Cooperation and network

DDc Scientific Area Committee IV "Culture and Societal Change" (SAC IV)

The Scientific Area Committee IV "Culture and Societal Change" (SAC IV) is a pillar of DRESDEN-concept, an alliance of research and cultural institutions in the Dresden area: We see ourselves as a platform for networking and regular exchange with the aim of providing a workable structure and basis for joint projects and thus also increasing the visibility of our institutions. The cooperation should help to identify common topics, develop funding and financing opportunities and open up unifying planning perspectives. Due to our special expertise, we are united by a common educational and research mission at the interface between culture, science and society, which has endured as a unified framework, particularly due to the social challenges of recent years and despite the plurality of institutions. At the same time, we are always open to cooperation within the entire DRESDEN-concept network.

JoDDiD

The John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy (JoDDiD for short) is an institution at the Chair of Didactics of Civic Education. It is supported by 10 employees who bring expertise from very different areas: Didactic research, consulting, education and training, art, museum and theater education and, of course, political and democratic education. The most important thing for us at the John Dewey Research Center is that we do not want to conduct research and development in an ivory tower. We are not interested in a lofty view. Rather, our aim is to use participatory processes together with those active in the field of extracurricular and non-formal political youth and adult education to search for solutions to problems for which there is too little time in the usually narrowly defined limits of project work on the ground.

TUDiSC

The Disruption and Societal Change (TUDiSC) measure is part of the project "Strengthening research areas with great potential" in the EXU focus PROFIL at TU Dresden. It is intended to contribute to achieving scientific excellence and international visibility in all five Research Priority Areas at TUD, in particular in the Emerging Field "Societal Change", and thus to develop the university as a whole to an equally high level.

In joint interdisciplinary work, the aim is to profile disruption as a basic category of research into societal change and to capture its prerequisites, logics and effects more precisely, both in terms of basic principles and exemplary subjects. Insofar as the political, economic, social and cultural challenges that societies face in dealing with disruptions come into focus, TUDiSC has a social science, humanities and cultural studies orientation, but necessarily includes the expertise of the natural, technical and life sciences.

Information on the individual projects and contact persons can be found on the project page.

OFFICE FOR ACADEMIC HERITAGE, SCIENTIFIC AND ART COLLECTIONS

The Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections at TU Dresden is responsible for the preservation of 40 collections from the fields of science, technology and art. With a variety of activities, it preserves these valuable historical cultural assets and makes them accessible to researchers and the public. Founded in 1979, the Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections at TU Dresden is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in Germany. As part of its overarching, central position, it exercises a supervisory function over the university's cultural monuments, including over 40 scientific and technical collections as well as an extensive art collection. Preserving this important resource for collection-related research, teaching and science communication, while at the same time making it visible and accessible, is the central task of the Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections. We have collaborated on several events, such as the Performing Transformation conference - a two-day event at TU Dresden that examined how knowledge is produced, embodied and challenged at the interfaces of art, science and technology in times of rapid social change.

Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden

In the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, initiated jointly by THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION and TU Dresden, scientists and artists explore the interactions between technology, art, science and entrepreneurship. The Lab consists of the two pillars Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden and Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden. The common object of investigation is the interplay between technical innovation and the transformation of society and culture. The perspectives on this are humanities and social sciences as well as artistic.

The Lab is the platform and the place for transdisciplinary research cooperation at TU Dresden. The challenges of new technologies and social issues of the future are negotiated in an exchange of artistic and scientific practice in the Kolleg and in the residency.

At the same time, the comprehensible discussion of scientific topics in exchange with a broad public is a central concern of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden. The planned experimental formats of participation reflect our expanded understanding of transfer and mediation.

The first project phase deals with the topic of "Artificial intelligence (AI) as a factor and consequence of social and cultural change". The corresponding partners in the first phase are the Clusters of Excellence at TU Dresden. In the first funding phase, there are collaborations with the Center for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CETI), the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Dresden/Leipzig (ScaDS.AI) and the Center for Explainable and Efficient AI Technologies (CEE AI) - the joint AI research center of TU Dresden and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft - and others.

CIDS

TU Dresden has identified digitalization as a connecting element with interfaces to all research and teaching areas as a central task. As a strategic measure, the Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Sciences (CIDS) was founded in June 2021. With this foundation as a holistic and interdisciplinary hub for digitalization, data analytics, HPC and AI, TU Dresden is optimally positioned in national and international competition. Organizations today are faced with the task of adapting their structures, processes and products to the innovative technologies of digital transformation in order to efficiently exploit the advantages of these opportunities and developments. For science, the associated issues offer new opportunities to research forward-looking solutions and make a contribution to society as a whole. With current trends such as edge and cloud computing - closely linked to methods in high-performance computing (HPC), big data, data analytics (DA) and artificial intelligence (AI) - future infrastructures will have to adapt independently and highly dynamically to changing environments and requirements and select the optimal location for executing program code and storing data without restricting the data sovereignty of users.

MIDEM

In recent years in particular, the issue of migration has led to new polarizations in European societies. The political and social challenges of this development are not yet foreseeable. What is needed are studies that explore the connection between migration and democracy.

The Mercator Forum on Migration and Democracy (MIDEM) examines how migration shapes democratic policies, institutions and cultures and is shaped by them at the same time. It examines forms, instruments and processes of political processing of migration in democratic societies - in individual countries and in a comparative view of Europe. Central aspects of the research project are the perception of migration by democratic societies, the social fault lines that become visible as a result and potential coping strategies.

MIDEM is a project of the TUD Dresden University of Technology in cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen, funded by the Mercator Foundation. It is headed by Prof. Dr. Hans Vorländer, TU Dresden.

Further information and current events can be found on the project's homepage and the MIDEM Twitter account.

REXKLIMA research group

Right-wing populism and climate policy are two of the most relevant contemporary political phenomena, but they are usually treated separately in the social sciences. The REXKLIMA research group (Far-right politics versus climate action? Nationalist opposition in a transnational political field) combines both topics. It is headed by Dr. Manès Weisskircher and is based at the Institute of Political Science at TU Dresden and the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Research. REXKLIMA is funded as a junior research group by the BMBF for five years (2023-2027). In addition to the group leader, REXKLIMA includes a post-doc position, three doctoral positions and a guest researcher program.

TUD | Lusatia Campus

The Lusatia Campus is TU Dresden's response to the major challenges of structural change in the region. After all, the transformation in Lusatia means much more than shaping the phase-out of coal: It also concerns demographic change, the climate crisis, the scarcity of natural resources and the increasing shortage of skilled workers. Together with partners from business, society and politics, TU Dresden wants to actively accompany this change and develop Lusatia into a modern, sustainable and future-proof region of the 21st century. The Lusatia Campus stands for innovation, participation and responsibility. New structures are being created here that combine digitalization and technological development with social and ecological sustainability, with a particular focus on democracy and inclusive education: The campus sees itself as an open place where knowledge is shared, co-creation is encouraged and social diversity is lived. Education is conceived inclusively here - as a joint project that gives everyone access to research, exchange and opportunities for the future, creating a space in Lusatia where science, business and civil society can work together on a sustainable, democratic future.

International Institute (IHI) Zittau of TU Dresden

The International University Institute Zittau was founded in 1993 as a model of joint, cross-border learning by partner universities in Saxony, Poland and the Czech Republic and has been the Central Academic Unit of TU Dresden since 2013. As a Central Academic Unit of TU Dresden, IHI Zittau is an international, family-oriented graduate school with its own Master's degree programs. Intensive cooperation exists with the Faculties of Environmental Sciences, Business Administration and Economics and Biology at TU Dresden as well as with non-university partner institutions such as Senckenberg and IÖR. Together with non-university partners and partner faculties within TU Dresden, we research and teach on topics such as ecosystem services, sustainability and its management.

German Center for Astrophysics

The German Center for Astrophysics (DZA) sees itself as a scientific institution with regional responsibility. With its Transformation Research department, the DZA makes a central contribution to structural change and sustainable development in Lusatia. The department provides scientific support for the establishment of the center in the region, researches processes of social, technological and institutional change and develops recommendations for future-oriented structural and science policy. The focus is on the goal of not only analyzing transformative change, but actively helping to shape it. A particular focus is on how science can contribute to democratic, inclusive and sustainable development. Transformation research is understood here as a joint project - between research, politics, business and civil society. The department works closely with a regional partner network that has helped shape the concept of transformation research at the DZA from the very beginning. These partners include the TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD), the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG), the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR), the Institute of Saxon History and Folklore (ISGV) and the Sorbian Institute (SI). Together with these institutions, the DZA aims to develop Lusatia as a model region for socially just, democratically designed and scientifically sound structural change.

Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies (HAIT)

Following the reunification of Germany and the founding of the Free State of Saxony, the Saxon State Parliament passed a resolution to establish the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies e. V. at TU Dresden (HAIT). It began its work in 1993. The HAIT is concerned with the systematic study of National Socialism and Communism as well as the preconditions and consequences of both systems of rule. The aftermath of the dictatorships requires a differentiated approach within the framework of international transformation research, which is one of the Institute's main focuses. In addition to research, cooperation with institutions of political education, memorial sites and civil society groups in the Free State of Saxony and in Germany is a focal point of the Institute's activities.

Hi!Lusatia

Hi!Lusatia is a joint network of teaching, research, business and society in Lusatia in order to make the existing excellence in the Neisse Euroregion visible and to emphasize the attractiveness of the location through a joint, coordinated approach. The association strives to strengthen cooperation between educational institutions, research institutes, companies and society and to promote the development of the region. The name Hi!Lusatia is made up of the English greeting "Hi!" and the Latin word for Lusatia and makes it clear that skilled workers are very welcome in Lusatia.

Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences

Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1992 in the three-country region of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. More than almost any other university, it stands for new beginnings and change. Its location makes the HSZG a bridge between Central and Eastern Europe. The subject of energy has been in its genes since it was founded. And the transformation of the economy, work and society can hardly be better researched in Germany than in Upper Lusatia. The university stands for internationally well-networked and application-oriented research.

Institute for Transformation, Housing and Social Spatial Development (TRAWOS)

Since 2004, the TRAWOS Institute has been conducting interdisciplinary and application-oriented research into transformation processes in society with a focus on rural Upper and Lower Lusatia in the border triangle of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Core research areas are: the transformation of rural society and innovative regional development in Lusatia with regard to demography, migration, integration, gender and governance structures as well as cross-border aspects of working and living environments, education and engagement.

Institute of History and Folklore of Saxony (ISGV)

The Institute of History and Folklore of Saxony (ISGV) is a non-university research institute that combines the disciplines of regional history and folklore/cultural anthropology. It researches the history and everyday culture of Saxony in its historical context from the Middle Ages to the present day, from a transregional comparative and transnational perspective. The Institute's central concerns are the scientific documentation and communication of its research findings. Its main areas of focus include mobility, transformation research, visual anthropology and cultural heritage.

Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER)

The Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) is a non-university research institution and a member of the Leibniz Association. On the basis of its research, the IOER advises policy-makers and society with a view to achieving overarching sustainability and environmental goals as well as spatial development objectives. Accordingly, the Institute is involved in scientific networks and alliances and engages in a lively and reciprocal exchange with numerous stakeholders from politics, planning and civil society through various channels and formats.

Interdisciplinary Center for Transformative Urban Redevelopment (IZS)

The IZS is a joint institution of the IOER and the International Institute (IHI) Zittau of the TUD Dresden University of Technology. Other partners are the city of Görlitz with the municipal housing company KommWohnen and the German Foundation for Monument Protection. Using a transdisciplinary approach, the center examines the opportunities for revitalizing small and medium-sized enterprises and sheds light on urban transformation processes in regions affected by structural change. The European City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec serves as a cross-border urban laboratory. One focus of the center's international networking is the Central and Eastern European region.

Serbski institut/Sorbian Institute

The Sorbian Institute / Serbski institut, based in Bautzen and with two locations in Cottbus, researches the language, history and culture of the Sorbs (Wends) in Upper and Lower Lusatia in the past and present. With its dual focus on Sorbian cultural studies research and practical support for the Sorbian language and culture in Upper and Lower Lusatia, the Institute's concept is unique. It expresses a contemporary self-image based on the dialog between science and society.

Cooperation with the Emerging Field of Water Research/Taming Water Extremes

In recent years, the German public has perhaps become aware of water extremes as an effect of climate change for the first time. Two extremely dry summers in 2019 and 2020 led to crop failures in agriculture, pushed forests and urban trees to their limits and led to water deficits in deeper soil layers and much too low water levels in rivers and reservoirs, which impaired aquatic ecosystems. In 2021, heavy rainfall led to devastating fluvial flooding, particularly in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, which claimed many lives and caused damage amounting to almost 30 billion euros. In 2021, there was also a large-scale dieback of drought-weakened commercial forests (especially spruce forests) in the German low mountain ranges. According to all serious predictions, water extremes of this kind will become more frequent and more pronounced in the future, with incalculable effects on the entire water balance, our ecosystems, our agriculture and forestry, but also our political and social systems. For example, it is unlikely that reforestation with drought-sensitive tree species, which make up the majority of our commercial forests, can have a future under the projected conditions. This raises the urgent question for us as a society of how we can adapt to these changing conditions. How can we manage complex water systems in such a way that safe living conditions for us and the long-term functioning of ecosystems can be guaranteed? How do water-related infrastructure systems affect processes of social change and international distribution issues and the associated political conflicts? In order to adapt to the changing climate conditions of the future, we need smart technical and technological solutions, but also social and economic changes.

The Emerging Fields of Social Change and Taming Water Extremes strive for networking and cooperation in various formats. The basis for this was a first workshop on 27.06.2022.

Cooperation with the Emerging Field of Connected and Automated Mobility

When the container ship Evergreen ran aground in the Suez Canal in March 2021, it became clear how even the smallest areas of today's world are dependent on global mobility. The disruption to the mobility chain not only affected companies, but also everyday life. Mobility and transport are of central importance for the functioning of our societies based on the division of labor. They are drivers of innovation and a basic prerequisite for participation in social life, but at the same time present societies with major challenges, including high greenhouse gas emissions and the consumption of resources. Mobility is also a social phenomenon. People want and need to be mobile. Mobility is more than just movement, it is part of personal development and today a basic prerequisite for satisfying human needs. Mobility and transportation are affected by disruptions and social change, e.g. in the current COVID-19 pandemic, but at the same time they also need this change in order to achieve ambitious goals, e.g. in climate protection. This gives rise to a large number of questions that need to be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective, particularly from the humanities and social sciences, in order to understand them comprehensively and open up scope for action.

The Emerging Fields 'Social Change' and 'Automated and Networked Mobility' strive for networking and cooperation in various formats. The basis was formed by a first network studio on 05.11.2021.

In the summer semester of 2022, the collaboration will continue in a joint lecture series in the context of the Societal Change Forum.