The Urban Research Group at the Institute of Sociology was founded in 1978 in the Department of Social Sciences. Since then, it has carried out numerous research projects, primarily on urban sociological and planning-related issues. The research projects, which lasted between three months and four years, were carried out by scientists from the fields of sociology, urban planning, psychology and geography. The spectrum of research work ranges from basic research, at the centre of which is socio-spatial change, to practice-related projects, which primarily deal with issues of urban and regional planning and municipal policy.

The research projects of the Urban Research Working Group are financed exclusively by third-party funding, which totals around two million euros. Third-party funding is mainly obtained from science funding institutions (DFG, VW Foundation, etc.) and ministries (BMBau, Ministry of Urban Development, NRW, Ministry of Science and the Arts, Lower Saxony).

Research work is currently focussing on issues of social integration or exclusion and security and control in public spaces.