Research

Funding Source: Academy of Sciences and Arts NRW

Principal Investigator: Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (Department of Historical Studies)

Duration: 2012 – 2026

The research project "Minor and Fragmentary Historians of Late Antiquity" edits, translates and comments on works by almost 90 authors and other anonymous works from the period of Late Antiquity (3rd-6th century AD). These include Latin and Greek authors, profane and ecclesiastical historians, fragmentary and "minor" authors (i.e. those that are rarely edited as independent works and are in turn not recorded in fragment collections), historians known by name and historical works that can certainly be reconstructed but are anonymous.

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Funding Source: Grimme Institute / Federal Agency for Civic Education bpb

Principal Investigator: Christiane Eilders, Anna Soßdorf, Jonathan Seim (Department of Social Sciences/ Düsseldorf Institut for Internet and Democracy)

Duration: 12/2020 – 06/2021

Public broadcasting is more controversial than ever. However, in public, discussions about it are mostly conducted by the same experts and actors from politics and civil society. With the help of an online participation process, the aim is to find out: What needs to change, what should remain in television? The cooperative project #meinfernsehen2021 is dedicated to the future of public television. The focus is on the question of whether the mission of public broadcasting in a digitalized society is still up to date and to what extent it corresponds to the audience’s expectations of television.

In a multi-stage online participation process, citizens can discuss various questions on the topic and contribute their own ideas. The results of this participation process will finally be presented at a conference with the involvement of various media representatives and interested citizens. We would also like to prepare the central findings for scientific publications and conferences.

The objectives can be summarized as follows:

• Collecting positions and arguments
• Gaining suggestions for a renovation
• Stimulating reflection and discussion on the topic among participants
• Awareness through participation in the discourse
• Contribute findings into public debate and scientific discussion
• Scientific publications and conferences

The project is scheduled to run for seven months (12/2020 to 06/2021) and is being carried out in cooperation with the Grimme Institute and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).

Further Information

Funding Source: Federal Agency for Civic Education bpb

Principal Investigator: Stefan Marschall (Department of Social Sciences)

Duration: since 2005, ongoing

The Wahl-O-Mat is an online tool offered by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and has become a successful web project that helps to increase political participation and communication prior to elections on the European, the federal and the state level in Germany. Since its first implementation for the 2002 German Federal Elections, the Wahl-O-Mat has become one of the most popular and famous online tools in Germany. Its initial success spurred new versions for the Federal Elections, the European Elections and nearly all elections on the State level. The Wahl-O-Mat for the 2021 German Federal Elections was used about 21.3 million times. 

Right from the beginning, the Wahl-O-Mat has been object of scientific research. In almost all versions of Wahl-O-Mat, the users have been asked why they use the Wahl-O-Mat and what effect using this tool might have on them. Furthermore, demographic data (age, education, level, etc.) has been collected. On this website, we present the results of these surveys. Since 2014 there is a tool available for local elections called lokal-o-mat.

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