Research Center “Autonomous Spaces in the Welfare State"
This core research area focuses on the analysis of the interaction between social policy, social work and social law with regard to the access and restriction of individual and societal spaces of freedom and self-determination.
In this context, autonomous spaces in the welfare state can be understood in at least three ways:
- as individual spaces of action and possibility guaranteed by the welfare state,
- as local social spaces in which social participation can actually take place,
- as democratic scopes of action and creative leeway in the political-administrative multi-level governance system.
The research center conducts research projects and evaluation initiatives that primarily employ qualitative methods. Cooperating with a variety of partners, the work is practice-oriented. Following the concept of a participative and dialogue-oriented approach, data collection with subsequent reporting is supplemented by the organization and implementation of workshops, discussions for reflection, as well as expert conferences. The range of tasks of the research center also includes advising practice partners and political actors. In addition, the research results are transferred to scientific and practical contexts at conferences and enter the scientific discourse at the level of expert associations.