sow943 - Society and Organisations (Course overview)

Department of Social Sciences

9 KP

Module components

Semester courses Winter semester 2024/2025

Examination

Lecture

Seminar

1.07.461 - Labour Markets in Transition
- Prof. Dr. Martin Heidenreich
Monday: 14:00 - 16:00, weekly (from 14/10/24)

In the seminar “Labor Markets in Transition”, the transformation of the postwar employment regime which was characterized by a standard employment relationship based on stable industrial jobs and permanent contracts tracts will be analysed. The focus of the current innovation-centred, globally linked, digitalised knowledge society of the present is no longer on the industrial production of standardized goods, but on the flexible provision of knowledge-based products and services by flexibly, sometimes precariously, employed persons. In this seminar, three facets of these changing labour markets and employment relations will be considered.
1.07.462 - Social Inequality
- Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch
Wednesday: 10:00 - 12:00, weekly (from 16/10/24)

In the seminar "Social Inequality", students examine how social inequality is reproduced in organizations such as the labour market, the education system and the welfare state and how factors such as education, gender, age or migration background contribute to various inequalities. The seminar consists of two parts: First, we will discuss and debate key theoretical concepts, causes and mechanisms of social inequality, focusing on how inequalities arise or are transfered within and between generations. In the second part, we will analyse data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) using R to deepen our theoretical understanding and apply key empirical methods in a targeted manner. At the end of the semester, students will be able to conduct their own small, quantitative research project on the (re)production of social inequality in different organizational contexts.

Notes on the module

Module examination

Portfolio comprising:
1 presentation in one seminar and
1 individual research paper (approximately 3500 words) in the other seminar of the module

Skills to be acquired in this module

Upon completing this module, students will have a thorough understanding of the central concepts and theories related to labour market and social inequality research. More specifically, the students will be able

to distinguish different dimensions and determinants of labour market and social inequalities and to explain and evaluate the respective links and mechanisms in between;
to formulate research questions and derive theory-based hypotheses to examine these questions;
to understand the data and methods used for the empirical analysis in labour market and inequality research;
to understand, compare and evaluate the empirical results from scientific publications and to apply these methods and analyse data themselves;
to develop their own research question and answer it through the application of theoretical concepts and data analysis in a written seminar paper.

Overall, this module aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the field of labour market and social inequality research, as well as the skills to apply this knowledge in own research endeavours.