Project: Dignity in Place: Dignified Practices and Spaces for Migrant Communities
(© AdobeStock | Aerial sunset cityscape of Bochum city, Germany)
Research | Migration | Religious Studies

Dignity in Urban Spaces: CERES Participates in Research Project on Migration and Religious Diversity

How do people with a migration background and members of religious minorities experience dignity in everyday life? The Dutch-German research project “Dignity in Place: Dignified Practices and Spaces for Migrant Communities” examines experiences of dignity and indignity from the perspectives of religious studies and philosophy with a focus on urban situation. Dr. Martin Radermacher from CERES is participating as a co-applicant in the project, which is based at the University of Rotterdam.

The five-year project (2026 through 2031) is being conducted at the University of Rotterdam under the direction of Prof. Dr. Katharina Bauer. The project director secured funding for the project at the University of Rotterdam (NWO); CERES is participating as a project partner. The project emerged from a UNIC initiative.

The project examines experiences of dignity and indignity from the perspectives of religious studies and philosophy. It focuses on people who, due to migration or their membership in religious minorities, face exclusion, discrimination, or other forms of disrespect. It investigates degrading experiences as well as dignified practices within migrant communities and explores the significance of places and spaces for the experience of dignity.

The research project supplements traditional philosophical debates on human dignity with a perspective that has received little attention to date: the concrete experiences of people in the context of migration. It examines the significance of spaces in culturally and religiously diverse cities for the experience of dignity.

“The relationship between ‘dignity’—understood as a value shared by nearly all human beings worldwide—and ‘space’ has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. It becomes particularly relevant in the context of religious and cultural diversity in post-industrial urban settings.”
– Dr. Martin Radermacher

The project is an independent research initiative and at the same time embedded in the CERES research area “Religious Diversity in Present Times.”

In addition to academic workshops and publications, the project is explicitly aimed at stakeholders from the political and social spheres. Collaborations are planned with the cities of Bochum and Rotterdam, as well as with religious and immigrant communities in both cities.