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BMBF research project: Softparts – social causes of regulation of safety in air traffic

Sub-project: Network analysis

In the context of the program: research for civilian safety (topic "safety in air traffic")


Project term: June 2013 – May 2016

Project management:Professor Maja Apelt

Project team: David Kraft; Jana Hunnius, MA

Student assistant: Jakob Tures

The project's goals:

Safety in air traffic directly depends on the work of various players at the individual airports. Identity checks, checking the cargo, patrols by the police and security service, the inspection as well as specific training of the staff at the airports – all these scopes of tasks are important elements for the establishment of safety. However, the definite implementation of the individual tasks involves many different organizations. The coordination of work processes is thus done in the context of various forms of inter-organizational connections. Therefore, the structures of relations between organizations at the airport become an important factor in the establishment of aviation security.

The goal of the project "Softparts – social causes of regulation of safety in air traffic" was initially to identify various forms of relation in the establishment of safety at airports, which had to be analyzed more precisely. As researchers, we were assuming that those definite relations can also be linked to structures of the spatial framework, and that the establishment of space can become significant for the emergence and structuring of various connections. 

Overall project:

The overall project "Softparts – social causes of regulation of safety in air traffic" was a collaborative project between the Disaster Research Center (KFS) of the Free University of Berlin, the Research Center Safety at the Institute of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Technology Berlin as well as the professor's chair in organizational and administrative sociology of the University of Potsdam. The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the context of the program called "research for civilian safety" (topic "safety in air traffic"). The manager of the collaborative project was Professor Martin Voss, KFS Free University of Berlin.