👤 About the Author
Karsten Berr
University of Tübingen
Karsten Berr is a German scholar specializing in geography, philosophy, and sociology, currently affiliated with the University of Tübingen's Chair of Urban and Regional Development. He holds a doctorate in philosophy (2008) and has extensive experience in interdisciplinary research. His academic work focuses on the theory and ethics of landscape and architecture, landscape conflicts, cultural theory, and the application of neopragmatism to spatial and social sciences. Berr is known for his contributions to understanding landscape as a social construct and for exploring the productive potential of landscape-related conflicts. His research often bridges the gap between theoretical philosophy—such as Karl Popper’s three-worlds theory and neopragmatism—and practical applications in urban planning, regional development, and environmental policy. He is a prolific author and editor, frequently collaborating on handbooks and studies that synthesize complex social and spatial phenomena.
Irina Silina
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Irina Silina is a researcher whose work intersects social theory, geography, and sustainable development. She is notably recognized for her collaborative research with Olaf Kühne and Karsten Berr, where she applies neopragmatist philosophy—drawing on the work of Richard Rorty—to the study of sustainability. Her academic contributions focus on developing theoretical frameworks that move beyond essentialist or teleological models of sustainable development, instead emphasizing a life-chances-oriented approach. By integrating Karl Popper’s Three Worlds Theory and neopragmatic redescriptions, Silina explores how individuals and societies negotiate normative processes in the context of environmental and social transformation. Her research is characterized by a commitment to understanding sustainability as an open, contingent, and sociocultural practice rather than a fixed state, contributing significantly to contemporary discourse on social theory and the ethics of sustainable development.
Olaf Kühne
Introduction
Polish non-governmental organizations often get bogged down in grant-speak, where metrics overshadow the real needs of people. This article analyzes how NGOs can move beyond technocratic pedagogy to become laboratories for a new social imagination. The reader will learn how to combine science with empathy so that sustainable development becomes a dialogical process rather than a top-down project.
A New Language for NGOs: Between Metrics and Human Dignity
To change the language used to describe their activities, NGOs must abandon epistemic humiliation—the imposition of foreign conceptual frameworks onto people. Instead of treating residents as "beneficiaries to be fixed," organizations should adopt the role of translators between institutions and lived experience. The language used by NGOs constitutes reality: stigmatizing terms close the door to cooperation, while a narrative of agency invites co-authorship. The effectiveness of change depends on whether a project respects the dignity of its recipients or merely fulfills performance indicators.
Language as a Tool for Change: From Humiliation to Co-authorship
NGOs design their actions through procedural justice, recognizing that people accept difficult changes if the rules of the game are fair. Procedures become a technology of dignity when they allow for real influence over decisions. Education cannot be a form of conditioning, but rather a school of reasoned dissent that teaches critical data analysis. Organizations avoid paternalism when they support life chances—combining objective choices with social ties (ligatures). True civic agency is born where NGOs cease to be the state's "soft implementation department" and become guardians of individual subjectivity.
How to Design Change Without Humiliating People?
Sustainable development is not a rigid set of UN goals, but a dynamic process of negotiation. To avoid the trap of technocracy, NGOs apply Popper’s three worlds triangulation: they connect material reality (world one), subjective experience (world two), and institutional norms (world three). Climate data is not the sole determinant of policy; it must be interpreted through culture. Conflict is not an anomaly, but the creative core of a community. Reconciling radical ecological goals with dignity requires that transformation takes place in an "inhabited home" rather than on an empty construction site, where individual self-realization is balanced by social solidarity.
Summary
Sustainable development is not a sterile project, but a constant conversation in the home we already inhabit. The current model often perpetuates bureaucratic conformism, which is why NGOs must become schools of anti-conformism. Instead of measuring only indicators, we must measure meaning and real life chances. Can we renovate our shared space so that no one feels like an intruder? True social innovation begins where expert pedagogy ends and a genuine conversation about human experience begins.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is epistemic humiliation in NGO activities?
This is a situation in which an organization imposes a foreign language of description on a community, depriving it of the right to define its own experiences and needs on its own terms.
Why are ligatures crucial for sustainability?
Ligatures are the bonds that give meaning to life; development that destroys them without offering new options becomes a form of oppression, not real social progress.
What is the role of NGOs as community translators?
These organizations mediate between the cold world of institutions and the hot world of direct experience, translating systemic procedures into human fates.
How does language influence civic participation?
The way of describing it, e.g. the choice between 'activation' and 'rebuilding agency', determines whether we invite people to cooperate as partners or stigmatize them.
What does the metaphor of transformation in an inhabited house mean?
It suggests that any social change must respect the existing fabric of life, the rhythms and anxieties of its inhabitants, rather than treating them as an obstacle to the renovation crew.
