Digital dialogue platform
on social-ecological transformation
Working Group Transformative Research
Research methods, philosophies of knowledge and the attitude of researchers require critical reflection. Here you will find introductory information on transformative research and opportunities to exchange ideas directly with the international, interdisciplinary working group on Transformative Research. The working group has been meeting online three to four times a year since 2020 to support each other in research projects. Without rigid definitions and with room for uncertainty, we engage in joint reflection processes.
Insights into our work
The transformative research working group continuously discusses current research projects of its members, organizes workshops and invites interdisciplinary guest lectures.
What Transformative Research is about
The Working Group Transformative Research was founded in 2020, since then we had many presentations, speakers and discussions, creative sessions and many open questions. The working group thus reflects its understanding of transformative research in an ongoing process.
Project ideas
Various scientists of our working group regularly present their research projects in the areas of social-ecological transformation, feminist theory, epistemic violence and phenomenological research.
Connecting People
Our working group brings together people from different disciplines, academic backgrounds and nationalities and lives from the conviction that there is a need for spaces in which people can exchange ideas across these boundaries. can be exchanged. The members of our working group are María Bélen Garrido, Sophie Elixhauser, Mélodie Cohen, Marie Teich, Isabella Rega, Tanja Kleibl and many more.
Bridging the Divide and Embodying Transformation
As scholar-activists, feminists, and environmentalists, we are often confronted with divides hindering transformation. In our discussions, we strive to identify these fractures and dividing lines, to tolerate ambiguities, and to understand tensions as a transformative driving force.
Ethics and Methods in Transformative Research
Awareness about the harms of past and present practices and the need to decolonize institutions and methods and to Indigenize research has increased. For these processes it is necessary to address the "how to" of co-creative research.
Critical self-reflection
We read and discuss texts from various disciplines that enable critical self-reflection on issues of structural injustice.
In discussion with Prof. Dr. Barbara Schellhammer, Professor at the Chair of Intercultural Social Transformation
"Transformative research aims at change processes in at least three directions: Firstly, it aims to bring about change through the research process itself (and not just through its results). Secondly, the research project itself exposes itself to change by dealing with concrete issues. This is continuously accompanied critically on a meta-level. Thirdly, the researchers themselves emerge differently from this process."
What is transformative research?
Those who research transformations, i.e. major social change processes, not only observe and describe changes, but also contribute to change themselves. Research changes the researchers and the researched in equal measure. Transformative research is aware of these many dimensions of change and engages with them. There is no single definition for transformative research. What unites the various definitions is the desire to understand change through transformative research and to direct it in a positive direction.
"Transformative research aims to develop technical, social and organizational solutions to current problems in a joint process between scientists and practitioners" (Schader Foundation)
"Transformative research is oriented towards concrete social problems and is characterized by an explicit claim to intervention. The aim is to catalyze concrete change processes and actively involve stakeholders in the research process"(Wuppertal Institute)
To the Kontrapunkte Podcast
Become a member of our working group!
Feel free to contact us: zgf@hfph.de
More Information
Blog Counterpoints
Center for Social and Development Studies
Wuppertal Institute
Schader Foundation
Transformative Education
Lena Schützle
The transformative research working group is led by Lena Schützle (Munich School of Philosophy).
Contact: zgf@hfph.de