Veranstaltungen › Akademie für Soziologie

Die AS-Hybrid-Vortragsreihe zur analytisch-empirischen Soziologie findet im Winter 2025 am Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES) der Universität Mannheim statt. Die Reihe bringt internationale und lokale Referenten zusammen und lädt zur Diskussion über wichtige gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen und Entwicklungen ein. Die Vorträge finden dienstags von 13:45 bis 15:15 Uhr im MZES, A5, 6, 68159 Mannheim und online statt.

Programm (Winter 2025):

16.09 – Jennifer Hill (NYU Steinhardt)
21.10 – Irena Kogan (University of Mannheim)
11.11 – Andreas Wimmer (Columbia University)
02.12 – Markus Strohmaier (University of Mannheim)

Teilnahme/Zoom: Bitte tragen Sie sich in die mailing list ein, um Abstracts und Zoom-Links zu erhalten. Für die Online-Teilnahme ist keine separate Anmeldung erforderlich.

Organization/Kontakt: Marc Helbling, Richard Traunmüller, Malte Reichelt.

As in 2024, the „Venice Seminar“ on „Analytical Sociology: Theory and Empirical Applications“ will again take place in Venice, Italy. The organizers welcome theoretical contributions in the field of analytical sociology or theory-driven empirical social research on any topic. There will be slots for a maximum of 30 oral presentations (30 min. including discussion) and 25 posters. The poster sessions will begin with short introductory presentations in the main conference hall. Language of presentation is English. Organisation: The workshop is organized by Josef Brüderl and Gerrit Bauer (LMU Munich) in cooperation with the Venice International University (VIU) and the Academy of Sociology (AS). The Venice International University (VIU) buildings are located on the small island of San Servolo (about 10 minutes by boat from the historic city centre). Participants can book hotel rooms either on San Servolo or in the city centre. There is no workshop fee, but no covering of travel costs. Abstract Submission: If you would like to present a paper/poster, please send an abstract…

…(one page max.) by July 18^th to venice@soziologie.uni-muenchen.de. Please indicate whether you prefer an oral presentation, a poster, or are indifferent. A preliminary programme will be available in early August. For further organizational details please see the workshop homepage.

The 5th Conference of the Academy of Sociology will take place at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) from October 8 to 10, 2025. The theme of the conference is “Societal Challenges – Sociological Answers?”. The conference draws attention to the problem-solving capacities of sociology and the transfer of evidence-based findings to the public and to policy makers. Please click here for the conference program. The registration is open by August 31, 2025.

Congress website: click here We look forward to seeing you in Mainz!

In der soziologischen Forschungspraxis werden hypothesenfalsifizierende Befunde vornehmlich im Licht möglicher methodischer Limitierungen diskutiert. Die empirische Haltbarkeit der geprüften theoretischen Haupt- und Hilfsannahmen wird dagegen kaum kritisch und nicht systematisch hinterfragt, so dass entsprechende Theoriemodifikationen vergleichsweise selten erfolgen. Auf der Tagung der AK „Methodologie der Sozialwissenschaften“ der Akademie für Soziologie (gemeinsam mit den Frühjahrstagungen der DGS-Sektionen „Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung“ und „Modellbildung und Simulation“) sollen deshalb methodologische Fragen zur Theorieentwicklung und Modellbildung im Kontext empirischer Forschungsaktivitäten erörtert werden. Dabei soll der Fokus weg von Fragen der methodisch-technischen Umsetzung hin zu Fragen der theoretischen Hauptannahmen, ergänzenden Hilfsannahmen und Modellbildung beim Ziehen von Schlussfolgerungen aus empirischen Studien gelegt werden. Die Tagung versteht sich insofern auch als Fortführung …

… der Diskussionen beim AS-Workshop „Theoriebildung und Theorieprüfung in der analytisch-empirischen Soziologie“ im September 2023 in Mainz. Bitte senden Sie ein Abstract (max. 250 Wörter) bis einschließlich 02.01.2025 via Email an Hawal Shamon (ice2-ess-conference@fz-juelich.de). Die Tagungssprache ist Deutsch, allerdings können Vorträge auch auf Englisch gehalten werden. Sie finden den ausführlichen Call hier. Für Rückfragen stehen wir jederzeit gerne zur Verfügung. Wir freuen uns, Sie auf der Tagung in Leipzig begrüßen zu dürfen. Der Call for Abstracts ist beendet. Das Tagungsprogramm finden Sie hier

Die DGS-Sektion „Methoden der Empirischen Sozialforschung“ und der AS-Arbeitskreis „Methodologie der Sozialwissenschaften“ veranstalten eine gemeinsame Tagung zu den methodologischen Herausforderungen von Computational Sociology. Welche methodologischen Entwicklungen müssen vorangetrieben werden, um diese neuen Daten und Analysemöglichkeiten für die theoriegeleitete empirische Sozialforschung und für die Theorieentwicklung gewinnbringend einsetzen zu können? Verlieren Erklärungen gegenüber statistischen Beschreibungen und Vorhersagen an Bedeutung? Kann damit die Prognosefähigkeit der Soziologie erhöht werden? Und schließlich: Wie muss die soziologische Methodenausbildung ausgerichtet werden, um diesen Herausforderungen gerecht zu werden? Tagungsort: Fraunhofer MEVIS, Institute for Digital Medicine, 28359 Bremen Tagungssprache: Deutsch und Englisch Organisation: Annelies Blom (Bremen), Heinz Leitgöb (DGS-Sektion Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung), Nico Sonntag und Gunnar Otte (AS-AK Methodologie) Anmeldungen ohne Tagungsgebühr bis 15.9.24 hier. Das vollständige Programm mit allen Vorträgen finden Sie hier.

As in 2023, the „Venice Seminar“ on „Analytical Sociology: Theory and Empirical Applications“ will again take place in Venice, Italy. The organizers welcome theoretical contributions in the field of analytical sociology or theory-driven empirical social research on any topic. There will be slots for a maximum of 30 oral presentations (30 min. including discussion) and 25 posters. The poster sessions will begin with short introductory presentations in the main conference hall. Language of presentation is English. Organisation: The workshop is organized by Katrin Auspurg and Gerrit Bauer (LMU Munich) in cooperation with the Venice International University (VIU) and the Academy of Sociology (AS). The Venice International University (VIU) buildings are located on the small island of San Servolo (about 10 minutes by boat from the historic city centre). Participants can book hotel rooms either on San Servolo or in the city centre. There is no workshop fee, but no covering of travel costs. Abstract Submission: If you would like to present a paper/poster, please send an abstract…

…(one page max.) by July 8^th to venice@soziologie.uni-muenchen.de. Please indicate whether you prefer an oral presentation, a poster, or are indifferent. A preliminary programme will be available in early August. For further organizational details please see the workshop homepage.

In recent years, replicability, reproducibility, robustness, and validity of empirical findings became a focal and intensively debated and researched topic in the behavioral and social sciences. Aside from an intensive scientific discourse, these dynamics caused demands for change and innovation. In response to these developments, the META-REP program is oriented towards three main (meta-)scientific research goals: (1) to define, describe, and assess “replicability” (the what-question), (2) to provide explanations for replication rates, heterogeneity and deviation in replication results (the why-question), and (3) to assess effectiveness and efficiency of strategies and change aimed at improving robustness (the how-question). The conference will provide a platform for the exchange of manifold replication-related research findings and innovation from all scientific disciplines (as well as science …

… communicators, delegates from funding agencies, academies, or science organizations). Location: Katholische Akademie in Bayern. Organizer: Prof. Dr. Mario Gollwitzer (LMU Munich, META-REP Program Coordinator) Submission deadline: April 30, 2024. For the conference website click here.

This study analyzed ego-centric kinship network data from adults aged 25–35 across seven Western societies: Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the UK, and the US. These data surpass existing data sources in the coverage of ties to nuclear, extended, and complex kin, allowing for a novel perspective on family and kinship as sources of influence, social integration, and support. This perspective yields three main findings that reach beyond the extant focus on the nuclear family. First, extended kin are central to younger adults’ lives. They account for approximately half of the family members that younger adults are emotionally close to, in regular contact with, and deem important in their lives. Second, kinship networks are matrilineally tilted. Compared to paternal kin, maternal kin are more often perceived as important, more frequently contacted, emotionally closer, and more reliable …

… as a source of support. These differences are sizable, emphasizing the vital role of kinship line in contemporary Western families. Third, the effects of parental separation permeate deeply into the family network, weakening ties particularly in the paternal line. Compensation of these relational losses through complex kin is limited in most countries but substantial in the US. If you want to attend in person, please visit our event page for registration (for free). Online attendance is possible without registration via Zoom (click here, Meeting ID: 384 326 1393, Passcode: 2324).

Elite American universities are a site of struggle. Within them is a divided intellectual culture where faculty adopt distinct orientations toward their work activities, and they compete for position and power. To outcompete their peers, faculty innovate and secure more and varied forms of resources. The university supports these efforts with new programs, centers, and institutional initiatives, and it consecrates them through the selective conferral of promotions to tenure, full professorships, and administrative leadership positions. In this way the elite university as a field reproduces the legitimacy of elite faculty and the university’s dominant position in the larger academic field, but in a way adaptive to the changing environment. We present evidence of this via a full census of faculty members’ backgrounds, accrued capital, …

… and administrative powers – e.g., attributes, affiliations, relationships, work activities, accomplishments and ranks – at Stanford University over a 25-year period. Multiple correspondence analysis reveal the university culture and habitus is divided, with hard science faculty building high-output labs aimed at securing scientific capital, and humanistic and social science faculty adopting activist concerns and developing popular courses to secure intellectual capital. Using hazard models, we show these forms of capital have distinct appeal to stages of promotion (tenure, full, leadership). We also show how faculty in both cultures innovate and secure new forms of capital (e.g., patents, donor funds, social media mentions – i.e., mostly toward new forms of scientific capital), increasing their pool of accrued resources (and the university’s), and raising the bar on promotion criteria. In conclusion we discuss how this system of struggle has implications for knowledge production. If you want to attend in person, please visit our event page for registration (for free). Online attendance is possible without registration via Zoom (click here, Meeting ID: 384 326 1393, Passcode: 2324).

A large body of research has documented persistent social inequalities in access to higher education. In recent years, therefore, there has been growing research and policy interest in how such inequalities can be mitigated, for example through individual guidance counselling. Such individual guidance programmes often aim to promote the enrolment of students from low social backgrounds. However, social inequality in enrolment could also be reduced by individuals from high social backgrounds taking up vocational education and training, which is an attractive option also for high school leavers in Germany. Moreover, if we zoom in on the group of students from low social origins, there may be considerable effect heterogeneity, as students with a migrant background already tend to study …

… more often than their peers even without counselling, because they are more strongly oriented towards intergenerational status gain. I will present findings on these questions from the project „Future and Career Plans before Leaving High School“. The project uses a randomised controlled trial study design with more than 1000 high school students embedded in a panel survey to evaluate the effect of an individual and intensive counselling programme in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The results suggest that individual and intensive counselling can significantly reduce social inequalities in access to higher education, with opposite effects for students from high and low social backgrounds. Looking only at students from low SES, we find a stronger positive effect of counselling on enrolment for non-migrant students. Contrary to our expectation, this migration-related heterogeneity in the effect cannot be attributed to the status-gain motive. Beyond these individual-level programme effects, I will also discuss how such programmes affect aggregate social inequality and how this depends, for example, on the scale of implementation.