Preliminary Remarks

Research Oriented Masters Programm

As empirical science sociology has the task to analyse social phenomenons in a modern society. This stretches over a spectrum of the analysis of individual sobjects (micro level) to the study of social institutions (meso level) to the analysis of bigger social change (makro level). Sociology wants to understand societal phenomenons in their history and explaining their origin in their historiography.

This analysis is characterised through two factors: through the theoretical and the used research methods. A theory-led phrasing of sociological problems and their translation into an empirical research design, the execution of this and their evalution is the centre of the explicitly research oriented masters programm sociology at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Fokusing so closely on a research oriented education this masters programm offers our graduates a wide variety of skills. It not only carries over the sociological tradition of basing theory about structure and function of modern society on empirical evidence but qualifies our graduates to research on the basis of scientific standards and making them useful for practical use. This qualification is slowly becoming an essential part of academic and non-academic areas of work and research.