Matthias Zaugg

University of Basel

I am a master’s student in sociology and political science at the University of Basel (also a former software developer and social worker). I try to combine critical theory with quantitative empirical research. In my master’s thesis, I examined direct democratic labor struggles in Switzerland from a class theory and ideology-critical perspective.

Interests

  • Topics: (digital) public sphere, (digital) capitalism, direct democracy, (de-)democratization
  • Theories: theory of communicative action, deliberative theory of democracy, critical theory, historical materialism, feminist theory
  • Methods: computational social science (dictionaries, topic models, (un)supervised ML, large language models), qualitative methods (content analysis, grounded theory, ethnography), quantitative methods

Education

  • MA sociology and political science, August 2019 - Present

    University of Basel (University of Vienna in 2021)

  • BSc Social Work, September 2013 - April 2017

    Bern University of Applied Sciences

  • Informational technologist, application development, August 2005 - July 2007

    gibb vocational school Bern