The Mainz Institute of Sociology is a strong research location for sociology in Germany. Despite the heterogeneity of methodological and theoretical approaches and research topics, all working groups are characterized by the consistent combination of theoretical work, the use of methods and empirical research. Regardless of the methods we use to research the social world – ethnographic methods or interviews, document or network analyses, survey data or simulation methods – we systematically test the methodological, conceptual and theoretical expertise in our studies and drive forward scientific knowledge processes on specific objects in an innovative way.

Mainz Sociology’s eligibility for funding is documented by numerous third-party funded research projects. We use a wide range of funding instruments: they range from the grant of individual research projects (especially by the DFG) to long-term projects funded by the BMBF (such as the panel study “Cultural Education and Cultural Participation in Germany”) to larger and interdisciplinary collaborative research projects (such as the DFG research group “Un/doing Differences – Practices of Human Differentiation” or the project “AI FORA – Artificial Intelligence for Assessment” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation).

The results of sociological research from Mainz are regularly presented at specialist conferences in Germany and abroad and published in numerous books and specialist journal articles.