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New minds at the NRW School of Governance: A breath of fresh air for politics!
The NRW School of Governance at the UNI Duisburg-Essen has a new management with a focus on research, teaching and social impulses.
New minds at the NRW School of Governance: A breath of fresh air for politics!
On March 21, 2025, the NRW School of Governance presented a new management that is characterized by a mixture of continuity and innovation. New to the board of directors are Prof. Dr. Andreas Blatte, Prof. Dr. Susanne Pickel and Dr. Kristina Weissenbach. You succeed Prof. Dr. Karl-Rudolf Korte, who remains associated with the school as Director Emeritus. With this new management structure, the school is intended to develop targeted answers to current social questions and advance the topics of research, teaching, transfer and innovation. This is reported by the University of Duisburg-Essen.
As part of the planned program, proven teaching offerings will be retained. These include practice-oriented formats in the master's degree program for political management and public administration, the established visiting professorship for political management and annual excursions to Berlin and Brussels. Innovative exchange formats are also being planned, such as policy brunches, discussion and further training formats, and democracy laboratories that deal with the topic of disinformation, for example.
Important impulses from research
Prof. Dr. Andreas Blätte, who now plays a central role in the new management of the NRW School of Governance, spoke in the current issue of “quer” by Bayerischer Rundfunk. It addresses a worrying trend, the increasing tolerance for violence against politicians. According to Blätte, opposition to violence in the political sphere fell from 87.8% to 72.8% between 2020 and 2023. This could have far-reaching consequences for democratic culture and the availability of qualified political actors. Blätte considers a reversal of this trend to be unlikely and suggests cross-party action as a countermeasure to combat the trend that endangers democracy. These insights come from an interview conducted by the NRW School of Governance was published.
Research on violence, which will also be the subject of work at the NRW School of Governance, is a multifaceted topic that engages social scientists across various disciplines. Violence is understood here as a social practice that is shaped by changing values and norms. The discussion covers both short-term violent events as well as long-term conflicts and structural violence. The Federal Agency for Civic Education highlights that violence does not only include direct physical attacks, but also refers to social inequalities that can be perceived as violent.
Future challenges
The newly appointed professors Leaves and pimples as well as Dr. Weissenbach not only bring their expertise on political challenges, but also on violent phenomena to the NRW School of Governance. In addition to developments in the culture of political discussion, the new management will also promote innovative approaches to transdisciplinary research. While the school continues its proven formats, the expansion of the support and cooperation network will be a further step in meeting the complex challenges of today.