Research
Dissens carries out research in the field of 'equality', 'gender democracy', 'the future of work' and 'violence, conflict and human rights'.
Research results are disseminated and put into practice in gender training, further education, seminars, lectures and publications. The knowledge gained from this research also has an influence on advisory projects for implementing gender-mainstreaming concepts in public administration.
Members of Dissens teach at all three Berlin universities and at various colleges.
Close cooperation exists between Dissens and various German and international institutions, such as the Technical University Berlin (TU), the Advice Centre for Men in Graz, the Work Research Institute Oslo (WRI) and the Peace Institute Ljubljana.
Members of Dissens are active participants in work groups on the role of men in gender relations, such as the Forum Männer in Theorie und Praxis der Geschlechterverhältnisse, Arbeitskreis kritische Männerforschung (German Men's Studies Task Group) and the International Association for the Studies on Men (IASOM).
Gender Relations in Social Organisations
Study on the Role of Men in Gender Equality 2010-2012
On behalf of the European Commission, DG Justice, Unit Gender Equality, Dissens is research coordinator in the Study on the Role of Men in Gender Equality.
The aim of this study is to provide better knowledge of the roles, opinions and approaches of men towards the gender equality issue in the 27 EU Member States and the EFTA countries. This knowledge should enable policy makers to better establish and implement gender equality policies taking into account the contribution of men in order to make these policies more efficient in achieving the final objective of gender equality.
Gender Loops
The project Gender Loops aims to implement Gender Mainstreaming strategies in vocational training institutions for educators (schools, colleges and universities), further qualification institutions for educators and early childhood education institutions.
From the 1st of October 2006 to the 30th of September 2008 partners from Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Spain and Turkey develop on the one hand a Curriculum for the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in vocational training institutions for educators.
The Curriculum deals, among other things, with legal and political requirements, theoretical fundamentals, differences and similarities regarding the realisation and the understanding of Gender Mainstreaming in the area of early childhood education, as well as with learning targets.
The first results of the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative survey on the carrying out of gender-related courses in the vocational training of educators are now available.
FOCUS - Fostering Caring Masculinities
The FOCUS project aims to examine and improve men's opportunities for balancing work and private/family life in order to encourage the preparedness of men to take over caring tasks.
To reach this goal the project will focus on companies' framework conditions to perceive and include men as actors and target groups in equality policies.
This project involves partners from five countries: Germany, Iceland, Slovenia, Spain and Norway.
The project runs from November 2005 to January 2007, with the support of the European Community: Programme relating to the Community framework strategy on gender equality.
Conference: Fostering Caring Masculinities (FOCUS)
The conference Fostering Caring Masculinities (FOCUS) took place at the University of Girona (Spain) from 20 to 22 October 2006. Keynote speaker was Victor J. Seidler (London). The ongoing project FOCUS aims to examine and improve men's opportunities for balancing work and private/family life in order to encourage the preparedness of men to take over caring tasks.
Together with our colleagues from Iceland, Slovenia, Norway and Spain, Dissens researchers presented the national and comparative results of the project and discussed future guidelines for fostering caring masculinities. Also, Stefan Beier (genderWerk) and Marc Gärtner (Dissens) carried out a workshop on "Training Men on Work-life Balance", which was received very well.
CAHRV
The EU project Co-ordination Action on Human Rights Violations (CAHRV) was launched in 2004.
CAHRV is the result of a cooperation between research institution, political networks and individual researchers. It deals with human rights violations in the context of inter-personal relationships. The main aims of this project are:
- to promote an exchange between and integration of parallel research strands,
- to foster new interdisciplinary and transnational research projects,
- to support implementation in politics and science through dissemination of research results.
Work Changes Gender
From 2001 to 2003 Dissens was involved in the EU research project (5.FP) "Work Changes Gender" as a coordinator. The three year project was concerned, in a european comparison, with the actual changes in working conditions for men, its correlation to changes in how men see themselves, and the possibilities for increasing gender equality.
The research results were published in:
Ralf Puchert, Marc Gärtner Stephan Höyng (eds.): Work Changes Gender: Men and Equality in the Transition of Labour Forms, Publisher: Barbara Budrich. Leverkusen-Opladen, 2005.
Violence against men
In September 2003, in co-operation with two partners, Dissens began work on a national research project about violence against men, a pilot project which aimed to provide a broad study on a national level. This project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Family, Elders, Women and Youth.
This project was concerned with a rarely studied issue and delivered fresh insights and approaches. Statistics about men's experience of violence in domestic and external settings were collated for the first time. Due to the small size of the sample surveys it is impossible to draw generalized conclusions, but the study provided first insights into the extent to which men are effected by violence.
Equality in the work place
A project in collaboration with the Technical University and the Free University of Berlin that ran from 1993 to 1995. The subject of this project was "Equality in the work place - How men react to measures promoting women".
The research results were published in German in:
Ralf Puchert, Stephan Höyng: Die Verhinderung der beruflichen Gleichstellung. Männliche Verhaltensweisen und männerbündische Kultur. Bielefeld, 1998.