Joint conference of the DGS Section "Social Inequality and Social Structure Analysis" and the RISC Cluster 2

Inequality and cohesion:

This year's annual conference of the RISC Cluster 2 took place as a joint conference with the DGS (German Sociological Association) Section "Social Inequalities and Social Structure Analysis" from March 5 - 7 in Bremen. Beyond the boundaries of the RISC, participants and speakers devoted numerous contributions to the tension between inequality and cohesion. This tension becomes particularly virulent in the context of societal requirements for coping with multiple crises and transformations: on the one hand, old and new inequality conflicts and cleavages intensify in their wake, while on the other hand, the cohesion of societies becomes a central resource for their ability to transform.

During the conference, Nils Teichler (RDC-RISC), on behalf of the team of authors, presented the first cohesion report published in November 2023 entitled "Entkoppelte Lebenswelten? Social relationships and social cohesion in Germany". Further analyses using data from the German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP) included the presentations "Different colors of the same rainbow? Polarization of gender issues and their interplay with cultural and socio-economic issues" by Melanie Dietz and Sigrid Roßteutscher (both RISC Frankfurt), "Soziale Milieus als soziokulturelle Gruppenbasis politischer Polarisierung in Deutschland" by Tim Schröder and Anne Speer (both RISC Bremen), and "Boulevard of Broken Promises. Are the Working Poor Politically Alienated?" by Sven Ehmes, Simon Bienstmann (both University of Frankfurt), Jean-Yves Gerlitz  and Nils Teichler (both RDC-RISC). With "Zusammenhaltskollisionen? Social conflicts due to heterogeneous ideas of cohesion" by Natalie Grimm (RISC Göttingen), Stefan Holubek-Schaum and Patrick Sachweh (both RISC Bremen), there was also a contribution with data from the central RISC data infrastructure Qualipanel.

The conference was organized by Johannes Giesecke (DGS Section Social Inequality, HU Berlin), Natalie Grimm (RISC Göttingen), Olaf Groh-Samberg and Martin Bacher (both RISC Bremen).

The program is available in german: