The research field of sociology of technology deals with human-machine interaction in highly automated systems, the control of complex socio-technical systems in the fields of energy and transportation and their sustainable transformation.

In addition to traditional methods of empirical social research, innovative methods of computational social sciences are also used, such as agent-based modeling (ABM). It enables the experimental verification of model-based assumptions through computer simulation. A hallmark of the field is the combination of analytical sociology and ABM, i.e. the sociological foundation of models of socio-technical systems.

The Department of Sociology of Technology, headed by Prof. Dr. Johannes Weyer, was part of the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at TU Dortmund University from 2002 to 2020, then part of the newly founded Department of Social Sciences since 2020. With Prof. Dr. Johannes Weyer's retirement from active service in 2022, a reorganization took place in the form of the Senior Professorship of Sustainable Mobility and the research area of Sociology of Technology at the Social Research Centre, both of which continue to belong to the Department of Social Sciences.