Astrid Segert studied philosophy at the Humboldt University Berlin and graduated in 1979 as Dipl. Phil. She worked as a lecturer at the Humboldt-University. In 1983 she took her doctor\'s degree in philosophy. 1988 – 1991 she joined the Institute for Sociology and Social Policy of the Academy of Science of the GDR in Berlin. After it she worked as a researcher at the University of Potsdam and at the Brandenburg Environmental Research Centre. She was engaged in projects concerning topics of social transformation and milieus, regional networks, sustainable rural development and regional inequalities. Since 2007 she works at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna at the Department of Sociology and the AG steps. Her research interests lie in social studies of everyday practices, milieus and economic networks in urban and rural spaces as well as in studies of the economic integration of Migrants in urban areas.