Work Group Socialization Research: News
29.01.2026EliA presentation at the working group “Organization and Evaluation” of the DGS Section on Organizational Sociology on December 4, 2025, at the University of Gießen
In a presentation titled “Ages of ‘good parents’ – Organizational assessment practices between external recommendations and organizational practice,” Hannah Kaußen presented initial findings from the EliA project at the “Organization and Assessment” conference at the University of Gießen.
Based on the historical development of recommendations for adoption placement, the presentation shows that the establishment of a recommended maximum age for adoption applicants is variable and has been replaced in the latest edition (2022) by a focus on a “natural age gap” between applicants and adopted children. Findings from interviews with adoption agencies show that the age of adoption applicants is a relevant assessment criterion that must be interpreted in the practice of applicant screening. Not only calendar age, but also a co-constructed social and biological age is taken into account when assessing applicants. This shows that professional assessment practices in adoption agencies are closely intertwined with institutional guidelines and normative expectations.
19.12.2025Alexandra König and Jessica Schwittek at the lecture series "Kleine Form"
On December 17, 2025, Alexandra König and Jessica Schwittek gave a lecture entitled “What are ‘good parents’? A sociological perspective on social role models” as part of the “Kleine Form” series. They elaborated on the topic using the EliA, DoDzi, and TraNa projects as examples.
It was a pleasure for us to contribute to this lecture series at the UDE, which has been running for over 30 years! A recording of the lecture (in German) is available here.
18.12.2025TraNa work meeting – Essen, Germany
From December 10 to 12, we welcomed our Polish TraNa cooperation partners to the University of Duisburg-Essen. During this time, we discussed in detail the project's results to date, took a closer look at individual project areas, and planned our next steps together.
The exchange was extremely fruitful and generated numerous new ideas as well as valuable impulses and reflections for the TraNa project. At the end of the year, the meeting also provided a good opportunity to review the first half of the project together and develop an outlook for the second project phase. We are very much looking forward to continuing our work and to further developing the next project phase together.
15.12.2025New editorial team for the “Review & Profession” section of the ZSE
Alexandra König and Jessica Schwittek have taken over editorial duties for the “Review & Profession” section of the journal Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation (ZSE) from Helmut Bremer and Tim Zosel. The Essen location will remain unchanged, as will the support provided by Niklas Zieglarz, who will continue to assist the editorial team as a student assistant.
The editorial team welcomes suggestions for reviews and conference reports! Please feel free to send comments or proposals at any time to zse@uni-due.de
05.12.2025Project updates: Completion of the first main phase of data collection
The first main phase of data collection for the TraNa project has been successfully completed. Katarzyna Jendrzey worked in Wrocław and other regions in southwestern Poland, conducting dozens of interviews with children, who gave us exciting insights – into their experiences with migration and into where and how they position themselves in the world. The next step is now to evaluate the data before we continue with the next round of data collection at the beginning of next year.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all the children who were willing to talk to us, who were so open, and who shared their experiences and knowledge with us.
A big thank you also goes to all participating schools and to the parents who supported us in the survey. Without this commitment, the successful completion of this data collection phase would not have been possible.