300550 Introduction Social Structure Analysis (Basic) (MA: Sozialstruktur und soziale Ungleichheit) (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

This seminar offers an introduction to social structure analysis. This includes the core concepts of the field, theories on specific sub-areas of social structure analysis such as education, gender, family, labor market, and social inequalities as well as solid empirical knowledge about the social structure of modern societies. Germany is placed in the context of its historical development and international comparisons. In addition to describing the similarities and differences between different countries and the changes in social structure within a country, the aim is also to show how stability and change in social structure come about and how social structure can be analyzed.

In the first block of the seminar, you will become familiar with basic theories and tools that help to understand how a) individual action is influenced by the social structure of a society, and how b) individual action can affect the social structure of a society. In the second block, we will focus on more specific applied topics (e.g., care work, educational mobility) that we will select together at the beginning of the semester.

The reading and class discussion will be in English.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

This is an introductory class. The class language will be English.