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Expert Group "Democracy Promotion and Democratic Practice"

Expert Group "Democracy Promotion and Democratic Practice"

This expert group accompanies and evaluates approaches that are taken to promote to democracy and shape diversity, formulates recommendations for politics and a professional audience and supports the transfer of knowledge between civil society, science and politics based on dialogue and reflection.

Democracy and diversity must be learned. We investigate when projects that promote this learning are successful - and formulate recommendations on how they can be further developed. In doing so, we are also concerned with knowledge transfer at eye level between civil society, science and politics.

Dr. Mirjam Weiberg, Head of the Expert Group "Democracy Promotion and Democratic Practice"

Main research areas

Immigration and diversity are an integral part of pluralistic democracy. At the same time, discrimination, exclusion and disadvantages of minorities and other marginalized groups make their equal participation more difficult. Politics and civil society are addressing these challenges and problems with projects and programs designed to strengthen democracy and diversity.

In this field, the section Expert Group "Democracy Promotion and Democratic Practice" conducts evaluation research and quality assurance, specifically in the fields of

Democracy promotion,
Empowerment and participation,
anti-discrimination and diversity.
The aim is to further develop best-practice models of preventive-pedagogical professional practice and to promote the dialogical transfer of knowledge between civil society, science and politics.

In doing so, the expert group supports a participatory involvement of civil society, especially of migrant self-organizations (MSOs), New German Organizations (NDOs), BPoC organizations, organizations of religious, ethnic or cultural minorities and otherwise racially-marked people and groups as well as their advisory structures. Knowledge, experiences and needs of the different actors are to be recorded in a structured way, findings and results are to be reflected back to stakeholders and professional practice is to be further developed together.

Methods

The expert group accompanies complex projects and programs in a structured and scientific way. In its implementation, progress and impact analyses, it employs multi-step mixed-method procedures. The group examines specific and intersectional approaches in the context of a diverse immigration society.