The Berlin Center for Global Engagement (BCGE) of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) is supporting the two Signature Projects with 630,000 euros over a three-year period.

The international alliance project “Essential Workers, Essential Research. A global network of critical labour studies” is one of the projects being funded. Researchers from all over the world will examine the major changes witnessed in the working world in a historical context. Growing inequality, precarious working conditions, and informal employment arrangements have been further exacerbated by the pandemic and now more than ever have become a global problem. The network aims to shift the focus to local perspectives from countries such as Argentina, India, and South Africa, and incorporate these ideas into international research. The project leaders are Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Conrad from Freie Universität Berlin.

The second lighthouse project “co2libri – conceptual collaboration – living borderless research interaction” aims to make visible knowledge, theories, and research practices from the Global South in Berlin’s research landscape. Because the unfortunate reality is that researchers and intellectuals from marginalized regions or from ethnic or religious minorities are often left without a voice in academic discourse. The project participants – a global network of researchers, artists, and activists – want to explore knowledge and theoretical contributions from the Global South. Their goal is to make the way knowledge emerges and the criteria for recognizing knowledge more equal across the globe. Prof. Dr. Kai Kresse from Freie Universität Berlin and Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Leibniz Center for Research on Modern Orient) and Prof. Dr. phil. Claudia Derichs from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are leading the project, which is working closely with international partners in Nairobi, Beirut, Delhi, and Vienna, among others.