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About the Institute

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity is one of the foremost centers for the multi-disciplinary study of diversity, in its multiple forms, in today’s globalizing world.

Colorful rectangular wood pieces representing diversity and inclusion in society

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS

The focus here is on the state at different levels, social and legal categorizations and meso-level organisations. Do organisations and political institutions reflect diversity? Are they open or closed to change?

Small wooden figures. Social inclusion, diversity and equality concept

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND ATTITUDES

How do different groups perceive the diversification of their cities, neighbourhoods, societies? How inclusive or exclusive are encounters and social interactions and what determines that?

Abstract figures to represent diversity and inclusion

INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES

Dynamics surrounding migration and diversity take many forms. What do the experiences of migration and diversification mean to individuals? How is that determined by age, gender, racism? What identifications develop in different contexts and interactions?

Portrait photos of the scientists who can be seen in one of the Insight videos

INSIGHTS@mpimmg

In INSIGHTS@mpimmg, our researchers give brief 3 minute insights into their work: what they research, how they do it and why it is significant.

News & Updates

Image with text “Festschrift in Honour of Steven Vertovec”, a portrait photo of Steve and a cover of Ethnic and Racial Studies

Transnationalism, Superdiversity and New Horizons

This Festschrift honours Steven Vertovec’s pioneering contributions to migration studies, transnationalism, and superdiversity, which have shaped academic and policy debates worldwide. It brings together leading scholars to reflect on his intellectual legacy through retrospective analyses and prospective engagements that expand, critique, and apply his ideas.

Why do people migrate?

In the NDR Synapsen podcast episode Migration in Germany: Research instead of Prejudice (39:54) from May 9, Steven Vertovec talks to Yasmin Appelhans about the many causes of migration.

How diverse is your neighbourhood?

The new Superdiversity project website shows immigration and census data into interactive graphics and maps that showcase Canada’s changing landscapes and how socioeconomic indicators such as wealth, income, employment status and education play out across ethnic groups, generations of newcomers and neighbourhoods.

Nicolas Fliess and Jennifer Elrick in conversation

One to One @MPIMMG

April 30, 2025

One to One@MPI-MMG

In our third One to One Series video Postdoc Nicolas Fliess is in conversation with Jennifer Elrick, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Beyond Encounters

The podcast series “Beyond Encounters” is a production of the “Encounters: Muslim-Jewish relations in urban Europe” research project, where a team of researchers did research on Jewish-Muslim relations in six European cities.

Georg Diez and Steven Vertovec in conversation

Superdiversity

In a talk with journalist Georg Dietz, Steven Vertovec spoke about his book ‘Superdiversität’ (Suhrkamp Verlag 2024). The term coined by Vertovec helps to understand how the increasing diversification processes in modern societies develop. The discussion was held in English as part of the Göttinger Literaturherbst 2024.

Screenshot from InDialogue: Ulrike Bialas, Alexander Kustov, Marc Helbling and Karen Schönwälder in conversation

MPI-MMG in Dialogue

In the MPI-MMG in Dialogue series on May 20, 2025, Alexander Kustov, Marc Helbling and Karen Schönwälder discussed how immigration can be made popular. The event was moderated by Ulrike Bialas.

Vanessa Rau gives the interview in the center of Göttingen

Insights@MPIMMG

November 06, 2024

In this series, our researchers give brief 3 minute insights into their work: what they research, how they do it and why it is significant. This time: Vanessa Rau on “Love and diversity”.

Forthcoming Events

MPI-MMG @ Conferences

▪	Dekel Peretz: "The roles of Jewish–Muslim interfaith in shaping diasporic relations since October 7th" Annual European Association of Israel Studies conference September 14-16, 2025 \| Potsdam
▪	Dekel Peretz: "Ensembles of Belonging. Postmigrant Interventions through Muslim–Jewish musical collaborations" From Experiences to Storytelling of Postmigration conference September 17-19, 2025 \| Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
▪	Margherita Cusmano: "The German Social Structure from a Migrant Perspective" Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie September 22-26, 2025 \| Duisburg

MPI-MMG in Dialogue

Our series of events on new research findings and current debates will continue. We will be discussing superdiversity, German migration policy, diversity assent and age and migration. Videos of previous In Dialogue events can be found here.

all events

Career & Calls

Job Offers

Currently we do not have any vacancies.

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS

Palgrave Macmillan
Global Diversities

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Recent MMG Publications | Monographs and Edited Volumes

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-64725-3

https://www.routledge.com/Superdiversity-Migration-and-Social-Complexity/Vertovec/p/book/9780415834636#sup

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/aspiring-in-later-life/9781978830400

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo208300969.html

https://www.bpb.de/shop/buecher/schriftenreihe/519287/religionsverfassungsrecht-revisited/

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/schooling-the-nation/C17A639E1EF9E1448842B6ACEA6216F5

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-eu-migrant-generation-in-asia

https://profilebooks.com/work/how-to-live-with-each-other/

Special Issues

Yamamura, S. (Ed.). (2025). Special Issue: Transnationalism, Superdiversity and New Horizons: a Festschrift in Honour of Steven Vertovec [Special Issue]. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48(9). Link

Druez, É., Peretz, D., & Shaw, D. (Eds.). (2025). Special Issue: Boundary work in Muslim-Jewish encounters in urban Europe [Special Issue]. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 28(1). Link

Journal Articles

Emmerich, A. (2025). Biodeutsch - (Un)word of the year: Emancipation or Exclusion? A cultural-sociology perspective. European Sociologist, 1(52), 1-3. Link

Sakti, Victoria K. (2025). Older refugee perspectives on death, remembrance, and burial: The East Timorese in Indonesia. Journal of Refugee Studies, 38(1), 66-79. Link

Fliess, N., & Schönwälder, K. (2025). Widespread, but also popular? Exploring attitudes to diversity policies. European Political Science Review, first view, 1-19. Link

Petermann, S., Harris, E., & Schönwälder, K. (2025). Understanding support for diversity: The role of fundamental beliefs. Warum Vielfalt befürwortet wird: Zur Bedeutung grundlegender Überzeugungen. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. Link

Udo, F., Gordon, S., Naidu, M., & Membele, G. (2025). Mapping public art to explore the decolonization and Africanization of space in the inner city of Durban, South Africa. South African Geographical Journal, Ahead of print, 1-22. Link

Barros, V. (2025). How to work with Niklas Luhmann? A practical guide. Acta Sociologica, OnlineFirst, pp. 1-10. Link

Tahiiev, A. (2025). Application of Shia Islamic law in contemporary legal systems. Laws, 14(2): 23, pp. 1-18. Link

Vertovec, S. (2025). Afterword: reflecting on influences. Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ahead-of-print, pp. 1-5. Link

Gidley, B., Everett, S. S., Druez, E., Ebbiary, A., Emmerich, A., Peretz, D., et al. (2025). Off and on stage interactions: Muslim-Jewish encounter in urban Europe. Ethnicities, 25(2), 235-254. Link

Riedel, M., & Rau, V. (2025). Religion and race: The need for an intersectional approach. Identities, 1-21. Link

Sobhy, H. (2025). We don’t have diversity here, but inequality, that’s in the design of the education system: Tunisian teachers, diversification and the defunding of education. global-e. Series: Diversifying Global Education, 16(1). Link

Cusmano, M. (2025). Generation matters: The role of migration and generational status for distributive justice preferences. SocArXiv Papers. Link

Contributions to a collected Edition

Torno, S. (2025). "We are not doing well and this is my fault." Care, intergenerational relations and the wellbeing of older adults in Tajikistan. In M. De Loenzien, & A. Varrel (Eds.), Asie en care / Asia in care (pp. 105-122). Paris: CNRS Éditions. Link

Emmerich, A., & Ebbiary, A. (2025). Becoming Salafi. In M. Bano (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to women and Islam (pp. 151-173). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Link

Tahiiev, A. (2024). Shia Muslims of Ukraine during the Russian invasion. In E. Muratova, & N. Zasanska (Eds.), Minorities at war: cultural identity and resilience in Ukraine. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group. Link

Schönwälder, K., & Petermann, S. (2024). Vielfalt aus Sicht der Bevölkerung: eine alltägliche Normalität. In F. Gesemann, D. Filsinger, & S. Münch (Eds.), Handbuch Lokale Integrationspolitik (pp. 1-13). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Link

Book Publications 2024

Martijn van den Brink (2024). Legislative Authority and Interpretation in the European Union. Oxford University Press.
Bob van der Linden (2024). Romantic Nationalism in India: Cultivation of Culture and the Global Circulation of Ideas. Brill.
Seyla Benhabib and Ayelet Shachar (forthcoming in December 2024). Lawless Zones, Rightless Subjects: Migration, Asylum, and Shifting Borders. Cambridge University Press.
Dana Schmalz (forthcoming in January 2025). Das Bevölkerungsargument: Wie die Sorge vor zu vielen Menschen Politik beeinflusst. Suhrkamp.
Bob van der Linden (forthcoming in 2025). Cultivating Sikh Culture and Identity: Art, Music and Philology. Routledge.

Appointment / Career

2025

Damián Omar Martínez | Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Granada (Spain)

Grants & Awards

► Neena Mahadev was awarded the Clifford Geertz Prize for 2024 from the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR, a section of AAA) https://mailchi.mp/ircpl/news-events-from-the-ircpl-at-columbia-10594969?e=724542c624
► Dora Sampaio was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project RETIREWEL: Retirement across countries: A tripartite analysis of the welfare state, family care networks, and the retirement industry.

Online Media

The City Show

Podcast

The City show is a podcast about complexity and how people live and adapt to life in fast-changing cities across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

A demonstration by migrant workers in Singapore

Blogs

Researchers from the institute describe the development of their projects and the challenges, delights and frustrations of conducting social scientific research.

Hiroshi Motomura during his online lecture

Online Lectures

Video

Here you will find videos from lectures given by distinguished researchers at the MPI MMG.

Image montage from the portrait photos of several interviewees

Diversity Interviews

Here you will find transcripts of interviews with distinguished scientists, led by staff members of the MMG.

MPI-MMG linked Journals

NEW DIVERSITIES

New Diversities is an international, peer reviewed, scholarly and professional journal, published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

Global Networks

Global Networks publishes high quality, peer-reviewed research on global networks, transnational affairs and practices, and their relation to wider theories of globalization. The journal provides a forum for discussion, debate and the refinement of key ideas in this emerging field.

CityScapes

CityScapes is a 144 page biannual print publication. It is a hybrid of forms, simultaneously invested in scholarly discourse around contemporary urbanism in Africa and the Global South, as much as individual everyday experiences and activities of the multitude of actors that are actively involved in shaping cities across the continent and the rest of the developing world.

All social scientific research at the Institute, particularly concerning informed consent and involving visual materials, is designed to follow the ethical guidelines formulated by the American Anthropological Association (see http://www.aaanet.org/... ).

All material on the Institute’s website is protected by copyright. If you wish to use material from the website, please contact our Research Coordinator, Dr. Norbert Winnige (winnige(at)mmg.mpg.de).