SONAR: Organising solidarity in the neighborhood and at the workplace

The research project examines trade unions and neighborhood organizing to confront everyday racism. The approach was developed as a strategy for the participation- and conflict-oriented activation of power resources in structured social groups. The organizing approach is challenged by right-wing resentment, which also affects these groups. 

Using methods of reconstructive social research (qualitative interviews, ethnography, and activist research), SONAR aims to reconstruct how parts of the organized workers and tenants interpret their precarious work and/or housing situation with recourse to everyday racism and right-wing populism. In turn, we hypothesize that the solidarity and collective effectiveness experienced in labor or tenancy struggles can weaken or dissolve right-wing thought and action.

Working world and neighborhood

The world of work and the neighborhood are two social fields in which central social debates about participation, democracy, and cohesion take place. These are scrutinized and examined in terms of their relationships. Having long been understood as different spheres of production and reproduction, their separation must now be scrutinized more than ever. 

In addition to this interest in social theory, the project aims to produce applicable results, such as educational materials for transferring experience between the two fields of practice. The planned research thus emphasizes the central socio-political role of trade unions and housing policy interest representation in strengthening democracy. 

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