Current Projects

Lianara Dreyer
What are the conditions of education in the crafts like? What images does society have of craft trades and what significance does these images have for the choice of profession? These are some of the questions addressed by the "Craft Comedy" project. The differences between society's image of craft trades, the self-image of craftsmen and craftswomen, and the working reality of trainees in the craft trades are contrasted. The aim of the project is to raise awareness among the general public of the current challenges faced by employees and, in particular, trainees in the craft trades and to develop strategies to make working in the craft sector more attractive.

Jonas Ferdinand
The video games industry has around 80,000 employees across Europe and 11,000 in Germany and, thanks to a rapid success story, has increasingly arrived at the centre of the German cultural and creative industries. Working in the industry combines future trends: digital technologies are in the foreground, and flexible working is widespread. These future trends are also being researched at the Science Center Berlin. The scientists are concerned with the following challenges, among others: How will technologies shape our everyday working lives? Which professions will remain, and which new ones will emerge; how will the underlying training paths change? What is good work anyway? And how can it be guaranteed? At a Game Jam in Q4 2023, developers and scientists will explore these questions about the future of work by developing video game prototypes together. In this way, a highly innovative and creativity-led transfer method will be established that conveys science with the help of technological potential and makes it possible to experience it hands-on.

Marina Fischer
Anti-discrimination structures and effective protection against violence in the artistic spheres of work and education are systemic challenges that can only succeed through awareness-raising and prevention at all levels. As a translation of the empirical findings in the context of her dissertation, Marina Fischer devotes herself to the elaboration of preventive measures in practice. Being a research assistant and project coordinator at the Counselling Center Themis e.V., she develops primary prevention information materials for different target audiences in the arts and media industry - including handouts and exercise tools for witnesses of sexualised assault in the artistic workplace or discussion guides on sensitive topics for executives.

Siavash Valizadeh
The main aim of the transfer project "Labor and Globality: A cinematic Sketch" is to create a more global idea of work which does not halt at the borders of the working world in Western Europe. The reality of the work and its alternative forms shall be compared and presented side by side. For this purpose, experts and people on the margins of the current working world from and outside Europe are asked for their opinion on their work and their vision of the future of labor. These interesting conversations and the visual recordings shall flow together cinematically and ultimately result in a short multilingual documentary movie which is accessible to all people in society in terms of form and content.

Nathan Weis
The production of electric cars is considered a contribution to climate protection, and the production of electric car batteries furthermore as key in the achievement of European technological sovereignty. Different stations are approached in a text-based online game, from the political level and the goals associated with electric mobility to industrial implementation and regional economic dynamics. The development of a battery ecosystem in Europe will also be addressed. In addition to gaining knowledge on the individual aspects of the transformation to electromobility, these are embedded in a larger context. How do electromobility, climate protection and European sovereignty relate to each other?

Maximilian Wilken
In this project, educational materials and methods are developed and tested that deal with the relationship between democracy and the economy. The aim is to accessibly present academic debates on plural forms of economic organisation (from cooperatives to democratic enterprises to public services) for non-academic audiences and to develop educational formats that enable people to understand the economy as a democratically designable part of society. The materials will be tested in several seminars and published as a brochure at the end of the project period.
 

(Past Projects)

Science and Public: Ways of mediating research related to ‘Good Work’

Complementary transfer projects transform the doctoral program 'Good Work' into a communication lab. The program wants to contribute to strengthening “Public Science” and therefore includes the exchange of knowledge as an important part of the doctoral program. This public exchange is initially integrated in all dissertation projects and equally important.

There will be two transfer modules to enable this:

(1) Science in Practice. Practical experiences are directly integrated into the research and will be worked on together with corresponding actors.

(2) Transformation and Visualization. This module will be executed in cooperation with the University of Arts Berlin (UdK). Students from the UdK and the doctoral program’s scholarship holders work together in project teams.

The following projects have already been developed:

Vizualising the Changing World of Work (Lisa Basten)

In cooperation with a team of freelance designers, a variety of infographics were developed, illustrating the change of work in terms of structural change of employment, the challenges of negotiating work and the change of value added chains.

The infographics can either be used in print, online, as posters or fully animated web versions for social media purpose. In the final publications of a Hans Böckler Foundation’s expert committee, the infographics already illustrated the "Future Work“.

Risk Assessment of Psychological Strain (Franziska Kößler)

In her transfer project, Franziska Kößler assessed psychological risks within the companies that she is also cooperating for her research with. She used questionnaires that are adapted to different occupations, based on the interviews and observations she conducted. She thereby examined stressors and resources the employees face. Those factors might be part of their tasks, the organization of their work or their social relationships at work.

Discrimination Meets Digitalization in the Visual Society Program (ViSoP): Making invisible things visible - discrimination in digital HR applications (Esther Kroll & Kathleen Warnhoff)

In this project, Esther Kroll (psychology) and Kathleen Warnhoff (sociology) are working in an interdisciplinary team with two designers from UdK (University of the Arts Berlin) – Doreen Baldauf and Sascha (Aleksandra) Bespalova. The mutual goal is display the very complex topic of discrimination in digital human resources applications in a way that also sparks a debate outside of scientific areas.  As first result, an interactive poster was presented at the Long Night of Sciences 2018. The poster's title is "Digitalization through rose colored glasses". Depending on the people wearing either rose or blue colored glasses, they are able to see the hopes respectively concerns that employees expressed when they were asked about the digitalization in their companies.

Social Science Meets School (Friederike Molitor)

The aim of this project was to share insights from sociological research with pupils from Berlin high schools. Therefore, seminars on different topics were planned to acquaint pupils with sociological insights that are also of particular relevance to pupils‘ everyday lives. The first seminar focused on persistent gender inequalities on the labor market, while the second seminar discussed the use of statistical and graphical representations in media outlets.

Job-Sharing from the Perspective of Scientists and Practitioners - A Radio Report (Nicolas Morgenroth)

The concept of job-sharing is gaining increased attention again. Is it possible to combine part-time work with career while enhancing the work-life-balance? In a short radio report voices from scientists, practitioners and human relation professionals give their answers to this question.

Participation Within Digital Offices - Discussion on New Strategies and Concepts (Setareh Radmanesch)

The work within digital offices has clearly led to a higher working speed. On a nearly daily base, the organization of work is negotiated. What does this mean for workers' participation? How can participation accompany these changes and become an active part of it? Together with practitioners, these questions will be looked into.

Welfare of Resistance: A Photographic Project on Daily Practices of Resistance to Social and Employment Precarity (Giulia Tattarini)

By using pictures, videos and texts, 'Welfare of Resistance' aims to inform a non-academic public about the nature of precariousness in Germany. In particular, the pictures transport the social and economic consequences of the Hartz IV reform for its recipients. Moreover, they tell about ways of coping with precariousness—ways and practices to resist. The written boards (English and German) show the broad context, describing what precariousness is and who the Hartz IV recipients are; the visual part focuses on the ‘Sozialberatung’ in Berlin, their activities, and the people who participate in it. Photos and videos tell stories about individual and collective agency; stories in which solidarity and mutualism become powerful tools to fight insecurity, precarity, and stigma.