The research focus of the section relates to the interdisciplinary theoretical foundations and empirical research traditions of gender studies, to social inequality relations, to the social construction of social problems, and to institutionalised mechanisms of social control. The focus is on, among other things, forms of closed accomodation and administrative practices of the social bureaucracy, also in recent history.
The research projects of the department are methodologically situated in the interpretative paradigm of social research. Social change and the complexity of processes of social differentiation and hierarchisation are explored primarily from a micro-sociological perspective, starting from structural anomalies, inconsistencies and inequalities. At the same time, there is a focus on the subjective appropriation and processing of institutionalised structural characteristics by actors. The aim of the research in this field is to develop empirically based theories.
