TUDiSC

The measure "Disruption and Societal Change" (TUDiSC) is part of the project "Strengthening research areas with great potential" in the focus PROFIL at TU Dresden". It aims to contribute to achieving scientific excellence and international visibility in all five research profile lines 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 raise the profile of disruption as a basic category of research into societal change, and to analyze its prerequisites, logics and effects in more detail, both in terms of basic principles and in terms of examples and subjects. Given that it focuses on the political, economic, social and cultural challenges that societies face in dealing with disruptions, TUDiSC has a social science, humanities and cultural studies orientation, but necessarily includes the expertise from the natural, technical and life sciences.

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

Cooperation with the Emerging Field 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 totaling 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 forecasts, 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 societal 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 societal 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 societal and economic changes.

The Emerging Fields Societal Change and Taming Water Extremes endeavor to network and cooperate in various formats. The basis for this is a first workshop on 27 June 2022.

Cooperation with the Emerging Field Networked 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 societal 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 the fulfilment of human needs. Mobility and transport are affected by disruptions and societal 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 room for maneuver.

The Emerging Fields Societal Change and Automated and Networked Mobility aim to network and collaborate in various formats. The basis for this was a first workshop on 5 November 2021.

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

Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden

With the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, TUD Dresden University of Technology and THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION have established a lively forum for a forward-looking dialogue between science, art and society. In this project, young researchers and artists come together across disciplinary boundaries to question current technologies, their origins, and their impacts on our modern world.

Apart from financial support, the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden offers doctoral students from the humanities and social sciences a close exchange with colleagues working on related topics, a variety of continuing education opportunities, as well as access to an established scientific landscape at TU Dresden and to other institutions belonging to the network of DRESDEN-concept e.V.

The Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden is an Artist in Residence program for the promotion of artistic research, which gives international artists the opportunity to become part of TUD’s scientific community for a period of six months. The programme is intended for visual artists from the fields of performance, installation, media art (video, sound, etc.) who understand their artistic practice to be time-based art. The projects of the Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden with the annually varying Artists in Residence are closely connected to the topics of the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden, for mutual benefit.

MIDEM

In recent years in particular, the issue of migration has led to new polarizations in European societies. The political and societal 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) analyses how migration shapes democratic policies, institutions and cultures and is shaped by them at the same time. Forms, instruments and processes of political processing of migration in democratic societies are analyzed – 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 societal fault lines that become visible as a result and potential coping strategies.

MIDEM is a project of the Technical University of Dresden in co-operation 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.