Digital tools for social resonance in urbanity

ABSTRACT

The R&D project ‘Exploring and transforming resonance spaces' (RESet) tends to provide direct impulses for a better participation of people in the urban sphere via digital tools in order to show a view of society and political contexts that is as constructive and creative as possible. We would like to use the impulses to counter individual tendencies of radicalization, apathy and isolation towards the democratic system and promote social participation in our cities in the long term. A lack of trust in state institutions, a lack of understanding of social values and, above all, breaks in social cohesion are omnipresent in Europe today. The core idea of the BMBF research project RESet is to increase people's participation in a phase of the digital transformation of social environments in the urban sphere; and to enable them to take a constructive view of society again. M2C institute tested in RESet possibilities of participation by means of innovative formats and the use of digital tools. RESet is part of the German federal initiative ‘Strengthening cohesion in times of crisis and upheaval’. Here, the project focuses on how to deal with current social change and the resulting social challenges in urbanity.

KEYWORDS:

• Social participation
• strengthening cohesion
• crisis and upheaval
• digital tools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) via project ‘RESet – Resonanzräume erforschen und transformieren – Ein Vorhaben zur Stärkung der Demokratie und des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts’ (RESet), 2017–2020.