Brunner Karl Michael

• Consumption and society

• Sociology of sustainable development

• Sustainable consumption

• Energy and social inequality

• Socio-ecological transformation

Frerichs Sabine

• Theories of economic action (including institutional, behavioural and neuro-economics)

• Sociology of money and debt relations

• Development of capitalism (from industrial to financial capitalism), varieties of capitalism (in national and regional comparison)

• Types of solidarity in modern societies (national and transnational)

• Societal conditions and consequences of economic integration (Europeanization, globalisation)

• Transformations of the welfare state (from welfare to workfare and debtfare)

• The role of law in the market society (free contracts, legal personhood, private property, commodification), transnational law

• Questions of global sustainable development and an interdisciplinary Sustainability Science

Fritsch Nina-Sophie

• Social structure analysis

• Topics regarding social inequality (e.g. educational and income inequality; poverty; precarisation and de-standardisation)

• Labour market and professions

• Development of low wages in national and historical comparison

• The phenomena of ‘Working Poor’ in Europe

• Gender inequality (e.g. occupational gender segregation)

• Sociological perspectives of science at universities

• Quantitative and qualitative methods of empirical research

Hofbauer Johanna

• Industrial and post-industrial work organisation and control of work; case studies of selected sectors and branches, e.g. automotive and textile industry; services in care and trade; knowledge work

• Employment policy; regular and atypical employment; precarisation

• Skill requirements and formation of subjectivity at work

• Implementation of technology, digital work, social robotics

• Socioeconomic perspectives on inequality

• Managing diversity in companies, dimensions of cultural diversity (gender, race, age, disability)

• Economic-sociological analysis of institutions such as markets, organisations or companies, wage labour, social networks;

Jost Gerhard

• Individual and society: theoretical and empirical research (e.g. identity and biographies of various social groups)

• Empirical qualitative methods and their (partial) application in studies – regarding selected qualitative survey and evaluation methods (e.g. interviews, field research)

• Gerontology  (e.g. old-age poverty, urban and rural differences, intergenerational relations, networks

• Social Inequality (e.g. educational disadvantages, income and wealth inequality, precarisation, social problems)

• Social diagnoses (e.g. individualisation hypothesis, accelerated society, event society, knowledge society)

• Acceleration of society through digitalization? Reflections on Hartmut Rosa

• Social relations as figurations determined by power (Norbert Elias)

• On the importance of knowledge - theories on a basic category

• Transitions in the life course: from studies to work

• Fascination field research - ethnographic methods in (classical) studies

Miklautz Elfie

• Research on creative industry (studies on selective branches such as art market, and career paths, working and living conditions of creative individuals)

• Hidden preconditions of success in classical music business

• Musicians – conformist top athletes or creative individualists?

• Sense and non-sense of competition in music business

• Exchange processes (market, gifts, donations)

• Cultural sociology

• Consumption and social inequality

• Advertisement

• Products and their meaning

Florian Penz

• Economic Sociology

• Sociology of Money and Inflation

• Sociology of Central Banks

• Financial capitalism & Sociology of Finance

• History of Economic Thought, Sociological Theory in historical perspective

Reiger Horst

• In general, empirical theses relying on quantitative and qualitative methods, including small collections of primary data

• Analysis of specific research questions using data sets of social science (secondary data analysis), e.g. EVS, WVS, EuroStat, ESS

• Recent literature regarding operationalisation of complex concepts and questionnaire method

• Xenophobia, racism and group related misanthropy – theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives

• Satisfaction of bachelor students at Austrian universities

• Globalisation theories

• Recent aspects of research on populism

• Aspects of interaction (theory of the individual, multiple selves, ritualised forms of interaction, social structure and social identity)

Sardadvar Karin

• Sociological research of work

• Work and gender

• Concepts of work (work/leisure; paid/unpaid work)

• Employment and working conditions in service sectors (especially cleaning sector, care sector)

• Reproductive work (domestic work, care)

• Care (e.g. concepts of care, working conditions in the care sector, family carers, childcare)

• Concepts of work-life balance (work-life balance, reconciliation of employment and domestic work, work and life)

• Interpretive theories (sociology of knowledge, social constructivism, symbolic interactionism)

• Interpretive social research, qualitative research methods

Simsa Ruth

• Best practice of civil society involvement in refugee support

• Best practice of cooperation between politics and civil society in relation to climate activism

• Radical versus moderate - attributions, conflicts and success factors of social movements

• Civil society involvement in the care of Ukrainian refugees

• Development of the climate movement in Austria

• Management of non-profit organizations

• Current developments in organizations

• Social inequality and its specific effects in the corona crisis