Areas of Research
- Didactics of Social Sciences
- Information on the Professorship for Didactics of Social Sciences, its research focus and activities will follow soon, as this Professorship has only recently been moved to the Department of Political Science.
- Gender Studies
- In light of the past and present threats to democratic societies we focus on the analysis and critique of society’s relationship to gender and nature. This includes research on the democratic theories and practices of dedicated women (and men) since the French Revolution, on the current struggles regarding conflicting interpretations within democratic societies, on individual and collective threats to health and life as well as on the contradicting dynamics of striving towards equality, freedom, and solidarity which modern societies have produced.
- Germany’s Political and Social System/Comparing political systems
- Within the complex of Germany’s Political and Social System / comparing political systems research is interested in political institutions, decision making processes and contents of political systems focusing on the example of the Federal Republic of Germany and its comparative analyses. The main emphasis lies on participation research (elections), parties, civil societies, demonstrations, social media and unconventional forms of political participation. Further, Prof. De Nève and her team approach questions concerning the relationship between citizens and the state, governance, representation, political communication, gender/queer studies, religion and corruption.
- International Integration focusing on Eastern Europe
- Research in International Integration focusing on Eastern Europe is focused around questions referring to security, international conflict management, international democracy promotion, international compliance analyses and comparative research in foreign affairs (especially policy towards Europe). Research is mainly concerned with the EU, OSCE, NATO, the Council of Europe and further actors involved in Eastern Europe. Mechanisms and effects like overlapping regionalism and IO-IO cooperation play an important role as well. Besides international organizations, states of the EU’s Eastern Partnership (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan) and Russia build a central unit of analysis in combination with their domestic actors.
- International Relations
- The research in the field of International Relations focusses on theoretical, normative, empirical and analytical questions regarding governance beyond the sphere of the nation state – refered to as global governance. The faculty, in particular, specialises in the Sustainable Develpment Goals of the UN, and international security. Prof. Helmut Breitmeier and his research team examine global norms (sustainability, freedom of religion, food security, R2P), institutional arrangements (interstate and supranational institutions, global regimes, transnational dialogues), identities and policy fields (foreign policy, environmental policy, nutritional policy and human rights policy).
- Methodology of Political Science with due regard to Democracy and Political Socialization Research
- Research at this professorship is coined by a simultaneous interest in methodological as well as content-related questions. On the content-related level, the team is conducting empirical research on the relation of citizens to politics and democracy in general. How do individual political belief systems – political attitudes, behaviour and democratic support – emerge and how can we explain actual political behaviour of citizens? Within this field of research we are focusing on political socialization processes and information processes. Hereby, we do relate our research to theories, concepts and method techniques within the research field of Political Socialization, Political Psychology and Political Culture.
- Politics and Economics in a Multi-Level Governance System
- Working areas of this professorship are political economy, governance and modernization policies, multi-level governance and democratization as well as contrastive system analysis. One of the focal points of this professorship lies in the area of Italy Studies.
- Political Theory and History of Thought
- Within the research area of Political Theory and History of Thought, the conditions and foundations of political order and conduct in terms of history of thought are focal points of our research. Normative questions in disputes with social as well as legal theory, philosophy and methodology of qualitative Social Studies are elaborated. Further, Prof. Dr. Regina Kreide and her team focus on democracy and equality theories, theories concerning human rights, international political theory as well as feminist and postcolonial political theory. Another focus of research is concerned with the securitization of European minorities.