Talking straight to youngsters in Hamburg
We are in a less affluent part from Hamburg for a two-day Workshop. About 70% of our 32 participants have a migration background. We talk for about 10 hours with two different groups
“People have to work!” A Deliberation at a Secondary School in Brandenburg
This “Schule mit Courage” in a town East of Berlin has in total 330 pupils. About a third are first generation migrants or refugees (mostly from Syria or Afghanistan). The school works with
A Deliberative Workshop with Chechen
Since 2016 Social Science Works has implemented more than forty rows of workshops with refugees and natives in which we discuss, among others, ethical and political pluralism, democracy, civic society, freedom (of expression,
Deliberating Homosexuality: Empirical Observations and Analyses
Like many other western countries, Germany still has medical doctors, therapists and priests that believe that homosexuality is an illness that can be cured. For instance, the weekly Der Spiegel recently reported on
The Rewards from Deliberation: Researching the Feedback of our Workshops
by Hans Blokland and Raíssa Silveira Since 2016 Social Science Works has organized and implemented almost forty rows of deliberative workshops with refugees and German natives. Together with the participants, in our workshops
Countering Radicalization: What the Research on Deliberation and Radicalization Teach
Could radicalization be prevented or reversed by bringing together those that have seemingly entered this path, with other not (yet) radicalized citizens, to discuss fundamental issues like: democracy, pluralism, freedom, autonomy, respect and
Robert A. Dahl on Pluralism, Democracy and Deliberation
Robert Dahl (1915 – 2014) is one of the most influential political scholars of the last century. His ideas on political scholarship, pluralism, democracy and deliberation also influenced Social Science Works. On Dahl,
Challenging extreme claims for truth: How to deliberate the open, pluralist society w
Imagine we are dealing with a person with a rather monistic mindset, thus believing, assuming or hoping that all questions can only have one right answer, that all these answers can be neatly,
Charles Edward Lindblom, In Memoriam
On January 30, 2018, Charles Lindblom died at the age of 100. His ideas on, among others, policy making processes, democracy, the limits and possibilities of social and political science, impairment, and usable
How to deliberate fundamental values? Notes from Brandenburg on our approach.
People hardly ever change their mind. The more they feel forced to justify themselves, the more they feel questioned, criticized, disrespected, and the smaller the chance that they will open their mind to