Social Divisions and Questions of Identity in Germany and the United States

Consequences for Politics and Society

An Exchange Outside of the Metropolitan Areas

A Three-Year AGI Project – Final Conference

In recent years, open communication and compromise have been neglected in many communities where individuals retreat to a space in which they feel most secure. The AGI program aimed to establish new connections within and between communities by bringing individuals together for an honest exchange of important societal issues.

The three-year project addressed divisions in both German and U.S. societies by focusing on a number of underlying factors including social, demographic, economic, geographic, and identity dynamics. It highlighted personal exchange and open communication in order to reconnect people and overcome the existing polarization and divide, both within communities and across borders. During each program year, participants visited one city in Germany and the United States for week-long personal meetings with local government and civil society stakeholders to learn about the cities’ efforts to develop cohesive communities. The selected German-U.S. sister cities were: Akron, OH, and Chemnitz, Saxony (year one); Buffalo, NY, and Dortmund, North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) (year two); Glendale, AZ, and Memmingen, Bavaria (year three).

During this conference, representatives from each program year will reflect on their experiences and lessons learned and share ideas and possible solutions that may find application in communities, large and small, across Germany and the United States.

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This project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).