Participation in organizational cultures of residential care

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Claudia Equit
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 419403819

Processes of participation and complaints as well as of protective functions of participation and complaint procedures in organizational cultures of residential care are the main subject of the projected proposal. The relevance of participation for residential care is consensus within the scientific community. The implementation of formal participation and complaint procedures is intended to ensure the participatory rights of young people, to promote educational processes and to safeguard against institutional violence. The manifold requirements and attributions are in stark contrast to the paucity of research results regarding the effects and functions of formal participation and complaint procedures, and to previous studies on participation processes emphasizing the barriers and constraints of participation. The planned project aims to generate an organization-specific typology by means of the reconstructed organizational cultures. The data obtained by the pilot project will also be incorporated into the planned venture. Key insights of the pilot project lead to the thesis that generational and hegemonial orders rooted in educational practices tend to exacerbate participation, complaint and safeguarding processes, although participation is recognized as a professional guiding principle. This thesis will be examined in the projected request. In Germany’s old and new Federated States, 22 institutions will be researched with the aid of group discussions and expert interviews and analyzed by means of the documentary method. Tradition-steeped residential institutions are analyzed, as are young, innovative projects and integrated, flexible institutions. The high variance in the field of residential care should be systematically acquired for the subject–matter. Utilizing criteria-led sampling and graduated evaluation procedures should serve to ensure theoretically sound findings from a calculable amount of work. The planned study offers fundamental insights into the theoretical conception and the empirical course of complaint processes as well as the reciprocity of participation and complaint processes in institutions. Implicit and explicit generational and hegemonial orders have not yet been researched in the context of residential care. Coupled with the findings on the participation of young people with refugee status or an immigrant background, the project’s results are compatible with international research. In addition, the proposed study provides insights into the functions and effects of formal participation and complaint procedures, which have already been implemented but have only been researched to a limited extent.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants