Activities and Projects

Design and delivery of a workshop series commissioned by the Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg.

The Cities Ahead programme supports ambitious European cities in the cultural and creative sectors on their journey towards greater international visibility and cultural impact. Through a two-day academy, experts such as Charles Landry, Saskia Beer, Patrick S. Föhl and myself provide practice-oriented knowledge on key topics in international cultural urban development.

Commissioned by the Federal Association of Theatre in Schools (Bundesverband Theater in Schulen, BVTS) as part of the Schultheater der Länder (SDL) festival held in Bremen in September 2024.

A series of workshops, co-creation labs and participatory activities involving the staff of Theatre Lindenhof, Melchingen, as part of the three-year project »Reset, Respect and Collaboration«. Funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg.

• Sociological exploration of the Woltmershausen district in Bremen on behalf of the association Stadtkultur Bremen.
• Conception of the transformation strategy »The Neighbourhood as a Shared House« (Das Quartier als Wohngemeinschaft).

• 2022: Implementation of the »Architectural Culture« Program in the small villages of the Uckermark on behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of Infrastructure and Rural Planning.
• 2020 – 2021: Conception and implementation of a participatory process to formulate a »Vision 2050« for the city of Prenzlau.

• Consultant in the transformation process of the »Upper Middle Rhine Valley« region (Oberes Mittelrheintal) for the »TRAFO – Models for a changing culture«, program of the Federal Culture Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes).
• Study on the development of the region and on options for a different development. Interviews with 16 experts from the cultural sector.

• Since 2017: Impulses, presentations and essays in the area of ​​socio-cultural centers and initiatives. How can socioculture contribute to sustainable transformation?
• 2020: Researcher at the Institute of Cultural Policy of the University of Hildesheim. Co-head of the research project »Developing a culture of sustainability. Practices and perspectives of socio-cultural centers«.
• 2020 – 2021: Publication of an anthology on socioculture and sustainability, co-editor with Wolfgang Schneider and Kristina Gruber.

• 2017: The cultural scientist Hildegard Kurt and the philosopher Andreas Weber develop the idea of ​​an Earthfest, to be held every year on the summer solstice, as is the tradition in many indigenous tribes. Each municipality, organization or initiative will be able to celebrate its relationship with the Earth in its own place. The conception is oriented to the artist Joseph Beuys, EARTHFEST is understood as »social sculpture«. The initiative is funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz).
• 22.-24.06.2018: First Earthfest with 69 local actions.
• 21.-23.06.2019: Second Earthfest with 170 local actions.
• As a member of the organization team I am responsible for the sociological research on the initiative, the process and the actions as well as their effects on the awareness of nature. The study is drawn up in 2019, but not published.

• 2011: Idea and concept for a »Day of the Good Life« in Cologne as a catalyst for the city’s bottom-up, sustainable and progressive transformation. The notion of »Good Life« refers to debates on alternative development models, particularly the Latin American concept of »Buen Vivir« (Good Living). Each year, the Day takes place in a different district of the city. The district becomes a common space that, for one day, is collectively governed by its residents and users. Streets are entirely car-free, allowing neighbourhoods to use this extensive public space to create their own vision and programme of the good life. All activities in the common space must be non-commercial; only sharing and forms of gift economy are permitted. Each Day of the Good Life serves as the highlight of an annual campaign aimed at introducing a new transformative step for the city—whether environmental, economic, social or cultural—defined through democratic participation. The Day of the Good Life is intended to be supported and realised by a broad and diverse local movement created specifically for this purpose. Such a movement is needed to encourage political and administrative institutions to support the initiative within the framework of a »public-citizen-partnership«.
• 12.12.2011: The draft-concept is awarded with the »Dialogue Cologne Climate Change« (Dialog Kölner Klimawandel).
• 2012: Creation of the network »Agora Cologne« (Agora Köln) as the official organiser of the »Day of the Good Life: Cologne Sunday of Sustainability« (Tag des guten Lebens: Kölner Sonntag der Nachhaltigkeit). The movement brought together more than 130 organisations, initiatives, schools, theatres, businesses and other actors committed to transforming the city towards sustainability. In Cologne, the Ehrenfeld District Council unanimously approved its support for the Day of the Good Life in a neighbourhood of 22,000 inhabitants. Furthermore, the Council became a member of the Agora Cologne movement.
• 15.09.2013: The first Day of the Good Life takes place in the neighbourhood of Ehrenfeld in Cologne. 24 streets are car and commerce free. Public spaces are used by neighborhoods to realize and improve their own programs of good life. The theme of the general campaign is »sustainable mobility«.
• Since 2014: Almost every year the Day of the Good Life takes place in a quarter of Cologne: Ehrenfeld (2014), Sülz (2015), Deutz (2017), Agnes Viertel (2018), Ehrenfeld (2019), Mülheim (2021) … Two other District Councils (Lindenthal and Innenstadt) support the initiative.
• 2016 – 2017: Sociological evaluation of the experience and the »real laboratory«. Publication of essays and of the book »Urban Transformation. Towards a Good Life in the own city« (in German). Invitation to bring the impulse into other cities, for exemple Berlin and Dresden.
• 2017 – 2019: Exploration of some Berlin neighborhoods. Promotion and construction of neighborhood structures in the Brüsseler Kiez-quarter (district Berlin-Mitte). Creation, coordination and co-speaker for the movement »Good Living Berlin«, to which more than 50 organizations and three districts belong. Presentation of the idea to the State-region of Berlin, that at the end of 2019 approves a two-year support for a Day of the Good Life in three Berlin neighborhoods.
• 2018 – 2019: The North Rhine-Westphalia Research Institute on Social Development (Forschungsinstitut für gesellschaftliche Weiterentwicklung) commissions a research on neighborhood civic initiatives, which promote local self-government and sustainability. Qualitative empirical social research on six initiatives in Bonn, Cologne and Wuppertal, interviews with their founders. Publication of the study by the Munich publishing company with the title »Great transformation in the neighborhood. How lived democracy becomes sustainability«.
• 2019 – 2020: Series of workshops to bring the transformative knowledge and impulse of the Day of the Good Life to other German cities, including Hamburg, Dortmund, Erfurt, Kiel, Minden and Wuppertal. An initiative is formed in Wuppertal to realize the Day in 2020, in Dresden the initiative for the »Week of the Good Life« is born.
• 25.09. and 02.10.2020: The first Days of the Good Life take place in Berlin.
• 2020 – 2021: Sociological evaluation of the Berlin experience and »real laboratory« on commission of Berlin 21.

  • Essays on the »Day of the Good Life«

    • Urban Transformation- The Day of the Good Life as a catalyst for an urban change towards sustainability. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE), Volume-5/2018.

  • Websites of the initiatives for a Day/Week for the Good Life (in German):

    • Berlin
    • Cologne

• 08.15.2007: Mafia massacre in Duisburg. The reactions in the regional community of Italian immigrants are ambivalent.
• 15.11.2010: Round table »Germany, stronghold of the mafia?« at the AWO Intercultural Center in Cologne. Speakers: Petra Reski (journalist), Volker Beck (general manager of the Green fraction in the federal parliament), Rosella Benati (President of the Com.It.Es. of Cologne), Rüdiger Thust (vice-president of the Union of German investigators / Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter). Idea, organization and opening speech.
• 02.11.2011: Presentation of the book »Resistere a Mafiopoli« with Giovanni Impastato. Initiative with Aurora Rodonò.
• 2012: Creation of the initiative »Culture of legality«.
• 11.-13.10.2012: Program of events »Mafia in Germany«. Round table at the Cologne Police Headquarters with over 400 people. Speakers: Roberto Scarpinato (state prosecutor in Palermo), Dario Riccobono (Addio Pizzo), Egbert Bülles (ex-prosecutor of Cologne), Bianca Negri (»Mafia? No thanks«, Berlin).

• In 2010, the Ruhr area is the »European Capital of Culture«. One of the biggest projects in the program is »2-3 Streets« by the artist Jochen Gerz. For a year 78 creatives, artists … from all over the world can live for free in three streets in the suburbs of Duisburg, Mülheim and Dormund and relate to retrograde realities. They have no other obligation than to write a diary, as a subjective documentation of the process. The streets are both: the place and the subject of a year-long art exhibition. Here there is nothing else to see than social reality.
• For the Institute of Art History of the University of Düsseldorf I follow the project as a sociologist. Interviews with the new and old inhabitants of the streets. The results are summarized in a study with Marion Eisele. How is it possible to re-evaluate the urban peripheries with intangible interventions?
  • • Essay »“And in the end my street will not be the same.” The art project 2–3 Streets and its link to (un)sustainability, creative urban development and modernization«. Co-Autorinnen: Annette Grigoleit und Julia Hahn (Universität Lüneburg). In: City, Culture and Society, Vol. 4/Sep. 2013. Philadelphia (USA): Elsevier. S. 173-185.

• 2009 – 2018: Lecturer in sustainable design at the ecosign – Academy of Sustainable Design, Cologne.
• 2013: Conception, coordination and co-edition of the anthology in German language »History of sustainable design« (Geschichte des nachhaltigen Designs).
• 2010 – 2014: Member of the organization of the Sustainable Summer School, organized by Wuppertal Institut, Folkwang Hochschule, Aalto University and ecosign (among others).
• since 2020: Member of the jury of the sustainable design-section of the German Sustainability Award.

• »Subkulinaria« exhibition at the Deutz bridge over the Rhine. 14 artists from different countries present works (photography, painting, video, installations …) on food and agriculture between culture and nature, globalization and sustainability. In two weekends 2.000 people visited the event. My Tasks: concept, project coordination and press office. Official organizer: Institut Cultura21 e. V. Funding: City of Cologne.

• Photo exhibition »Fishing in the time«. Photographic works by Davide Dutto and Claus Dieter-Geissler. Design, concept and coordination of the project. Location of the exhibition: Gallery of the Italo Svevo Institute, Cologne. Official organizer: Institut Cultura21 e.V..

• Creation of the Cultura21 network in Düsseldorf, which brings together the experience of Kulturattac. The goal is the promotion of a cultural change towards sustainability. Cultura21 becomes international during the  international conference »Creativity, Support & Sustainability« 2007 in Lüneburg. President of the Institute Cultura21 e.V. until 2009, which formally supports the network.

• Creation and spokesperson of Kulturattac, the cultural network of Attac Germany. Around 350 artists, actors, musicians, writers, designers and other cultural practitioners joined the network in support of the global justice movement. Cooperation with the German Cultural Council (Deutscher Kulturrat) led to a joint campaign aimed at protecting culture and the arts from becoming mere commodities on liberalised markets, a prospect raised during the 2003 World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in Cancún.
• Coordination of the project »Peace Attack – Music for Peace«, an international artistic initiative bringing together 120 musical groups in opposition to the Iraq War. The project culminated in the release of two music compilations (punk and pop CDs), featuring contributions from artists including the Ramones, Die Toten Hosen and Jan Delay.
• June 2023: Conception and organisation of the »Festival of Cultures for Another World« at the socio-cultural centre ZAKK in Düsseldorf.

• 1985 – 1989: During the high school study, member of the Student Coordination of Rimini. In 1988 proposal for a programmatic socio-ecological change of the movement.
• 1989 – 1991: Active member of the student collectives of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Bologna. Support of the organization of the »Panther movement« for a revaluation of humanities and against the »Ruberti Reform« of the Italian government, aimed at economizing universities. Support for the Chinese student movement and the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

• Creation of the Villa Verucchio Ecological Group (Gruppo Ecologico Villa Verucchio, GEW), local branch of the environmental association Legambiente. Management of the Marecchia Park of the Municipality of Verucchio and establishment of a library on environmental topics. Editing and publication of the Oikos magazine. In 1986 participation at the international exchange between ARCI Rimini and Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) Heidelberg (D). Support of the campaign for the 1987 Anti-Nuclear Referendum and of the pacifist movement. Presidency of the association until 1989.