Anwaltsplanung als sozialwissenschaftliche Intervention: Forschung, Wissensvermittlung und soziale Aktivierung um 1970

This article introduces the notion of “social-scientific intervention” to characterize a research practice that tied the production of knowledge to the activation of citizens. In the field of urban development, which was to become more sensitive to the needs of disadvantaged communities, this was epitomized by the concept of advocacy planning. The concept aimed at empowering local actors to become vocal knowledge producers whose insights had to be taken seriously. By focusing on the advocacy planners who operated in the then-new housing estate of Darmstadt-Kranichstein between 1972 and 1975, we demonstrate how they not only contributed to the understanding of the estate and its inhabitants through their research practice, but also, and crucially, how their intervention in search of knowledge impacted the local community.