Research and Teaching Unit 10: Sociology of Labor and Economic Sociology

Our department represents the sociology of labour and economic sociology in research and teaching. Economic activity and labour are ubiquitous phenomena: in all historical and contemporary societies, economic activity and labour have been and continue to be practised. Through economic activity, people make provisions for future needs; through labour, they secure and reproduce their individual and social lives.

Economic sociology

The development of economic sociology as an independent discipline of sociology can be understood as a scientific response to the increasing differentiation and independence of the economy in society and to the increasing spread of economically characterised patterns of thought and action to all areas of modern societies. In this sense, economic sociology can be conceived as a special sociology of the social subsystem of the economy, its institutions, organisations, fields, patterns of action and actors, or as the sociology of economic action in society. As a specialised sociology of the economy, it examines how the system of material reproduction of a society (production, exchange, distribution, consumption) depends on the respective social and political structures and processes and on those of other societies. In fact, economic sociology today concentrates on modern, capitalistically characterised, industrial, "western" market economies.

Sociology of labour

In modern society, work has a twofold connection: on the one hand, it has a connection to society. Labour is an essential means of inclusion in society, first and foremost in the economic system. People acquire income and entitlements to social security systems through gainful employment. Social inequality is also mediated centrally through inclusion in the economic system via work. At this level of system formation, the differentiation of labour markets, market and competitive structures and regulatory models can also be observed. In addition to the reference to society (social organisation of work), gainful employment also has an organisational reference. Work is carried out in organisations, particularly in the economic system, but also in organisations in other areas of society, such as law firms, tax offices or the Öko-Institut. At this level of system formation, the focus is on questions of the organisational shaping of the medium of work. Examples of this are working hours or the definition and allocation of work tasks. The sociology of work is interested in the change in form and the interactions between social organisation and the organisational formation of work.

Economic sociology and sociology of work have a number of relevant similarities in several dimensions: closely interwoven subject areas, common theoretical references, shared methods, identical or related topics (such as the labour market, industrial relations, production regimes) and classics taken into account (including Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Polanyi). On the other hand, the similarities, especially in the subject area and topics, offer the opportunity to emphasise the different perspectives of both sub-disciplines and thus to sharpen their disciplinary profile. For specific focal points of the research area in research and teaching, see points 3 and 4