Democracy is under pressure due to a significant increase in right-wing extremist and right-wing populist manifestations: the almost uninterrupted rise in the election results of extreme right-wing parties at local, state and national level, the increased spread of misanthropic attitudes in parts of the population and the growing visibility and organizational density of right-wing extremist movements and milieus, especially in rural areas, are creating a situation in which emancipatory and democracy-promoting actors in particular are coming under pressure. Against this backdrop, mobile counseling services are of particular importance.
The Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V. (KBS) kulturbuero-sachsen.de/arbeitsbereiche/mobile-beratung played a key role in developing the mobile counseling approach and has been providing mobile counseling services in the Free State of Saxony since 2001. As an outreach, flexible and low-threshold form of specialist advice, mobile advice is aimed at individuals, cultural and civil society initiatives of all kinds, as well as stakeholders from business, education, administration and politics. It provides advice on confronting right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism and other ideas of inequality in order to strengthen a democratic everyday culture. Mobile counseling teams (MBT) provide support in countering right-wing extremist and right-wing populist dynamics on the ground, (re)gaining the ability to act and strengthening local democratic actors.
TRAWOS has scientifically examined the work of the Mobile Counseling Service on behalf of Kulturbüro Sachsen e. V.. As part of the qualitative-reconstructive interview study, the professional challenges and strategies, potentials and effects of this advisory work were analyzed in particular.
Schaller, Jan/Jukschat, Nadine (2026): Report on the scientific monitoring of the mobile counseling of the Kulturbüro Sachsen e. V., Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, TRAWOS Institute for Transformation, Housing and Social Spatial Development. https://doi.org/10.25366/2026.108
