Research

Understanding society from the inside

Culture is present in our everyday lives, whether we are celebrating, brushing our teeth, furnishing our homes, when we work, do business, participate in politics, feel or think. Culture unites and divides people and likes to hide behind normalities and the obvious. This is exactly where we in Freiburg take a close look in the sense of constructivist and qualitative social research: into the micro-centre of a powerful, ever-present black box that gives a pattern to people's everyday lives in the form of practices, interpretations and ideas. We provide detailed insights into changing culturally determined social mechanisms and help to make the dynamics of change and their underlying interests and needs understandable to a broad public – based on a foundation of valid empirical methodology, interdisciplinary theory and a passionate interest in human sociality.

Our research focuses on the fields of political and economic anthropology, popular culture, migration and mobility, city, country, space – and beyond.

Here you will find an overview of our current and recently completed research projects.