A Brief Description

The interdisciplinary research project “Cultures of Compromise” explores the socio-economic, politico-legal and cultural preconditions of compromise across epochs and cultures. Thus, the project addresses a major research gap, as there has been hardly any systematic research on the factors which enable or promote compromise.

More than 30 researchers from different disciplines at the universities of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Münster (WWU) and Bochum (RUB) have combined their expertise to examine the preconditions of compromise not only in the contemporary societies of Western democracies, but also in societies of past eras and other cultural contexts, with Japan and Israel as the cases of comparison.

By generating insight into the variance of compromise practices and their preconditions, the project creates important knowledge for reflection and action for contemporary societies, in which increasing polarisation and decreasing willingness to compromise are currently eroding possibilities to settle conflicts through compromise. Therefore, the transfer of knowledge is of great importance, which the network shapes in particular with innovative formats of (further) teacher training as well as citizen science and participatory approaches.