All Things Urban

THE NEW INSTITUTE is a mission-driven Institute of Advanced Study and a platform for change.

At THE NEW INSTITUTE, we strive to develop powerful visions to fundamentally reshape society and practical solutions to turn those visions into a reality.

We will work in strategic partnerships with a variety of institutional and individual stakeholders – changemakers who share a common set of values and objectives. We will bring together a community of globally concerned thinkers and practitioners from academia, the arts, activism, media, business, and politics. Care, courage, creativity and commitment are our core values that guide our vision and mission.

Our home is the Warburg Ensemble, a group of nine classical townhouses, located in central Hamburg. It is a place that fosters imagination and provides a unique set of conditions that allow for the rethinking of conventional approaches and commonly held beliefs. To drive our message of change, we reach out to the wider public through events and a strong media presence.

Opening in 2022, the Warburg Ensemble will host up to 35 fellows. It will serve as a campus for a diverse community of innovative researchers and agents of change from around the globe to inspire and take action.

For more than a decade, the future of democracy – and with it the role of the state – has been severely put into question, its crisis often claimed. In many countries, distrust in public institutions and elites are on the rise; among other things, this has resulted in the increasing support and electoral success of populist, nationalist, and authoritarian leaders, which demonstrates the level of alienation from basic democratic values, procedures, and institutions evident amongst the public. Against this backdrop, the legitimation and effectiveness of traditional parliamentary democracies and their institutions have come into question. But is democracy really too slow to respond to a state of crisis, too much built on consensus mechanisms, and too dependent on dominant media or pressure groups?

With this call, THE NEW INSTITUTE attends to both the current state of affairs and the future of democracy. We want to explore further how democracy can be reconfigured for the long term. Over the last centuries, democracy has been reinvented many times and taken different forms; it may now once again be time for a fundamental transformation to make democratic decision-making processes and the respective institutions fit for the future – more responsive to contexts, more equitable, and more sustainable. How can we strengthen democratic communities, encourage participation, and modernize democratic institutions? What structuring conditions must we consider when thinking about the democratization of existing political structures and configurations so that they are compatible with a commitment to equity and environmental protection? How can we envisage the future development of public participation, the form and legitimation of political institutions, and the efficacy of public action? What kind of social imaginaries could we develop for this domain?

To support our work in these areas, we ask groups of up to four persons from academia and beyond, for example, practitioners from political institutions, social movement activists or journalists and artists, to apply for joint fellowships for a collaborative project related to one of them. Groups may be formed across various backgrounds but must not necessarily. Groups with an existing project committed to the transferal to THE NEW INSTITUTE may also apply, just as newly formed groups with a joint project proposal. During their fellowships, groups will also have the possibility to propose to invite collaborators crucial for the success of their project. Group fellowships will be granted for one year, which may be renewed for one additional year, depending on the project and progress made. The starting date for these fellowships is in the fall of 2022.

In this programme, we are looking for groups who identify with the Institute’s overall mission and aspiration to contribute to social, economic and ecological transformation from the angle of democratic innovation and action. All group members should exhibit an intrinsic motivation to commit themselves to the TNI with their project. Group projects should reflect a systematic understanding of the TNI’s areas of concern and their connection to each other while being clearly located within one of the three thematic areas of the programme. They should exhibit a comprehensive and visionary approach, with the potential to delineate pathways for practical solutions. All involved should also have the ability to bring transformative ideas to TNI’s work beyond their project. They are expected to establish collaborations with other fellows and the broader community at the Institute and beyond. Therefore, good knowledge of English is essential. Moreover, fellow groups will be resident at THE NEW INSTITUTE in Hamburg. They are expected to be physically present for the full term of their fellowship.

Each group member should submit an application that must contain the following:

• Joint summary of your group project (up to 300 characters, including spaces);
• Individual motivational cover letter (addressing what you can bring to and expect of a fellowship at THE NEW INSTITUTE; up to 5.000 characters, including spaces);
• CV (and, if applicable, publication list; max. of 8 pages; min. font size 11pt);
• Individual overview of most important pieces of work;
• Joint project description responding to one of the three thematic areas of the programme, clearly indicating which one (1), 2) or (3); up to 20,000 characters, including spaces; this could also include visual material);
• Joint work plan and timeline for the project (and, if applicable, potential guest collaborators);
• Clear indication of the other group members.
  All documents must be submitted in English in a single PDF file. Incomplete applications or applications not responding to the programme areas listed above will not be accepted.

We’re not fully sure whether this role is open to international candidates. If you would need visa sponsorship or work authorisation, we recommend checking directly with the employer before applying.