Thinking and Acting at Dezentrum

When family or friends ask me "Gesa, what do you actually do for a living?", I'm often overwhelmed with a short answer. This is probably the case for many people, as most professions no longer have a classic title. When I say "I work at a think and do tank", I'm usually met with perplexed expressions - and the German translation "Denken- und Handeln-Behälter" (think and do tank) isn't the best either. I haven't yet found a short and concise explanation and each time I try to find a new way to describe what the Dezentrum is and what we do. Here is another one:

There are many think tanks, the term has now become established for organisations that deal with research and analysis of political, social or economic issues, often in order to make well-founded recommendations to decision-makers. The addition of "and Do" to "Think and Do Tank" is less familiar, but central to our (self-)understanding. In this blog entry, I would like to try to give you an understanding of our work behind the buzzwords "Think and Do", as we are also constantly discussing within the team what characterises our work and what the Think or Do part is, depending on the discipline or project.

But let's take a step back: what does "Think and Do Tank" stand for in general?

What does "Think and Do Tank" stand for?

As a true digital native, I couldn't resist asking ChatGPT. The answer:

"A Think and Do Tank is an organisation that combines research and idea generation with the practical implementation of projects to achieve tangible impact through innovative solutions and collaboration with various stakeholders."

You have to hand it to AI, it summarises our self-image well. The Dezentrum is a place where people from different areas and disciplines come together and think about possible new ideas, futures and approaches for society in connection with the digital transformation. In concrete projects, we try to make these as tangible as possible. We test ideas, experiment with scenarios and initiate and support change processes. Elements of our work include the following:

1. Research & Analysis: classically also known as scientific collaboration in projects.
   
   
2. Practical Implementation: experimenting with our ideas and taking action.
   
   
3. Innovative Solutions: These often result from the first two points.
   
   
4. Multidisciplinary approach: through the different expertise and backgrounds in our team, alliances with other organisations, and the use of different methods.
   
   
5. Impact-Orientated Work: the constant endeavour to ensure that our work does not remain in a vacuum, but has an impact.
   
   
6. Engagement & Collaboration: working with various relevant actors/stakeholders from all possible areas.
   
   
7. Knowledge transfer: through publications, audio walks, and other vehicles that enable our work to leave the "digitalisation bubble" and be understandable to a broad audience.

I think the seven points provide a good overview. But what is still missing are concrete examples. Because when I tell people about our projects, most of the people I talk to quickly realise that we are working in areas that also affect them. We put society at the centre, we deal with money and income, think about the futures of digital democracy, impart digital skills, the future of work and present climate data.

You have been able to find out about all these projects and many more on our website for some time now; they are the "do part" of our work. Until then, the "think part" was less well publicised. We have addressed this and have now created a new section: Publications.

Publications

Our publications in recent years offer well-founded commentaries, a basis for discussion, and solutions for current challenges. Be it a joint working paper on the construction site of democracy, a guest article in the Denknetz yearbook on the topic of New Work or a qualitative study on digital participation in the labour context. On the new page, you will find our thoughts on various topics beyond our practical implementation at a glance.

I hope that this will help you to understand our work a little better. I will come up with a new short form for the next family celebration. If I fail again, I can at least refer to this blog entry.

Finally, I may have to withdraw my criticism of the German translation "Denken- und Handeln-Behälter". Because when I look at the points above, I think it's a nice idea that we are a container in which a lot of thoughts are collected, which are then translated into action.

If you would like to check the container more often, you can subscribe to our newsletter here and become a member of the association here:

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Become a member