At the Maecenata Institute’s Research Collegium students from all disciplines and schools across the German-speaking realm who are writing their academic work or dissertations about civil society themes in the broadest sense have the opportunity to come together with experts on civil society research, to network and to support each other. The development association ‘Civil Society Research’ (Zivilgesellschaftsforschung e.V. ) support the Collegium’s work and publishes the research in its newsletter, to provide an insight into the topics examined during the Collegium.
The Research Collogium is a project of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society. Since it was founded in 2001, it has contacted reeearchers from all disciplines who are writing their thesis on themes related to civil society. It offers them a place for exchange and reflection, for conversations about academic questions and privileged access to information. A further goal is for members of the Collegium to exchange ideas outside of the meetings and to support each other in the different stages of their research.
This thereby encourages the development of a research network, optimises the quality of the work and there is strengthens participants’ trust in the relevance of their own topics. Consequently, the Collegium supports the next generation for science like civil society.
The Collegium does not view itself as a replacement for, but rather as an addition to university supervision. This addition appears to be necessary, because there are few established scientists in Germany in the field of civil society research who can provide competent support to new researchers.
‚Motivation and Management of Voluntary Civic Engagement,’ ‚Foundations’, ‚Corporate Citizenship’ as well as ‚Empiricism and Theory of Civil Society’. Law, political science, communication science, business administration, sociology und theology are among the represented disciplines. Almost 100 students have already passed through the Collegium and submitted their theses. In 2014,>> Opusculum Nr.76 (PDF) marked the Collegium’s 15-year anniversary, conveying an insight into the variety of themes tackled by the Collegium. The current >> Info-Flyer (PDF) and the >> Membership Form are available online.
Members meet four times a year (on a Friday) in Berlin, to present their research progress and to discuss their ideas. Outside of the meeting, they are also obliged to support each other’s work, to feed back on their work at least once during their membership in the Institute, to present their completed work to the Collegium and to provide the Maecenata Institute will a free copy of the finished work.