Markus Lang

Social Network Analysis | Economic Sociology | Political Movements | Legal Fragmentation | Quantitative Methods

Markus Lang has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Weber Institute of Sociology at Heidelberg University since 2023. Previously, he served as Research Manager and Data Scientist for the Berggruen Governance Index at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the University of California, Los Angeles.

His research investigates the social mechanisms underlying social and economic action. He addresses central questions that span seemingly different domains yet share the same relational foundations: How do networks and social relationships shape political decisions and mobilization? What informal mechanisms enable firms to coordinate price increases – beyond explicit collusion? And can network methods help overcome legal fragmentation by revealing hidden relational structures between legal texts?

To answer these questions, Markus Lang employs relational and field-theoretical approaches alongside diverse data sources – from administrative panel data and large text corpora to self-collected network data. Methodologically, he focuses on measurement problems in social movement research, quantitative text analysis, and recent advances in network analysis.

• Weber, Isabella M., Evan Wasner, Markus Lang, Benjamin Braun, und Jens van ’t Klooster. 2025. „Implicit Coordination in Sellers’ Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes“. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 74: 690–712. doi:[10.1016/j.strueco.2025.04.005]

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2025.04.005

• Mayer, Lotta, und Markus Lang. 2025. „What We Should Be Asking: Grundsätzliche Überlegungen zu einem Forschungsprogramm für die Soziologische Rechtsextremismusforschung“. ZRex – Zeitschrift für Rechtsextremismusforschung 5(1): 78–99. doi:[10.3224/zrex.v5i1.06] 

  https://doi.org/10.3224/zrex.v5i1.06

• Anheier, Helmut K., Markus Lang, und Edward L. Knudsen. 2023b. „Introducing the Berggruen Governance Index II: Initial Results, 2000–2019“. Global Policy 14 (Suppl. 4): 16–34. doi:[10.1111/1758-5899.13277] 

  https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13277

• Anheier, Helmut K., Markus Lang, und Edward L. Knudsen. 2023a. „Introducing the Berggruen Governance Index I: Conceptual and Methodological Framework“. Global Policy 14 (Suppl. 4): 5–15. doi:[10.1111/1758-5899.13278] 

  https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13278

• Anheier, Helmut K., und Markus Lang. 2020. „Comparative Non-Profit Sector Research: A Critical Assessment“. In The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, hrsg. Walter W. Powell und Patricia Bromley. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 648–76.
• Anheier, Helmut K., Markus Lang, und Stefan Toepler. 2019. „Civil Society in Times of Change: Shrinking, Changing and Expanding Spaces and the Need for New Regulatory Approaches“. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal 13: 1–27. doi:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2019-8

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• Dobusch, Leonhard, Markus Lang, und Sigrid Quack. 2017. „Open to Feedback? Formal and Informal Recursivity in Creative Commons’ Transnational Standard-Setting“. Global Policy 8(3). doi:[10.1111/1758-5899.12462] 

  https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12462