An online survey, a format which allows the participant to respond in a self-determined and comfortable manner, will be used to obtain replies from the academics at the universities. The items can be adjusted to suit the individual situation of the person. All potential respondents will be addressed by e-mail in an effort to increase the commitment to respond.
The analysis of correlations and influencing factors contributing to the development of different lifestyles and careers is made possible through the acquisition of complex data in the quantitative survey. The analysis perspective looks for differences in life- and work situations, offering both a view within, as well as beyond the gender-groups. Due to the wide correspondence of career levels, age-groups and the struggle with the process of starting a family, the comparison of status groups also contains an entry that delivers information regarding real and anticipated mechanisms for balancing both areas. By including academics in the survey who have no children, the conditions and simultaneously the development processes of a childless lifestyle will become obvious.
The online questionnaire was designed using concepts that refer to approaches of socialization theory as well as theories of labor development processes, work-life-balance, the concept of habitus, approaches to generative decisions and concepts of organizational sociology.
