The Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology) is the most important scientific journal

Scientific journal

In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

 for sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 in German language

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

.

History

The journal's roots go back to the Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Sozialwissenschaften (Cologne Quarterly of Social Sciences), founded in 1921 by the German sociologist Leopold von Wiese.

After World War II it was again Wiese who refounded the journal as ”Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie” in 1948. Under his successor René König

René König

René König was a German sociologist. He was very influential on West German sociology after 1949.Born in Magdeburg, he 1925 took up Philosophy, Psychology, Ethnology, and Islamic Studies at the Universities of Vienna and Berlin. He gained his doctorate 1930 at the Berlin University...

 the quarterly soon expanded to social psychological

Social psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...

 subjects, which was reflected by the once again changed name.

Today

Today the journal is especially renowned for its empirical focus on social research

Social research

Social research refers to research conducted by social scientists. Social research methods may be divided into two broad categories:* Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable evidence, and often rely on statistical analysis of many cases to create valid and reliable...

, both qualitatively

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...

 and quantitatively

Quantitative research

In the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to...

. While open for all paradigms, theoretical approaches often stand in the tradition of Max Weber

Max Weber

Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...

's ”Verstehende Soziologie” (Interpretive Sociology). Articles are usually published in German language and accompagnied by an English abstract.

Famous authors who published in the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie or its predecessor include Ulrich Beck

Ulrich Beck

Ulrich Beck is a German sociologist who holds a professorship at Munich University and at the London School of Economics.-Life:...

, Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, FBA was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician....

, Rainer M. Lepsius, Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, and a prominent thinker in sociological systems theory.-Biography:...

, Karl Mannheim

Karl Mannheim

Karl Mannheim , or Károly Mannheim in the original writing of his name, was a Jewish Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers of classical sociology and a founder of the sociology of knowledge.-Life:Mannheim studied in Budapest,...

, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann was a German political scientist. Her most famous contribution is the model of the spiral of silence, detailed in The Spiral of Silence : Public Opinion – Our Social Skin...

, Claus Offe

Claus Offe

Professor Claus Offe is a political sociologist of Marxist orientation. Once a student of Jürgen Habermas, the left-leaning German academic is counted among the second generation Frankfurt School...

, Pitirim A. Sorokin, Piotr Sztompka

Piotr Sztompka

Piotr Sztompka is professor of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles....

, Friedrich H. Tenbruck, Ferdinand Tönnies

Ferdinand Tönnies

Ferdinand Tönnies was a German sociologist. He was a major contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for his distinction between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft...

 and William J. Wilson.

The Kölner Zeitschrift für of the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie] (in German)

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