The Research Group Social Partnership is an interdisciplinary group of researchers, which examines the historical and current developments of Austrian social partnership from different interdisciplinary and in international comparative perspectives. We define social partnership as a cooperative and compromise-orientated relationship between representatives of employee and employers (and owners) with or without the participation of the state. Instead of a hierarchical logic (state) and competitive logic (market), a commitment to solve conflict of interest through negotiation is prevalent. We thus emphasize the transformative power of cooperation in work and employment relations.

Social partnership is a distinct social form of cooperation prevalent in Austrian industrial relations, and it exists, though in different guises, also in other European countries and beyond. We follow a broad understanding of social partnership that includes beside the peak organisations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Labour, the Austrian Trade Union Federation and the Chamber of Agriculture, also their individual affiliations and the state as well as actors in the field of co-determination and other subfields, where common ground is found through negotiations of organised interests.