Thomas Benedikter, economist and social researcher, adult educator, author of nonfiction books, works full-time in political education, political consulting and research. Numerous publications on ethnic conflicts, autonomy, minority rights, political, social and economic aspects of South Tyrol as well as on direct democracy and citizen participation. In addition to many years of professional activity in empirical social and economic research and in comparative autonomy studies in his home region of South Tyrol, Benedikter has been continuously active since 1983 in civic education and engagement, above all for peace and disarmament, North-South solidarity, human and minority rights, trade union issues, direct democracy and citizen participation. Since 1984, Benedikter has co-founded several civil society organisations and has directed the POLITiS centre for political education and research since 2013. He works as a freelance author, researcher and as a lecturer at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. From 2021 to 2022 he has been assistant researcher (AR, unibz) for the project “Written in the Landscape”.