Research areas

Research in the Department of Social Sciences focuses on the following topics:

Climate, Earth and Environment

Since 2007 numerous researchers from the Department of Social Sciences have participated in the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climate Change and Society (CLICCS), it's predecessor "Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP)" and in the University’s core research area Climate, Earth and Environment.

Globalisation and Governance

Most of the researchers in the Faculty’s research area Globalisation and Governance are from the Department of Social Sciences. They study the effects of globalization on individual societies and international institutions. Topics include the role and impact of fundamental norms with regard to the invisible constitution of politics and the changing global order, or the role of migration and gender justice in a globalized world.

Sustainability

Researchers in the Faculty’s emerging field Sustainability take an interdisciplinary approach to the social, economic, and reflexive dimensions of sustainability. The ecological dimension of sustainability is closely linked to the University’s core research area Climate, Earth and Environment and the work of the Climate, Climate Change and Society (CLICCS) cluster of excellence. Topics in the Department cover social welfare, intergenerational equity, resilience, and science studies. In 2015 and 2016 a strategic academic search and clustered appointments strengthened this interdisciplinary emerging field.

Collective Decision-Making

Together with colleagues from the Department of Economics and in conjunction with the interdisciplinary degree program Politics, Economics, Philosophy (PEP), researchers from the Department of Social Sciences participate in the Faculty’s emerging field Collective Decision Making. Since 2020, the DFG-funded research training group "Collective Decision-Making" puts further emphasis on the topic, particulary through its PhD program.

Research focuses on the question of how individuals and groups make decisions, especially in the face of conflicts of interest or of values. They analyze the interaction between the procedures and results of collective decision making and their normative evaluation. The goal is to explain and evaluate formal and informal state and societal institutions as a stabilizing force in the interactive decision-making process.

Professors from the Department and their colleagues work in numerous fields in this research area. You can find more details about the individual research areas on the subject areas and professorships pages.