topic Research

Social Sciences and the Humanities: Knowledge for cultural and social orientation

Social Sciences and the Humanities deliver a wealth of knowledge on cultural, economic and social development as well as on social structures. They thus provide an important contribution to decisions on current problems and challenges. Their work would be easier if existing data were to be made available to all scientists. Their expressiveness would be increased if they were to cooperate more strongly across disciplines. Their effect would be greater if their practical relevance and international role were to be increased. The BMBF therefore supports the humanities and social sciences specifically in these areas.

• better access to data and information infrastructure
• reporting system on work and lifestyles
• reporting on regional sustainability 
• research collaboration on disintegration processes
• socio-ecologic research
• economic sciences for sustainability 
• knowledge for decision-making processes
• new technologies for the humanities
• humanities in the social dialogue

These priorities are orientated to objectives with regard to methodology and content which are to provide humanities research with new impetus. Funding is being provided towards

• improving the basis for scientific work by facilitating access to data in the social and economic sciences and scientific cooperation and communication on the way towards e-social sciences and humanities,
• innovative methods of reporting on trends in social developments,
• research collaborations on selected present-day problems, such as the development of integration and disintegration in a modern society,
• research on the relationship between society and nature with the aim of providing contributions to sustainable development.

The projects which are being funded do not focus on individual disciplines but are designed on an interdisciplinary basis and deal with questions at the interfaces between the humanities and social sciences as well as the natural sciences and engineering.

Some of the measures support the Strategy for Sustainable Development which the Federal Government introduced in 2002. The main objective is to channel social changes in a way that combines the preservation and protection of natural resources with economic prosperity and social justice. For example, scientific findings on the environmental impact of specific eating habits are compared with information on preferred eating patterns and the changing role of meals in our everyday life. It is important to take both aspects into account in order to make progress in the field of sustainable nutrition. Such integrated projects are still the exception in the field of research, however.
Other key areas aim to help the humanities to make use of new findings in engineering and the natural sciences. For example, natural scientists are cooperating with researchers in the humanities, for example in the field of archaeology. The latest findings in the field of natural sciences are thereby being applied in archaeological tasks, such as detecting objects or determining their age. Another line of funding in the humanities aims at supporting interdisciplinary working groups and joint work on research tasks, for example cooperation between brain researchers and philosophers, linguists, historians and others.

Project funding points the way ahead and thus complements longer-term work conducted in the area of social sciences and the humanities by research institutions which receive institutional-funding from the BMBF together with the Länder:

• Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB),
• German Social Science Infrastructure Service (GESIS),
• German Socio-Economic Panel Study,
• Institute of Contemporary History and
• Institute for the German Language as parts of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Science Association.

The task of the "Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin", which is jointly funded by the BMBF and the Land of Berlin, is to give outstanding scientists in the most diverse disciplines and of the most diverse nationalities space and time for research tasks, which they have chosen themselves, and for interdisciplinary discourse by offering them stays of several months as Fellows of the Kolleg. The Centre Marc Bloch is a joint German-French research platform for young scientists from France and Germany.

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  topic Research

  Freiraum für die Geisteswissenschaften

  Die Geisteswissenschaften leisten einen Beitrag zur Gestaltung der Zukunft und zum kulturellen Gedächtnis. Sie vermitteln zwischen Kulturen, sie reflektieren und bieten Orientierung über Werte und Entwicklungen in den Teilbereichen der Gesellschaft. Mit der Initiative "Freiraum für die Geisteswissenschaften" wird das BMBF die Geisteswissenschaften strukturell stärken und ihnen größeren Spielraum für die Entfaltung ihrer Leistungen geben.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/10567.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Socio-ecological research

  How can one persuade consumers to make use of their knowledge about sustainable nutrition in their everyday shopping patterns? Does the withdrawal of the public sector from the fields of water, electricity and gas supply entail risks with regard to social justice and environmental protection, or does it open up greater scope for sustainable action? What ecological, social, cultural and economic risks does the continuous penetration of everyday life with I&C technologies entail, for example nation-wide mobile telephone networks, or the use of smart identification tags (RFID)? How can the forthcoming renovation of post-war housing estates meet the needs of both ecology and tenants in times of empty public coffers?
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/972.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Economic sciences for sustainability

  The economic sciences are leaving their model world and are facing up to the real challenges of globalization, of socio-demographic change and the need for ecological modernization. Concrete solutions for tackling these challenges of the future will be developed under the funding priority "Economic Sciences for Sustainability".
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/4815.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Society and Demographic Change

  Improved living conditions, peace and better social support systems have started a process of change in the age structure of the population in industrialized nations. The rise in the average age of the population is leading to changes in our everyday life and work. How is society dealing with these changes? How can we make use of the opportunities available and profit from the experience of the older generation? Health research and the production and services industries are called upon to provide solutions for the areas of initial and continuing vocational training and for redesigning our cities. The BMBF is funding measures to tackle demographic chance under various research programmes.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/4657.php)
   

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  topic Research

  Knowledge for decision-making processes - Research on the relationship between science, politics and society

  Research in the social and political sciences looks at political and social actions and identifies connections between scientific knowledge and social action. One objective is to make use of the results for research and science policy activities.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/4633.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Reporting on socio-economic developments in Germany: Work and lifestyles

  Why has today's working world changed so much that parents often no longer understand what their sons and daughters do for a profession? Is there a connection between the new forms of work, professional careers and our understanding of the role of men and women? These and similar questions are the object of a new concept of social reporting which was drawn up by four social science research institutions and studies changes in the relationship between work and private lifestyles against the background of social and economic developments in the Federal Republic of Germany over the last 30 years.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/4700.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  The social sciences in the social dialogue

  Europe is a continent of diversity. Striking a balance between the unity and the diversity of social forms, of languages and cultures is one of the basic problems of the humanities. Added to these are the long-term changes in our society due to dynamic developments in the natural sciences, the life sciences and the neurosciences. These make the scientific debate across disciplines and the dialogue between science and society all the more imperative.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/4724.php)