230032 FPR Forschungspraktikum 1: Sozialpolitik in vergleichender Perspektive (2017S)

Education plays an increasing importance in rethinking the role of social policy in contemporary societies. In this one-year Research Lab (two semesters) in the field of Comparative Social Policy, we will focus on education as an increasingly key sector in the domain of social policy. We will approach the topic of changing social policy by reconstructing the Austrian education system in comparative perspective. We will do this by illustrating the conceptual frame of paradigmatic change in the field of social policy, as well as by providing methodological tools that will allow us to understand how the system is structured, how it changes and relates to other social policy’s sectors and to the labour market. The theoretical background will be provided by different approaches to comparative welfare state analysis, social policy and comparative educational research.
The objective of the course is to introduce different ways of conducting research in education by looking at the life course of individuals, at the institutional dimensions of the education systems, at the available sources of data on the input and output of educational institutions. The aim of the Research Lab is to provide you with tools to connect theoretical concepts with empirical data by making use of adequate methods. During the course, we will cover various steps that are part of every research process, including the conceptualization of research questions, the search for appropriate data, the development of tools for the collection of data, the analysis of data and the translation of findings into research reports.
The set-up of the course is strongly related to the following three research projects that focus on different aspects of research in education:
Project by the Department of Sociology: "Wege in die Zukunft Eine Längsschnittstudie über die Vergesellschaftung junger Menschen in Wien"
"YOUNG_ADULLLT Policies supporting young people in their life course: A comparative perspective of lifelong learning and inclusion in education and work in Europe"
"COHSMO Inequality, urbanization and territorial cohesion: Developing the European Social Model of economic growth and democratic capacity"
YOUNG_ADULLLT and COHSMO are both international research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
The Research Lab follows a practice-based approach. With your assignments, you will make an active contribution to the research projects mentioned above.