Oct 24, 2025
IHI Zittau is a partner of a transformation conference
Transformation knowledge as a problem area of social change: theory and regional practice is the title of a conference taking place on November 6 and 7, 2025 in Zittau Town Hall.
Coordinated by Dr. Lucas von Ramin from the Emerging Field of Social Change in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at TUD, the German Center for Astrophysics (DZA), the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Research (HAIT), the Institute for Transformation, Housing and Social Spatial Development (TRAWOS) at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, the Institute of History and Folklore of Saxony (ISGV), the Interdisciplinary Center for Transformative Urban Redevelopment (IZS), the Serbski institut/Sorbian Institute and the International Institute (IHI) Zittau of TU Dresden have joined forces to address the following questions using the example of the "Reallabor Lausitz":
- What role has science played as a stakeholder in the transformation processes of recent years/decades? Which assumptions/findings were actually accepted by the actors and stakeholders? How were they communicated and what relevance did they ultimately have in the concrete everyday areas of activity of regional stakeholders? Which fields and assumptions of usefulness structure the social use of knowledge, for what is there a social demand/for what is there not - what differentiations can be seen, for example, between politics, planning, civil society, business, art, science? How does which scientific knowledge reach society and how and by what mechanisms does it work there? What partnerships, translation and transfer mechanisms do social fields/stakeholders develop in order to process transformation(s) with scientific knowledge? How does social knowledge find its way back into science (keyword: accompanying research, transformative science, etc.)?
- How can demands for transparency and co-determination be met while maintaining the principles of representative democracy? What role does science play in this? Is there a need for a site-specific interpretation and design of concepts such as transdisciplinarity and co-production or transition management? What requirements for transformation knowledge do local transformation actors have? What is already available and how is it integrated? What external expertise is needed?
- What level of knowledge do we have today compared to previous relevant reflection processes? What has already been researched and how has this been done? What effects/interactions does the scientific examination of transformation processes have on the research design, for example?
- Which topics and disciplines are relevant to action and knowledge and who sets them? Where can science become more effective in terms of its practical relevance or where is more science or more research needed? What undesirable effects can scientific influence have?
- Which methods, instruments or theories can be used, and what gaps can be identified in this regard, both on the part of science and on the part of the relevant transformation actors?
Overall, the experiences and expertise of both science and, necessarily, the respective stakeholders (companies, politics, municipalities, etc.) will be examined. The conference therefore strives for an exchange that combines both perspectives.