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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Economic and Social Issues

Economic and Social Issues is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 14k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers critically examines the imperialist nature of global capitalism, addressing issues such as social inequality, post-growth economy, environmental sustainability, political power dynamics, neoliberalism, class struggle, and democratic crisis.

  • Imperialism
  • Global Capitalism
  • Critique
  • Social Inequality
  • Post-Growth Economy
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Political Power
  • Neoliberalism
  • Class Struggle
  • Democratic Crisis
Research works
14k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
79% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Economic and Social Issues

Which countries lead Economic and Social Issues research?

By volume, Germany and Austria publish the most (2.1k and 204 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 2.1k works
  2. 2 Austria 204 works
  3. 3 Switzerland 133 works
  4. 4 United States 91 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 33 works
  6. 6 France 31 works
  7. 7 Italy 26 works
  8. 8 Canada 17 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 17 works
  10. 10 China 16 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Germany: 78.9%Austria: 7.6%Switzerland: 4.9%United States: 3.4%6 others listed: 5.2%79%largest
Germany2,136 · 78.9%Austria204 · 7.6%Switzerland133 · 4.9%United States91 · 3.4%6 others listed141 · 5.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Economic and Social Issues research?

By volume in 2022-now, Leibniz Association publishes the most Economic and Social Issues research, followed by University of Kassel and München Klinik.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Leibniz AssociationGermany 70 works
  2. 2 University of KasselGermany 57 works
  3. 3 München KlinikGermany 47 works
  4. 4 Universität HamburgGermany 44 works
  5. 5 University of MünsterGermany 43 works
  6. 6 Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 43 works
  7. 7 Freie Universität BerlinGermany 36 works
  8. 8 University of ErfurtGermany 31 works
  9. 9 Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 30 works
  10. 10 Heidelberg UniversityGermany 29 works

Who are the leading researchers in Economic and Social Issues?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Economic and Social Issues include Pierre Bourdıeu, Wolfgang K. Huber and Michel Foucault.

  1. 1 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  2. 2 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  3. 3 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  4. 4 Herbert A. Simon United States 179k citations
  5. 5 Jens Juul Holst Denmark 163k citations
  6. 6 Noam Chomsky United States 141k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Economic and Social Issues?

The most cited paper in Economic and Social Issues is "Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten" (Andreas Reckwitz, 2018), with 1,131 citations. Next come "Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie, Tübingen 1922" (940) and "Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit (1971/1975)" (786).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten Andreas Reckwitz Book chapter 2018 1,131
2 Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie, Tübingen 1922 Marcus Llanque · VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften eBooks Book chapter 8 May 2008 940
3 Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit (1971/1975) Otfried Höffe · J.B. Metzler eBooks Book chapter 2023 786
4 Sociology, environment, and modernity: Ecological modernization as a theory of social change Gert Spaargaren, ARTHUR P. J. MOL · Society & Natural Resources Oct 1992 705
5 Primitive accumulation, accumulation by dispossession, accumulation by ‘extra-economic’ means Jim Glassman · Progress in Human Geography Oct 2006 530
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Economic and Social Issues research done?

The largest centres of Economic and Social Issues research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Munich (Germany) and Hamburg (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kassel, Erfurt and Wiesbaden.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 197 works
  2. 2 ViennaAustria 125 works
  3. 3 MunichGermany 125 works
  4. 4 HamburgGermany 98 works
  5. 5 CologneGermany 77 works
  6. 6 Frankfurt am MainGermany 71 works
  7. 7 EssenGermany 62 works
  8. 8 MünsterGermany 61 works
  9. 9 KasselGermany 58 works
  10. 10 ErfurtGermany 46 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KasselDE · 57.6 works116×
  2. ErfurtDE · 46.2 works98×
  3. WiesbadenDE · 28.8 works81×
  4. WuppertalDE · 26.9 works61×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Economic and Social Issues than the world average.

See Economic and Social Issues on the map

Where is the best place to study Economic and Social Issues?

Among universities, judged by research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Universität Hamburg and Goethe University Frankfurt score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 14.15%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Humboldt-Universität…Goethe University Fr…Universität HamburgUniversity of Kassel
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 75.318.5%33.6×30 +12.4%
2Universität HamburgGermany 72.711.7%24.8×44 +26.4%
3Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 69.315.6%39.3×42 -4.3%
4University of KasselGermany 65.96.6%146.2×57 +182.0%
5Freie Universität BerlinGermany 64.08.2%35.3×36 +8.8%
6Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu KielGermany 63.926.4%17.8×13 -18.1%
7Friedrich Schiller University JenaGermany 62.217.3%28.9×22 -30.2%
8University of ViennaAustria 61.79.9%22.0×27 +33.1%
9University of Duisburg-EssenGermany 61.113.8%26.0×25 +7.8%
10University of CologneGermany 60.013.5%26.3×28 +4.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Economic and Social Issues, country by country

Is Economic and Social Issues research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Economic and Social Issues as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.011% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Economic and Social Issues0.0099% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Economic and Social Issues over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Economic and Social Issues9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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