Research areas
The University of Hamburg is the biggest and most diverse research center in Northern Germany. Its research profile consists of five core research areas, five emerging fields as well as high quality individual research based on profile initiatives and individual research.
The researchers of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences participate in core research areas and emerging fields. In addition, our researchers are currently participating in several profile initiatives. Profile initiatives are characterized by cross-faculty research on topics that could expand into emerging fields in the coming years through the acquisition of third-party funding. There is also a large number of projects involving individual research of the professorships.
Research at the faculty is interdisciplinary. Based on the principles of the University of Hamburg as a “University of Sustainability”, our researchers work intensively on sustainability and its social, economic and reflexive dimensions and perspectives. Examples of these themes are sustainable finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable cities and mobility, managing grand challenges, welfare provision, public goods, intergenerational justice, resilience or science studies. Interdisciplinary research on sustainability within the faculty was strengthened by a cluster appointment (2015 and 2016) and other strategic appointments. In September 2019, the DFG funded Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe) “Futures of Sustainability” commenced its work. Since 2022, members of the faculty are participating in inter-university research within the framework of the DFG research training group “Urban Future-Making: Professional agency across time and scale”. Under the leadership of the HCU and in cooperation with the TUHH, the researchers address current topics such as urban growth, climate change and resource exploitation. Several researchers at WiSo faculty have become ambassadors of the UN’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim of strengthening the topic of sustainability at the University of Hamburg, of developing academic contributions to the SDGs, of pointing out intersections between the goals and at the same time encouraging critical reflection on the SDGs. In addition, the Center for Sustainable Society Research (CSS) aims to broaden the understanding of social and economic institutions and processes of modern societies with regard to sustainability. The common focus of research at the CSS is on the conditions and perspectives of a "society of sustainability" that combines ecological responsibility with a focus on social justice and democratic legitimacy.
In the following, you will find a selection of core research areas, emerging fields and profile initiatives involving researchers from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.