Institut für Soziologie, Universität Wien

@ifswien.bsky.social

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Das Institut für Soziologie vereinigt die soziologische Forschung und Lehre an der Universität Wien @univie.ac.at https://www.soz.univie.ac.at/ Newsletter-Anmeldung: https://tinyurl.com/58spas3f

Menschenmenge von hinten fotografiert, die unter dem Banner mit der Aufschrift „Die Woche der soziologischen Nachwuchsforschung“ im Foyer des Instituts steht. Vor der Menge präsentieren Günter Stummvoll und Enese Daróczi ihr Buch.
screenshot of the abstract
Screenshot of the abstract of the article "Feminist research on platform economies: a conversation on current perspectives and future challenges": This article presents an edited transcript of a roundtable discussion originally held at the conference Feminist Perspectives on the Platformisation of Care Work in European Cities at the Europa-Universität Flensburg in 2025, in which the panellists discuss the ways in which a feminist perspective might help to better understand digital platform labour in Europe, current developments in feminist theorising on platform labour and new concerns arising for research and practice. The point of departure is the question of how a feminist perspective informs each scholar's research on platform labour. It continues by considering the feminised sectors of platform labour, intersectional inequalities and gendered labour market dynamics, while also being attentive to the lens of social reproduction and the transversal links between waged and unwaged labour within and outside of the household. To conclude, participants address possibilities for transforming exploitative practices and reflect on directions for future research.
Screenshot of the abstract of the article "The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) dataset: Leave duration entitlements for 21 countries from 1970 to 2024": Background: Parenting leave policies shape how caregiving and paid work can be reconciled around the time of childbirth. They have important implications for fertility, employment, and gender equality. Still, there are limited quantitative cross-country data capturing long-term policy changes that impact how long parents can temporarily be away from work to care for their children, and how leave can be shared between them. Objective: The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset provides harmonised regulations on maternity, co-parent, paid parental, and job-protected leave across 21 European countries from 1970 to 2024. It focuses on policies that shape how long birth mothers and their co-parents can take leave. Methods: Statutory leave entitlements were compiled from national legal sources, official government publications, and secondary literature. We followed a consistent set of data collection rules to enable comparison across countries and over time. Because the dataset focuses on time away from the job, it considers only rights for employed parents. It includes 33 variables and also documents country-specific reform timelines. Contribution: The EPLP Dataset fills a gap in existing data sources by providing quantitative data across 55 years on policies that shape how long parents stay at home around birth and how leave is shared between them. In addition to leave duration and benefits, it covers recent policy instruments such as incentives for parents to share leave, and timing and flexibility of leave use. The dataset enables cross-national comparisons and the analysis of changes over time, and can be used to study the effects of policy reforms.
Screenshot of the abstract of the article "Rethinking policy learning in urban policy mobility": Since the ‘mobility turn’, urban researchers have advanced our understanding of the contentious and relational nature of cross-border policy learning. Extant research has revealed how policy ideas move through transnational networks, social interactions, and informal dialog, forming assemblages of policy learning. Despite this rich literature that centers policy learning on policy circulation, we know relatively little about how learning unfolds throughout the full trajectory of their localization as a policy process. We fill this gap by taking the policy cycle model as an analytical framework. We investigate the whole range of policy activities that shape and transform policy learning into concrete policy components through a series of interconnected, iterative stages of the policy cycle within urban policy mobility. Using the introduction of participatory budgeting in Vienna as an empirical case, we show how multiple types of learned lessons, drawn from diverse actors and sources of knowledge, become enmeshed, streamlined, and articulated into the formulation and implementation of an international best practice as a local policy. We conclude by highlighting some analytical advantages of this policy-oriented approach for researching urban policy mobility and suggest directions for future research.
Stellenausschreibung im Team Ana Mijić: WIR SUCHEN...... Studienassistent*in zur Unterstützung von Ass. Prof. Dr. Ana Mijić Zu Ihren künftigen Aufgaben zählen unter anderem: • Unterstützung in der Vorbereitung und Durchführung von Lehrveranstaltungen und Prüfungen • Unterstützung bei Prüfungsaufsichten und Prüfungseinsichten • Erstellung und Verwaltung von Lehrveranstaltungen in Moodle • Kommunikation mit Studierenden • Literaturrecherchen (E-Journals, Bibliothek), auch in englischer Sprache Anforderungskriterien: • Laufendes Bachelorstudium (fortgeschritten) oder Masterstudium (nicht kurz vor dem Abschluss) der Soziologie • Interesse an qualitativen Methoden und Forschung zu Migration, Flucht, Krieg, Identität, Kunst • Bereitschaft zur Beschäftigung mit Moodle • Anwenderkenntnisse von Office-Software • Deutsch und Englisch, auf Arbeitsniveau Das Dienstverhältnis beginnt am 01.09.2026 und ist befristet bis 28.02.2027 mit der Option, die Tätigkeit um ein weiteres Semester zu verlängern. Stundenausmaß: 14 Stunden/Woche Entlohnung gemäß Kollektivvertrag für die Arbeitnehmer*innen der Universitäten (Verwendungsgruppe C – studentische Mitarbeiter*innen) Bei Interesse an dieser Aufgabe senden Sie bitte bis 26.06.2026 ein kurzes Motivationsschreiben, Ihren Lebenslauf und ein Sammelzeugnis an ana.mijic@univie.ac.at.
Screenshot of the abstract of the paper
Shiwen Liu and Lili Vargha next to their research poster titled "What Parents Say and What Parents Do: How Parental Attitudes and Behaviors Jointly Shape Youth Gender Role Attitudes in China"
Programm der Woche der soziologischen Nachwuchsforschung, als pdf unter dem Link verfügbar
Abbildung des Buchcovers: Gute Mutter, guter Vater - Konstruktionen von Elernschaft im Diskursfeld Pflegschaftsverfahren
Front page of the poster "How is it possible to live together" www.schutzcircle.org
Abbildung des Programms der 16. Woche der soziologischen Nachwuchsforschung am Institut für Soziologie. Volles Program als PDF unter dem Link.
Cover Sammelband "Familie, Sorge und Recht" (transcript Verlag)
Screenshot of abstract: This article examines the emotional dimensions of abortion decisions in Austria, where abortion remains legally restricted and socially stigmatised. Unlike in countries with more liberal reproductive laws, the Austrian legal framework imposes strict time limits and conditions on abortion, while public discourse is dominated by conservative actors and the Catholic Church in particular. This article explores how these constraints shape individual experiences, focusing on the a posteriori emotional processing of abortion decisions. Drawing on 12 in-depth interviews with individuals who terminated pregnancies in Austria, the analysis reveals how limited emotional scripts leave women uncertain about what feelings are expected (or even allowed) after an abortion. While participants expressed confidence in their decisions, the analysis identifies ambivalent emotions, such as regret, grief, empowerment and loneliness. Discussing the broader implications of limited emotional scripts, our analysis showcases how reproductive decisions are not only personal but also deeply embedded sociopolitically, with emotions serving as both a site of agency and a reflection of broader societal constraints.
Rooftops of Bologna in the background, text in front: Pre-Conference Open Workshop: Comparative Family Research with Population Register Data (EPC 2026) on 3 June 2026 from 15:30 to 17:00 at the conference venue in Bologna, Italy. Register by 20 April 2026! Organised by Anna Baranowska-Rataj (Umeå University), Sandrine Metzger, Nadia Steiber and Lili Vargha (University of Vienna)
Film still "The Day Island Stood Still"
Portrait of Federica Prete
Portrait of Carmela Chiapperini
Gruppenbild von Eva-Maria Schmidt mit der Habilitationskommission, im Hintergrund ihre Präsentation mit dem Titel "Multiple relationalities and multiple perspectives"
Portrait of Julia Leesch
Abstract: Between conspiracy and critique: the politics of epistemic insecurity in the “lab leak controversy” Technoscientific controversies are not only public disputes over science and technology. Some of them may also evolve into security events that shape how security knowledge is produced and contested. A prime example of this dynamic is the “lab leak controversy” about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on this case, the article asks: how was the epistemic authority of liberal global health institutions challenged throughout this controversy, and how did this shape the prospects of making security public? To explore how the authority of established security knowledge producers is challenged and destabilized, the article introduces the concept epistemic insecurity and develops a framework for analyzing the construction, management, and political effects of epistemic insecurity. Through this lens, the paper studies the transformation of the “lab leak” conspiracy theory into an expert hypothesis considered by established political and scientific authorities and examines how this process interacted with the epistemic authority of global health institutions and shaped the space for their critique. It finds that the management of epistemic insecurity by liberal institutions initially delegitimized any critique and later led to the personalization and technocratization of critique, thus preventing a deeper critical reflection on the entanglements of science and security.
Science Talk: "Was braucht unsere Demokratie? Über die Rolle und Verantwortung unserer Hochschulen" Montag, 12. Jänner 2026, Beginn 19:00 Uhr, Neuer Veranstaltungsort: TU Wien, Karlsplatz 13, Prechtlsaal, 1040 Wien
Eine Collage: Links das Der Spiegel Cover, rechts: Porträt von Ulrike Zartler
Outside view of the department, blue sky and the department's logo. Text: "Join our team!"
Einladungsposter Film und Diskussion "The Pickers": Frisches Obst und Gemüse das ganze Jahr über sind für uns selbstverständlich geworden. Die negativen Folgen für die Umwelt sind inzwischen bekannt. Weit weniger bekannt ist jedoch, wer das Obst und Gemüse erntet. Unter welchen Bedingungen diese Menschen leben und arbeiten, scheint weniger von Bedeutung zu sein. Hauptsache, das Pflücktempo stimmt. Der Dokumentarfilm "The Pickers" (2024) von Elke Sasse richtet den Fokus auf die meist migrantischen Erntearbeiter*innen, begleitet sie, lässt sie zu Wort kommen und sucht nach Alternativen zu den ausbeuterischen Praktiken. Nach dem Film diskutieren die Regisseurin Elke Sasse, Sonia Melo (Aktivistin und Koordinatorin der sezonieri-Kampagne) und Gilles Reckinger (Kulturanthropologe und Ethnologe, Professor an der FH St. Pölten und Autor von "Bittere Orangen"). Moderiert von Emma Dowling (Institut für Soziologie, Uni Wien) und Veronika Reidinger (FH St. Pölten & Uni Wien)
Abstract of the text: “Flipped Examination Room – Ascriptions of Vulnerability Between Trans Patients and Their Healthcare Providers" by Felix L. Ihrig (Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria), Flora Löffelmann (Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria), Jojo Steininger (Clinical Division of Paediatric Pulmonology, Allergology and Endocrinology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria) in the European Journal of Health Communication. Abstract: The history of pathologisation has left traces in trans healthcare contexts, especially barriers to receiving healthcare. These can be explained with theories of biopower—the disciplining of non-normative bodies, which often results in breached boundaries and repudiation of agency. Embedded in frameworks of Institutional Ethnography and Community-Based Participatory Research, we analysed recordings from one trans Community Team discussion (N = three) and one training session for healthcare providers (HCPs; N = eight) with Charmaz’ Grounded Theory. In this exploratory phase of an ongoing research project, we investigated current practices and underlying beliefs about “trans-sensitive healthcare” in Austria. By depicting trans patients as vulnerable, some HCPs practice benevolent pathologisation. Yet, negotiations of intimacy and responsibility along with power imbalances can render both parties vulnerable. HCPs’ own vulnerability frequently stems from knowledge gaps and expectations concerning expertise and authority. We conclude that a caring and transparent approach to contextual vulnerabilities in interactions between trans patients and HPCs is paramount. The notion of caring encounters, where being uncertain is not a flaw but a mere fact of human existence, is a transformative perspective. By offering their support to HCPs, trans people extend their circle of care and imagine a society built on compassion.
Title of the project: "IRI.S – Creating Identity out of War and Migration" and three portraits of the researchers.
Wednesday seminar and Paul F. Lazarsfeld lecture