Research
Jenni Brichzin's research focuses on the two areas of sociological theory and political sociology. In terms of political sociology, she primarily examines processes of instituting and differentiating democratic practice (for example in parliaments) as well as phenomena of political regression (such as the question of the position of right-wing radicalism in Chemnitz). It also traces the social imagination of the political: How does society imagine democratic politics (and politicians in particular), how must democratic practice present itself in order to be considered legitimate? Closely related to these political sociological research interests is the social theoretical focus on fragility, contradictions and dialectics of social order. What shakes a social status quo that has long been perceived as irrevocable? In answering this question, the focus is not primarily on the behavior of certain actors and their intentions, but rather on unintended side-effects and dialectical processes that initially seem contradictory or paradoxical from a logical perspective. In this context, the analysis of social and social-theoretical (e.g. explicitly anti-essentialist) cognitive practices is also of particular importance: How is truth socially conceived?
Current research projects
Critique of anti-essentialist sociology. Contours, performative effectiveness and limits of a paradigmatic understanding of science in the 'post-factual' age (DFG project)
Planned research projects
The construction of political elites in German public discourse (with Raphael Heiberger)
Completed research projects
Political work in parliaments (doctoral project)
How politicians perceive reality. Interviewing mayors (teaching research project)
Chemnitz - Manifestations of the Political (with Henning Laux and Ulf Bohmann)