BRE_T_01 Political Education as a Transfer Laboratory and Collaborative Knowledge Production in a Super-diverse District: New Formats of Public Social and Cultural Studies

Target group, measures

The project develops transfer formats as long-term infrastructures and resonance spaces as well as surveys and educational contexts of social cohesion that continuously accompany research:

• Society workshops
• Pupils laboratory
• Dialogue formats
• Research Centre City of Gröpelingen (with narrative cafés, society workshops, collaborative network research, etc.)

The transfer formats serve to convey and reflect social and cultural science knowledge, collaborative knowledge, and the production and generation of primarily qualitative data. The point of reference for all transfer formats are partial aspects of individual and collective lifestyles in the four basic dimensions of social cohesion (attitudes, practices, social relationships/networks, and institutions), with a particular focus on practices and processes of segregation between social milieus or cross-milieu interaction. In laboratories and social workshops, practices and attitudes of milieu-specific lifestyle (BRE_F_01 and BRE_F_02) will be made visible, described, reflected upon, put in relation to each other, and evaluated in terms of their implications for social cohesion. This is also done through the systematic use of digital tools.

In the Research Centre City of Gröpelingen, local network analyses are carried out in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and residents, and discussion formats such as narrative cafés, district conferences, and neighbourhood walks are generated and evaluated (in cooperation with BRE_F_03 and BRE_F_04). The processes and results of the formats are documented, archived, and made available to various target groups via an open-source content management platform.

The pupils’ laboratories address pupils and adults with regard to educational aspirations, political participation, work, and democratic living.

Topics and results of the Bremen research and transfer projects are discussed in dialogue formats with practitioners and decision-makers, as well as civil society groups. Wherever possible, the multipliers mentioned above are involved in the projects in advance in the sense of a collaborative understanding of transfer. All forms of knowledge transfer will be evaluated.

Thematic reference to Social Cohesion

The project takes the concept of resonating spaces as its starting point to address experiences of cohesion in the sense of experiences and knowledge of various actors in relation to contact arenas and solidarity, as well as practices of demarcation and status competition between different milieus. The transfer formats connect to the concept of lifestyle and bring it together with the theory of resonance. This, according to the working hypothesis, could make it possible

• to succeed in transfer dialogues and collaborations,
• to make status work and competition as well as experiences of exclusion of the respective target groups describable,
• to reflect on the resulting consequences for their individual and collective lifestyle for different social arenas and fields of experience (school, company, neighbourhood, and administration),

and together with them

• to sound out and test options for shaping social cohesion.

The transfer formats are methodologically framed by various digital infrastructures that support the exchange between different target groups and between society and science on their respective understanding of social cohesion via hybrid online/offline networks and digitally supported educational formats. In addition to the Research Centre City of Gröpelingen, located in a precarious, super-diverse district, a second branch is to be realized in a contrasting district of Bremen characterized by middle and upper classes.