„Community research” at the Department of Sociology, University of Muenster, Germany
Chair: Prof. Dr. Matthias Grundmann
Since 2001 at the chair of Professor Matthias Grundmann several lectures and seminars were hold and research projects have been conducted. These projects focussed on intentional communities. He also supervised several graduate projects. Referring to sociological, socio-psychological and socio-geographical theories we analyse today’s processes of the construction of communities as they occur in modern and individualised societies. In order to illuminate the necessary development processes in communities we used participative observation methods and encouraged a constant dialogue between the communities and our project associates, hoping that our reflective research can contribute to a qualitative development of the communities.
Furthermore we wish to reveal the potential of communities, considering them as adequate solutions for socio-ecological development and giving ample examples for the transformation of societies characterised by individualisation to ecological living space. Additionally, the research project wants to emphasise the political significance for both local and global planning, arguing that the movement of social communities depicts many practicable ways how to deal with ecological problems.
This website gives a survey of our research on socio-ecological communities, while detailed information is given in published articles and books. In the section "Courses" we present actual workshops as well as finished seminars and completed thesis'.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Matthias Grundmann, Jg. Matthias Grundmann (1959), head of the department of Sociology in Münster. Key activies: Processes of socialization and their socio-ecological connectivity, social (generational) ties and social integration, macro- or microsocial processes in family, school and leisure, research on Intentional Communities, social milieus and culture of school, education processes in the Internet. Numerous publications.
Dr. Iris Kunze (1976) has a diploma in geography. Since 2002 she contributes to the project "community research". Recently she has completed her PhD on the potential of intentional communities as sustainable life style models, funded by the German Environmental foundation. She researches sustainability and communal living and is a postdoctoral teaching fellow at IfS.
Events - Research - Courses
Completed projects 2001-2008
- Dissertation of Iris Kunze, 2009: Social innovations for sustainable ways of living. Intentional communities and Ecovillages as experimental learning fields for socio-ecological sustainability. English abstract
- Publication 2006 “Social Communities. Experimental Fields for Collective Forms of Living” Matthias Grundmann, Thomas Dierschke, Stephan Drucks, Iris Kunze (ed.) English abstract
- Panel at the "German Congress of Sociology" in Munich, Oct. 2004: „Communal Ways of Living in Modern Societies: Contributions of Sociological Community Research to the Sociopolitical Discourse”
- Poster exhibition at the ICSA Conference (International Communal Studies Association) in Iowa/USA, July, 2004
- Workshop in 2004: „Ambivalence in Social Relations, Community and Historical Life-Situations” Prof. Dr. Kurt Lüscher and Prof. Dr. Matthias Grundmann
- MA thesis Stephan Drucks, 2004: "Communal Living as Community in Society - History, Generational Relations and Theory"
- Discussion-forum with several sociologists about the relevance between communitarianism and community research, 2004. In Communities there might be the potential to observe and check out the communitarianism theory missing empirical examples up to now.
- Exhibition about the research at the the “attac” (globalazation critical network) academy, summer 2003.
Diploma (MA) thesis Iris Kunze, 2003: “Consensus and Self-Sufficiency in Intentional Communities for Sustainable Ways of Living”
A study from Iris Kunze examined the potential of Intentional Communities as ecological and sustainable life style models. Two communities were explored and the research discovered a complex coherence between egalitarian organization structures, self-sufficiency, a cooperative regional economy and a system of communitarian economy which leads to a sustainable way of life including individual liberty in choosing ones´ life style.
MA thesis Thomas Dierschke, 2003: “Intentional Communities. Objectives, Culture and Development”
Topic: Developing of a qualitativ and systematic research design for community projects in Germany. The research design is based on organisational theories. Research methods: qualitative expert interview, qualitative content analysis (according to P. Mayring) Results: The developed research desigen draws a clear picture of the macro level of a community. All aspects of organisational structure and environment influences are described. The micro level for example the personal relationship between the communities members is hardly described.
Survey on intentional communities in Germany, 2003:
The study on organization structures and relationships in Communities brought a dataset of organization, daily life habits, social living and relationships between the generations of Intentional communities and monasteries. This included count and conditions of membership, goals, ideological fundamentals and handling with economy. 119 addresses of monasteries and two hundred addresses of Intentional communities in Germany were collected (via Internet and from the Eurotopia-Directory of Intentional Communities and Ecovillages in Europe www.eurotopia.de). The questionnaire was answered by 65 Intentional Communities and 43 monasteries in Germany. The historical development of Community-foundations shows that most of the monasteries were founded in the middle age, while Intentional Communities were established after the Second World War. Only one was founded before: in the 1920s.
Courses
2001-2008
- Course: Searching for social innovations (Iris Kunze)
- Course: Qualitative methods of empirical and field research on the basis of an example of an intentional community (Iris Kunze)
- Course: Social Integration (Thomas Dierschke)
- Course: The Social Ecology of Social Communities (Matthias Grundmann)
- Course: Eventide and the Future - Sociology of Aging (Stephan Drucks)
- Course: Generational Relations in Postmodern Communities (Matthias Grundmann)
- Course: Belonging and Normativity. Sociological and Political Theories of Collaborative Integration (Stephan Drucks)
- Course: Organisation and Community (Thomas Dierschke)
- Course: Community in Society (Thomas Dierschke)
- Course: Socialisation and Community (Matthias Grundmann)
- Course: Community Research - an Introduction (Matthias Grundmann)
The following texts and presentations give brief introductions to our work:
1. Theoretical background
According to sociological theories we discuss community building processes and dynamics:
Ferdinand Tönnies
First sociological definition of communities and their different manifestations
Systematic description of the society community connection
Max Weber
Description of the connection between specific social forms and rationality of action
Norbert Elias
Power and consensus between interest groups
Typology of universal connetions between social communities
Process of civilization
Communitarianism
Significance of communities to society
Which potential do communities have for the development of society
Organisational theories
Basis for the research on decision making, power, environment connection and development in communities
2. Research methods: Empirical approach
As our research has an exploratory character we use qualitative research methods to get access to the research field including the analysis of documents and materials published by the communities. Data collection through standardized questionnaires, qualitative interviews, and participate observation is included and has been done in numerous intentional communities.
3. Communities in Germany
The German sociology almost has neglected community as a modern research issue. A main reason seems to be the political problematic connotation of the term “Gemeinschaft” because of the national socialistic past. The scientific interest about community increases slowly in Germany.
Present Conditions of Intentional Communities in Germany are influenced by the settlement situation. Real estate is expensive and suitable buildings and plots are scarce. Many Intentional Communities acquire old military buildings or farms. There is also a tendency that they often chose or find places in the Ex-DDR (East Germany) in rural areas and thus they support and step up the regional economic structures, making them a most welcome group. In the last years some of them received awards for sustainable and ecological living conditions.
In the society the perception on communal living is formed on the one hand by imaginations and discourses from the word “Kommune” as a relict of the hippy era as a wild, unconventional and socialistic living of students. On the other hand living in co-operative neighborhood gets more and more popular. But Co-housing is not as common as in Northern Europe, yet. The respect for Ecovillages is growing because of their ecological ways of life.
Eighty percent of the communities in Germany have less than 50 members.
