Sociological research at the University of Bern combines the both equally relevant fields of basic theoretical and methodological research with research on contemporary sociological issues. Our main research areas cover migration, political and environmental sociology, sociology of religion and culture as well as sustainable social development, social inequality, game theory, network and social capital research, education and labor markets.

The Institute of Sociology holds three full professorships. Since 2014, the institute hosts the SNSF funded infrastructure project Transition from Education to Employment (TREE). Furthermore, the institute is closely associated with the Interfaculty Centre for Educational Research (ICER), which was founded in 2018. The sum of our research projects reflects the institute’s leitmotiv in research and teaching: to contribute to sociological debates and beyond with practically relevant research on the global scale as well as in the context of Switzerland.