Municipal social dialogues

Communities are a crucial space when it comes to social conflicts, especially in connection with major transformation processes: This is where the transformation of society takes place in the immediate professional and personal reality of life, where conflicts are dealt with locally, and where direct dialogue and practical solutions are possible – and often absolutely necessary. However, there are often no institutionalised formats for this, especially when the conflicts polarise and a clash develops between socially unconnected, real-life diverse groups. This is particularly the case when it comes to sensitive local political issues such as migration, the energy transition, the transport transition, urban-rural cooperation, combating the pandemic, etc. However, there is a lack of suitable forms of communication (formats and methods) for communal coexistence that can be used to constructively address polarising transformations.

The Institute for Conflict Management pursues these issues as a local moderator (here: Lars Kirchhoff) of municipal development advisory boards (KomEBs), a project of the Berlin Governance Platform. The municipal development advisory boards bring together municipal politicians and administrators with individual representatives of civil society and business to discuss a specific issue affecting the municipality. They support political decision-makers in developing socially acceptable and widely accepted strategies for complex challenges. The approach is based on the experience and expertise of Gesine Schwan. The concept was further developed and put into practice in close collaboration with the multidisciplinary team of the Berlin Governance Platform. The KomEB draws up recommendations for action that are passed on to the municipal or city council. KomEBs thus act as an advisory body within representative democracy but have no decision-making powers. By actively involving political decision-makers and the local administration, the aim is nevertheless to develop recommendations that are as precise as possible and therefore easy to implement.

Oriented towards the reality of life, the Frankfurt KomEB, founded in April 2024, is working on the topic of "Inner city transformation in the twin city: Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice are shaping the future in Frankfurt (Oder)" in order to promote modern, environmentally friendly and generally accepted neighbourhood and city centre development. This includes the development of a vision and concrete guidelines for sustainable city centre development in consultation with the citizens of Frankfurt and the twin city of Słubice.