Research at the Division Public Communication
Ongoing Working Groups
Working Group Social Resilience
Social resilience is a dynamic field of study that examines the ability of individuals, communities and societies to withstand and recover from various challenges and adversities, and to cope, adapt and transform social structures to better cope with future disturbances.
A particular form of 'threat' has emerged as climate change, pandemics, resource depletion, biodiversity loss or antibiotic resistance become chronic, overwhelming grand challenges for humanity: Threats that require some involvement of science in their definition and resolution, and that are highly contested among societal actors. Our group is dedicated to exploring resilience in such "socio-scientific dilemmas".
The working group, founded in 2022, consists of multidisciplinary researchers from 11 disciplines (communication science, computer science, economics, geography education, history, human geography, law, political science, psychology, sociology and theology) who offer their perspectives to conceptualise and investigate social resilience in socio-scientific dilemmas.
Current Research Projects
100 years of “resistance”? Continuity and change in right-wing populist and far-right communication (2024–2027)
Principal Investigators: Susanne Kinnebrock & Christian Schwarzenegger
Project Manager: Hanna-Sophie Ruess
Project Duration: 2024–2027
Funding: The Bavarian Research Association ForGeRex
De- and Restabilization of Evidence in the Corona Crisis (2021–2024)
Principal Investigators (Augsburg): Prof. Dr. Helena Bilandzic & Prof. Dr. Susanne Kinnebrock
Project Manager: Markus Schug
Project Duration: 2021–2024
Funding: Part of the DFG-Research Unit 2448 "Practicing Evidence - Evidencing Practice"
Effects of narrative evidence in science news coverage of genomic research (2020–2025)
Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Helena Bilandzic & Prof. Dr. Susanne Kinnebrock
Project Managers: Janine Blessing
Project Duration: 2020–2025
Funding: Part of the DFG-Research Unit “Practicing Evidence - Evidencing Practice in Science, Medicine Technology and Society“