Felix Maas

Subsequent Activity:

Felix Maas starts working as a Mobile Educational Counsellor for refugees at DQG / Jobassistenz FK in 2018.

Policy between innovation and doability

Street-level experiments in the field of educational and labor market integration of refugees in Berlin

In his doctoral project, Felix Maas examines the case of the educational and labor market integration of refugees in Berlin and how new political approaches are experimented with on the street level in the context of change and uncertainty. A starting point is the observation that in political areas that are particularly characterized by change and uncertainty, local and decentralized experiments are increasingly being promoted with the aim of producing political innovations directly in their application context. This form of polycentric, experimental or tentative policy production is often ascribed flexibility, context sensitivity and innovation-promoting properties (due to the proximity to the application context, the competition between local experiments, and the reflexive and iterative approach), but the complex practice of experimentation on the street level is largely unexplored. Using approaches from the fields of Interpretative Policy Analysis (IPA) and Science and Technology Studies (STS), Felix Maas' PhD project examines how experiments are conducted on the street level and what role the situatedness of experiments plays in the development of new policy approaches. Specifically, he is interested in how problems and target groups are selected and defined in the course of the experiments, what is seen and selected as possible solutions, and how they are evaluated, interpreted and learned in the course of the experimental processes. Finally, the doctoral project aims to also stress the political dimension of the experiments at the street level and thus the questions of power and legitimation of this newer form of political production.

CV:

Publications:

Maas, Felix/ Münch, Sybille/ Schader, Miriam/ Schammann, Hannes (forthcoming): The politics of uncertainty: producing, reinforcing and mediating (legal) uncertainty in local refugee reception. Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Refugee Studies.

Maas, Felix/Rigamonti, Nora (2018, forthcoming): Zur reflexiven Hervorbringung von Innovationen in einem raumbezogenen Modus. Überlegungen am Beispiel des transdisziplinären Projekts Die Gärtnerei in Berlin. In: Hergesell, Jannis/Maibaum, Arne/Minnetian, Clelia/Sept, Ariane (ed.): Innovationsphänomene. Modi und Effekte der Innovationsgesellschaft. Wiesbaden.

Maas, Felix (2017, forthcoming): Kooperative Koordinationsformen im Bereich der Arbeitsmarktintegration von Geflüchteten in Berlin. In: Franzke, Jochen/Koszel, Bogdan/Sakson, Andrzej (ed.): Migrationspolitik in Deutschland und Polen. Herausforderungen und Lösungsansätze in der europäischen Flüchtlingskrise. Potsdam.

Talks:

06/2017: „Innovation – a Social Imperative in the Political Sphere?”, talk with Clelia Minnetian, Summerschool „Perspectives on Innovation Society” DFG Graduiertenkolleg “Innovationsgesellschaft heute“, TU Berlin.

10/2016: „Kooperative Koordinationsformen im Bereich der Arbeitsmarktintegration von Geflüchteten in Berlin“, talk, workshop „Migrationspolitik in der europäischen Flüchtlingskrise. Herausforderungen, Probleme und Lösungsansätze im deutsch-polnischen Vergleich“, University of Potsdam.

10/2016: „Kooperative Koordination in Zeiten der Krise? Policy- und Organisationswandel im Bereich der lokalen Arbeitsmarktintegration von Geflüchteten in Berlin“, talk, conference „65 Jahre Genfer Flüchtlingskonvention. Konferenz des Netzwerks Flüchtlingsforschung“, IMIS University of Osnabrück.

10/2015: „Der Umgang von Berliner Flüchtlingsprojekten mit den gesellschaftlichen Erwartungen an das 'good citizen-subject'“, talk, conference „Staatsbürgerschaft im Spannungsfeld von Inklusion und Exklusion. Deutschland im Vergleich zu anderen europäischen und nordamerikanischen Einwanderungsgesellschaften“, University of Siegen.

Prizes:

Förderpreis des Augsburger Wissenschaftspreises für interkulturelle Studien 2015