General

In general, BA and MA theses should be oriented towards the research and teaching focus of the professorship, but are not limited to it. The topic selection is initially made independently, but is then coordinated and specified with the supervisor and in the corresponding colloquia. Usually, the topic develops over the course of the thesis.

The basic research topics of the professorship are the following:

• Phenomena of the digitalization of work (e.g. platform economy, clickworking, gigwork, remote work, etc.).
• Robots in everyday worlds / human-robot interaction / social robotics
• Automation of communication / interaction with and through algorithms
• Participation in science and technology development
• Work with a methodological focus (grounded theory, mixed methods, digital humanities)
• (Smart) technology and elderly people

Methods, Data & Paradigms

The members of the professorship can offer expertise in a wide range of non-standardized methodologies of social research (so-called "qualitative methods"). These include traditional lines such as grounded theory methodology (Pentzold, Bischof & Heise 2018), lifeworld-oriented approaches according to Schütz and Bohnsack, approaches from science and technology studies (such as actor-network theory), and practice-theoretical analyses of interactions.

Common forms of data collection in these paradigms are qualitative interviews, participatory observations, group discussions and the analysis of web content (such as forum threads or image analyses). In addition, work with historical sources or the analysis of text corpora, such as policy documents or newspaper articles, is possible. The evaluation of these data is usually done sequence-analytically (Erhard & Sammet 2018) or according to specific forms of interpretation, such as the documentary method. We recommend that you use the text- and workbook "Qualitative Sozialforschung" by Przyborski und Wohlrab-Sahr (2021) to get an overview of these methods, their implications and their interplay (esp. chapters 1, 2 & 5).

However, theses do not have to be exclusively related to the above paradigms. We are also very happy to supervise theory and literature papers with a sociology of technology focus. We also want to support theses that follow mixed methods approaches or design methods (such as co-design or cultural probes) and combinations of qualitative and digital methods (such as web scraping or topic modeling). We are curious and open.

Cooperation with companies, NGOs or external research institutions

We are very interested in facilitating and supervising final theses that are carried out in companies, NGOs or external research institutions. Especially in the Master's program "Digital Work", cooperations with software companies, producing industry, research projects at other universities or institutes such as the ISF Munich have proven to be very productive and profitable for the graduates.