Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences

The Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS) is a structured doctoral program. It is an integral part of the Department of Social Sciences (German Institut für Sozialwissenschaften) at Humboldt University of Berlin (German Humboldt Universität zu Berlin). Merging perspectives from political science and sociology, focusing on problems of democracy, social integration and knowledge, the program follows a classic bi-disciplinary approach. The BGSS is supported by the Excellence Initiative (German Exzellenzinitiative) by the German federal and state governments.[1]

History

Emerging from the Graduiertenkolleg “Das Neue Europa”, the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences has been founded in 2002. For a five-year period the BGSS has been a pilot project by the German Academic Exchange Service (German Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst). In 2007 the Graduate School became an integral part of the Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. Since November 2007 the doctoral program is funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.

Research areas

Research at the BGSS is focused on the comparative analysis of social inclusion and democratic performance of modern societies. Recently, the role of knowledge in democratic societies has been added as a third research focus.

Varieties of inclusion

This research area is concerned with the question whether and how modern societies are able to cope with contemporary problems of inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and diversity, heterogeneity and individualization. Topics are:

Varieties of democracy

This research area looks at the conditions of the establishment, stability and development of democratic structures in modern societies. Topics are:

Varieties of knowledge

This research area is concerned with the role of scientific and non-scientific knowledge in the reproduction of democratic societies. Topics include:

Networks

The BGSS collaborates with the following non-university research institutions exchanging doctoral and senior researchers.

The BGSS is host university of European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (SESS.EuroPhD), a consortium of European universities awarding the Doctor Europeus or European PhD. Since 2010, Craig Calhoun is Einstein Visiting Fellow at BGSS.

Selection of faculty members

Doctoral researcher activities

In 2010 doctoral researchers of BGSS and WZB organized the “Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences – Linking Theory and Empirical Research”. They also publish an Online Working Paper Series.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-11-22. Retrieved 2011-11-25.

Sources

External links

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