Research area Substantive Research

Because our employees conduct research on the data collected or processed by GESIS, the focal points in the research area of Substantive Research reflect the topics that are contained in the survey programs and data collected and prepared by us. The research on social structure analysis is largely based on the national and European official statistics, which are processed in the RDC “German Microdata Lab” of the department “Monitoring Society and Social Change”. Research is done on issues such as “Gender inequality”, “Family and partnership structures”, “Employment and occupation”, or “Migration”. As a hub between scientists and data producers, we could pass on the experience and knowledge to the two groups.

“Education” as a research topic at GESIS can not only be found in research on social structures but also in the context of competences. Here are on-cognitive abilities and their relationships to educational and training variables in focus. At the same time, projects are planned to investigate the change of cognitive and non-cognitive skills over time, and conditional factors for the maintenance and acquisition of competences.

Research on values, attitudes and behavior is largely based on ALLBUS, ISSP, ESS, EVS, and similar surveys collected at GESIS. In addition to core topics such as “Migration”, “Trust”, “Religion and social values”, we also analyze topics that are queried in rotation in the surveys. An additional focus in the field of values, attitudes and behavior is the election research at GESIS. With GLES and CSES, GESIS acts as a central player in the production of electoral and political data. Accordingly, in longitudinal and cross-sectional research, we conduct national and international research into various dimensions of empirical election research. Social change can not only be observed at the micro level but also at the macro level and in politics. Accordingly, GESIS employees are also active in policy research such as equality policy at universities.