Date 1987
Topics: Foundation, funding, path dependency
Understand: This is one of the earliest CTPs, and lie almost 30 years back, and are thus lighter on details than more recent CTPs both because the initiative was much smaller in the early stages and due to memory. The first event, the founding, was also before the interviewee joined the initiative.
This CTP describes the first paid staff at Wissenschaftsladen Bonn, Science Shop Bonn in English, henceforth called WILA Bonn.
WILA Bonn was founded in 1984 by 7 students and were being run by volunteers until 1987. The typical way of science shop work started with the Dutch idea. They wanted to be the civil society contact point, have researchers working on ideas, people coming from Bonn university saying “I am an expert in this field, if you have a question I am happy to answer it”. However, they did not really succeed:
We partly answered it ourselves. We had this contact point, this letterbox, and we met once a week to discuss open questions, maybe one question a week, sometimes more. See how it could be embedded into the university activities, we did not succeed in this, first worked with students; we had to be contacted there during lunch hours.
The interviewee were first hired as paid staff in 1988 as a substitute for a person who became pregnant and left the job. The change to a more professional organisation with paid staff, started from a meeting where the group decided to become more proactive:
In one meeting the idea came of being proactive instead of just reacting, one of the colleagues was aware of a funding program for unemployed academics
This implied that they would seek funding and be more proactive, instead of responding to requests and problems as they popped up, which was the usual way for a science shop to operate:
The idea was to become active and being aware of funding programs for academics, we had to write a proposal. There was this kind of funding program, there were questions asked from the environmental sector. It was a special concern, and reacted to the fact that there was a huge lack of knowledge, of people, who could handle these questions, that was the situation when we started. We were not really sure of the quality of the training, this was the start, it was a societal concern. After this we decided to do the training ourselves, it was a turning point. So we paid people, we entered into a field of research, and developed our own training courses.
This funding was in a partnership with the unemployment centre in Bonn, providing training for unemployed academics. It became a turning point for WILA Bonn, and had a deciding effect for the type of activities they carry out to this day, as they now have an established education centre. The funding also enabled other activities just by simply having an office:
Changed all following work, had to imagine it was before computer times, 86-87, so nobody was talking about office computers, but working with telephone contacts. By having an office, we had a possibility to be available all day long. We were able to enter a field of opportunity, which gave us a structural basis for our activities.
Thus, the office opened up further opportunities for them, or more precisely it enabled them to be open to and find opportunities that might have missed them earlier.
Relations with other actors
There was an in-direct co-production with the Dutch science shops. As explained by the interviewee:
Yeah we copied the idea form the Dutch science shops, but just by reading and not by talking to them.
So while the idea came from the Netherlands, it was a one-way communication by reading material from or about them, and not talking with them.
Another actor was the unemployment centre in Bonn that became a partner for them in the beginning, through which they provided training for unemployed academics.
Lastly, there was Bonn University that they originated from. It mostly played a role indirectly, by not providing funding or other resources. In other science shops their host universities were successfully convinced to fund them, leading their development in a specific direction. This was not the case for WILA Bonn, which from this CTP resulted in a very different development trajectory compared to most contemporary science shops.
Context factors
WILA Bonn reacted to a range or a combination of environmental factors. There was a situation with a number of unemployed academics, a lack of knowledgeable people in environmental sector, and funding opportunities for both societal challenges.
The first related event was the founding of WILA Bonn inspired by the Dutch science shops some years previously. The science shop ran as a volunteer student initiative for some years, until this Critical Turning Point.
The second event was a meeting in WILA Bonn where the idea was aired for the first time to be more proactive, to look for opportunities:
In one of the meetings, the idea came, being proactive instead of just reacting, one of the colleagues was aware of a funding program for unemployed academics
Another event, or development, as mentioned earlier was when they got their own office as part of the funding:
By having an office, we had a possibility to be available all day long. We were able to enter a field of opportunity, which gave us a structural basis for our activities
The next CTP is the most direct subsequent event, and will not be recounted here (see CTP - First big project)
When asked about contestation the interviewee answered in the negative:
No, it was developed in the team, and we had people working on it, and when I entered, I had a job interview, if I could imagine to join, was working for a student representative office before, and it was almost the first time I heard of the science shop, there was no contestation. They saw it as an opportunity.
It is quite common for science shop initiatives to be light on contestations, especially in this early start up period. However, as the interviewee explains when he entered it was almost the first time he heard of the science shop, so he may also be unaware of possible contestations before he entered WILA Bonn.
When asked on how anticipated the CTP was:
It was first understood later that this was a turning point. It was an opportunity, it was not seen as a CTP, did realize that the situation would change. What it did for the science shop itself - I think looking back that this was clearly a turning point, and it became a point. We did not intend to develop an organisation; it was a logical to take the money we could get.
The interviewee was a bit ambiguous. Clearly there was no strategy or vision of developing into what they became later, they did realize that the situation would change clearly, they just did not realize how critical a turning point it was. They merely applied for the money that they could, and then took it from there.
One of the big learnings, as already pointed out twice, was the impact of having an office:
Changed all following work […] By having an office, we had a possibility to be available all day long. We were able to enter a field of opportunity, which gave us a structural basis for our activities.
A learning that can be inferred from the interview, especially in contrast to the development of other science shops, is how easily a path or development trajectory can be impacted. The funding opportunity they had was outside the university, resulting in a radically different science shop organisation than most of the contemporary members of Living Knowledge from that time.
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