Joana Breidenbach

Joana Breidenbach holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology, is a social entrepreneur and the author of numerous books on the cultural effects of globalisation, e.g. Tanz der Kulturen, Verlag Antje Kunstmann (1998), Seeing Culture Everywhere (University of Washington Press 2008), and the children’s thriller Edwina Ermittelt in Berlin (Gestalten Verlag 2014).

She is co-founder of betterplace.org, Germany’s largest donation platform. In 2010, she founded the betterplace lab, a think and do tank to explore the use of digital technologies for the common good. The betterplace lab has been self-organised since 2014.

Joana describes the path towards a fluid, competence-based hierarchy in her books New Work needs Inner Work and Die Entfaltete Organisation (both with Bettina Rollow, Vahlen Verlag, 2019 and 2022). Joana explores the importance of Inner Work for new forms of leadership and shaping the future, including at innerwork.online. In line with her interest in digital-social innovation, she supports companies and organisations such as ReDI School, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, DeepL, TheNextWe.

She is a supervisory board member of gut.org gAG and Trivago. In 2021 she founded brafe.space with friends as a network for entrepreneurs and investors.