GRK 1461:  Social Order and Life Chances in Cross-National Comparison

• Subject Area: Social Sciences
• Term: from 2008 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 43414292

SOCLIFE is an interdisciplinary Research Training Group bringing together more than ten professors from the University of Cologne from different fields of the social and economic sciences, statistics and law as well as at least ten collaborating experts from other universities in and outside of Europe. Cross-national comparisons are a research strategy common to many disciplines. But there are different types of comparisons with strengths and weaknesses. SOCLIFE aims at bringing together these approaches using multilevel research designs and types of analysis.
Some cross-national comparisons in the social and economic sciences have focussed on persons within countries, others on global indicators for countries. The first approach uses harmonised large-scale surveys as a data source and uses a broad range of information on individuals. But comparisons often remain on the individual level of analysis, thereby ignoring the impact of the social constitution and the history of countries. The second approach uses aggregate data and characterises countries as a whole. But comparisons often remain on the aggregate level although causal relationships need to be interpreted by including the actors.
SOCLIFE will combine both approaches by analysing the impact of life chances on choices of actions or attitudes of natural or corporate actors within the frame of the social order of politics, economics, civil society and the culture of modern, industrialised and democratic nation states. As for research, general hypotheses on the impact of the social order, the social structure and the social history of countries on actors within countries will be developed and examined by statistical multilevel analysis whenever this is possible.
The teaching programme will
(1) introduce theories and research results,
(2) guide students to specify hypotheses for their own research projects,
(3) teach them the appropriate analytical strategies and statistical techniques and
(4) make them acquainted with both approaches and data sources. Each dissertation project is supervised by at least two members of the Research Training Group and discussed by all doctoral students and teachers. Doctoral students will be asked to develop their research in a strict time frame, establish contacts within the scientific community and present and publish their results.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hans-Jürgen Andreß (†)
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Eldad Davidov; Privatdozent Dr. Hermann Dülmer; Professor Dr. Detlef Fetchenhauer; Professorin Dr. Martina Fuchs; Professor Dr. Achim Goerres; Professor Dr. Karsten Hank; Professorin Dr. Marita Jacob; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Jagodzinski; Professor Dr. André Kaiser; Professor Dr. Heiner Meulemann; Professor Ingo Rohlfing, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Elmar Schlueter; Professorin Dr. Christine Trampusch; Professor Dr. Michael Wagner