KonsumGlobalRostockInitiative (KonGloRI)

The initiative emerged 2009 due to local needs for action and continues its work until the present day.

Our motivation:

• Driven by a strong commitment and concern, our members want to raise a critical awareness on globalization and consume.
• Driven by a strong commitment and concern, our members want to act in a consume- and globalization-critical way and thus raise a critical awareness. Therefore, we organize regularly consume-critical city walks in Rostock.
• We acquired our basic knowledge by trainings and consolidate and extend this knowledge regularly. Due to varying demands we added new stations and adjusted the tour to the needs of specific target groups.
• We believe that everyone bears the responsibility for a shared and sustainable future that is worth living in which economy, ecology and politics are balanced.
• Furthermore, we want to encourage people to actively participate in social and political contexts and to find individuals ways to remind companies of their ethical responsibility and take them up on their promise to build a better world as they have an everyday impact on regions, countries and the whole earth.
• This is in particular a matter for politics. Real participatory mechanisms must be created enabling people to actively take part in shaping their local environment, which should result in a real “think global act local” approach.

During the walk the participants should be sensitized to the following issues:

• Function and effect of advertisement and its impact on our purchase behavior
• Advantages and disadvantages of consumer goods both for producers and for consumers
• Living, working and production conditions in various countries of production and the climatic, economic and ecological consequences of the production process
• Local and practical alternatives to conventionally produced consumer products
• Global effects of our local consumption, as well as for the effects of globalization as a complex process
• We want to encourage the participants to actively contribute to the tour and to take small first steps towards participation in social change processes

We set ourselves the target to act according to antiracist and antisexist principles and to put these values into practice. As the fundamental basis of our activities, we want to transfer these values. Therefore, we try to use non-discriminatory language in our classes and to use an argumentation based on human rights.

The Initiative Rostock Postcolonial

Who we are? A network of people affiliated to the development policy education project of Soziale Bildung e.V. We are a diverse group that aims to be an advocate for a critical attitude towards colonial past and present in in the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with focus on the university city Rostock. Since 2017 we researched and reconstructed contents related to postcolonialism. Furthermore, we offer city tours focusing on the contents we are dealing with.

Our motivation

• We want to be a part of an educational movement leading a public discourse, especially in schools, on an important period of German history.
• We think that colonialism shouldn’t be just a peripheral topic. The debate on this topic is often lacking an actual reference.
• Who is benefiting from continued colonial exploitation in many regions of the world nowadays? What kind of responsibility do we have?
• Reflecting upon the topic from a ‚critical whiteness‘ perspective and from a People of Color perspective are both very enlightening

Our objectives

• The initiative wants to arouse your interest in educational work with regional context. We want to focus on the roots of racism and activate the human sense of justice.
• The main objective of our initiative is to make the topic of colonialism as attractive as possible for actual communication practices. To achieve this, we are designing and developing an application for a city tour through Rostock.
• We want to come closer to a utopia of a less discriminatory and more diverse society and to start a dialogue in public areas. The realization of this utopia, in a more or less cohesive group, requires networking with already existing initiatives worldwide.

What we do

• We are searching for traces of the colonial rule of Germany, for traces of the impact of a colonial rule of Rostock and through that we try to deal with a part of history and commemorate it at the same time
• Evidence of the colonial background of places, memorials or institutions isn’t always visible. We want to build an awareness of the integration and linkage of colonial history and our present today. For example: How took racism effect on colonial thinking and how does it today?/How did and does racism as a part of colonial thinking continue to have an impact?

Escaperoom “Escape Today – Save Tomorrow”

Since 2018 we work on a new educational concept focusing on climate change. By establishing a new educational format – an escaperoom – we want to create an experience-oriented room which allows/enables new ways of learning. Currently, the concept is still being tested by selected test groups and developed further. 

You can find out more here.

North German Foundation for Environment and Development (NUE): Special Award for the Development Policy Education Project

Congratulations! The NUE (Nordeutsche Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung) has turned 20 years old.

Along with other players of the developmental policy and environmental education we have been invited to Schloss Wiligrad to celebrate our longstanding cooperation and project work.

Various initiatives and associations received award for their work. Including us: The developmental education project by Soziale Bildung e.V. was honored with the special award for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

We are pleased with this appreciation and thank all people that helped and continue to help to develop this project with its project days, city walks and the new escaperoom by sharing their perspectives, requiring their energies and investing their time!

The developmental policy education project in 2020:

Since the lockdown in march no events of the developmental policy education project (in brick and mortar settings) took place. In cooperation with the initiative KonsumGlobalRostock a new digital concept was evolved during this time: a consumption critical walk through the apartment. This can be booked as of now.

We’re looking forward to sharing, working, debating in groups soon also in brick and mortar settings under the (statutory) & more necessary terms of hygiene soon instead of in front of a digital device.

As usual you can contact us via email for booking and questions. Until then we wish you much healthiness and inspiring online-seminare!

Besides the educational concepts in cooperation with schools we will again participate in 2020 in various events within Rostock (and MV). Planned up to now:

• 03.03.2020 “Außer Rand und Bündchen” – a workshop in cooperation with the diversity management of the University of Rostock
• online-seminars
• Fall 2020 Day of action against climate change in Rostock (Klimaaktionstag Rostock)
• November 2020 Weltwechseltage (“World Changing Days“)
• ….