Sociology of Complaints and Complaint Bodies

Despite the increasing social importance of alternative dispute resolution, sociological and socio-legal research on the diverse extrajudicial complaints and complaint bodies remains fragmentary. Studies are realized within different disciplines and with a variety of research questions but the different perspectives are rarely linked or related to one another. Also, there is great diversity concerning the examined institutions: both different public bodies and diverse private organizations are studied since the possibilities to complain about experienced injustice outside of the court are manifold. Lastly, the chosen areas of focus are also diverse - from legal framework conditions and historical developments to organizational processes or the experiences and perspectives of those affected, but integrated approaches are largely lacking so far. The aim of this session is to make a consolidating contribution in the field of complaints and complaint bodies by bringing these different approaches into conversation with one another. We aim for contributions that - be it theoretically or empirically - deal with the extrajudicial handling of complaints - from the opposition proceedings in social law to the public ombuds, from the petition initiated by citizens to the patient advocacy office and to internal arbitration boards for consumers, the wide range of complaint practices and their treatment in specific dispositions and contexts will be discussed comparatively. Thematically, the session covers a broad spectrum: from legal awareness and legal culture to legal mobilization, conflict sociology, alternative dispute resolution, access to law, or legal discourses.