Activated Civil Society: An Analysis of the Sustainable Impact of Civic Engagement on Social Capital and the Common Good
Consensus and Conflict Department
Project head: Dr. Elias Steinhilper , Prof. Dr. Sabrina Zajak
Project team members: Dr. Moritz Sommer
Using the example of civic engagement that has emerged in the course of the so-called refugee crisis, the joint project asks about the sustainable impact of this engagement on social capital and the common good in Germany. Using six medium-sized cities as examples, it examines the effects that the activation of civil society has on three levels:
- At the individual level by means of problem-centred interviews: To what extent does individual engagement translate into lasting forms of participation?
- At the organisational level by means of document analysis and interviews: To what extent does the activation push of 2015 change the civil society infrastructure in the long term?
- At the level of societal consequences: To what extent is the common good and social cohesion produced as a result?
To this end, representatives of the social sub-sectors of education, labour and administration will be interviewed and the relationship between engagement and protest will be examined on the basis of a quantitative media content analysis.
Project website: https://aktivzivil.de/
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Third-party funding)
Cooperation partner:
The joint project "Activated Civil Society" is being realised at three research institutions; the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM Institute); the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies at the University of Osnabrück (IMIS). The principal investigators are Prof. Dr. Sabrina Zajak and Dr. Elias Steinhilper (DeZIM Institute), Prof. Dr. Edgar Grande and Prof. Dr. Swen Hutter (WZB) and Prof. Dr. Helen Schwenken (IMIS).
To accompany the empirical work and for application orientation, the joint project cooperates with seven civil society organisations that coordinate civil society work within the framework of an advisory board. These are in detail: Arbeit und Leben e.V.; Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Freiwilligenagenturen e.V.; Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement e.V.; Bundesverband Netzwerke von Migrantenorganisationen e.V.; Diakonie Deutschland/ Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V.; Katholische Frauengemeinschaft Deutschlands e.V.; PHINEO gemeinnützige AG.