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Transformational Competence for Democratic Coalitions

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Landecker Democracy Fellow Jeannette Gusko is a system change leader, a social justice and gender equality advocate and a civil society champion.

This project focuses on fostering transformational competence for democratic coalitions. Transformational competence is embodied by people who experienced double socialization. Double socialization is when people know and navigate two systems in their lives, e.g. the Generation “Fall of the Wall / Wendekinder”, migrants, or first-generation students. They possess all basic requirements for resilience and multi-perspective leadership through lived experiences. The issue is that these people often lack space for reflection, resonance, access to power and influence, and social, economic, and cultural capital. These are structural barriers that often prevent their rise to leadership positions and access to political decision-makers. The societal potential that transformational competence offers needs to be unlocked in order for society to solve social inequality and implement inclusive policies. This would help tackle issues in a post-COVID19 society related to race, gender, and class inclusiveness, vast threats to democracy, and the climate crisis.

Double socialization is when people know and navigate two systems in their lives, e.g. the Generation “Fall of the Wall / Wendekinder”, migrants, or first-generation students.

There are four initiatives to implement the project goals:

The issue is that these people often lack space for reflection, resonance, access to power and influence, and social, economic, and cultural capital. These are structural barriers that often prevent their rise to leadership positions and access to political decision-makers.

  1. The Generational Summit: The Netzwerk 3te Generation Ost is facilitating an intimate COVID-19 generational gathering of 30 participants to foster and train transformational competence.
  2. Explorative interviews: We will conduct a field study of 10 explorative interviews with Eastern German people of color and two focus groups. Jeannette, along with other colleagues, will gather and analyze Eastern-German experiences and counter-strategies for racism.
  3. Scenario analysis workshop: The project will involve co-hosting a workshop with social impact leaders to create positive visions and clear action steps for the near (1 year) and far future (10 years). The results of the workshop will be prominently and widely shared with allies, political decision-makers, and the interested public.
  4. Election Agenda: Jeannette seeks to condense the insights from the partnerships with other social movements and grassroots organizations such as the climate movement, feminist organizations, migrant organizations, and other social justice pressure groups to formulate a future agenda. This includes advocacy and campaigning work as well as candidate outreach and behind-the-scenes discussions. 

These first three initiatives will build the alliances and political content to address political candidates from the democratic spectrum with concise political demands for the German Federal Elections in the autumn of 2021.

Progresso Maschine’s website

For more information about the project, discover the Project’s official website here.