Making a Difference. Practices of Control in Educational Contexts
The KoPraks Research Approach
The research network brings together academics from various educational disciplines who analyze social control practices in different educational and social-pedagogical contexts.
Their shared focus is on the question of how social control is implemented in practice within settings designed to educate or support young people (e.g., in child protection, in schools and classrooms, in child and youth welfare facilities, and in social-pedagogical work with delinquent youth).
The research will therefore not primarily target abstract discourses regarding changes in security imperatives or control regimes, but rather specific interactive practices that occur in educational and social-pedagogical contexts, through which control is exercised.
This approach draws on the assumption that control practices follows follow their own logic, which cannot be derived from programs or discourses, but rather makes it necessary to reconstruct practices and acts of interaction.
Objectives
- The empirical investigation and reconstruction of control practices in key educational and support institutions for young people.
- The focus is on the interactive exercise of social control and associated attributions of meaning within specific contexts of practice.
- The development of a comparative framework that highlights the similarities and differences in control practices across various educational and supportive services and institutions.
The question is whether it is appropriate, for example, to speak of a specific “culture of control” (Garland 2001) of educational and social-pedagogical contexts.
- The theoretical re-examination of education and support from a control-theoretical perspective.
The broad interdisciplinary debate on social control will be used to gain a new perspective on social and educational practice and to theorize it, taking historical changes into account where appropriate.
Team
Researchers at KoPraks
We are an interdisciplinary research group comprising members from various universities that focuses on practices of social control in educational contexts—both within and outside of schools.
Prof. Dr. Bernd Dollinger
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Center for interdisciplinary Crime Studies (CiCS)
Speaker
Institution
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Center for interdisciplinary Crime Studies (CiCS)
Research interests:
- Deviance and Criminology Research
- Professionalism
- Theory and History of Social Pedagogy
Contact:
University of Siegen, Faculty II
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2a 57076 Siegen
bernd.dollinger@uni-siegen.de
Prof Dr Sandra Rademacher
Institution
Europa University of Flensburg, Institute of Education
Research interests:
- Socialisation and Professional Research
- Research on education in the family and school
- Cross-cultural comparative research into schools and teaching
- Childhood and Youth Research
- Ethnography, reconstructive research methods
Contact:
Europa University of Flensburg, Institute of Education
Auf dem Campus 1a, 24943 Flensburg
sandra.rademacher@uni-flensburg.de
Dr Anna Merle Baldsiefen
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy
Institution
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy
Research interests:
- Recipients of Social Assistance
- Time and Temporality in Social Pedagogy
- Institutions of Social Control
- Follower and user research
- Deviance research
Contact:
University of Siegen, Faculty II
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2a, 57076 Siegen
anna.baldsiefen@uni-siegen.de
Prof. Dr. Pascal Bastian
Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Department of Educational Sciences
Institution
Rheinland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern Landau, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Research interests:
- Acting and Judging in Social Work
- Prevention and intervention in cases of child endangerment
- Children and Youth Services
- Theory of Social Pedagogy and Professionalisation of Social Work
Contact:
Rheinland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern Landau, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Bürgerstraße 23, 76829 Landau
pascal.bastian@rptu.de
Prof. Dr. Thomas Coelen
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy
Institution
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy
Research interests:
- All-day systems
- Educational landscapes
- Children's and Youth Work
Contact:
University of Siegen, Faculty II
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2a, 57076 Siegen
thomas.coelen@uni-siegen.de
Prof Dr Nina Oelkers
University of Vechta, Faculty I, Social Work
Institution
University of Vechta, Faculty I, Social Work
Research interests:
- Deviance, criminality, deviance and security research (dealing with deviation, social control, normalisation, security and security mentalities, cohesion etc., particularly in rural areas)
- Child and Youth Welfare (Research) (Parenthood, Family, Educational Support etc.)
- Inclusion and exclusion/ Life and development trajectories of young people in secure accommodation/ Capacity for action and expansion of opportunities for action
Contact:
University of Vechta, Faculty I
Driverstraße 22, 49377 Vechta
nina.oelkers@uni-vechta.de
https://www.uni-vechta.de/soziale-arbeit/standard-titel-2/standard-titel-6
Dr Holger Schmidt
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Center for interdisciplinary Crime Studies (CiCS)
Institution
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Center for interdisciplinary Crime Studies (CiCS)
Research interests:
- Social problems and social control
- Social differentiations and inequalities
- Biography and Narrative Research
- Interpretative social research
- Prison system
- Theories of Social Pedagogy
Contact:
University of Siegen, Faculty II
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2a, 57076 Siegen
holger.schmidt@uni-siegen.de
+49 271 740-2109
Dr Hanna Weinbach
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Centre for Planning and Development of Social Services (ZPE)
Institution
University of Siegen, Institute for Social Pedagogy; Centre for Social Services Planning and Development (ZPE)
Research interests:
- Social welfare payments
- Growing up under conditions of societal ability orientations
- Participation and inclusion
- Professionalism
Contact:
University of Siegen, Faculty II
Hölderlinstraße 3, 57076 Siegen
hanna.weinbach@uni-siegen.de
+49 271 740 5109
Publications
2026
2025
2023
2022
2021
2020
Older Publications
Events
The first KoPraks conference "Practices of social control in social/educational contexts" took place on June 25 and 26, 2026, at the University of Siegen.
It focused on the relationship between education and social control, with an emphasis on a practice-theoretical perspective. Together with selected researchers in the field, participants discussed key questions, methodological challenges, and related research perspectives.
For more information, please visit the conference website at: https://www.uni-siegen.de/en/2025/conference-practices-of-social-control.
