Bridging the gap

Büdinger Kreis e.V. (BK) is a nationwide independent, non-party, non-governmental and non-profit organisation on the education for democratic citizenship (EDC) and political communication. It was founded in 1995 and has since been working on bridging the gap both between politics and citizens and between the profession and the practice of political education in Germany.

Its work produced, evaluated and applied various methods leading to more public participation through political education or EDC. It is characterised by being built on the individual's lifeworld, sustainability, and process-orientation, i.e. a constant evaluation of its benefit and its impact.

BK's work has mainly two dimensions: educational practice and scientific practice. Both dimensions in BK's understanding are mutually interlocked. BK's projects may evolve in the educational sphere, being modelled taking into account the latest developments in the relevant disciplines such as educational and political science as well as sociology and psychology--then be scientifically evaluated and eventually published for the profession of political education or EDC. We call this the "Impuls-Nachbetreuungs-Streuungsverfahren" ("method of impulse - follow-up - distribution"), i.e. we set an impulse, e.g. an educational activity, after that we follow-up on the effects of this impulse, for example in terms of general political interest, before we finally spread our evaluated results into the profession of EDC.

Apart from its educational projects, such as "Demokratiewerkstätten" ("DEmocracy@work"), BK also offers consulting, e.g. for municipal administrations, political parties, and interest groups on the fields of EDC and public participation as well as political communication. One example for BK's consulting efforts is the model project "Jugend & Politik - Politik & Jugend" ("politics4youth4politics"), various German cities have implemented in cooperation with BK.

Please feel free to contact us anytime for further information.