Explorer Project Experienced solidarity

Summary

To meet current societal challenges, sustainable social integration is necessary and should be the focus of political and social practice. Against the backdrop of demographic change, questions of care for the elderly are particularly pressing. Family caregivers in particular are increasingly burdened and often suffer from social disintegration. A much-discussed concept for creating social integration based on social values and solidarity-based practices is the concept of “caring communities.” Although this concept is theoretically sound and established in the literature, it is rarely implemented in practice in a way that sustainably addresses the needs of all stakeholders. In addition, the impact on people at risk of social disintegration remains partly unclear. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge about the conditions under which people are willing to engage in these structures.

Against this background, the project aims to investigate lived solidarity with a central focus on caring communities and to gain essential insights into

1. under which conditions caring communities can successfully promote sustainable social integration,
2. which motives for individual social engagement are a key factor for the establishment and maintenance of caring communities, and
3. which added value specific forms of social engagement within caring communities, such as pastoral and psychosocial support, have for the self-regulation of caring relatives.

We study caring communities from an individual and systemic perspective to understand the conditions, mechanisms, and dynamics of group and self-regulation related to social integration, engagement, and participation within these communities. To this end, the project is divided into two sub-projects using qualitative (individual and group interviews on Caring Communities in the church space) and quantitative approaches (analysis of volunteer engagement). The first group interviews have already been conducted and promise exciting insights. In addition, the quantitative population survey (planned for fall 2022) is being prepared.