NaDiRa short study: A future without racism

Futures: What might a racism-critical, equality-oriented vision of our society look like?

National Monitoring of Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa)

Project head: Prof. Dr. Ralf Wölfer

Project team:

• Ralf Wölfer
• Kübra Gümüşay
• Jeannette Gusko
• Ouassima Laabich-Mansour
• Franziska Schönfeld
• Sumona Dhakal
• Thị Minh Huyền Nguyễn
• Gün Gabriele Tank
• Janna Schlender
• Sally Mary Riedel
• Nedime Sinanaj
• Yi Pan

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Project description:

Together with various experts from racialised communities, the project was dedicated to a thought experiment. Within the framework of a specially designed future workshop, we asked the question: What will a racism-critical, equal and inclusive society look like in the year 2073? We wanted to explore desirable futures and positive images of the future - and find out which legal, cultural, political and socially anchored steps are needed to realise these visions.

Results:

Participants described the workshops as unique and extremely empowering experiences to date. The visions of the future they developed in the workshops reflected current grievances. They were characterised by the desire to be safe and to no longer have to constantly anticipate existential dangers. The participants also wished for solidarity and for social plurality to finally become a matter of course. Other topics were:

• A move away from a society of consumption and performance towards freedom for spiritual and artistic development and (mental) health.
• Loneliness/community
• Multi-generational residential communities
• Sustainability
• Ecology
• Educational justice

Surprising insights:

The participants realised that in their everyday lives as well as in their work contexts, there is hardly any space left for them to develop a positive vision of the future and the way to get there. So far, they had spent their energies almost exclusively on fighting (structural) discrimination.

Although we conducted the workshops on anti-Muslim and anti-Asian racism separately, the visions of the future resembled each other in many ways. In particular, a society-wide solidarity approach was central to all the visions for the future. Participants imagined that difference would be valued and that there would no longer be "others" from whom the "majority" would separate itself.

Significance for practice:

We will make the documentation, minutes and future visualisations from the workshops available to civil society. They will support interested persons and groups to conduct their own workshops. A racism-critical card set for future scenarios, which we are currently creating and which is unique in the German-speaking world, also serves this purpose. The cards offer low-threshold access and make it easier to multiply the workshops and further develop the methodology. 

Short studies in preparation for the racism monitor:

In order to prepare a comprehensive Racism Monitor, DeZIM called on scholars* from the DeZIM research community in 2020 to develop innovative study ideas. These should extend existing research projects, pursue new and innovative approaches or build an infrastructure to research racism. By 2021, more than 120 researchers at the six locations of the DeZIM research community had conducted a total of 34 short studies. These are divided into six thematic priorities:

• Health system
• Education system and labour market
• Institutional racism
• Dealing with experiences of racism
• Participation and the media
• Racist ideologies and attitudes

Funding: Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)