Culture of Participation

NOTE: ON JANUARY 1ST, 2021, THE ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS OF THE CULTURE OF PARTICIPATION WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE RUHR UNIVERSITY BOCHUM.

Culture of Participation, a trans-disciplinary research area established in 2013, is the first large-scale academic centre of excellence on the theme of civic participation in Germany. Culture of Participation is related to projects of the former research area Culture of Responsibility that focused on collaborative trends in the economy and civil society engagement, taking into account the increasing demands for citizen responsibility. Today citizens want to be engaged politically beyond elections, they want to have a say in public planning processes: for example, in the building of train stations, airports, streets, local area development, or the construction of an alternative energy network.

Since the 1990ies, a variety of deliberative or dialogue-orientated methods have spread around the world: participatory budgeting, consensus conferences, town hall meetings, citizen councils, and planning cells. The Culture of Participation research area examines the conditions under which open exchange and collaboration are most successful. Among the most important questions in this regard are: what democratic standards must these methods satisfy to make particular interests become general and focus on the common good? How can politics, administration, the economy, civil society and the citizenry adopt forms of social responsibility? What strengthens the bond of interrelated actors, and what benefits a climate of communal learning – what does not? Where might one find social resources of public spirit and “pro-participatory” activities? How can dialogue-oriented civic participation effectively integrate itself into our democratic system – be it on a local, regional, federal state, or European level?