Research Group "Young Islam-Related Topics in Germany" (JUNITED)

Between 2011 and 2016, the Stiftung Mercator supported this research group with a total of around 1 million Euro.
The transdisciplinary research group "Young Islam-Related Topics in Germany" ("Junge Islambezogene Themen in Deutschland“/JUNITED) empirically analyzes the reactions towards Germany as a changing country of immigration, particularly with regard to the topic of Islam and Muslims. Images of Islam and Muslims are taken as an indicator for the societal attitudes towards minorities in an increasingly plural and heterogeneous society. The research group analyzes how existing cultural and national patterns of interpretation ("Narrations of being German") in combination with socio-structural factors frame the discourse around questions of integration and migration in a diversifying society. The project's task is to identify and analyze these interactions between cultural narratives and structural conditions. The study design, aimed at this task, differs methodologically and theoretically from pre-existing studies which either analyze only socio-structural or only cultural factors in order to explain racism and fear of exclusion. In order to test our theoretical assumptions empirically we conduct a quantitative, nationwide telephone survey (N=8400). Through qualitative coding the material is analytically complemented. For additional analyses, this data set will also be made available to the other departments of the BIM.

Website: http://junited.hu-berlin.de