Key Research Areas

At the Faculty selected social problems and challenges are jointly addressed in five interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary research areas. This makes it possible to jointly develop complex social topics for research by bringing together different methodological and theoretical approaches and to make them accessible to social actors. The faculty's research focuses on fundamental global challenges that today's societies are directly and explicitly confronted with and contribute to a better understanding of the resulting questions of social justice and inequality. The research aims to have visible impacts on social and political actors at global, national, regional and urban levels. It has a strong international focus, but is firmly anchored in local and national contexts. It is the express goal of all research at the Faculty of Social Sciences - within the research focus areas and beyond - to produce socially relevant knowledge, to achieve social impact and to critically reflect on the process of knowledge production.

The five research areas are:

• Social and environmental sustainability
• Health, work and the life course
• Democracy, solidarity and dialogue
• Knowledge cultures and digitalisation
• Mobilities, inclusion and belonging

Based on the evaluation of all research activities at the faculty and under comprehension of the fields and the Faculty's Scientific Advisory Board, the key research areas of the Faculty were redefined in the course of the development planning 2031 (PDF 2,12 MB).