The objective of the research project is to investigate the development of employment conditions, fields of activity and the role of the service sector from the 1970s to the mid-2000s for an East German area within the topographically defined framework of a neighborhood study. The Rudolfkiez in Berlin-Friedrichshain is a perfect example. Its ongoing transformation from an industrial location to a neighborhood of the service sector and creative industries offers model-like conditions for the study of these socioeconomic developments in the area of the former GDR and for starting points of an inner-German and international comparison. In this context, the district functions as a burning glass under which the transformation of work, which affected large parts of the population of the new federal states, clearly emerges.

Based on the central importance and social dimension of work and the workplace in GDR society, the question is examined to what extent the changes in the world of work were also reflected in the lives of the residents of the district. Particular attention is paid to the situation of women and so-called contract workers with regard to new and old social inequalities caused by changes in employment, the loss of value of qualifications, structural disadvantages, and the emergence of the new service classes.