Re-thinking Society

The BMW Stiftung Herbert Quandt aims to activate social responsibility and civic engagement. We seek to promote an entrepreneurial spirit in society to enable the active taking of responsibility. The BMW Foundation sees itself as a “transformer station,” which relays academic and scientific insights and practical experiences across sectoral and national boundaries into new contexts.

To identify new ways of thinking and acting, the Foundation cooperates with universities, innovative, dynamic think tanks, and pioneering nonprofit organizations. We want to identify and help implement new ideas, make best practice more publicly visible, and promote the creation of networks among innovative actors. To this end, we organize panel discussions and other high-visibility events, and integrate the various organizations into our Young Leaders and Senior Leaders networks.

Our central academic project is “The Poiesis Fellowship – Design, Power and the Unanticipated in Social Change.” Under the direction of Richard Sennett and Craig Calhoun, it is realized in cooperation with New York University and the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The aim is to take an interdisciplinary, creative approach to the topic of re-making the social world and to promote the sharing of research and analytical methodologies and approaches. Young researchers and practitioners are mentored by senior scholars from a variety of disciplines.

Other collaborative projects with universities are designed to help develop socially responsible entrepreneurs of the future. Specifically, this is done through supporting social business start-ups, courses in business planning, and networking events on the topic of “corporate responsibility.” A lecture series on “Social Innovation” provides information about best practice in this field.

Further projects are planned to support independent think tanks as well as innovative social organizations and their modes of operation.