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Social Structure and Social Inequality

Research and Teching unit 5

Campus der Universität Bielefeld — © Fakultät für Soziologie

News

Monitoring oder Überwachung: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Wahrnehmung von digitalem Monitoring und Arbeitszufriedenheit
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Neues Paper von Sebastian Sattler zu chronischen Rücken- und Kopfschmerzen in der arbeitenden Bevölkerung

In the Research and Teaching Unit 5 "Social Structure and Social Inequality", we teach and research the persistence and change of social inequality. We look at the entire range of dimensions of social inequality, from material resources such as income and wealth to health, and focus not only on objective indicators but also on the perception and evaluation of inequality. In doing so, we analyse the influence of social structures - at the level of societies, companies or families - on individuals and how individuals in turn shape social structures.

Our research is more than just a snapshot of existing inequality structures, but examines how new technologies, demographic changes and crises (e.g. the coronavirus pandemic) (re)produce old and new inequalities.

In research and teaching, we use representative longitudinal and cross-sectional data that link item-based measurements with other types of data (survey experiments, administrative data, context indicators). In addition to our own data collection projects, we use secondary data from existing survey programmes - such as the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the European Social Survey (ESS) - and incorporate the research topics of AB5 into these.

Research projects

Current projects AG Abendroth

Working Without End? Effectiveness, Obstacles and Levers of the Right to Disconnect Across the World, Grant holder: Marie-Colombe Afota (University of Montreal), Co-Investigators: Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, Simon Houle, Anja-Kristin Abendroth, Pablo Escribano, Marylène Gagné, Marcello Russo, Erika Tanimura (Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC Insight Grant): 2026-2031)
Multidimensional dynamics of organizational policy feedback: Investigating the implementation and consequences of diversity policies for organizational inequality regimes and the (re-)production of social inequalities (Funded by DFG: 2026-2029)
The Gender and Generational Gap in Professions with Digitalized (AI) Activities: Increased Work Time Demands and (Untapped) Reconciliation Potential of Digital (AI) Technologies? (Digi-Gap) (Joint research with: Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation, lead project of DIFIS-SOFO funded by BMAS: 2026–2028)
Infra4NextGen Providing research infrastructure services to support Next Generation EU, Academic Expert for the pillar "Make it Digital" (funded by EU: 2024-2028)
The choice between time or money: new flexibility for a better work-life balance? (funded by Hans Böckler Foundation: 2021-2027)

Current projects AG Sauer

EU-CoG FAIRGAP: Wage Negotiations and Gender Pay Gaps: Exploring the Role of Fairness Attitudes in Europe (funded by the EU: 2025-2030)
ENHANCE: Cognitive Enhancement in Germany: Prevalence, Procurement Strategies, Causes, and Implications (funded by DFG: 2018-2026, project management: Dr Sebastian Sattler)
PIJE: Perceptions of Inequalities and Justice in Europe (funded by Leibniz Association: 2020-2025)

Current projects AG Diewald

Teaching

Teaching profile

The programme in field 5 Social Structure and Social Inequality pursues the following learning objectives:

Students should be enabled to apply the basic concepts of sociology and the general as well as the more specialised theoretical approaches to diagnose and analyse social structure and social inequality in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Students should be able to use the methods of empirical social research both to obtain and analyse as well as to critically assess empirical data on phenomena of social structure.
Students should acquire content-related knowledge about the social structure of the Federal Republic of Germany in historical and international comparison and be able to critically scrutinise this knowledge theoretically, methodologically and methodologically.

The training in field 5 Social Structure and Social Inequality is based on the understanding that it is part of the task of sociology to adequately describe and causally explain social phenomena. As in other empirical sciences, we rely on theoretical models that have to prove themselves empirically in terms of their informative value and validity. This means that teaching

is theory-orientated, because only theories provide the conceptual and analytical tools for a scientifically sound description and explanation of social phenomena and
empirically orientated, because any description and explanation of social phenomena must be based on a methodologically sound and precise observation of the social world.