Music Sociology and Gender Studies
After a long period of research into the musicians and compositions from the circle of the Grazer Hof, this project turns to performance practice for the first time. Individual aspects such as patrons, musical instruments, instrumentation, iconography, musical material, tempo issues, vocal tones, improvisational practices and performance venues will be examined in relation to the Grazer Hof. In an empirical part, performances of works by Graz court composers will be re-enacted in historical locations (e.g. Graz Cathedral). However, these re-enactments will not only look at the performances themselves, but also at the rehearsal process, which differs significantly from modern conventions in the historical production methods of multi-choral compositions (ensemble formation, ensemble direction, sheet music). This process will be accompanied by music sociology (qualitative and quantitative performer surveys, participant observation, audience surveys). Among other things, the findings of the project are intended to provide new methods and impulses for historically informed performance practice. Finally, the acoustics of historical performance venues in Graz will be reconstructed virtually.
Researchers: Ass.Prof. Mag.art. Bernhard Rainer, PhD (lead); Juliane Oberegger, BA MA; Dipl.Ing. Elisabeth Frauscher; Mag. Dr. Susanne Sackl-Sharif
My role in the project: Music sociologist (2025-2026)
When researching computer games, musicologists ask questions about the functions of music and sounds in particular. Music and sounds can explain and accompany the events in games, clarify or create arcs of suspense, provide additional information that cannot be grasped visually or contribute to the immersion of the players. In contrast to video clips or film music, the sonic landscape in adventure and fantasy games is partly shaped or created by the players themselves, depending on which moves they decide to make. The GAPPP project then focuses on the question of the extent to which the logic and strategies of computer games can be transferred to audiovisual compositions and performances. On the one hand, the aim is to develop and open up new artistic potential, and on the other hand, to investigate how this gamification of audiovisual performances is perceived and understood by an audience.
Researchers: Prof. Dr. Marko Ciciliani (lead), Prof. Dr. Barbara Lüneburg, Mag. Dr. Susanne Sackl-Sharif, Andreas Pirchner, BA MA
My role in the project Music sociologist (2016-2017)
Website: gappp.net
What do metal fans actually understand by metal? How does this style of music differentiate itself from others? What role do gender aspects play in this, and how are they represented visually? Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s field concept, metal is described as a global and local phenomenon using the example of the Graz area. Gender aspects in metal are theoretically located on the basis of constructivist gender concepts and the representation of gender aspects in metal video clips is discussed in qualitative interviews with 20 actors.
Susanne Sackl-Sharif (2015). Gender – Metal – Videoclips. Eine qualitative Rezeptionsstudie. Opladen/Berlin/Toronto: Budrich UniPress Ltd.
The current transformation of universities into “Entrepreneurial Universities” is not only aimed at a fundamental restructuring of the internal constitution of universities and their external relations, but also at changes in academic knowledge and knowledge production. The “After Bologna” project focuses on this level of knowledge. As an example, it concentrates on the new gender studies courses that have been established in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 1997, i.e. essentially at the same time as the ‘Bologna’ reform. The Bologna project is part of the research network “Entrepreneurial University and GenderChange: Work – Organization – Knowledge”.
Project lead: Prof. Dr. Sabine Hark (TU Berlin) & Prof. Dr. Angelika Wetterer (KFU Graz)
My role in the project: Research associate
Project report (in German): Gerlinde Malli, Susanne Sackl-Sharif & Elisabeth Zehetner (2015). Nach Bologna. Gender Studies in der unternehmerischen Hochschule. Eine Untersuchung in Österreich und der Schweiz. Online-Monographie. Universität Graz: UniPub. Report
Political Participation
Young people have largely withdrawn from traditional forms of democratic co-determination. They are still interested in participating, but demand more and different public spaces for participation. Therefore, the main objective of the U-YouPa project is to develop a research-based understanding of the relationship between cultural and technological preconditions for strengthening youth participation in digital dialog spaces.
Project partners: Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway (lead); University of Music and Perfomring Arts, Graz; FH JOANNEUM, Graz; Malmö University, Sweden.
My role in the project: Principal Investigator (Austria)
Website: https://uni.oslomet.no/u-youpa
This research project examines the question of how citizens’ wishes and needs can be optimally incorporated into reform processes in the run-up to planned reforms by means of citizen participation. This complex of topics will be examined using the example of the district of Voitsberg, where citizens’ initiatives were founded in the early 2010s in protest against two reform processes initiated by the province of Styria. One of these was the municipal structural reform and the non-partisan citizens’ platform “KERNraumFUSION”, the other was the Styrian state hospital reform and the associated protests against the closure of the maternity ward at Voitsberg Regional Hospital.
My role in the project: project leader
Project report (in German): Susanne Sackl-Sharif (2016). Gemeindestruktur- und Landeskrankenhausreform. Eine vergleichende Analyse von Bürger_innenbeteiligungen im Bezirk Voitsberg. Online-Monographie. Wien: Spectro. Report
Based on the study “Basel from below”, the Institute of Sociology at the University of Graz conducted research with ten students on the topic of public urban space. Based on the debates about regulations and actually enforced ordinances (such as the street music ordinance or the begging ban) in the city of Graz in recent decades, the possibilities for the appropriation of space by different groups of city dwellers and their restrictions are examined, since the quality of urban space is not only dependent on planning “from above”, but above all on the forms of use and appropriation of individual city dwellers. The processes of conquering and recoding urban space by its users are also considered.
MMy role in the project: project lead together with Gerlinde Malli
Publication (in German): Gerlinde Malli & Susanne Sackl-Sharif (eds.) (2015). Im Schatten der Fassaden. Leben zwischen Verbot und Widerstand. Grazer Zwischenräume aus stadtsoziologischer Perspektive. Vienna et al.: Lit-Verlag.
Digitalization of the workplace
The AI@youthwork project aims to work on the limits and possibilities of the use of AI technologies in the field of child and youth work in Styria, as AI opens up new opportunities for professionals in this area in particular. The project will work with professionals to develop positive future scenarios for the use of AI technologies in order to raise awareness and increase acceptance of future technological developments.
My role in the project: senior scientist (2024-2025)
Website: https://digitalesozialearbeit.github.io/
Digi@Youthwork: Entwicklung und Erprobung eines Lehrgangs für digitale Kinder- und Jugendarbeit
Digital technologies are now also part of everyday working life in social work. However, professionals do not always have the necessary skills to use digital technologies. The aim of the digi@youthwork project is therefore to design a course for digital child and youth work that meets the needs of professionals and provides them with the necessary tools to deal with digital transformation processes in their own organization and in cooperation with addressees. This course will be run as a one-off pilot by LebensGroß. The implementation of the course is being scientifically supported by the University of Graz and FH JOANNEUM.
Project partners: LebensGroß; University of Graz; FH JOANNEUM – University of Applied Sciences
My role in the project: senior scientist (2023-2025)
Website: https://digitalesozialearbeit.github.io/
Digi@Socialwork: Soziale Dienstleistungen im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung. Digitale Transformationsprozesse aktiv mitgestalten
It is hard to imagine the workplace without digital technologies and social media. Digital media, tools and devices are also already widely used in social service providers. They open up new possibilities in the care, support and support of customers and recipients. Two key questions remain unanswered: 1) Do employees of social service providers see digitalization as a curse or a blessing? 2) How can employees actively shape the digital transformation in their company? For this reason, this participatory and practice-oriented research project is analysing company digitalization processes throughout Austria in order to work together with employees of social service providers to develop ways of actively shaping them.
Project partners: University of Graz (lead); IGSF – Interdisziplinäre Gesellschaft für Sozialtechnologie und Forschung
My role in the project: senior scientist (2021-2022)
Website: https://digitalesozialearbeit.github.io/
Digi@Homework: Herausforderungen und Potenziale von verteiltem Arbeiten während der Corona-Krise
In the Digi@Homework project, the challenges and potentials of distributed working that have arisen for Styrian employees during the coronavirus crisis are being surveyed and analyzed. By distributed working, we mean collaboration between employees at different locations or collaboration from a remote workplace. This means that the members of a team are geographically distributed and connected to each other via technology. A special focus is placed on the potential for discrimination. Dealing with new technologies poses particular challenges for older employees (55+), as they have grown up in a different environment and (depending on the industry) have more difficult access to technology. In addition, women* also face a particular burden in the current situation, as care work in Austria is still performed more often by women* than by men*.
Project partners: FH JOANNEUM (lead); IGSF − Interdisziplinäre Gesellschaft für Sozialtechnologie und Forschung; University of Graz
My role in the project: project lead
Website: https://www.fh-joanneum.at/projekt/digiwork/
Digi@Work: Auswirkungen und Potenziale digitaler Mediennutzung aus der Perspektive steirischer Arbeitnehmer_innen und Arbeitgeber_innen
In order to understand, manage and use the digital transformation in Styria, the Digi@Work project is researching the use of digital media in the organizational context in general, individual usage behaviour and usage skills, the organizational culture and its interaction with the conditions of the location as well as the resulting risks and potentials of using digital technologies in the workplace. Specific recommendations for action for Styrian companies will be developed on the basis of this inventory.
Project partners: FH JOANNEUM; Universität Graz (project lead); Know Center Graz; Arbeiterkammer Graz; XSample Graz
My role in the project: senior scientist
Website: https://digitalesozialearbeit.github.io/
Social Media and Online Communication
NoHate@WebStyria: Hate Speech im digitalen Zeitalter. Bestandsaufnahme, Bewusstseinsbildung und Gegenstrategien für die Steiermark
As part of the NoHate@WebStyria project, an interdisciplinary team is researching the phenomenon of online hate speech, i.e. insults on the internet based on personal characteristics such as ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, calls for violence against groups with these characteristics or the denial of the Holocaust. The research focuses on taking stock of online hate speech in Styria, raising awareness among the population and developing recommendations for action and counter-strategies.
Project partners: Web Literacy Lab, FH JOANNEUM; Europäisches Trainings- und Forschungszentrum für Menschenrechte und Demokratie der Universität Graz (lead); Antidiskriminierungsstelle Steiermark
My role in the project: project lead for FH JOANNEUM
Website: https://nohate-webstyria.uni-graz.at/de/
The RESCUE project examines how key communicators – firefighters, the Red Cross, journalists, authorities – and the public use and evaluate social media in crisis situations. At the same time, the project is working out how social media can be better integrated into the official communication strategies of these actors in the future. In this context, social media tools will be developed to help actors communicate and evaluate information in emergency situations.
Project partners: Web Literacy Lab, FH JOANNEUM; Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway (lead); Bengler AS, Norwegen; Åbo Akademi, Finland; Aberystwyth University, UK
My role in the project: senior scientist (2016-2018)
Website: https://www.fh-joanneum.at/projekt/rescue/