The project is a joint project of Coburg University of Applied Sciences (Andrea Schmelz) and Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Caroline Schmitt)

Funding: VolkswagenStiftung

Project period: 01/09/2024 - 31/08/2027

Background: Globally and in Germany, natural and climate-related disasters with significant ecological, economic, and (psycho-)social impacts on individuals and communities are on the rise (World Risk Report 2023). This research project builds on the advocacy of leading transformation researchers who argue that transformative education can facilitate socio-cultural and ecological change by design rather than through disaster. It focuses on the impacts of the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, Germany, on July 14, 2021, with a forward-looking perspective. The project analyzes the experiences and coping strategies of the affected population, as well as the involvement of social workers, social services, social movements, initiatives, and civil protection personnel. The knowledge gathered is viewed as transformation knowledge, intended to collaboratively reshape disaster protection and risk management according to the needs of those affected. The project posits that individuals impacted by disasters possess valuable transformation knowledge that can enhance the resilience of places, cities, and regions in facing future disasters.

Team: Caroline Schmitt (Lead Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Andrea Schmelz (Lead Coburg University of Applied Sciences),  Johannes Eick (PhD student Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Regina Kirschner (PhD student Coburg University of Applied Sciences)

The international research project European Areas of Solidarity (EASY) deals with solidarity city alliances in Europe with a special focus on the flagship Züri City Card project in Switzerland. On the one hand, this multi-perspectival project analyzes the needs of sans-papiers and people with an irregular residence status and their ideas of a solidarity city; on the other hand, it examines strategies and concepts of solidarity city alliances. It pursues a qualitative-empirical approach with participatory elements together with international partners from practice. 

Funding: Gerda Henkel Stiftung - Special Programme Forced Migration 

Project period: 01/03/2024 - 28/02/2026 

Background: Since the “long summer of migration” in 2015 at the latest, we have been experiencing extremely ambivalent social dynamics of solidarization and desolidarization in Europe: Solidarity and engagement with forced migrants clashes with racism, right-wing extremism, anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism, which has led to a shift from a proclaimed “welcoming culture” to an intensifying European policy of closure. In view of this situation, concepts and practices of solidarity cities are gaining in importance. The idea of “solidarity cities” is based on the concept of sanctuary cities in North America, sharing the common belief that all city residents should be recognized as equal citizens, regardless of their residence status and other dimensions of diversity, enabling them to participate fully. These cities and municipalities employ a variety of strategies, such as city ID cards, which enable all residents to identify themselves to local authorities and access societal resources, whether or not they have a residence permit. On the European continent, the city of Zurich in particular can be categorised as a flagship project: Initiated by the involvement of solidary alliances, the Zurich City Council decided in October 2018 to introduce a city card based on the North American model - the Züri City Card. Holders of the card should be able to identify themselves with the Zuri City Card, take advantage of cultural opportunities and access city services and health care. The City Council's decision was followed by a debate lasting several years and a referendum in May 2022, in which the majority of Zurich’s residents supported the card, thus initiating the implementation process. The research project starts at this pivotal point. 

Research questions 

• What concepts and strategies for solidarity cities can be found in Europe, with special regard to the city of Zurich?  
• What needs do sans-papiers and people with an irregular residence status articulate, and what starting points and wishes do they propose for the conceptual implementation of solidarity cities? 
• What social work linkages are evident in the conceptualisation and implementation of urban solidarity concepts?  

Theoretical framework: Urban citizenship, inclusion and exclusion, post-migrant perspectives, solidarity, urban sociology, popular social work, critical social work  

Team: Caroline Schmitt  (Lead, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Marc Hill  (Co-lead, Innsbruck University), Songül Can & Johanna Hofmann (PhD students), Nadja Shkirat (student assistant)

Partners from practice 

• Bea Schwager, Verein Züri City Card & Sans-Papiers Anlaufstelle Zürich (SPAZ), Switzerland   
• Bettina Pirker & Martin Diendorfer, Kärnten andas, Austria    
• Christoph Johannsen, Ökumenische Arbeitsstelle Migration und Asyl des  Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreises Hamburg-Ost , Germany  

My habilitation was published in 2024. In this book, I connect debates on inclusion, forced migration, and social work, and outline considerations for a comprehensive societal inclusion program. The book delineates a heterogeneity-theoretical, power-critical, and relational understanding of inclusion and uses this approach in empirical analyses. This approach cannot be reduced to a narrow view of forced migration. It unfolds a critically reflective research and field of action that deals with the normality of human movements without trivializing experienced suffering and social inequalities—towards an inclusive, solidary, convivial society.

Free download here.

Research as part of the  pilot project “Monitoring and evaluation of a protection concept in refugee accommodation”; Funded by: German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM); commissioned research together with Claudia Böhme

As part of a commissioned study, Claudia Böhme and I analyzed the  structural potential for conflict in refugee accomodations in Germany. In recent years, empirical and literature-based studies, case studies from practice and statements from civil society on the realities of life, potential for conflict and conflicts in refugee accomodations have increased. We have systematized the available studies and grouped them into four thematic areas: 1) Conflict potential in different forms of accommodation, 2) Conflicts and violence between different groups of people, 3) Living situation of vulnerable groups and 4) Direct, organizational and political ways of dealing with conflicts in refugee accommodation. Our expertise concludes with considerations on how refugee accommodation can be designed to prevent conflict and with alternative options for accommodation and coexistence in migration society.

This study deals with a target group of social work that has hardly been considered in the discussion about care. These are young people in need of care in adulthood who are dependent on nursing support due to chronic illnesses, an accident or a disability. In over 90 percent of cases, they are cared for by relatives in their own homes (Destatis, 2019). If their needs cannot be met at home and with the help of outpatient services, they request inpatient care. They then find themselves faced with a regionally differentiated care structure. This includes places in nursing homes and facilities for the disabled as well as facilities that have specialized in the assumed needs of the addressees and advertise with the label "young care". This buzzword circulates primarily in nursing practice and describes people in need of care under the age of 60. For health-related social work, the challenge is to systematically analyse the needs of people in need of care in the nursing home across the lifespan and to strengthen lifeworld-oriented starting points in this area.

Link to a press report on the subject related to this research: Hessenschau, 24.10.2021