Dr. Lukas Pit Posselt

Research and teaching fellows of Sociology with an Emphasis on Sociological Theory (Prof. Gabriel Abend, Ph.D.)

Lukas Posselt studies morality, knowledge, and technologies such as paperwork. He recently completed his PhD at EHESS Paris and the University of Lucerne, where he examined how poor relief institutions produced distinctions between “deserving” and “undeserving” poverty and how ideas of deservingness changed over time. His work combines historical and qualitative research with text-mining methods, and he’s also interested in social crises, inequality, and how we causally explain them.

Selected publications

Gabriel Abend, Lukas Posselt, and Patrick Schenk. 2025. “New Frontiers in the New Sociology of Morality.” Sociology Compass 19: e70024.
compass.onlinelibrary

Posselt, Lukas (2025). “L’attachement comme épreuve d’État Social. Enquête sur l’étatisation progressive de l’assistance sociale à Zurich dans les années 1920.” In Sociologie des circuits financiers. Les infrastructures de l’argent et leurs politiques, edited by Eve Chiapello and Alexandre Violle. Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2025.
Presses universitaires

Posselt, L. (2023). La mise en chiffres contestée: Les critiques d’une enquête statistique sur les causes du paupérisme en Suisse après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le Mouvement Social, 283 (2), 91–112.
enquête statistique

Teaching

You can find Lukas Pit Posselt current classes on eCampus and Stud.IP.

Office hours (by appointment)

Research areas

sociology of morality
sociology of knowledge
economic sociology
sociological theory
mixed methods
historical sociology
STS
sociology of the welfare state
sociology of poverty