Copy from: http://www.soz.unibe.ch/forschung/ii/

Research Group
"Individualisation and Integration"

coordinated by Prof. Dr. Bettina Heintz and Dr. Eva Nadai

Our research group pursues a question which has accompanied sociology ever since its beginnings: how is social integration possible in the face of growing differentiation and individualisation?
So far sociology has primarily paid attention to processes of disintegration. Under the headings of 'differentiation' and 'individualisation' sociology diagnosed a loosening of societal coherence and the corrosion of traditional forms of integration. However, the question of whether new forms of integration emerge that offset those disintegrative tendencies has been posed only rarely. Our research group focuses on this question.
Four case studies investigate different modes of social integration and try to assess their future significance.

• What forms can solidarity take in an individualized society and how can it be stabilized under the conditions of reflexive 'communities of choice'?
  --> see project "Civil Communities: New Forms of Organized Solidarity".

• To what extent does virtual communication create new social networks and thus acts as a counterbalance to the processes of social fragmentation?
  --> see project "Virtual Communities: The Social World of the Internet".

• How do traditional solidarity networks change with the ongoing structural transformations of agriculture?
  --> see project "Traditional Communities: Agriculture in the Swiss Jura Region".

• How does growing pluralism affects the process of finding political consensus?
  --> see project "Political Negotiation Systems and the Bargaining Process".

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Bettina Heintz, University of Mainz, Institut for Sociology,
Colonel-Kleinmann-Weg 2, D-55099 Mainz, http://www.soziologie.uni-mainz.de/heintz (in german).
e-mail: heintz-at-soziologie.uni-mainz.de,
Tel: 0049 6131 39 40 42, Fax: 0049 6131 39 40 43.
 
Dr. Eva Nadai, University of Berne, Institut for Sociology (in german),
email: eva.nadai-at-fhso.ch.

The research group "Individualisation and Integration" is part of the module "Individual and Society" of the social science Priority Programme "Switzerland: Towards the Future".
The research projects are funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted by the Universities of Berne and Neuchâtel.
 
Duration of the project: 30 months, from April 1997 to September 1999.

To the index page of the research group.

last updated 26.2.98 by Christoph Müller

 
Copyright - Contact - Disclaimer