Welcome to the EUROLAB at GESIS, A Sociological Spa on Earth

A story by Anna Shirokanova

Anna Shirokanova, an associate researcher at the LCSR, has won an open European competition for a 4-week research visit to the research department “EUROLAB” at GESIS, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne, Germany.

The Data Archive for the Social Sciences of GESIS (the institute has offices in Mannheim, Cologne and Berlin) is one of the biggest European centers for storing and maintaining social data that also carries out research in methodology and in many ways develops sociological knowledge. Since 40 years the annual “Spring Seminar” has taken place each April (the call for the upcoming year is open now!) at the GESIS. Since last summer the Institute also holds its Summer School in Methodology (several researchers from the LCSR visited it this year).

In addition to this, GESIS is a living system, a truly revival site for creative and consistent approaching the research questions in hand, and a perfect place for networking. Consisting almost fully of “foreign residents”, the European Data Laboratory for Comparative Social Research ‑ EUROLAB ‑ lives up to its name: by inviting researchers from all over Europe, the EUROLAB mixes together in one inspiring cocktail the original bits of enthusiasm, sprinkled with a spirit for intuition, with a pinch of experience, and a refreshing top of new ideas!

The way to get to the EUROLAB is through its open calls for research visits, and they are really eager to invite scholars with ambitious comparative projects. The only bottleneck is that only three researchers can stay there at a time. At the EUROLAB, I was working on the research project that I carry out within the LCSR, and I feel it is due to the new knowledge I got at the LCSR international seminars and summer schools that my research proposal was a success.

Working on your own project in the welcoming atmosphere of a research institute, with access to new literature and own working place, the necessary software, a possibility to discuss immediately the question you are tackling, or to give a presentation about your project, or to finish an article – this all sounds like a resort for a writing sociologist, which EUROLAB definitely is; hence, the feelings of reanimation and rehabilitation. The heart is trembling with impatience again, and the guts are ready for new methodological experience. The business talk is easily merging with daily lunch at a TV-station cafeteria nearby (“never eat alone”, just like in a famous book). The easy and welcoming feeling stretches far beyond the cheerful atmosphere and having good manners: Need advice with the syntax or have problems finding specific statistical data? – “It is very easy, just come to my office,” says Hermann Duelmer, now the Head of the Data Archive, who, just like at the 1^st LCSR Summer School, magically founds the time to help, despite the weeks-ahead busy agenda of meetings, teaching, and research. Every problem is solved easily, with a witty joke and without unnecessary words, if only there is a solution.

“Come back again!”, “Yes, one can apply to the EUROLAB again,” “Come here again in some years, and you’ll see your photo on a wall at Ingvill’s office!” says Dr. Malina Voicu, our coordinator at the EUROLAB. “Ingvill” is EUROLAB’s Director Prof. Mochmann, who is also the spouse of the EUROLAB’s founder, Prof. Ekkehard Mochmann. At some point he told us the story how, years ago but not really long ago, he had to give a talk before the European Commission arguing that the social sciences required not only “paper and pencils” but real informational infrastructure (hard to believe now, when GESIS is there!). At the EUROLAB it is so easy to realize that the modern system of data storage and maintenance that is working smoothly for the whole world and providing access to such helpful, comparative and not rarely invaluable databases as the European Values Study, the ISSP, or Eurobarometer, was created by the efforts of these open-minded and extraordinary people. In one book, there was a saying, “You must make so-called miracles come true yourself”, and here at GESIS they don’t need to consult the reference books for this rule.

The photos at Ingvill’s office are also an important part of the story. First, you have a photo in order to tell everyone that a new visiting researcher has arrived (inside the building there is an open door policy, so that knowing each other is a matter of good manners and safety alike). At the end of my stay we have another photo – this one for good memories, not to forget my own face expression, inspired by the talks and the research process, by new ideas when they appear and sparkle inside, when research is a detective story and work is bliss. Here, every fortnight, there is a research seminar, in addition to working groups meetings for full-time researchers. It is easy to meet someone in the lab whose papers you read while being an undergrad student. Here are the people who make the household-name databases like EVS come true, who have made the social sciences a better place, not least through their organization and through this rotation capsule of visiting researchers at the EUROLAB, where one can learn, share experience, and try to understand the data. Throughout my stay I kept asking myself, how come all these people got together, what was the mechanism behind. Probably it is the self-picking; they just stand out from the crowd and pull themselves together out of their own motivation.

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“Breathe freely, now you are ready for a flight,” such would be the verdict of “doctor EUROLAB” after four weeks at this scientific resort. Fortunately, the reality is even better, as this incredible place is not just one person, but a whole team of researchers whom one works with and whose part one becomes for a while.

by Anna Shirokanova