Research topics

The lecturers on the Master's degree course are involved in research projects and research groups at the university and beyond, the content and results of which are incorporated into teaching in various ways.

In addition to discussing research results in courses, students are introduced to research processes and projects in seminar-based group work and teaching research projects and can familiarize themselves with the current state of research, particularly in application-related projects. In addition, students have the opportunity to be integrated into third-party funded projects as student or research assistants or to participate in the research fields or projects with their Master's thesis.

If you are interested in becoming involved in research projects, please contact either the head of degree program or the relevant lecturers.

Institutionally, the Master's degree program within the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is primarily linked to the HSZG's research focus "Transformation Processes in Economy and Society"  and the TRAWOS Institute  and the TRAWOS Institute.

Important fields of research at the HSZG that play a role in the course are

  • 1. demographic transformation - consequences and design strategies

    - Social and local demographic changes
    - consequences for the design of the economy and technology, social and health policy, etc.
    - Commitment/civil society, culture, mobility etc. in a demographic context

  • 2. urban and regional development beyond the metropolitan areas

    - Regional development in demographic, economic and cultural change - material and symbolic aspects
    - Transnational and translocal migration processes and their consequences for housing and other markets
    - Innovation actors and innovation organizations beyond the metropolises
    - Medium-sized towns in transition
    - Shaping the future of Upper Lusatia - on the transformation of a region and its actors

  • 3. post-socialist opportunities: transformation and Europeanization in Central Eastern Europe and its border regions

    - Transformation and post-transformative developments in Central and Eastern Europe in the economy, society and culture
    - Europeanization/EU integration at national and local level
    - Local border areas and their further development
    - Transnational/translocal dynamics and development opportunities

  • 4. socio-ecological transformation/transformative social and cultural ecology

    - Socio-ecological transformation, its actors and innovations, governance and management opportunities
    - Energy transition and transformation of the energy supply system: technical-technological, economic and social formation
    - Ecological, economic and social sustainability
    - Post-growth societies as a challenge
    - Cultures of (self-)transformation between society and the individual

  • 5. the transformation of socialization and socialization in the new welfare state

    - Childhood and youth in transition
    - Education/inclusion as a challenge and opportunity for new solidarities
    - New social policy in the demographic and social transformation
    - Precarization and exclusion as phenomena of change
    - The socialized subject in social change

  • 6. organizational development and change management

    - New forms of organization in companies, social organizations and administrations
    - Design/management of organizational change
    - Communication, work and organizational psychology challenges in change
    - Participation processes in organizations
    - Sustainability management