Jansen, Dorothea | Germany

Dorothea Jansen is Professor of Sociology of Organization at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer since 1999. She studied Sociology, Political Science and Economics at the universities of Cologne and Bochum where she graduated with a Diploma in Social Sciences.

She received her Ph.D. in social sciences from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Ruhr-University of Bochum and was promoted to be eligible for a professorship (“habilitation”) in 1996. She worked as research fellow and assistant professor in several projects focussing on Science and Technology Studies and policy program evaluation at the University of Bochum, the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne and the Institute for Labour and Technology, Gelsenkirchen.

Her research interests range from environmental and economic sociology to organization studies and STS. Her current research is focused on two larger projects. In a project on the diffusion of energy efficiency innovations funded by the German Volkswagen Foundation she explores the changing role of municipal utilities in the liberalized German energy sector.

A second large research program integrates seven projects of scholars from various universities and research institutes in Germany and abroad. This research group analysing the changing “Governance of Research” is funded by the German Research Association. The group focuses on the dynamics and effects of reforms in the German and European Research and Innovation System from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Project at IAS-STS: Social Networks in Science and Technology

The IAS Fellowship will be focused on the role of networks in science and technology. Data sets from two research projects will be analysed. The first one deals with the role of municipal utilities in the German energy sector. Here we collected data on the shareholding structure of the sector, two steps up and one step down from appr. 800 local utilities. This resulted in a very large and sparse data matrix needing sophisticated SNA tools and further theory-led partitions for an analysis with PAJEK.

There are two central questions:
(1) How does shareholding structure effect on innovation strategies and innovation performance of local utilities in the area of renewables, cogeneration and customer oriented energy efficiency projects?
(2) How does it effect on economic performance?
(3) How does shareholding structure effect on informal and formal collaboration strategies of local utilities (degree, field of cooperation, type of cooperation)?

The second project deals with the role of research networks in two research fields: astrophysics and nanotechnology and the effect of reform politics on the networks. The analysis will be based on ego-centred networks of 68 research groups. Several research questions will be focused:
(1) Relationship between size of networks, percentage of industry ties, degree of internationalization and research performance,
(2) Cognitive differences in research fields, network structure and performance, and
(3) Institutional governance and network structures.

In addition I will work on the elaboration of a paper on the Changing Governance of Public Science that I gave at the EGOS 2008 and on a new edition of a study book on Social Network Analysis which is now in its third edition.

Selected Publications

Jansen, Dorothea, 1995: Convergence of basic and applied research? Research orientations in German High-Tc superconductor research. Science, Technology & Human Values 20, 197-233.

Jansen, Dorothea, 2000: Gesellschaftliche Selbstorganisation durch Technikdiskurse? S. 183-207 in: Raymund Werle/ Uwe Schimank (Hrsg.), Gesellschaftliche Komplexität und kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

Jansen, Dorothea, 2002: Netzwerkansätze in der Organisationsforschung. S. 88-118 in: Organisationssoziologie. Sonderband 42 der Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, hrsg. von Jutta Allmendinger und Thomas Hinz.

Jansen, Dorothea (Ed.), 2007: New Forms of Governance in Research Organizations – Disciplinary Approaches, Interfaces and Integration. Dordrecht: Springer.

Jansen, Dorothea/ Andreas Wald/ Karola Franke/ Ulrich Schmoch/ Torben Schubert, 2007: Drittmittel als Performanzindikator der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Zum Einfluss von Rahmenbedingungen auf Forschungsleistung. In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 59 (1), 125-149.