Research

The research areas of the Institute of Political Science and Sociology and its divisions areas are widley spread. On this page you will find an overview of research projects, the research groups at IPS, our Working Paper Series, doctoral theses at the IPS, institutional memberships as well as links to the relevant pages of the individual divisions.

Research Projects

Here you will find a selection of research projects that are carried out at IPS and its divisions or in which institute members are significantly involved. For further information on research foci and projects at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology, please refer to the relevant pages of the respective divisions.

EMBRACE

The project "EMBRACing changE: Overcoming Blockages and Advancing Democracy in the European Neighbourhood" (EMBRACE) analyses authoritarian resilience and de-democratization in the European Neighbourhood.

Project "Wir in Würzburg"

In cooperation with the stand.land.smart.-team of the city of Würzburg, the project uses a self-developed survey concept to measure social resilience and social cohesion in the city and district of Würzburg. For this purpose, 8,000 people will be contacted with a questionnaire in both 2024 and 2026.

Mobilitätsbefragung Würzburg 2023

On the initiative of the city of Würzburg, the project “Mobilitätsbefragung Würzburg 2023” asks the citizens of Würzburg about their mobility behaviour. For this purpose, 8,000 households will be contacted in May 2023 with a specially designed questionnaire.

Democracy Matrix

The DFG research project led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Lauth is developing a new democracy measurement tool based on data from the Varieties of Democracy project.

Goffman Studies

The Goffman Studies project aims to explicate the problems and proposed solutions set forth in Erving Goffman's work in order to see to what extent they can be made useful for contemporary issues in sociological theorizing and what developmental possibilities arise for subsequent work.

ICAS:MP Centre of Advanced Studies 'Metamorphoses of the Political'

Die Chair of International Relations and European Studies and the Division of Political Theory are part of the ICAS:MP Centre of Advanced Studies 'Metamorphoses of the Political' which has been established in New Delhi.

Subjektiver und objektiver Berufserfolg von Promovierten in Deutschland

Subjective and objective professional success of PhD holders in Germany

The project examines the professional success of PhD holders in Germany on multiple levels and from various perspectives: We will analyze both subjective and objective criteria, conduct inter-individual and intra-individual comparisons, and focus on PhD holders employed inside and outside academia.

Fiscal Citizenship

The three-year interdisciplinary, €1.5m research project, funded jointly by the SSHRC, Canada, DFG Germany and the ESRC, UK, commenced in March 2021. It will seek the views of a wide range of participants through surveys, interviews, and experiments in three countries to improve our understanding about national fiscal citizenship. The project's interdisciplinary research agenda will interest scholars and policymakers working on issues related to migration, fiscal citizenship, and the intersection between the two.

Big Data in the Research of Ideas

The project "Big Data in der Erforschung von Ideen" is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and aims to clarify how reliable the data from the online analysis tool Google Ngram are and whether they are suitable for studying longer-term ideational developments.

Artificial Intelligence in Political Science Teaching

Milan Banse and Hans Stanka represent the IPS in the AI project at the University of Würzburg. They are investigating the opportunities and risks of AI in political science teaching.

Research Groups

At our institute, five research groups have been established that reflect the broad and diverse research and teaching agenda.

Center for Electoral and Public Opinion Research

In the Center for Electoral and Public Opinion Research, faculty and students are working on questions regarding psephology and public opinion.

Research Group on Gender

In keeping with it's motto "Same but different - what role does gender play?" the Research Group on Gender focuses on the persisting gender related inequalities within society.

Working Group on State and Regime Research

The Working Group on State and Regime Research deals with theoretical and empirical reserach regarding the state and (fragile) statehood.

Forum Nachhaltigkeit

The “Forum Nachhaltigkeit” is concerned with inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research. It serves as a platform for reflection on current theoretical and empirical questions of sustainability and offers opportunities for joint work on socio-ecological transformation processes.

India Forum

The India Forum has arisen from the Institute's close contacts and numerous activities with India. Its members and their Indian partners participate in several projects, organize events and issue publications.

Interdisciplinary Reserach Group on Latin America

The Interdisciplinary Reserach Group on Latin America is an association of reseraches at Würzburg University who are teaching and doing reserach on Latin America.

Working Paper Series

To make our research more visible, IPS has launched the open access series Würzburg Working Papers in Political Science and Sociology (Würzburger Arbeitspapiere zur Politikwissenschaft und Soziologie). In WAPS, we aim at covering the entire spectrum of our Institute's research focuses. WAPS is open to IPS members, guest professors from all around the world, and outstanding students who are introduced to the academic world by publishing their significant contributions.

Doctoral Program

At the Institute of Political Science and Sociology outstanding graduates of the University of Würzburg or of other universities have the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree within the fields of Political Science or Sociology. In principle, a doctorate is possible in all divisons and there is the possibility of supervision within the framework of the Graduate Schools.

Memberships

The University of Würzburg's Institute of Political Science and Sociology is member of

ECPR – European Consortium for Political Research

Furthermore, our Institute is member of the following University of Würzburg Graduate Schools:

More Information

Information on research and research projects at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology can be found on the relevant pages of the respective divisions: