Radical democracy – How grassroots movements lead to solidarity and problem solution
5 countries, 10 cities, over 100 initiatives – in a large-scale research project, social scientist Helge Schwiertz is investigating how citizens are working together at local levels to find solutions to the major crises facing Europe.
The European idea is noticeably crumbling. Researchers funded by the Volkswagen Foundation met at the status symposium 'Challenges and potentials for Europe' to exchange views on the results of their research on the topic. One conclusion: fortunately, joint European research on Europe is not crumbling!
Protest movements: How do they affect democracies in Europe?
Election victories for authoritarian parties, demonstrations against the right, Fridays for Future and increasing populism: democracies in Europe are coming under pressure. The "ProDem" project has analysed the impact of protest movements on the development of democracy in six European countries.
From citizens' councils to feminism on TikTok – task forces investigate democracies in transition
Liberal democracy is a basic prerequisite for a scientific landscape with independent freedom of research. But how can we protect our democratic structures? And what dangers are they exposed to? Ten newly funded research projects are dedicated to these and other highly topical questions of democracy research.
A small, rich minority is becoming increasingly wealthy. Eva Wegner and Miquel Pellicer ask: How does politics contribute to growing economic inequality – and whose interests do MPs actually represent?
So that everyone can have their say: Citizens' assembly on AI research
Rhetoric expert Anika Kaiser researches how people can make themselves heard on the major issues of our time – artificial intelligence (AI) being a case in point. She is the right person to take care that this grassroots democratic process does not remain too detached from reality: in her first life, she trained as a painter.
