Forming Society

Societies today are facing growing and urgent challenges, both globally and regionally.

The profile line "Forming Society" focuses on cohesion, education and design processes for the world of tomorrow and develops research, teaching and transfer for the analysis and solution of social and spatial issues.

Since the last third of the 20th century, a fundamental change in socialisation processes has been discernible. In addition to developments in individualisation, drifting income and education levels and the resulting social inequality are proving to be obstacles to social cohesion.
"Forming Society" examines the field of tension between individual-centred and community-oriented forms of life and addresses framework conditions such as social and regional transformations of established urban development processes.

With application-oriented research strategies, the profile line explores the question of how civil society, aesthetic, welfare state, economic and municipal actors can be strengthened. In doing so, methods of Citizen Science are tested in order to elicit potentials for diversity, equal opportunities, non-discrimination and inclusion.

One focus is on early education in heterogeneous relationship and developmental contexts: The Potsdam Research Institute for Early Learning & Educational Action (PINA) is an interdisciplinary research association of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the University of Potsdam for early childhood education research.

It is a platform for exchange between research and practice on questions of professional interaction quality in daycare centres, complemented by attachment- and relationship-oriented perspectives in empirical educational research.

Complementary to the aforementioned focal points, the profile line is dedicated to strategies of reflection as a cause for actively shaping transformation and participation processes. Due to the omnipresence of the media and the mediation of the world through the media, the experience of the world today is characterised by a multitude of different realities.

Artistic-research approaches strengthen society's ability to deal with plurality, heterogeneity, differences and contradictions. "Forming society" thus becomes a process of exploration, reflection and shaping of open spaces of possibility.