ASH Berlin is recognized nationwide as a university with strong research and transfer capabilities. Due to its history and as the largest state SAGE* university in the Federal Republic, it bears a special social responsibility. There are already many experiences regarding successful cooperations with actors from politics and urban society, which, however, have so far been insufficiently secured and often exist(ed) unconnected to each other. ASH Berlin would like to strategically align the existing transfer activities for its profile building as a „university in the neighborhood“ and for the strengthening of the science location Marzahn-Hellersdorf in a more targeted manner and to make the diverse campus-community partnerships more sustainable. To this end, measures were developed on the way to a transfer campus - Campus Transferale. The development of Campus Transferale is embedded in the restructuring of the university from a previously centrally organized small university to a decentralized structure of a medium-sized university with two departments. At the same time, Campus Transferale also wants to contribute to the emergence of a lively campus with its various locations in Helle Mitte - Alice-Salomon-Platz, Fritz-Lang-Platz, the new building at Kokoschka-Platz as well as the Helleum in Kastanienallee.
This opportunity of organizational restructuring and campus development will be used to identify and optimize interfaces for future transfer and to anchor them firmly in the decentralized structure that is forming. The local urban society with its needs and experiences will be actively involved in this university development in a participatory manner. The aim is to achieve digitization in the transfer sector, which understands collective worlds of experience, social commitment and academic knowledge as a common resource and makes them usable.
Subproject 1: Transfer_Hub and annual transfer festival Transferale
The necessary measures are bundled, researched and coordinated in a Transfer_Hub. The temporary Transfer_Hub has the task of identifying processes in the area of transfer and cooperation, developing them further and ensuring their integration into the emerging departmental structures. An integral part of this is a transfer study planned at the beginning of the project period to ascertain needs, the monitoring and reflection of a planned transfer audit, and an annual transfer festival - the Transferale. In order to test the processes and interfaces, two pilot projects will be initiated that focus on solidarity and democracy-promoting practices and, in particular, also include social cultural work and artistic processes in the transfer work. Cooperation partner in the pilot project Zwischenräume - Belebung von Campus und Stadtteil is the Kunstverein neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst Berlin (ngbk). Cooperation partners in the pilot project Community Spaces - für eine demokratische Alltagskultur are pad gGmbH - präventive, altersübergreifende Dienste im sozialen Bereich, Verein für demokratische Kultur in Berlin - Initiative für urbane Demokratieentwicklung and VSKA - Verband für sozial-kulturelle Arbeit.
Subproject 2: Service point participatory research
A service point for participative research will be of special importance for the transfer within the Campus Transferale. Here, district cooperation partners (departments in the areas of youth, health and social services) will be supported and professionally accompanied in their community orientation in a research-based and process-oriented manner through participatory research approaches. Together, methodological developments are advanced here.
The project „Campus Transferale - CaT. ASH Berlin on the way to a transfer campus“ is funded from 2023 to 2027. Prof. Dr. Olaf Neumann leads the sub-project Transfer_Hub and Prof_in Dr_in Gesine Bär the service point Participative Research.
* The akronym SAGE stands for „Soziale Arbeit, Gesundheit und Erziehung und Bildung in der Kindheit“, which translates to „Social work, health and education in childhood“
