Profile of the Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Social Sciences at Georg August University in Göttingen is characterised by a broad combination of subjects: ethnology, education, gender studies, political science, sociology and sports science, modern Indian studies and an interdisciplinary institute for methods and methodological foundations. In recent years, it has become increasingly successful in establishing interdisciplinary links between the subjects in both teaching and research.The common research focus of the disciplines in the Faculty of Social Sciences is the social actions and experiences of people in a historically, geographically, and socially determinable location, as well as the analysis of social conditions of individual and collective action from micro, meso, and macrosocial perspectives. Another task is to compare different social and temporal contexts. In addition to their interdisciplinarity, the faculty's research fields are characterized by the combination and communication of a broad spectrum of quantitative and qualitative methods. With its ethnological collection, the faculty also has an internationally renowned location where processes of cultural change are comprehensively documented.
Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Social Sciences focuses its research interests on society as a subject of scientific inquiry. It views society theoretically as being in a state of constant dynamic transformation; accordingly, it understands society epistemologically as being recognizable through its constant dynamic transformation.In its methodology, it chooses empirical—quantitative and qualitative—research approaches in particular. The Faculty of Social Sciences organizes its research into society into five scientific disciplines: ethnology, education, political science, sociology, and sports science, which are located at eight scientific institutes and one center. With its ethnological collection, the faculty also has one of the most important teaching and research collections in the German-speaking world and an internationally renowned location where processes of cultural change are comprehensively documented.
Research Focus
Embedded in the Göttingen Research Campus with diverse cooperative relationships with internal and external institutes and centers, the research of the Faculty of Social Sciences is divided into the following three interrelated focus areas:- Heterogenization – Homogenization
- Digitality – Materiality
- Order – Decay
In line with the university-wide strategy, the Faculty of Social Sciences addresses these issues both by expanding individual projects and by participating in interdisciplinary joint projects.
Research Areas
The three main topics are being addressed at the Faculty of Social Sciences in a variety of research projects focusing on specific issues in the field of social transformation dynamics. These research projects take a disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the following areas of work- Work and business
- Education and school
- Global South (Africa, Asia, India, Oceania)
- Body, exercise, and health
- Political systems and democracy
- Environment, climate change, and sustainability
- Welfare state
The faculty's goal is to relate and further develop this research by framing it within three common and interrelated focus areas.
Through joint appointments and honorary professorships, there are also research collaborations with the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN), the Max Planck Institute for Multiethnic and Multireligious Societies, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI), the Sociological Research Institute e.V. (SOFI), and the Campus Institute for Data Science (CIDAS). In addition, the faculty contributes its social science expertise to interdisciplinary joint projects, combining its own perspectives with those of the humanities, economics, and natural sciences to research socially relevant issues.