die christliche Spätantike. Die Texte sollen zweisprachig publiziert werden.

View project in the research portal

Das Forschungsprojekt geht am Beispiel des Bologna-Prozesses der Frage nach, nach welchen Regeln und Mechanismen diskursive Formationen funktionieren, die den nationalstaatlichen Rahmen übersteigen. Mit den Methoden der französischen Diskursanalyse werden Reden, Interviews, Zeitschriftenartikel und Kommissionsberichte nach sprachlichen Formen abgesucht, über die der Text auf Kontexte zugreift. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es zu zeigen, mit welchen Techniken die technokratischen Diskurse des Bologna-Prozesses das Politische zurückhalten.

View project in the research portal

Dieses Projekt ist eine einjährige Lehrforschung. Sie besteht aus 3 Phasen: Projektvorbereitung (incl. Schreiben eines Forschungsantrags), Feldforschung, Datenanalyse (incl. Erstellung eines Forschungsberichtes).
Die Studierenden untersuchen zwei Schwerpunkte:Sozialen Aktivismus in Slums
- im Hinblick auf Bleiberechte, Räumungen und Lebensbedingungen
- im Hinblick auf Kommunalismus
Die Forschergruppe besteht aus folgenden Studierenden der Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft, Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und European Studies:
Nadine Brunsendorf, Paula Grobbecker, Daniela Fromm, Ina Fusko, AntjeWegner, Jessica Keil, Esther Mydla, Corinna Scholz, Matthes Kuech,Tobias Held, Jan Zalweski

View project in the research portal

Die Untersuchung ermittelt, welche Auswirkungen sich durch Exklusionen aus bestimmten Subsystemen des estnischen Nationalstaats für die soziale Integration ethnischer Russen ergeben. Als Arbeitsmodell dient der migrationstheoretische Ansatz von Hartmut Esser (1999, 2001). Anhand Essers vier Formen der Sozialintegration (Platzierung, Kulturation, Interaktion und Identifikation) wird analysiert, ob ethnische Russen in der Untersuchungsregion über strukturelle, kulturelle, inter-ethnische und identifikative Assimilationsbestreben verfügen und wie sich diese bewerten lassen. Ein weiteres Ziel der Arbeit besteht darin, normative und interessengeleitete Zugehörigkeitsbindungen unterhalb der politisch-rechtlichen Ebene herauszuarbeiten. Einerseits frage ich nach der Inklusions- und Exklusionslogik des estnischen Staates, die verhindern kann, dass die Angehörigen der Minoritätengemeinschaft überhaupt zu vollwertigen Mitgliedern der Gesellschaft werden. Andererseits wird den Motiven und Orientierungen ethnisch-russischer Minderheitenakteure nachgegangen, sich überhaupt in die estnische Aufnahmegesellschaft integrieren zu wollen. Außerdem wird analysiert, ob bei ethnischen Russen Strategien beobachten werden können, die auf eine Selbstexklusion verweisen, und ob es nach dem Ende der Sowjetunion für die Angehörigen der russischen Minderheitengruppe zu Identitätsverschiebungen und infolge gefühlter oder erlebter Diskriminierungen zu einer Verstärkung der ethnischen Identität gekommen ist.

View project in the research portal

In einem Buchprojekt wird die Geschichte Siziliens im Altertum von der griechischen Kolonisation (8. Jahrhundert v. Chr.) bis zur arabischen Eroberung (8. Jh. n. Chr.) behandelt. Unterkapitel sind den einzelnen Phasen gewidmet, die innerhalb der griechischen, römischen, hellenistischen und spätantiken Epoche angesiedelt sind.
In Vorträgen und Aufsätzen geht es um spezifischere Fragen wie Bürgerrecht, Asyl, Tyrannis, Frauen in den sizilischen Poleis sowie um die Beziehungen dieser Städte ins griechische Mutterland.

View project in the research portal

In dem Projekt wurde die Transformation in Russland untersucht anhand der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in umweltrelevanten Entscheidungsverfahren. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf 40 Fallbeispielen zu Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungen in ganz Russland über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahrzehnten. Sie geben Anlass, den Rückschritt in der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung festzustellen und damit auch den Rückschritt in der demokratischen Entwicklung Russlands seit der Perestroika, die auch von einer Umweltbewegung motiviert wurde.

View project in the research portal

Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojektes, das mittelständische Unternehmen fallanalytisch untersuchte, weisen darauf hin, dass ein Ende der Hierarchien nicht festzustellen ist. Der momentane Umbau führt eher zu Formen zentralisierter Dezentralisierung beim Umbau von Unternehmen.

View project in the research portal

Das ISOZ führte in Kooperation in Kooperation mit der Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg (Russ. Föd.), eine binationale Konferenz durch. Teilnehmer der OvGU waren: Prof. Dittrich, Prof. Schrader und Prof. Lohmann.

View project in the research portal

Aufgabe des Projekts ist die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Schülern, Lehrern und Wissenschaftlern im Fach Geschichte. Einbezogen werden auch Museen und weitere wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen. Im Zentrum steht ein Schülerkongreß im Frühjahr 2007 und die Langobardenwerkstatt, d.h. experimentelle Archäologie bei den Ausgrabungen in Zethlingen (Sachsen-Anhalt).

View project in the research portal

Der indische Sozialanthropologe der Universität Mumbai, Dr. Michael, war als DAAD-Gastprofessor an das Institut für Soziologie eingeladen, um dort über di indische Sozialstruktur und Konflikge zu lehren.

View project in the research portal

In dem Projekt werden die Auswirkungen der sozio-ökonomischen Restrukturierung agrarischer Regionen auf die Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen auf dem Lande in osteuropäischen Transformationsgesellschaften untersucht. Fallbeispiele sind Dörfer in Nord- und Südrussland, Estland und Bulgarien. In diesen drei Ländern sind die Transformationsbedingten Voraussetzungen für den Wandel ländlicher Lebenswelten, etwa die Privatisierungs- und Restitutionsregelungen, sehr unterschiedlich und decken so eine grosse Bandbreite derzeitiger Reformmassnahmen ab. Forschungsleitend sind Fragen nach den sozialintegrativen Veränderungen, die nicht einfach als Folge von systemintegrativen Prozessen zu verstehen sind. Mit theoretischen Ansätzen zur (Re-)Produktion sozialer Ungleichheiten und zur Restrukturierung ländlicher Regionen werden folgende Aspekte untersucht: 1. Der Wandel ländlicher Lebenswelten infolge der derzeitigen Agrarreformen; 2. Die Sozialstruktur ländlicher Gebiete während des Privatisierungsprozesses; 3. Die Entstehengsbedingungen lokaler Akteure in den jeweiligen Siedlungseinheiten.

View project in the research portal

Anhand von Fallstudien zu drei Regionen (Moskau, Westkaukasus, Baikal) beschäftigt sich das Projekt in einem ersten Schritt mit den Instrumenten der Umweltfolgenabschätzung und -bewältigung in der russischen Föderation unter dem Aspekt der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung als Indikator für den Stand der Demokratisierung in Entscheidungsprozessen. Anschliessend wir in einem zweiten Schritt nach den Möglichkeiten einer Harmonisierung der russischen Instrumente mit den Standards in der Europäische Union gefragt. Die Projektleitung und -administration liegt bei Prof. Köppel, TU Berlin, Institut für Landschafts-und Umweltplanung. Kooperationspartner auf russ. Seite ist Prof. Dr. A. Drozdov, Institut für Geografie der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Moskau

View project in the research portal

Vor dem Hintergrund der Transformation Osteuropas und der Bedeutung von Kleinunternehmen in diesem Prozess untersucht das Projekt, welche Formen von Kapital (ökonomisches Kapital, Bildungskapital, Sozialkapital, Informationskapital, politisches Kapital) für die erfolgreiche Etablierung von Kleinunternehmen notwendig sind. Mithilfe von qualitativen Methoden werden Biographien von Unternehmern und Unternehmenslebenszyklen in den drei Ländern untersucht. Hierbei wird von einem theoretischen Ansatz der Pfadabhängigkeit ausgegangen.

View project in the research portal

Für Klein-und Mittelbetriebe wird unterstellt, dass sie das Rückgrat moderner, kapitalistischer Marktwirtschaften in westlichen Demokratien bilden. Die zentrale Frage des Projektes lautet, ob dieses auch für Transformationsökonomien der Fall ist. Diese Frage wird empirisch vergleichend in den angegebenen Ländern überprüft und zwar mit quantitativen wie mit qualitativen Methoden.

View project in the research portal

Pfandhäuser werden in der Litetatur als "Banken für die Armen" beschrieben. Diese Hypothese wurde aufgegriffen und mit verschiedenen Methoden quantitativer und qualitativer Forschung untersucht.
Themanschwerpunkte: Geschichte russischer Pfandhäuser, der Pfandhausmarkt in St. Petersburg, 100 quantitative Interviews mit Kunden über ihre Lebensbedingungen und den Pfandkredit, 5 Tiefeninterviews mit Kunden, vorstrukturierte Interviews mit Managern von Pfandhäusern, die Lebensgeschichte eines Pfandhausmanagers und einer besonders erfolgreichen Firma

View project in the research portal

In dem Projekt wird die transformationsbedingte Neustrukturierung der Lebensverhältnisse in den sozialen "unteren Mittellagen" untersucht. Hier haben sich die konkreten Anforderungen an die alltägliche Lebensführung stark verändert und zum großen Teil verschlechtert. Neben der empirischen Beschreibung geht es um die Frage, welche Sozialindikatoren heute den Wandel der russischen Sozialstruktur adäquat erfassen.

View project in the research portal