NaDiRa short study: Researching critically of racism

Pilot phase of the project "Negotiation processes and living together in the neighbourhood after racist attacks"

National Monitoring of Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa)

Project team:

• Hannah Mietke
• Denis van de Wetering
• Ann-Kathrin Thießen
• Juliane Sellenriek
• Andreas Zick

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Project description:

The pilot phase presented here preceded our actual research project and served to illuminate the project's goals, presuppositions and methods from a perspective critical of racism. Among other things, we asked how we can avoid reproducing racist categories and attributions in the research process and how the research setting can be designed in such a way that existing power and dominance relations have less of an impact. Also central was the question of how the project can contribute to improving the situation of people affected by racist attacks.

Results:

White perspectives continue to often represent the unmarked norm in German-speaking academia, often also within research on discrimination, racism and migration. Therefore, we have created a guide to help establish discussions critical of racism and power within research projects. The guide encourages reflection on the positionality of the researcher, the political objective of the research and the research practice itself.

From this reflection, the guide develops concrete impulses for research that is critical of domination. These include:

• creating spaces for reflection within and between research projects, which also contribute to quality assurance,
• participatory research and close cooperation with research partners, and
• establishing a basic attitude critical of racism and commitment to structural changes in the science system as a whole.

Surprising insights:

Even the claim to conduct research critical of racism within a science system marked by racism is necessarily contradictory and ambivalent. These ambivalences cannot always be resolved. Research that is critical of domination and based on solidarity thus also demands a capacity for ambivalence from the researchers themselves. In concrete terms, this means actively working to reduce and redistribute one's own privileges. On the other hand, our reflection also touched on personal questions such as how we ourselves are positioned and what our own goals are.

Relevance for practice:

Our discussion guide provides impulses for a reflective practice that can be continued in and between different research projects. These impulses are already flowing into the design of upcoming research projects at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) and have been discussed here internally in a lively manner.

Furthermore, we critically discuss the developed reflection slides together with official, political and civil society planners and designers of social spaces. This raises the question of what added value our reflections have in the design of socio-spatial projects that promote cohesion and equality, and how they can be implemented in practice.

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)