The department »Knowledge and Participation« examines the multifaceted and sometimes tense relationships between academic and non-academic knowledge. The focus is on civic participation in knowledge production and science in Central and Eastern Europe in the present and the past. Societies in this region were and continue to be shaped by diversity and migration but are also affected by marginalisation and experiences of violence directed at various groups.

The department is headed by Dr. Michal Frankl.

Recently, citizen science has attracted attention as a way to democratise science. At times, it is (mis)understood to be a mere means of collecting data or a sophisticated pastime. However, the diverse forms of participatory research are increasingly able to challenge established boundaries. How has the relationship between academic and non-academic forms of knowledge evolved over time? Beyond this, in an age of assumed loss of expert authority, do we still need a clear demarcation between scholars and non-experts? Or, indeed, is a clear line perhaps more important today than ever before? Where do the opportunities and risks of science opening its doors lie, especially when it comes to topics that are key to the self-perception of individuals, groups and society at large?

The department places a special emphasis on actors from marginalised groups in the present and in the past. Amongst other things, it asks how knowledge produced »on the margins« is articulated, transferred, heard, stored or interpreted. In addition, it pays crucial attention to the influence of new digital tools on the production of scientific knowledge. Digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), are changing the way knowledge is created and received.

Focusing on questions and drawing on methods from the humanities, the department works across and between disciplines and aims to be a methodological and theoretical laboratory for the analysis of civic knowledge and participation. Its perspectives intersect with several other of the GWZO’s research strands, especially the subject areas »Knowledge and Truth« (Department II), »Circulation of Knowledge« (Department III), and the »Knowledge« Working Group.

Based in Prague, the department »Knowledge and Participation« constitutes an interface with Czech and other Central and Eastern European scholars and citizens who create new knowledge in their free time. It builds on many years of close collaboration with a wide range of humanities institutes at the Czech Academy of Sciences. In this way, it supports collaboration with and in a region where participation and citizen science – especially in the humanities – may still be further expanded.