Future Discourse: Discussing the future - bringing society together - talking about social utopias

Led by:	Dr. Daniela Kempa
Team:	IUP: Dr. Daniela Kempa, Wissenschaftsladen Hannover: Dominika Vogs
Year:	2021
Funding:	Funded by the Niedersächsisches Vorab through the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture)
Duration:	June 2020 - July 2021
Is Finished:	yes
Further information	www.wissenschaftsladen-hannover.de/projekte/231-zukunftsdiskurse-gesellschaftlicher-zusammenhalt

Background and Goals

The vision of many committed people in Hannover is a society that brings people together and overcomes injustices and inequalities. What does it take to stop the supposed drifting apart of our community? What scientific findings are there that are relevant to practice? Are there utopias that connect us?

The project, funded by the MWK funding program "Discourses on the Future," devoted a year to these questions and opened up a year-long space for discourse between civil society and science in the spirit of citizen science. Scientific methods were linked with valuable content in workshops and thematic groups.

The goal of the discourse on the future was to promote the networking of actors who deal with the topic of social cohesion or partial aspects of it. In Hanover, we acted as an interface between science and practice. To fulfill this role, we collaborated closely with the Wissenschaftsladen Hannover and the Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt.

In the Future Discourses, we conducted several successive workshop formats and accompanying activities in Hannover's neighborhoods with the cooperation partners. There, we discussed social cohesion with the participants and encouraged them to launch their project ideas or to pursue existing approaches that contribute to the success of social cohesion. In addition to shaping the discourses and providing scientific impulses, we support the participants with creative exchange formats, content-related research and the collection of opinion polls, for example.