Faculty of Social Science and Philosophy

Dean	Professor Dr. Georg Vobruba
Address Phone Fax E-mail URL	Burgstraße 21, 04109 Leipzig (03 41) 97 35 600 (03 41) 97 35 699 foerster@rz.uni-leipzig.de http://www.uni-leipzig.de/sozfak

Research Activities at the Faculty

	Research Activities at the Faculty
	Topics of Doctorates and Postdoctoral Qualifications / Previous Years
	Reports of the Institutes and Departments

	Institute of Communication and Media Studies - Centre of Media and Communication
	Institute of Cultural Studies
	Institute of Logic and Philosophy of Science
	Institute of Philosophy
	Institute of Political Science
	Institute of Sociology

All the Faculty's institutes are characterised by keen research activity, as illustrated by the constantly increasing number of applications for postgraduate research units and doctoral programmes, and the intensification of co-operation with institutions in Germany and abroad. Although research activities are largely geared to each institute's own field, work is also being carried out on an interdisciplinary project. Entitled "Analysis of Different Parts of Modern Societies", this project forms the basis of a network involving all the disciplines studied and taught in the faculty, whose sheer breadth makes the project very challenging.

The continuously growing number of doctorates and Habilitationen (postdoctoral qualifications) provides impressive proof of the encouragement given to young academics - an important part of all research.

Research co-operation within the Faculty is mainly devoted to the following long-term projects:

• SFB (Collaborative Research Centre) "Regionally-oriented Identification Processes: The Case of Saxony" (Institutes of Cultural Studies, Political Science, and Sociology, as well as the Faculties of Theology, Philology, Education, and History, Art and Oriental Studies)
• DFG Research Group "Communicative Understanding" (Institutes of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science, together with the Faculties of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Economics, Medicine)
• Postgraduate Research Unit "Knowledge Representation" (Institute of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Mathematics, Computer Science, Faculties of Economics, and Medicine)
• Project "Art Communication" (Institute of Philosophy together with Institutes of Ethnology, Art Education, and History)
• Preparation of application for a doctoral programme "Property, the Individual, and Social Integration" (Institutes of Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Faculty of History, Art and Oriental Studies, Faculty of Law, Centre for Advanced Studies, Max Plank Institute of Anthropology in Halle)
• Postgraduate course in European Studies (Institutes of Political Science, Cultural Studies, and Sociology, Faculties of Law, Economics, History, Art and Oriental Studies, and Theology)

Areas of Research

The institutes deal with the following areas of research:

Institute of Communication and Media Studies

• Basic questions of journalism and communication studies; the ethics of mass communication
• Studies of the history of the subject
• Studies of media reception and research parallel to programming
• Research into professional aspects of PR/theoretical fundamentals of PR
• Online media; press distribution in Western Europe

Institute of Cultural Studies

• Comparative analysis of the culture of modern societies from the late 18th century to the present
• Georg Simmel and Ernst Cassirer research

Institute of Logic and Philosophy of Science

• Non-classical logics and applications
• History of logic and logical hermeneutics
• Theory of scientific explanation

Institute of Philosophy

• Theories of intentionality and common action
• Action, communication and language theory
• Justification of ethics
• Philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries

Institute of Political Science

• Development of international networks
• Consequences of globalisation
• Comparison of dictatorships and democracies
• Modernisation of the state
• Political culture in the welfare state
• Transformation processes

Institute of Sociology

• Social transformation processes in eastern Germany (family, occupation, subjective attitudes)
• Poverty, poverty trap, social exclusion
• Social movements and political commitment
• Social networks and economics transactions
• Social factors and dependency (alcohol and drugs)
• Regional identification

International Research Co-operation

International Research Co-operation

The Faculty's many international research contacts are reflected in the following:

• The exchange of students and lecturers with the Universities of Ohio, Penn State, Rutgers (all USA), Jyväskylä (Finland), Klagenfurt (Austria), Lugano (Italy), Grenoble (France), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and the CEBRAP Sao Paulo (Brazil)
• Research contacts with the Universities in Torun, Wrocaw, (Poland), Bloomington, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, New York State (all USA), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Moscow (Russia), Helsinki (Finland), Swansea (Wales) and the Russell Sage Foundation
• Exchange of visiting lecturers in the summer semester 2000 and the winter semester 2000/01 with Japan and the USA via the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Agency)