MIEPP – Seminar: Social Groups in Modern Societies

Overview

What are the causes of this development? Are social structures transforming? What kinds of groups exist within a society? How do they evolve? And what influence do they have on society?

To address these questions, this seminar will examine various central components of corresponding analyses, both theoretically and empirically. The seminar aims to clarify the concept of social groups, analyze how existing models can be used to understand the division of society into smaller subgroups, and discuss the effects of this division on political thinking.

Topics

1. Modelling Social Groups: By incorporating identity as part of an individual's utility, Akerlof and Kranton (2000) introduced the concept of social identity into economics. Based on this idea, further studies developed theoretical frameworks for analyzing social groups. For example, Shayo (2009, 2020) modeled group membership based on group status and social distance. Grossman and Helpman (2021) extend the model by permitting membership in multiple groups. Strothmann and Wälde (mimeo) analyze the existence of social groups in equilibrium. The aim of this topic is to discuss existing theoretical frameworks for modelling social groups as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Populism in Modern Societies: In light of the recent success of the populist right across developed democracies, one important question in this context is which social groups are driving this support. One answer is that groups with low subjective social status are particularly likely to support populitsts (Gidron and Hall (2017), Mutz (2018)). But which groups might currently perceive such status threat? What are the effects of deteriorating social status among certain groups, and how does this relate to economic development? Analyses of such questions fall within the scope of this topic. Since the two works mentioned above are from the fields of political science and sociology, respectively, a seminar paper on this topic should also include a discussion of the methods used in these works.
3. Who votes Whom?: This topic aims to link social structures, i.e. social groups, with political outcomes. The central idea is to ask which groups support which parties. Enke (2020, 2024) suggests moral values as a decisive factor of the match between voters and parties. But how does this match evolve, and how can this framework be applied to modern societies? What about other determinants? Although this closely relates to the previous topic, the aim here is to analyze both the political spectrum and society more holistically. Moreover, analyses here remain in the field of economics.
4. Special Interest Groups and Political Representation: One common concern is that certain social groups have greater political influence then others. In their famous work "Why Nations Fail," Acemoglu and Robinson (2013) highlight the role of elites in shaping institutions and thus economic success. In this topic, the political representation of certain social groups and their influence on political and economic performance will be discussed. In this context, Hopkins et al. (2019) and Klüver and Zeidler (2019) provide a basis for relevant research.
5. Measuring Social Cohesion: The United Nations published a formal guide on measuring social cohesion (UNECE, 2025) and Brand et al. (2020) provide an analysis of social cohesion in Germany. A seminar paper within this topic should aim to discuss the methods and data used to measure social cohesion and potentially provide a cross-sectional and/or time series analysis of social cohesion across countries.
6. Sinus Milieus: Developed and published by the Sinus Institute, the Sinus Milieus aim to identify social differentiations. Within the scope of this topic, these milieus should be discussed in terms of both their theoretical background and their suitability for understanding social divides. Barth et al. (2018) provide a starting point for further research.
7. World Values Survey: The World Values Survey (WVS) examines how people around the world differ in their values and how this affects society and politics. In this way, the WVS helps to classify individuals globally into groups based on their values and attitudes. A seminar paper on this topic would focus on discussing the results and methods used in the WVS. The second chapter of Ingelhart and Welzel (2005) serves as a starting point for further research.
8. Experiments on Social Groups: In an experimental study, Hett et al. (2017) find evidence for group status and social distance as determinants of the social identity choice. Using a reveald preference approach using food consumption, Atkin et al. (2021) identify economic costs as a third determinant. Questions on this topic include the discussion of empirical findings on the determinants of social identity choice as well as how such a choice can be modelled empirically.

References

• References will be provided here soon.
• Additional references can be found in this master thesis.

Organization and timeline

• There will be a first session in the 2nd week of the term, i.e. starting 3 November. Topics will be presented in detail and students choose their topic.
• Presentations will be held towards the end of the term.
• The term paper will be submitted few days after the presentation.
• There will be a feedback meeting on the presentation and the paper.
• Between the first session and presentations, there will be regular meetings in which students meet with the organizers to discuss their progress.
• Precise dates are available in September.