Research
My general research interests are in institutional theory. More specifically, I study the relationship between informal structures and processes and institutional change and the ramifications of labour market change for social integration.
My dissertation addressed the question of how regulations of labour market access shape the outcomes of flexibilization processes. More specifically, I investigated the interrelations between micro- and meso-level labour market structuring – both through professional institutions and through networks – and the life course in two highly flexibilized occupational groups in Germany. This study suggested that the outcomes of flexibilization processes for work trajectories as well as for collective action are strongly shaped by the interplay of regulations of labour market access and the organization of work. More specifically, it showed that informal networks in flexible work contexts, while partly reducing uncertainties related to market volatility, can prove highly rigid in constraining individual mobility. Furtermore, the importance of networks in labour markets as well as their limits for risk coping strategies can be systematically explained by the interplay between the organization of work and historically evolved labour market institutions.
To better understand the role of informal structures and processes in institutional change, my new projects focus on the interrelation between sectoral logics and local institutions, and on the relationship between formal and informal forms of regulation, networks and institutions in a comparative perspective.
Research interests:
Institutional theory, sociology of work and labour markets, Industrial Relations, social networks and the life course