Research group leader Lisa Riedner works with the unemployed initiative BASTA! in Berlin and other community organizations of unemployed and precariously employed people. Her interests include disputes about welfare fraud, family values and integrated social services.
A. Valentina Moraru is working in the Oldenburg region with the Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe Oldenburg (ALSO), one of the oldest German grassroot self-organized groups centering questions of unemployment. Her PhD research follows the social reproduction struggles of migrants in areas dominated by different low-wage employers.
Tim Herbold conducts research in cooperation with the initiative Project Shelter, which co-manages a self-organized center for homeless people in Frankfurt, facilitates mutual support in everyday life, and advocates for the interests of migrants. His research focuses on the transformation of local social security systems through social conflict and state attempts to integrate civil society initiatives.
Paula Brücher researches processes of exclusion from wage labor and accompanies people in their everyday lives. She is interested in conflicts and negotiations about (paid) work, care work and migration regulations in the welfare state.
About Basta
BASTA! is made by unemployed people, low-income employees and students with little money. Several times a week, BASTA! opens an advice café on issues related to the ‚Citizen’s Income’ (Bürgergeld) and runs campaigns and training courses. BASTA! accompanies people to the job center and to the social court. BASTA! is convinced that only together can a place be created where people can organize themselves against the impositions of everyday life at the job center and on the labour market. In this sense, BASTA! is a long-term political project for a better world. The group mainly speaks English, Italian, Greek and German.
More info: https://bastaberlin.de/
About ALSO
Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe Oldenburg (ALSO) is one of the oldest independent initiatives for the unemployed in Germany. It has been working since the 80s, counseling people who have to deal with various authorities and trying to create a place of community. ALSO carries out these activities in several languages and in several locations in the Oldenburg area. The aims of the initiative include supporting people, translating official German and making it understandable, and reminding the authorities of legal boundaries. The topics of the consultations are diverse, from school and education, to medical issues and child benefits, labor disputes and discrimination. At the same time, ALSO sees consultation as just one pillar of its political work. All of the initiative’s plenaries are open to the public, and every Friday there is a joint breakfast at the ALSO center. There are also joint calls for political action.
More info: https://www.also-zentrum.de/
About Project Shelter
Project.Shelter is part of a political movement that campaigns for more solidarity and participation for all city residents. We are a group of people with and without a history of flight or migration who work in a grassroots democratic way to fight for and protect the rights of homeless migrants and refugees in Frankfurt/Main — and to guarantee that their needs are met. First and foremost, this includes finding housing, but also providing tickets for public transport and bicycles, financing food, medical care and clothing, as well as language support and translations for official matters. Last but not least, the project offers a contact point for socializing, mutual exchange and joint activities for participants and interested parties. It enables migrants and others to organize themselves, develop common demands and communicate these to the outside world in the form of actions and demonstrations. In this way, hierarchies between people with privileges and those who are disadvantaged by virtue of their identity papers can be recognized and dismantled.
More information: https://projectshelterde.noblogs.org/arbeitsweise/