Research Programme
In the second funding period, the doing transitions approach of analysing transitions in the life course from a processual and performative perspective analysis is further developed. Now, the interplay of discursive, institutional and individually ascribed modes of shaping transitions, is complemented by cross-cutting dimensions contributing to the constituting of transitions: interpersonal relationships, temporalities and materialities (i.e. bodies, spaces and things). In their studies, fellows focus on one of these dimensions. The research foci and the relations under investigation are specified and documented at the beginning in order to make the individual contribution to the analysis of the complexity of transitional relations visible.
In a comprehensive view of the two funding periods, the research programme can be characterized as the scientific work towards a relational model regarding the constitution of transitions in the life course. Different research questions, designs and methods contribute in specific ways and are integrated on a theoretical meta-level. The research training group by organising multiple formats of events for scientific exchange provides a space of reciprocal reference.
Research Programme of the first funding period (2017-2021)
research programme download (pdf)
The research programme is structured by three levels on which transitions are formed across the different life ages: discourses, institutions, and individuals. These levels provide different entries into the analysis of the production and formation of transitions. In a way, these levels serve as different research foci. At the same time, the focus is not only on the different levels as such but also on how transitions are formed in the interplay between these levels. PhD students conduct empirical research on one of these levels, while Postdocs aim at integrating data analysis on all three levels. Together, the research training group provides a space in which different approaches can be related to each other.
Training Programme
The overarching goal of the research training group is to establish a research and training platform for young researchers who are interested in the formation and production of transitions in the life course. Doing Transitions is conceived of as a cross-cutting and transdisciplinary thematic perspective. The training programme consists of five competence areas; some elements are compulsory while others can be chosen according to own needs and interest. Apart from supporting the research fellows with the completion of the PhD and Postdoc projects, it is also meant to assist them in their career planning. A key principle is cooperation with the infrastructure and programmes that are already available at the two universities, such as the Goethe Graduate Academy GRADE, the Graduate Academy of the University of Tübingen, the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), the DFG-funded graduate school LEAD (Learning, Educational Achievement, and Life Course Development) as well as the networks “QualiNet WiSO” and “QuantiNet WISO” of the University of Tübingen’s Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences.
Doctoral and Postdoctoral Projects
The research programme of Doing Transitions comprises PhD and Postdoc projects completed by research fellows. While PhD projects primarily address one life age and one level of formation and production of transitions, Postdoc projects aim at a more integrative perspective across levels.
1rst cohort (2017-2019)
| Title | Author |
| A biographical study on the developmental contexts of educational decisions using the example of catching up on the Abitur in adulthood | Noreen Eberle |
| Studying as a biographical transition. A qualitative study on the perspectives of students | Kathrin Henrich |
| Transitions as human leadership? On the ambivalence of political interest mediation in the migration society | Nils Klevermann |
| The transition to parenthood in pregnancy advice literature | Janne Krumbügel |
| Governance and transitions to residential care – An international comparative study on the governance and regulation of transitions to residential care in old age between Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Frankfurt (Hesse) | Miriam Lehnert |
| The right help!? Young adults dealing with the ‘Jugendjobcenter’ | Bianca Lenz |
| Transitions to shared multi-generational housing projects | Helena Müller |
| Growing up in an individualized society – Modern childhood as a psychosocial space of possibility in the dialectically understood relationship between socialization and individuation | Deborah Nägler |
| “I couldn’t have talked like that before” – Biographical perspectives on transitions in the context of dealing with experiences of sexual violence in childhood and adolescence | Andrea Pohling |
| “Making a youth consecration” – On the social production and design of a transition (ritual) | Julia Prescher |
| Newly immigrated young people in transition to mainstream German schools | Anna Reinhardt |
| Time for a solo effort | Tabea Freutel-Funke |
| The transition from employee to manager: An analysis from an educational science perspective | Simone Anton |
| Transition from parental leave back into working life | Eva Heinrich |
| The relevance of socio-educational support for creating and shaping transitions in the context of unequal educational opportunities | Heidi Hirschfeld |
| “I’m still in there now, finding myself so left-wing” – A biographical study on politicization in adolescence | Jessica Lütgens |
| Queerness in adolescence – sexual orientation and gender identity in transition | Kerstin Rinnert |
| Doing Retiring – The Social Practices of Transiting into Retirement and the Distribution of Transitional Risks | Anna Wanka |
2nd cohort (2020-2022)
| Title | Author |
| Becoming Single in Older Age. Doing Transitions into Singlehood from an Intersectional Perspective | Luisa Bischoff |
| Life worlds at the End of Life: An Ethnography of Inpatient Hospice Care | Lilian Coates |
| The Transition into a new organization. The social relationship as regulatory practice? | Julian Fricke |
| Doing Gender Transitions | Louka Maju Goetzke |
| Doing Transitions Online (Differently) | Jana Heer |
| Invisible transitions | Victoria Heuschele |
| Out-of-home placement – An ethnographic study on the institutional regulation and organization of transitions in youth welfare offices and educational support services | Marius Hilkert |
| Men leaving full-time employment | Lukas Kammer-lander |
| Transitions into dementia – identity, person-environment interaction and doing transitions perspectives | Simone Niedoba |
| Discursive production processes of the transition to school – a comparison of educational policy debates in East and West Germany in the period from 1970 to reunification | Natascha Shalutkevich |
| Growing up in Diaspora. Adulthood and Transnational Familyhood of the African refugees in Germany | Miaojun She |
| Professional transitions in the context of environmental sustainability | Elisa Thevenot |
| Learning and transformation processes during transitions of adult migrants in Canada | Michael Bernhard |
| Becoming Academic. First-Generation Students in Austrian and German Higher Education | Flora Petrik |
| The situation of deep brain stimulation | Tamara Schwertel |
| Transitions of doctors into retirement | Khira Sippli |
| Transitions into Social Class: Social Positioning in the Transition from school to work | Maria Keil |
| Collectivity in transition – On the collective and biographical processing of loss and grief in self-help activities for young people | Kevin Stützel |
3rd cohort (2023-2025)
| Title | Author |
| On the relationship between male homosexuality and sexual violence | Hans Goerdten |
| Uterus removal as life transition – A case of ‚forced‘ hysterectomies among female sugarcane workers in Beed, India | Kritika Gosain |
| Upward social mobility: how does it taste? Social transition through the lens of food. | Clara Gutleben |
| Counseling training as a transition. An analysis of professionalization and habitualization processes | Lena Mazurkiewicz |
| Fluid Transitions – Subjectivations of gender and sexual fluidity | Lio Okroi |
| Family transitions in the context of changing care needs in old age | Katharina Pontius |
| Is the prevention of sexualised violence against children and adolescents a question of professional attitude? Professionalisation of actors in pedagogical organisations as transition processes | Marie-Theres Pooch |
| Being in labour. Giving Birth as a relational practice in contemporary capitalism | Marie Reich |
| Leaving social psychiatric care – Organizational practices of transition to independent living | Jonas Richter |
| Refugees in the Arrrival Context: the Interplay of Social Capital and Class Affiliation | Carolin Schiller |
| Termination as transition? A biographical study on the constitution and meaning of abortion experiences in the context of the life course trajectories of those affected. | Frederika Schulte |
| Doing Reproduction: (Gender) Relations and Agency in the Transition to Parenthood | Lisa Vatter |
| Treatment decisions of intersex people in adolescence and adulthood | Elio Clemenz |
| Linking Ages in pedagogical settings. Protection arrangements in childhood and later life. | Milena Feldmann |
| Paths of women affected by violence – an intersectional analysis of gender-based violence | Stella Schäfer |
| Gender arrangements and subjective experiences of female breadwinning couples in Pakistan | Rahat Shah |
| Linking Moves – Relocations to Assisted Living Arrangements of Young and Older Adults | Karla Wazinski |
| Post-doc, hoc habet? – An examination of the processes of reproduction/non-reproduction of social inequalities in the postdoc phase | Désirée Wägerle |