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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Sociology and Education Studies

Sociology and Education Studies is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 31k 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 explores the qualitative analysis of social practices, focusing on educational inequalities, governance, ethnographic writing, social origins, and participation in education. It delves into the impact of social background on educational decisions and the role of expert interviews and ethnography in understanding social practices.

  • Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse
  • Bildungsungleichheit
  • Governance
  • Ethnografisches Schreiben
  • Soziale Herkunft
  • Bildungsbeteiligung
  • ExpertInneninterviews
  • Ethnographie
  • Soziale Praktiken
  • Bildungsentscheidungen
Research works
31k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-8%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
80% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sociology and Education Studies

Which countries lead Sociology and Education Studies research?

By volume, Germany and Austria publish the most (5.2k and 529 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 5.2k works
  2. 2 Austria 529 works
  3. 3 Switzerland 419 works
  4. 4 United States 168 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 50 works
  6. 6 France 37 works
  7. 7 Estonia 29 works
  8. 8 Poland 28 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 26 works
  10. 10 Italy 26 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: 79.8%Austria: 8.2%Switzerland: 6.5%United States: 2.6%6 others listed: 3.0%80%largest
Germany5,175 · 79.8%Austria529 · 8.2%Switzerland419 · 6.5%United States168 · 2.6%6 others listed195 · 3.0%

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

Which institutions lead Sociology and Education Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Leibniz Association publishes the most Sociology and Education Studies research, followed by Bielefeld University and University of Münster.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Leibniz AssociationGermany 202 works
  2. 2 Bielefeld UniversityGermany 120 works
  3. 3 University of MünsterGermany 116 works
  4. 4 Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 111 works
  5. 5 University of CologneGermany 109 works
  6. 6 TU Dortmund UniversityGermany 98 works
  7. 7 University of Duisburg-EssenGermany 94 works
  8. 8 Universität HamburgGermany 89 works
  9. 9 University of KasselGermany 87 works
  10. 10 University of ViennaAustria 85 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sociology and Education Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sociology and Education Studies include Albert Bandura, Victoria Clarke and Pierre Bourdıeu.

  1. 1 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  2. 2 Victoria Clarke United Kingdom 285k citations
  3. 3 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  4. 4 Florian Fischer Germany 257k citations
  5. 5 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  6. 6 Marko Sarstedt Germany 221k citations
  7. 7 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  8. 8 Anselm L. Strauss United States 205k citations
  9. 9 Roy Frederick Baumeister United States 183k 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 Sociology and Education Studies?

The most cited paper in Sociology and Education Studies is "Grundelemente einer Theorie sozialer Praktiken / Basic Elements of a Theory of Social Practices" (Andreas Reckwitz, 2003), with 1,590 citations. Next come "Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften" (1,437) and "Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse" (1,262).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Grundelemente einer Theorie sozialer Praktiken / Basic Elements of a Theory of Social Practices Andreas Reckwitz · Zeitschrift für Soziologie Aug 2003 1,590
2 Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften Jürgen Baumert, Mareike Kunter · Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft Dec 2006 1,437
3 Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse Philipp Mayring, Thomas Fenzl Book chapter 2014 1,262
4 Judith Butler: Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge: New York 1990, 172 S. (dt. Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 1991, 236 S.) Wibke Backhaus · Klassiker der Sozialwissenschaften Book chapter 2016 950
5 Participatory Research Methods: A Methodological Approach in Motion Jarg Bergold, Stefan Thomas · Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) Open access 2012 882
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sociology and Education Studies research done?

The largest centres of Sociology and Education Studies research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Cologne (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Baden bei Wien, Schkeuditz and Ludwigsburg.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 361 works
  2. 2 Frankfurt am MainGermany 310 works
  3. 3 ViennaAustria 256 works
  4. 4 CologneGermany 251 works
  5. 5 HamburgGermany 238 works
  6. 6 MunichGermany 207 works
  7. 7 MünsterGermany 175 works
  8. 8 EssenGermany 153 works
  9. 9 ZurichSwitzerland 148 works
  10. 10 BielefeldGermany 133 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Baden bei WienAT · 33.4 works489×
  2. SchkeuditzDE · 23.2 works194×
  3. LudwigsburgDE · 37.8 works186×
  4. HildesheimDE · 56.7 works161×
  5. VechtaDE · 20.5 works142×
  6. FlensburgDE · 37.8 works140×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sociology and Education Studies than the world average.

See Sociology and Education Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Sociology and Education Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg and Freie Universität Berlin score highest, combining citation 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%mean 13.99%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Humboldt-Universität…Otto-von-Guericke-Un…Bielefeld UniversityFreie Universität Be…
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.

Citation 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 75.122.7%33.0×68 -25.6%
2Otto-von-Guericke-Universität MagdeburgGermany 71.317.4%26.5×28 +32.6%
3Freie Universität BerlinGermany 71.110.3%32.5×77 +16.5%
4Bielefeld UniversityGermany 70.014.6%91.6×120 -36.2%
5Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 69.111.7%43.8×111 -7.2%
6Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-NürnbergGermany 67.413.7%16.0×52 +11.4%
7Leipzig UniversityGermany 66.416.6%27.0×54 -0.2%
8University of PotsdamGermany 65.59.4%39.9×54 +17.8%
9Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu KielGermany 64.913.1%19.6×34 +13.5%
10University of TübingenGermany 64.410.4%27.2×66 -7.5%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Sociology and Education Studies, country by country

Is Sociology and Education Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 8% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022.

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 Sociology and Education Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.025% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Sociology and Education Studies0.022% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sociology and Education Studies 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%Sociology and Education Studies9.7% 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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