FOR 5173:  Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure (RISS)

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439346934

Profound change in social structure has repercussions for social and political orientations. Research has documented rising political alienation and polarization, alongside newly emerging cleavages that challenge established systems of resource allocation and representation. Relating these trends to underlying shifts in the social structure poses a critical puzzle: How can we reconcile the notion of an increasingly permeable social structure with the rise of major social and political conflicts? Social structural change and its connection to political orientations is more complex than research has commonly acknowledged. We adopt a decidedly multidimensional and multilevel perspective on social structural change and its implications and critically engage with the seminal approaches in the field. During the first funding phase of RISS, we have made conceptual, methodological, and empirical advances that nuance and inform our understanding of the relationship between social structural reconfiguration and seemingly declining cohesion. First: Only some multidimensional groups have experienced greater social structural mobility since 1980 while others have faced persistent barriers. Next, we want to assess whether other European countries have seen similar trends in social structural reconfiguration and how these changes have been politicized. Second: Social structural change gave rise to new group formations and social identities that are mobilized for political conflict. We have developed robust measurement tools and applied them in innovative data collections to identify these groups and their orientations. Next, we seek to apply and extend these measures to various organizational and national contexts. Third: Political conflict rooted in social structural reconfiguration is not inherently corrosive to cohesive societies, contrary to common assumptions. Instead, conflict can drive sustainable social change and adaptation to increasing diversity. What matters is a balanced state of consensus, trust, and cooperation, where complex social groups can voice demands for new forms of social integration. We developed a concept that enables empirical assessments of these shifts in response to reconfiguration. Next, we will apply this concept to a wide set of European countries. Fourth: We developed a theoretical model that conceptualizes organizations as filters of social structural change that critically affect individual and group inequalities. We gathered initial evidence for this claim. Next, we assess how organizations politicize group identities within multidimensional social structures. The RISS research group unites sociologists, political scientists, and computer scientists to capture the complexity of social structural change and ist political implications. Our approach advances theories on how social structural change shapes individual and collective orientations and outcomes, ultimately leading to a better understanding of our troubled times.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Netherlands

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Grunow, Daniela )
• Internalized Gender and Parenting Norms and their Politicization in Comparative Perspective (Applicants Becker, Birgit ;  Grunow, Daniela )
• Project 1: RISS II CoRE – Conceptualizing Reconfiguration for Empirical Research (Applicants Eger, Steffen ;  Grunow, Daniela ;  Khoudja, Ph.D., Yassine )
• Religion between Secularization and Fundamentalism - The (Re-)Politicization of Religion (Applicants Roßteutscher, Sigrid ;  Wagemann, Ph.D., Claudius )
• RISS II project 3: Losers of the Reconfigured Knowledge Society? Analyzing the Political Preferences, Politicized Identities, and Behavior of the Low-Educated (Applicant Garritzmann, Julian )
• RISS II project 8: The Impact of Interstate Conflict Threat on Multidimensional Identity, Political Preferences and Behavioral Intentions in Reconfigured Societies (Applicant Ruhe, Constantin )
• RISS Project 3: Intergenerational Transmission of Work-Family Trajectories in Germany (Trajectories) (Applicant Hofmeister, Heather )
• The Politicization of Migration and Welfare: How Political Discourse and Social-structural Facts Shape Social Policy Preferences in Reconfigured Societies (Applicants Garritzmann, Julian ;  Schmidt-Catran, Alexander )
• Transitions, Changing Networks, and the Development of Young Adults’ Efficacy Beliefs and Political Engagement (Applicants Becker, Birgit ;  Leszczensky, Lars ;  Roßteutscher, Sigrid )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Daniela Grunow