Research Centres
Centre for Social World Research and Methodology Development (ZSM)
The Centre for Social World Research and Methodology Development (ZSM) emerged from the former Centre for Qualitative Educational, Counselling and Social Research (ZBBS) and is dedicated to fundamental methodical as well as methodological questions in the field of qualitative research.
The ZSM is anchored at the Faculty of Humanities at Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg and cooperates interdisciplinarily as well as nationwide
- in teaching, especially through the doctoral programme Qualitative Educational and Social Research,
- at the colloquia of ZSM members and guests, which take place twice a year,
- at conferences and workshops, and last but not least
- in publication projects such as the book series Qualitative Case and Process Analyses. Biography - Interaction - Social Worlds (formerly ZBBS) and the Journal for Qualitative Social Research (Zeitschrift für Qualitative Forschung ZQS).
Centre for Transformation Research (ZTF)
The Centre for Transformation Research (ZTF) investigates the historical and current transformation processes in European societies. The ZTF, which emerged from the university's focus on "Transformation as an Epochal Break", originally focused purely on the post-socialist region, but then the USP was expanded to include the perspective of "Transformation Societies in Europeanisation and Globalisation Processes". Regular stays by visiting scholars and doctoral students from abroad, for example from Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and India, document the international establishment of the ZTF. Recently, the content perspective has been expanded to include the Western European region, and historical transformation aspects are also being examined.
