Exchange between science and society

Initially conceived as a pilot project, GESIS organized the first GESIS DataDay at its Cologne site in early 2019. The aim was to establish contact with data and science journalists with proven expertise in the field of data analysis and to explore the extent to which both professions could benefit from a cooperation. In particular, the aim was to realize a constructive exchange for both sides and to establish concrete media relations for a possible cooperation. The program of the DataDay was thematically linked to the presentation of the GESIS research data centers, since services and access options are already defined here.

2020

On January 23, 2020, GESIS organized the second "DataDay" at its Cologne site. The one-day workshop aimed to bring GESIS employees into conversation with science and data journalists*. The workshop was organized by Sophie Zervos and Claudia O'Donovan-Bellante from the KEO department and Fabian Flöck, Arnim Bleier and Johannes Breuer from the CSS and DAS departments. The focus was on the handling of social media data and the possibilities of observing political actors via interfaces on the basis of their activities on the net.

The participants came from the editorial offices of Spiegel-online, dpa, WDR Quarks, Deutschlandfunk, Handelsblatt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Schwäbische Zeitung, as well as from the Science Media Center, among others. The materials prepared for the GESIS DataDay are available here.

2019

In the first workshop, which took place on 17th January 2019, employees of the Data Archive department presented the research data centers at GESIS and took a closer look at the handling of research data, e.g. on education, elections, or political attitudes. The participants came from the editorial offices of Spiegel-online, dpa, WDR Quarks, Deutschlandfunk, Bayrischer Rundfunk, Schwäbische Zeitung, and Science Media Center, among others. The link to the program can be found here. 

Together with the other Leibniz institutes in North Rhine-Westphalia, GESIS launched the event "Leibniz in the State Parliament" (LIL) in 2008 as a regional offshoot of Leibniz in the Bundestag. Since then, we have participated in terms of organization and content and support the now well-established format for the annual dialog between politics and science at the NRW state parliament in Düsseldorf. Members of the state parliament from all parties have the opportunity to discuss central social and research-relevant issues in a direct exchange with expert interlocutors and to receive advice on future-oriented developments. The researchers present current research trends and results and, for their part, are given the opportunity to critically reflect on the social relevance of their scientific questions during the event. Here, too, we are represented every year with different topics: 

2021

• "Fehlende Daten führen zu verpassten Chancen: gesellschaftliche Folgen des Gender-Data-Gap" (Ingvill C. Mochmann, Abteilung Knowledge Exchange & Outreach (KEO))
• "Bildungschancen von Kindern durch Verantwortungspartnerschaften verbessern" (Reinhard Pollak, Abteilung Data and Research on Society (DRS))
• "Soziale Mobilität – was führt zu mehr Aufstieg?" (Reinhard Pollak, Abteilung Data and Research on Society (DRS))

2020

• "Soziale Aufstiege in Corona-Zeiten" (Reinhard Pollak, Abteilung DBG)
• "Frauen in der Politik" (Ina Bieber, Abteilung DBG)
• "Künstliche Intelligenz für evidenzbasierte Politikgestaltung" (Katarina Boland, Abteilung WTS)

2019

• "Children Born of War – Stigma, Integration, Sicherheit" (Ingvill C. Mochmann, Abteilung WTr)
• "Public Opinion on Climate Change" (Keith E. Smith, Abteilung DAS)
• "Rechtspopulistisches Wahlverhalten: Ursachen und mögliche Maßnahmen" (Pascal Siegers, Abteilung DAS)

2018

• "Langfristige Bindung zwischen Wählern und Parteien“ (Johannes Blumenberg, Abteilung Wissenstransfer)
• "Forschung zu und in sozialen Medien“ (Johannes Breuer, Abteilung DAS)
• "Children Born of War – Stigma, Integration, Sicherheit” (Ingvill C. Mochmann, Abteilung Wissenstransfer)

2017

• "Einstellungen der deutschen Bevölkerung zu Migrantinnen und Migranten“ (Stefan Weick, Abteilung Wissenstransfer und Prof. em. Dr. Peter Schmidt)
• "Nutzung und Wirkung von Computer- und Videospielen“ (Johannes Breuer, Abteilung DAS)
• "Nachhaltigkeit im interkulturellen Kontext” (Ingvill C. Mochmann, Abteilung Wissenstransfer)

Every year, the Leibniz Association organizes the event "Leibniz in the Bundestag" (LiB) for members of the Bundestag, where all Leibniz institutes are called upon to participate by submitting relevant topics to be discussed with members of parliament. The members of the German Bundestag (MdBs) then receive a compiled list of topics offered by Leibniz researchers as experts, which they discuss bilaterally or in a small group (often together with the scientific speakers or staff of the MPs). All topics can be booked by members of all parliamentary groups. The meetings usually take place in the offices of the MPs and last 45 minutes. GESIS submits various proposals each year in order to make our expertise available to the members of parliament and to enter into a dialogue with them. A selection of our offered topics can be found here:

2022

• „Politische Entscheidungen durch digitale Daten und künstliche Intelligenz erleichtern: Twitter als Ergänzung zur Umfrageforschung“ (Katarina Boland, Abteilung KTS)
• „Verschwörungstheorien – von Trump bis Corona: Radikalisierung auf Social-Media – und was wir dagegen tun können“ (Veronika Batzdorfer, Abteilung CSS)
• „Krieg in der Ukraine: Zu sexueller Gewalt, Kindern des Krieges und der Bedeutung des UNO Reports S/2022/77“ (Ingvill C. Mochmann, Abteilung KEO)

2020

• "Frauen in der Politik – Warum sinkt der Frauenanteil in vielen Parlamenten?" (Ina Bieber, Abteilung DBG) 

2019

• „Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz aus soziologischer Perspektive“ (Sabina Haveric, Abteilung WTr)

2018

• „Gesundheitsungleichheiten in Europa – die Rolle von Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik“ (Sabine Israel, Abteilung DAS)
• „Einstellungen zur Zuwanderung und zu Geflüchteten im Europäischen Vergleich“ (Boris Heinz- mann, Abteilung DAS)
• „Einstellungen der deutschen Bevölkerung zu verschiedenen Migrantengruppen“ (Stefan Weick, Abteilung Wissenstransfer)

For the exchange with societal actors, GESIS experts regularly participate in national and international dialogue events with discussion contributions, presentations or lectures. 

Here is a small selection of further events:

• Theme weeks "The New Normal - Seizing Opportunities & Shaping the Future" of the Cologne Science Roundtable (22.05.-16.06.2022): Lecture by Ingvill C. Mochmann "The fate of children of war - uncertainty needs a plan" (21.06.2022)

• Science in Cologne Houses: "Gender Data Gaps – Gaps with Consequences" (18.05.2021):  After keynote speeches from the scientific community, among others by Ingvill C. Mochmann (GESIS), researchers, teachers, students and pupils will discuss across generations: What is the significance for gender equality if data is missing for half of the population – the female gender – or if collected data is not gender-sensitive? Where and why do such gender-specific data gaps exist and what do they mean in our knowledge society? How does this in turn influence which social issues are on the political and scientific agenda and which fields of action are prioritised? As part of the event series Science in Cologne Houses.

• Educational Policy Forum 2020 (29.10.2020): Lecture by Clemens Lechner on the topic "Development of reading literacy in adulthood".

• 8th Conference for Social and Economic Data (03.03.2020): Presentation by Fabian Flöck on "Research on Digitization: Data Output for Science" and by FID Politik in the session "Research Data Infrastructure: the Role of Specialized Information Services" in Berlin
• Discussion: Shaping the future - developing Europe (22.05.2019): "Envision Europe: What kind of Europe do we want? This was the question posed by four Cologne science institutions (GESIS, CBS, MPlfG and the University of Cologne) in the run-up to the European elections. Together with the people of Cologne - young and old - we wanted to find out in impulse lectures and discussions what constitutes Europe and how we can shape the EU of the future.
• Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen-Nürnberg (25.11.2019): Nina Steinweg and Hannah Meyer gave a presentation entitled "Are Equality Measures Measurable? Possibilities and limits of evaluations".
• Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (19.01.2018): As part of a focus group on "Discrimination and Anti-Discrimination in Germany," Oshrat Hochman (DBG Department) discussed the topic with experts from the Federal Statistical Office (DEstatis), the University of Münster, the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM), and the Humboldt University in Berlin.