Democracy as Utopia, Experience and Threat.
https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/democracy
Social movements inspired by utopias determine ideal preconceptions of politics, religion and society and fight for their realization. In societies that see themselves as democracies, people have experiences, which they mobilize in a way that is critical of democracy – be it against democracy as such or against specific aspects of the relevant established democratic order. The historically – and currently – frequently found references to conflicting social value systems is the impression of threat, as a result of which, for example, ruling elites deploy their law enforcement forces against social movements, various social groups fight for re-order and new order, religiously based preconceptions of society or justice come into conflict, or social inequality becomes a political issue. 

Lost Cities: Perception of and living with abandoned cities in the cultures of the world.
https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/lostcities
The aim of the program is to describe the tangible cultures of interpretation, knowledge and perception within these different contexts. Lost Cities are part of a distinct culture of memory, for example, which serves for the negotiation of identities, the preservation of knowledge cultures, the formulation of criticism of progress, or the construction of mythical or sacral topographies as part of a veritable “ruin cult”. On this basis, the focus here should not be on the question of which factors led to the city’s abandonment. Rather, it is the abandoned cities themselves that are of particular interest, as well as the different forms of their interpretation, instrumentalization and coding in various cultures and time frames.