Politische Sozialisation im Erwachsenenalter - Die Bedeutung latenter politischer Lernprozesse unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Arbeitslebens

Political socialization in adulthood - The role of latent political learning with particular regard to working life

Little is known about the stability of political orientation and political behaviour of adults and what may cause possible changes. However, two large longitudinal panels, the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), are hardly used for this purpose, although they provide comprehensive and excellent data eligible for studies in political socialization allowing deep insights in the dynamics of political learning.
Using these data and based on the hypothesis, that political socialization is a life-long process, the project analyses the long-term development of political orientation as well as behaviour patterns thereby looking for the underlying causes.
Two general research aims shall be achieved:
The first aim is to analyse carefully and in detail the dynamics of the individual political orientation and behaviour. Which of the different attributes vary during lifetime and to what degree? In addition, to what extent is the stability of political orientation dependent on important moderators as personal traits, social and geographic mobility or type and frequency of critical personal events? The second aim is to investigate the causality of important tertiary agents of socialization on the development of political identity with a special focus on the role of working life.
In detail, the project addresses four central questions:
(1) What is the impact of occupational changes on long-term political identity in regard to direction and intensity?
(2) What is the impact of occupational conditions on political identity?
(3) Is there a reciprocal relationship between occupational conditions and political identity?
(4) How important are life-events beyond working life?





Project staff: Kevin Eichardt, Andreas Rogalski, Antje Rosebrock, Svenja Brandt and Nurcan Akcam