The Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences promotes innovative, excellent, problem-oriented research that aspires to contribute to societal debates and address key global challenges.

The cohorts trained and supported by the ViDSS are part of a vibrant research environment and international networks. The ViDSS encompasses and fosters connections between a broad range of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. The ViDSS embraces the entire range of epistemological, methodological and theoretical approaches that are employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Doctoral candidates receive research training and write a doctoral thesis in the fields of communication, demography, development studies, nursing science, political science, science and technology studies, social and cultural anthropology, and sociology. The ViDSS aims for the highest standards in doctoral training and close supervision to ensure a mastery of social scientific debates and relevant theories and methods. As a result, ViDSS graduates are highly employable both within and outside academia.

News
 

We are deeply saddened by the passing of our cherished colleague Cornelia Staritz on 3 July 2025. Professor Staritz was part of ViDSS since its inception and her many contributions to the running of the doctoral school were pivotal in shaping its direction and profile.
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Media articles and press releases
 

Italy’s involvement in WWII is contentious and complex and so are the stories created around it, which have been instrumentalised for various political purposes over time. A study by ViDSS Student Marta Vukovic (co-authored with Susanna Bastaroli and Sylvia Kritzinger) investigates Italians’ perception of Italy’s Fascist past and role in WWII on an individual level.
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Blog
 

(by Birte Leonhardt, Folker Hanusch, Shailendra B. Singh)

The role of journalism in society is shaped not only by professional norms but also by deeply held cultural values. This is particularly evident in the Pacific Islands region, where journalists operate in media environments that are often small, tight-knit and embedded within traditional communities. Our survey of journalists across ...
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Radio and podcast
 

Felix Maile and Dorota Vargová provide insights into their experiences with archives and data bases. Learn about the extraordinary lengths they had to go to chase primary sources, which ethical questions they have to deal with and why they are not using any AI tools for their analyses.
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Media articles and press releases
 

A study conducted by ViDSS Student Rinat Meerson (co-authored with Kevin Koban and Jörg Matthes) examines how exposure to digital hate affects social media users. The findings show that frequent exposure to hate leads to more direct intervention such as commenting or countering but reduces the willingness to rely on moderation.
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Fellowship and award winners
 

Supported by a Marietta Blau Grant, Ali Heuser from the Department of Development Studies has completed research stays in Peru and the UK and will stay at the University of Kassel this summer. Ali's doctoral research project investigates the transformation of gender relations in social protest against large-scale mining extractivism in the southern Andes of Peru.
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Blog
 

(by Wenwen Lyu)

From 14–25 April 2025, states gathered at UN Headquarter in New York for the first meeting of the Preparatory Commission (Prep Com) under the international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). Nearly two years since the Agreement’s historic adoption ...
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Media articles and press releases
 

A recent study by Jeanne Marlier (co-authored with Matthias Kaltenegger and Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik) investigates why people like technocrats despite their lack of responsiveness and accountability to voters. They show that voters perceive technocracy as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, associating distinct advantages and disadvantages with ministers’ expertise and their (non-)partisanship.

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Fellowship and award winners
 

Aleksandra Fila from the Department of Development Studies was awarded a GO.INVESTIGATIO Fellowship by the Austrian Academy of Sciences for her ethnographic and archival research in the Polish cities of Oleśnica and Warsaw. Aleksandra’s doctoral research project investigates the feminist political economy of creativity in the Polish neoliberal transformation in the 1990s. Congratulations!
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New publications by ViDSS students

Showing entries 41 - 43 out of 43
Understanding news media trust through the lens of phenomenological sociology. / Garusi, Diego; Juarez Miro, Clara; Hanusch, Folker.
In: Communication Theory, 2025, p. 1-10.

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Wie lässt sich konstruktiv mit verhärteten Wissenskonflikten umgehen? / Bogner, Alexander; Kirchner, Agnes; Miko-Schefzig, Katharina et al.
Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), 2025.

Publications: Working paper

Zwischen Deutungswissen und Selbst-Bildung. Über deliberative Beteiligungsformen als Thema von Demokratiebildung. / Kolb, Petra; Bredl, Patrick.
Innovationen in der politischen (Weiter-) Bildung: Politikdidaktische Strategien, Konzepte und Methoden in Zeiten der Polykrise. ed. / Elizaveta Firsova-Eckert; Dirk Lange. SpringerVS, 2025. p. 161-170 (Bürgerbewusstsein).

Publications: Contribution to book › Chapter › Peer Reviewed

Showing entries 41 - 43 out of 43