Sociology of Work and Organization

The sociology of work and organization examines two questions that are difficult to separate: How do work contexts and their organization shape contemporary societies? And: How are today's work contexts and their organization simultaneously shaped by social dynamics? The focus is on understanding and explaining the everyday organization of cooperation against the background of organizational coordination or cooperation or conflict between organizations, which always includes and encompasses statements about overall social trends.

The research profile of the professorship combines a social-theoretical interest in novel forms of collective agency in organized work contexts with an empirical interest in integration work and the energy transition as contexts in which society has strong expectations of cooperation. The research has four focal points:

1. Types of Social Order and New Forms of Collective Action

At the heart of basic research in social theory is the refinement of an abstract heuristic for the comparative analysis of collective action. What is important here is a gradual conception that does not presuppose stabilized collective actors. Subtle, sometimes situationally emerging forms of collective action are examined in relation to more permanent forms. In this focus area, we examine mixed forms of known orders and the emergence of new types of orders in “new” collectives in line with interdisciplinary governance research. Together with Kathia Serrano Velarde (Heidelberg) and Ingo Bode (Kassel), we will analyse, for example, which hybrid forms of state organizations, networks, social movements and other forms of governance enable the state to act in crises.
 

2.  Governance of Fields of Transformation of Energy Supply and Integration Work

We define transformation fields as forms of order formation between highly heterogeneous entities (e.g. activists, initiatives, groups, companies, networks, parties, NGOs and administrative organizations) that mutually recognize each other as relevant for the comprehensive transformation of a model of welfare. These fields form across the classical functional areas and act as a framework for their re-integration. In this focus area, we analyse what this form of order formation means for the practice of organized cooperation and for the active shaping of societal value complexes through networks of organizations. The transformation fields of migrant integration and energy supply are examined comparatively.

3. Robust Innovation in Interorganizational Research Networks on the Energy Transition

This research area focuses on the concept of “robustness” of interorganizational innovation networks (Ferrary/Granovetter 2009) in interdisciplinary basic research on the energy transition. Robustness means the recurring production of innovation under constantly changing environmental conditions and internal structures of a network. We are particularly interested in the constellations of social practices in interaction with actor and organizational constellations that enable innovation to be maintained in the face of change. Standardized network analyses are applied as part of mixed methods designs.

4 Influence of Digitalization on Labour Criticism and the Production of Welfare

Digitalization is a process in the making and the confronted actors do not passively accept it, but rather reflexively shape it. We investigate which ideas and framings of a digitalized world of work inform this uptake in small rural social enterprises and global online protest forms.