Popular Views on Inequality and Justice in Germany

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Patrick Sachweh
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 262185843

The aim of the project is to undertake a representative survey about the perception of social inequality and justice in Germany. In contrast to the usual procedures of standardized survey research - which formulates survey items on the basis of theoretical expectations of social scientific knowledge - the project aims to generate survey items based on the experiences and the knowledge repertoires of ordinary citizens from different social classes. Following a mixed methods-approach, these collective knowledge repertoires are first reconstructed from focus group discussions on the perception and justification of the contemporary shape of inequality in Germany. Second, these knowledge repertoires form the basis for the formulation of items for a representative standardized survey which is able to depict the distribution, reach and group specificity of these views. On a methodological level, the project thus contributes to the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in a field where both approaches have largely been running along separate lines. On a substantial level, the project will generate new insights about how Germans perceive the current shape of inequality in a context of rising inequality and an ongoing marketization of the German welfare state. Specifically, it will show which aspects of inequality citizens regard as problematic, how they evaluate current social-structural and socio-political changes, what expectations they hold for their future standard-of-living and what the consequences these perceptions are for citizens' orientations towards social justice and solidarity. These issues are relevant for a better diagnosis of the current meaning assigned to social inequality in Germany, but they are also theoretically important, as views on inequality and social justice influence social action (i.e., voting behavior, protest) and form an integral part of social integration and cohesion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Sighard Neckel