SOCIAL-STRUCTURE ANALYSIS IN THE GDR - RESULTS AND PROBLEMS - A CRITICAL STOCKTAKING OF THE DRIVING-FORCES DEBATE AND THE SOCIAL-MOBILITY RESEARCH

The article deals with two relevant and interesting fields of social s tructure analysis in the GDR: with the debate on the so-called ''socia l driving forces'' (socialist functionalism) and with social mobility research. The development of the research questions and approaches is described, analysed and criticized. It is shown, how East German socio logy had to find a ''dialectic balance'' between the official dogmatic prescriptions and contrary scientific recognition. East German concep ts, theories, methods and results are compared with West German social structure analysis; they are evaluated with regard to the question, w hether these approaches are adequate instruments to analyse social pro blems in unified Germany: while socialist functionalism has become irr elevant with the implosion of the socialist system, the dynamic approa ch of social inequality and socialization respective educational chanc es are worth to be continued.