High Profile Area Society

The high-profile area SOCIETY at the University of Koblenz-Landau combines various subjects and focal points of research regarding human behaviour as well as culture and society.

A basic feature of the high profile area SOCIETY are several possible linkages between various disciplinary research perspectives. The university's research capabilities are marked by psychology, which studies human behavior and mind, as well as the humanities and social sciences, which study language, arts and culture plus politics and economics. These disciplines are complemented by informatics, which develops, optimizes and tests the practicability of IT-based services for humans.

For many years our two faculties informatics in Koblenz and psychology in Landau have maintained a strong track record in research. In addition our research in the humanities and social sciences has been expanded in recent years. The latter development is reflected in the establishment of the Graduate School "Life Challenges". A range of institutions provides specialized research capabilities within the high profile area SOCIETY, including the Central Institute for Scientific Entrepreneurship & International Transfer (ZIFET), the Institute for Medical Technology and Data Processing (MTI Mittelrhein) in Koblenz, the Knowledge Media Institute (IWM), the Frank-Loeb-Institute for Policy Transfer and International Understanding in Landau, the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate for Crisis Prevention and Civil Conflict Management, and the Rwanda-Center.

To promote cooperation among the various scientific disciplines in our high profile area SOCIETY, the university has established new interdisciplinary research focuses on key topics. The research focus "Communication, Media, Politics" (KoMePol) links the research in political science and communication science with psychology and informatics. The research focus "Cultural Orientation and Normative Obligation" (Kultur-Norm) takes an interdisciplinary approach to the question to what extend culture can exert normative influence in contemporary plural societies. This central questions brings together scientists from the academic disciplines of philosophy, pedagogy, theology, cultural studies, literature and linguistics.