skip to content

Demography and Social Inequality

The research cluster “Demography and Social Inequality” is aimed at conducting rigorous and relevant research on demographic change and its interrelationship with social inequalities. The latter aspect is of particular importance, because demographic change has been fueled by social change (and vice versa) and the underlying social processes are characterized by a clear social gradient. For example, research has shown that (a) wealth is positively associated with health and longevity, (b) socio-economic status affects both the timing and quantum of fertility, and (c) education is an important factor in determining individuals’ propensity to migrate as well as their chances for a successful integration into the host society.

The causal relationship between demographic behavior and socioeconomic status (social inequalities, respectively), however, is complex and often bi-directional: Wealth is likely to impact individuals’ health, but health is also likely to impact individuals’ capacity to accumulate wealth. High socioeconomic status offers the resources to bear the costs of children, but – at the same time – opportunity costs of childrearing are high for the highest qualified.

Recent years brought about significant improvements in our – theoretical and empirical – understanding of the causal mechanisms underlying demographic outcomes/processes and social inequalities as described above. Another important aspect we still know relatively little about, though, relates to the coping strategies of actors facing the demographic challenges lying just ahead of us. More generally phrased – and following a general model of sociological explanation – we might thus ask:

  • How do actors at different levels of aggregation (macro-, meso-, and micro-level) adapt their behaviors to fundamentally changing (social, economic, demographic) environments, coping with new challenges and opportunities?
  • How might behavioral changes at the micro-level result in structural changes at higher levels of aggregation? And how are such behavioral changes related to social inequalities (both as a determinant and as a consequence)?

These questions relate all three demographic processes – fertility, migration, and mortality – and various dimensions of social inequality – education, income, social participation, etc. – alike. Answering them requires competence in several substantive fields as well as broad methodological expertise and knowledge of a variety of theoretical approaches to human behavior. The research initiative clusters the individual competences of its members, thereby offering the broad expertise necessary to advance our knowledge in the field of “Demography and Social Inequality”.

The research initiative is in the unique position that its members are involved in a number of long-term data collection enterprises (pairfam, CILS4EU, NRW Survey of Oldest-Old) providing the research community with high-quality research infrastructures. This involvement not only allows us to collect ‘tailor-made’ data needed for our own projects, but also poses us in a position as an attractive partner for external collaborations.

Researchers

While the professors at the ISS form the core of the research initiative, the research cluster includes other associated researchers from the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences and other Faculties of the University of Cologne.

Selected publications

Cross-national differences in the association between retirement and memory decline

Mäcken, Jana; Riley, Alicia R; Glymour, Maria M (2021). The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.

Gesundheitskompetenz der Bevölkerung in Deutschland vor und während der Corona Pandemie. Ergebnisse des HLS-GER 2.

Schaeffer, D., Berens, E.-M., Gille, S., Griese, L., De Sombre, S., Klinger, J., Vogt, D., Hurrelmann, K. (2021).…

Using Social Learning Theories to Better Understand the Variation of the Moral Acceptability of Performance Enhancement Drug Use.

Sattler, S. (2020). American Journal of Bioethics – Neuroscience 11: 248–250.

Linked in Life and Death: A Note on the Effect of Parental Death on Sibling Relations in Young and Middle Adulthood

Hank, Karsten (2021). Journal of Family Issues.

Mothers’ employment and child behaviour: New evidence for Scotland.

Jacob, Marita und Kühhirt, Michael (2021). Longitudinal and Life Course Studies.

Gesundheitskompetenz der Bevölkerung in Deutschland: Vergleich der Erhebungen 2014 und 2020.

Hurrelmann, K., Klinger, J., Schaeffer, D. (2020). Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für…

Measuring school children’s attitudes toward immigrants in Switzerland and Poland

Becker, C.C., E. Davidov, J. Cieciuch, R. Algesheimer and M. Kindschi (2020). Measurement Instruments for the Social…

The comparability of measures in the ageism module of the fourth round of the European Social Survey, 2008-2009.

Seddig, D., Maskileyson, D., & Davidov, E. (2020). Survey Research Methods, 14(4), 351-364.

Do Publics Share Experts’ Worries About Brain-Computer Interfaces? A Trinational Survey on the Ethics of Neural Technology

Sample, M., Sattler, S., Racine, E., Blain-Moraes, S., Rodriguez-Arias, D. (2020) Science, Technology and Human Values

Impact of Healthcare System, Macro Indicator, General Mandatory Quarantine and Mask Obligation on COVID-19 cases and death in six Latin American Countries: an interrupted time series study

Poppe, A. (2020). Frontiers in Public Health.