We are particularly happy to announce that the Competence Center for Social Intervention Research (KomSI) at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences is the local partner and co-organiser of the 9th EMES International Research Conference. Among other scientific conferences, KomSI organized an EMES/EmpowerSE COST Workshop on Social Enterprises in Social and Heath Services in 2019.
KomSI is a research centre formed by an interdisciplinary team of professors from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (FRA-UAS) Department of Social Work and Health working in close cooperation with external researchers. As a young research centre, they are increasingly being recognized in Germany and busy building an international network on social intervention research. Several of the eighteen members actively engage in research projects with international dimensions and networks. Topics cover i.a. migration, translocation and localisation, SE and cooperatives in international comparison, addressing violent radicalisation, participation of youth in Europe and many others.
According to Dr Nicole Göler von Ravensburg, Conference co-chair and one of three coordinators of this research centre:
KomSI stands for methodological and theoretical research advances in social work and their transfer into practice. Many of our research topics and approaches centre around ways to combat vulnerability, precarity and exclusion. We develop qualitative and quantitative designs to better understand the interactions between professionals and clients, inside professional and voluntary organisations and between organisations and funders, policymakers and officials. It is our constant aim to advance applied social intervention research on these three levels and to transfer lessons learned into education, practice and policy-making. Yet, we are deeply convinced that in today’s mobile and fast-changing world, effective social work, welfare delivery and social innovation depend on international perspectives and discourse. Thus we are thrilled to host the 9th EMES conference.
We trust that our applied research approaches will contribute to the discourse in EMES especially in its endeavours to assess the various effects social enterprise and cooperative activities can and do have on the common good, on clients, customers and all other stakeholders. The well-developed German welfare system, social work education as well as high levels of civic engagement will offer visiting scholars valuable insights into the dos and don’t’s of policy-making, training, education and governance for and in the social economy.
In addition, Helen Schneider will co-chair this year’s Conference and is “looking forward to an opportunity for a successful exchange between science and practice to overcome current challenges that our societies are facing”.
Helen studied social work and obtained her PhD in nursing science. She is a professor of social economics at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Germany). She teaches, publishes and researches in the fields of financing and organizing social work, planning and controlling social organizations, community work, senior economy and the resilient design of large housing estates.
Nadine Woitzik, a current PhD student from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences will be contributing to the local team and organisation of the 9th EMES International Research Conference.
Nadine finished her M.A. Research in Social Work. She is currently at the beginning of her PhD. She works at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences as a tutor in the research workshop for qualitative reconstructive research and as a junior lecturer.
The Conference on the theme Act locally, change globally: Social enterprises and cooperatives for more resilient economies and societies at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences will take place from 11th to 14th September 2023 in the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. This 9th edition aims to be a meeting place for scholars involved in social enterprise, cooperative, and social innovation research across the globe.