「The Graduate School」

Research in Pillar 1 deals with the psychological and pedagogic conditions of learning and personal development, focusing on all stages from early childhood to adulthood. How are competencies developing at the kindergarten and school ages? What do children and young adults learn, and when do they learn it? In addition to such typical research questions at the individual (micro) level, principal investigators and doctoral researchers in Pillar 1 also investigate the role of institutions and their impact over time (meso level). For example, how do formal institutions such as kindergartens and schools influence the development of competencies amongst children and young adults? What factors do parents consider when choosing a particular kindergarten, elementary or secondary school for their children to attend, and with what effect? How do families, non-formal and informal environments shape the development of children?

Research in Pillar 1 concentrates on three broader areas that have been under-researched hitherto:

• the way educational systems and their institutions shape cognitive and personal development from early education to adult and further education;
• processes of education and competence development within families;
• dimensions of non-formal and informal learning outside families and schools, such as learning through participation in youth organisations, sport clubs and political and religious associations.

Researchers in Pillar 1 also engage in more explicit cross-national comparisons of educational processes and learning trajectories to establish the generality of findings and to study the impact of historically grown and country-specific, institutional settings.

Externally funded research projects associated with Pillar 1 include, among others,

• the National Educational Panel Study (Nationales Bildungspanel, NEPS);
• the DFG funded project RebeL (Religious and Professional Beliefs of School Teachers);
• the EU funded project SEED: Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands;

Doctoral members:

Barthelemy Muzaliwa Balume
Laure Diffomene Jotsop
Aashna Doshi
Klara Hermes
Edouard Ntakirutimana
Louise Ohlig
Essaw Samgwa'a
Jana Welling
Eva Zink

Postdoctoral members:

Jana Costa
Anna Hawrot
Wei Huang
Robert Körner
Maximilian Seitz
Lan Anh Thuy Nguyen

Faculty members:

Cordula Artelt
Matthias Borgstede
Claus H. Carstensen (Pillar Coordinator)
Barbara Drechsel
Miriam Hess
Jennifer Paetsch
Maximilian Pfost
Annette Scheunpflug
Cornelia Schoor
Astrid Schütz
Sabine Weinert
Ilka Wolter

While Pillar 1 has a focus on individual preconditions and learning processes, Pillar 2 is concerned with collective aspects of the social structure and their relationship with education. On the one hand, researchers in Pillar 2 are interested in social inequalities in educational outcomes across the whole life course. This comprises the relationships between social characteristics, such as social origin, gender, or ethnicity, and educational outcomes, such as educational participation, attainment, decisions, or performance. On the other hand, Pillar 2 comprises research on the returns to education. Returns to education comprise a variety of different aspects, such as monetary rewards or the placement in the social structure, but also influences on political behavior and attitudes, individual well-being, or collective welfare outcomes. Researchers in Pillar 2 not only seek to determine the extent to which these regularities exist or vary between contemporary societies, but also provide explanations and disentangle the social mechanisms that bring about these phenomena.

Researchers in Pillar 2 employ a range of innovative approaches to disentangle processes of educational inequality or the influences of education on individual life outcomes or its contributions for society. They contribute to an advancement of the state of research by

• taking an explicit and innovative life-course perspective, examining the accumulation of educational advantages and disadvantages throughout the educational career;
• comparing educational inequalities and returns across countries;

combining cross-sectional, cross-country and longitudinal perspectives.

In substantive terms, researchers in Pillar 2 are concerned with a variety of pressing questions concerning the interplay between education and the social structure.

Externally funded research projects associated with Pillar 2 include, among others,

• the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)
• “The Role of Educational Upgrading in the Formation of Social Inequality”, funded by DFG

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ transition from high school to post-secondary education”, funded by DFG

Externally funded research projects associated with Pillar 2 include, among others,

• the National Educational Panel Study (Nationales Bildungspanel, NEPS);
• a NORFACE research grant for the study of Causes and Consequences of Socio-Cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe;
• the DFG funded project Origins matter: Immigrant selectivity in Western Europe;
• the DFG funded project Health Measures and Health Inequality over The Life Course.

Doctoral Members:

Lea Ahrens
Anika Bela
Lana Blazevic
Simon Christoph
Jonas Detemple
Anja Grauenhorst
Melanie Hochmuth
Julia Hufnagl
Evangelia Ioannidi
Regina Jusri
Rachael Kyalo
Laura Löwe
Julia Mayr
Paul Messer
Elif Sari
Susanne Schmid
Kerstin Schörner
Julian Seuring
Florian Weber

Postdoctoral Members:

Jacqueline Kroh
Alexander Patzina
Steffen Wamsler

Faculty Members:

Silvia Annen
Michael Gebel
Guido Heineck
Corinna Kleinert
Cornelia Kristen
Steffen Schindler (Pillar Coordinator)
Timo Schmid
 

Most industrial societies have witnessed an increase in social inequality during the past four decades. Yet, this trend and its mechanisms are still not sufficiently understood. Researchers in Pillar 3 address questions such as the following:

To what extent do changes in labour markets (e.g. through increasing international competition, flexibilisation or deregulation) increase social inequality? To what extent do imbalances of supply and demand of human capital across generations explain rising levels of social inequality? How do demographic changes such as declining fertility, increasing life expectancy or migration relate to the development of social inequalities? This perspective includes mechanisms on the micro- and meso-level that contribute to the (re)production of social inequalities over the life course, e.g. causes and consequences of intra-generational mobility. What is the role of gender and family inequality for the development of social inequality? What are the causes and consequences of health inequalities, e.g. how do social factors such as working conditions affect health and to what extent does health affect processes of social mobility or labour market opportunities throughout the life course? To what extent do different organisations and welfare states mitigate or exacerbate specific forms of social inequality?

Doctoral students in Pillar 3 receive an excellent grounding in state-of-the-art research on human capital, labour markets and demography and their relationship to social inequality. At the same time, they find themselves part of a stimulating research community that helps them produce new insights into these issues. Research on social inequality at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences is characterised by:

• the use of longitudinal data to examine the ways in which social status and resources increase or decrease over the life course, and the causes and consequences of these fluctuations;
• a cross-national perspective that goes beyond already well-researched cases;
• a multi-level approach that considers developments at the individual, firm, regional, national, European and global level;
• the development of advanced statistical methods for  complex socio-demographic data

Externally funded research projects associated with Pillar 3 include, among others,

• GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) 2025
• Die Wirkung von Strukturen und Wissensformen der Dualen berufsfachlichen Ausbildung auf die Berufs- und Erwerbsstabilität
• Do migrants in Europe age well? A mixed methods and intervention study in four countries (MIG-AGE)
• Probabilistische Bevölkerungsprognose für Oberfranken
• COVID-19 und gesellschaftliche Polarisierung – Vertiefende Analysen zur Entwicklung des Wohlbefindens und Vertrauens vulnerabler Gruppen

Doctoral Members:

Nana Oye Blay
Jane Siew Wai Burmeister
Jonas Detemple
Miriam Gauer
Sascha-Christopher Geschke
Julius Goes
Rafael Kothe
Michael Mühlbauer
Franz Prücklmair
Lea Römisch
Marc Saur
Regine Schmidt
Pauline Schneider
Shreya Singh
Maybrit Wächter
Daniel Witt
Barbara Zimmer

Postdoctoral Members:

Xanthi Tsoukli

Faculty Members:

Maike Andresen
Matthias Dütsch
Henriette Engelhardt-Wölfler
Michael Gebel
Guido Heineck
Rasmus Hoffmann (Pillar Coordinator)
Corinna Kleinert
Cornelia Kristen
Anne Leucht
Katja Möhring
Cristian R. Proaño
Marvin Reuter
Olaf Struck
Mark Trappmann

The major focus of Pillar 4 is on the evolution and impact of national and international institutions on  politics and society still organised around traditional territorial principles. Typical questions asked by researchers in Pillar 4 include the following: How does internationalisation and globalisation influence policy-making processes ? How do citizens respond to the perceived loss of democratic control in a globalising world? To what extent do political parties embrace ‘new citizens’ of immigrant-origin as voters and members? How can national governments be successful in recapturing the capacity to meet the demands of citizens through international institutions? What are the conditions for successful policy coordination in trans- and supranational governance structures? Do the impacts of international interdependencies vary across different regions of the world?

Doctoral researchers in Pillar 4 approach questions of democracy and governance from a variety of perspectives. They study them:

• at the level of individual citizens, organisations (such as churches, political parties and interest groups) and nation-states, as well as at the sub-, trans- and international level;
• as complex interactions of these tiers;
• empirically as well as from the point of view of analytical and normative political theory.

Externally funded research projects associated with Pillar 4 include, among others,

• the DFG funded project UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies and Group Agency;
• the DFG funded Research Unit  on the Emergence of Collective Agency (RUECA);
• the DFG funded LACAN Project (Legislators between Accountability and Collective Agency)

Doctoral Members:

Christopher Altstädt
Armin Aminian
David Beck
Valentin Berger
Henning Bergmann
Lucie Bohdalová
Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova
Gervin Chanase
Josephine Dehn
Michael Eberhardt
Julian Gierenz
Wolfgang Goldbach
Micaela Grossmann
Philipp Hoffmann
Marlene Joger
Agata Maria Kraj
Anja Carolin Lippstreu
Dmytro Lutsenko
Jon Meyer
Sebastian Neumann
Maximilian Noichl
Lara Panning
Sonya Sunyoung Park
Sergei Pashakin
Thorsten Reppert
Ivan Samolovov
David Schmuck
Douglas Eduard Steinert
Elif Schlieter
Patrick Vizitiu
Frederik Wilhelmi

Postdoctoral Members:

Alexander Herzog
Viktoriia Muliavka

Faculty Members:

Daniel Drewski
Florian Herold
Monika Heupel
Andreas Jungherr
Isabel Kusche
Johannes Marx
Sabrina Mayer
Katja Möhring
Elmar Rieger
Thomas Saalfeld
Carina Schmitt (Pillar Coordinator)
Ulrich Sieberer
Frank Westerhoff