Research

One focus of our research is on the causes and consequences of residential relocation, residential choice, and commuting. In this context, we investigate a variety of topics, e.g., the importance of urban greenery for housing and life satisfaction in large cities, or the effects of long-distance commuting on intimate partnerships and the division of labor in the household.
Furthermore, we deal with influences of the social environment on everyday behavior with ecological implications. This includes, for example, research on the use of home office in a European comparison or on the social influences on the decision to abstain from eating meat.
Position in the life course, gender and social class or socio-economic status play an important role in our research.

International cooperation and expert activities

2025 Visiting Professor at the School of Social Ecology, University of California at Irvine (UCI), USA, at the invitation of Distinguished Prof. Jutta Heckhausen.
Research collaboration on the topic “How enjoying nature benefits affective well-being” with Prof. J. Heckhausen, UCI, USA, Dr. T. Dovbischuk, New York University at Abu Dhabi (NYU), UAE, and Prof. J. Huinink, University of Bremen.
Research cooperation on “The Eect of Spatial Mobility on Well-Being” with Prof. S. Vidal, Universitat Autònoma & Centre d'Estudis Demogracs in Barcelona, Spain, and Dr. N. Stawarz and Prof. H. Rüger, Federal Institute for Population Research, Wiesbaden & University of Mainz.
Research cooperation on the topic “Contribution of Climate Change Adaptation Actions on Well-Being among the Southwestern Coastal People of Bangladesh with Md. Foezullah Talukder, Head of the Climate Change Program of the Christian Commission of Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Prof. Md. Nadiruzzaman, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Research collaboration on the topic “Influences on sustainable food practices” with Prof. Bente Halkier, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Research collaboration on “Morality and Cooperation” with Prof. A. Murayama, Ritsumeikan University, Japan, Prof. L. J. Skitka, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, Prof. R. Miniesy, British University in Egypt (BUE); Prof. D. Rabie, Northeastern University London, UK, and Prof. V. Vignoles, University of Sussex, UK.
Member of the Advisory Board of the journal “Population, Space and Place”, Wiley.
Member of the Committee 260 “Market, opinion and social research services” at Austrian Standards, Vienna, Austria. The committee deals with the further development of the globally valid ISO standard 20252 entitled “Market, opinion and social research, including insights and data analytics - vocabulary and service requirements”.

Publications

See Google Scholar.