Towards a cultural sociology of transnational and global inequalities

International workshop
8-9 May 2025
Funding: DFG and University of Bamberg (FNK)
 

Social inequality is a core topic of sociology, but most analyses focus on social inequalities within countries. The aim of this workshop was to bring together international sociologists from diverse theoretical and methodological backgrounds to contribute to the development of a research agenda on studying transnational and global inequalities. In particular, it sought to advance this agenda by leveraging recent conceptual innovations from cultural sociology, which have emphasized the importance of cultural practices such as classifications, evaluations, and symbolic boundaries for social inequality.

Workshop report and program(645.1 KB)

Debating the Legitimacy of Borders: How the Admission or Exclusion of Refugees is Justified across the World

Funding: Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script” (SCRIPTS), Berlin
Duration: Oct. 2019 till Sept. 2022

Over the recent years, the number of people fleeing war and persecution has substantially increased across the world. Although international law requires states to provide protection to refugees, the willingness to receive refugees differs considerably between countries. On the basis of analyses of political debates on the reception of refugees in various countries, this project tries to identify the reasons.

Further information on the project as well as on project publications is to be found on the project page.

National and Regional Symbolic Boundaries among European Elites: A Qualitative Interview Study of the Higher Officials of the European Union

PhD project
Completed in August 2019

The process of European integration and the transfer of political competences to "Brussels" have led to the development of a new administrative elite around the European institutions. This project asked to what extent this group develops a common European identification as well as what role the heterogeneous national and regional backgrounds play for processes of group-making.

Project Publications
 

Book

Drewski, Daniel (2021): National and regional symbolic boundaries in the European Commission: Towards an ever-closer union? (1st ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis. doi.org/10.4324/9781003107439

Articles in Scientific Journals
 

Drewski, Daniel (2023): Language and symbolic boundaries among transnational elites: A qualitative case study of European Commission officials. Global networks : a journal of transnational affairs,1-16, doi: 10.1111/glob.12434

Drewski, Daniel (2021): EU Eastern Enlargement and Symbolic Boundaries: A Qualitative Case Study of the Civil Servants of the European Commission. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 50(2), 96-113, doi: 10.1515/zfsoz-2021-0008

Drewski, Daniel (2021): National and regional symbolic boundaries among EU elites: A qualitative interview study of the higher officials of the European Commission.Soziologie 50(2).

Drewski, Daniel, Jürgen Gerhards & Silke Hans (2018): National Symbolic Capital in a Multinational Environment. An Exploratory Study of Symbolic Boundaries at a European School in Brussels. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. 31(4): 429-448.