research

Research and Teaching

Our scientific work focuses on sociology of culture, language and gender, as well as qualitative empirical research methods, especially discourse and conversation analysis. Former and current research projects focus on moral and pedagogic communication, intercultural learning and communication in high-risk-environments.

Survey: Using Film in Intercultural Learning

In collaboration with Dr. Claire O´Reilly, University College Cork / Ireland, we are currently conducting an online survey on the usage of films / video excerpts in intercultural trainings and coachings (duration: September 2006 till February 2007). If you would like to share your experiences with us, you can download our short questionnaire containing seven questions on the usage of films in intercultural learning endeavours. The results of this survey will be made available on these pages in April 2007.

Research Projects

Decision making in the cockpit. The interactive dynamics of hierarchy, division of work and gender in a technically complex work setting

This research project was concerned with decision making processes in Line-Orientated-Flight-Trainings in which pilots in a flight simulator are confronted with technical defects and troubles. In order to reach a decision and find a solution for a perceived problem pilots have to cooperate with each other by means of interpreting, inferring, anticipating, arguing, objecting etc. These communicative activities were the target of our research. In analysing these recorded activities we were especially interested in the situative relevance of gender and hierarchical positions. According to our methodological approach we consider these categories not as given facts but as emerging from communication. We asked how roles, consensus or disagreement are negotiated, and in what way gender is a feature towards which participants are oriented in their interaction.

Download summary of final report: English version / German version

'Do you see what I see?' – The use of technical, cognitive and communicative resources in establishing a shared reality while dealing with technical problems in the airline cockpit

Doctoral project, Holger Finke

Given the technical evolution in the field of aviation, the work setting of a modern airliner cockpit is characterized by a high degree of automation, and the pilots' sensual perception has been increasingly replaced or complemented by technical displays, computer screens and automatic warning systems. Usually, the electronically mediated information – changes on instrument displays, status messages, warning lights etc. – does not directly lead to decisions about what to do. Rather, the indicated values, messages and symbols first have to be cooperatively interpreted and the crew members have to come to a shared understanding about their meaning. Approaching the cockpit as an interaction system, this research project will examine how the crew members use the available technical and non-technical resources to synchronize their respective models of reality, focussing on the communicative processes by which the crew makes sense of perceived events and information and marks their relevance for action.

Download proposal of doctoral thesis (German only)

Teaching

Since 1995 the director of the institute is an associated lecturer at the institute of sociology of the department of social and cultural science, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, since 2003 she is also giving courses as an associated lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt.

Teaching Subjects (with comments in German):