Krisen-Dialog-Zukunft: Our project
How can an effective dialogue be facilitated in periods of crisis?
Our purpose
Over and over emotionally loaded and stalled decision-making processes occur, where problem solving mechanisms stagnate and which ultimately weaken social cohesion. Thus innovative methods to transform crisis-laden conflicts into solutions are needed. Dialogues between political leaders and citizens are fundamental instruments for that. In our project “Krisen-Dialog-Zukunft” (which translates to “Crisis-Dialogue-Future”) the chair of comparative politics at the Technische Universität Dresden, the Department of Social Work at the University of applied Sciences Münster, the Saxon State Agency for Civic Education and Aktion Zivilcourage e. V. (a civic society educator) co-operate for the first systematic analysis of conflict dialogues.
Our research agenda
For this purpose, extensive empirical data will be collected primarily by means of standardized expert interviews, group discussions and surveys. Case studies of conflict-laden dialogues are conducted and compared in depth. The differences between East and West Germany are of particular interest. Methods of content analysis and a grounded theory approach will be used. Ethnomethodology and discourse analysis form the theoretical basis of this endeavour.
The utilization of the findings
At the same time, the project partners are jointly developing the existing dialogue formats, combining their instruments and developing innovative methods of conflict communication. By combining several tried and tested partners, the research network combines approaches that are oriented towards prevention with those aimed at solving acute problems. Within this framework, political leaders, multipliers and citizens are trained to constructively shape the pluralistic, democratic consensus of our society even in times of crisis.
Funding
The project is funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation, starting in May 2021.
The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for three years starting on 1 March 2018 as part of the research cluster “Social cohesion in times of crisis and transformation”.