Zugehörigkeiten

Zugehörigkeiten is the plural form of Zugehörigkeit and denotes the state of belonging to a group, organization, category, or place, including the relational ties, identification, and loyalties connected with it. The term covers formal structures such as memberships or contractual ties as well as informal links like cultural, national, or social belonging. In the social sciences, Zugehörigkeit is often viewed as a component of social identity and can refer to affiliations with family, religion, nationality, or social class.

In organizational and professional contexts, Zugehörigkeiten describe the entities or individuals connected to institutions, departments, networks, or partnerships. In academia and publishing, author affiliations indicate the organizations with which researchers are associated. In data systems, Zugehörigkeiten model relationships between entities and categories, aiding classification and information retrieval.

Zugehörigkeiten can be multiple and may change over time. They raise questions of identity, privacy, and accuracy, especially when information about belonging is self‑reported or drawn from official records. Examples include a researcher with university and industry affiliations, a person holding citizenship in more than one country, or a product associated with several brands.

The concept appears across disciplines—from sociology and anthropology to information science and law—reflecting both everyday experiences of belonging and formal connections that organize social and institutional life.