Suchergebnisse

Zentraler Kern vieler Stadtvergleiche ist ein qualitativer fallstudienartiger Vergleich spezifischer Problematiken in verschiedenen Städten, der von einer Forschungsfrage geleitet ist. Wie aber gelangt man von der Forschungsfrage zur Auswahl konkreter Städte? Mitunter müssen dazu alle zur Beantwortung der jeweiligen Fragestellung infrage kommenden Städte systematisch gesichtet werden, nicht nur um überhaupt zu einer sinnvollen Fallauswahl zu gelangen, sondern auch um dem Vorwurf einer mangelnden Vergleichbarkeit etwas entgegenzusetzen. Das Anliegen des Artikels ist es, den Prozess der Fallauswahl für einen qualitativen Stadtvergleich anhand eines empirischen Beispiels näher zu beleuchten. Im Zentrum steht eine Heuristik für den Auswahlprozess, die dabei hilft, von der Forschungsfrage zur Fallauswahl zu gelangen. Dies geschieht beispielhaft entlang der Auswahl von Fallstudienstädten, die Mitglied im internationalen Städtenetzwerk Cittaslow sind, dessen Grundidee es ist, die Philosophie von Slow Food auf das alltägliche (Verwaltungs-)Handeln und Leben in Klein- und Mittelstädten zu übertragen. Dabei wird Cittaslow als soziale Innovation in der Stadtentwicklung betrachtet, um sich der im Kontext sozialwissenschaftlicher Innovationsforschung zentralen Frage zu nähern, wie der räumliche und zeitliche Innovationstransfer im Feld der Stadtentwicklung funktioniert. Zur Bearbeitung dieser Frage in Form eines Stadtvergleichs wurden je zwei Cittaslow-Städte in Italien (Francavilla, Tolfa) und in Deutschland (Überlingen, Berching) ausgewählt. Um zur Auswahl dieser vier Städte zu gelangen, wurde die Grundgesamtheit in mehreren Schritten systematisch reduziert.

Our paper addresses the interplay between digitalization and spatiality, asking how digital transformation processes are affected by peripheral spatial location. The short-term processes of digitalization and its implications for spatiality are widely addressed, especially with regard to urban development and planning, but rural-peripheral areas and periods of medium duration are only rarely the subject of research. Therefore, from a spatial planning perspective our central question is: What role is attributed to materiality in digital social transformation processes in rural-peripheral areas? Employing a multi-sited methodological approach - a sample in two rural regions and two villages in Eastern and Western Germany - the focus is placed on individual digital biographies related to physical, information, and communication technology artefacts. Against the backdrop of Karen Barad's concept of materiality as a constant intraactivity, we discuss digital transformation at the margins with respect to the aspects of newness, specificity, and qualities. This allows us to show different sequences of digitalization that are characterized by specific roles for materiality and spatial location, the changing importance of peripherality, and increasing debordered materiality.

Digital social innovation (DSI) is commonly associated with cities. However, DSI is not limited to urban space. In rural areas, it is the inhabitants themselves who start and push digitalization projects, and collaborate with professional actors from the outside. These innovators see digitalization as a chance to solve rural problems such as scarce mobility, declining community interactions, demographic change, or urban-rural digital divide. In consequence, DSI such as smart community centers, digitally managed car-sharing, or community apps also emerge in rural areas. The article seeks to better understand the different actors responsible for the rural digitalization processes. Based on interviews, document analyses, and field notes, the article focuses on two cases in rural Germany: Wesedun is part of a regional digitalization project empowering villagers to evolve own ideas, and Wokisrab shows off a bottom-up driven digitalization strategy. Both villages are aiming to improve the quality of life. Indicated by these cases and inspired by literature on social innovation, the actor groups are identified as drivers, supporters, and users. Based on the interactions and collaborations of these groups, we introduce Smart Villagers, the bottom-up actors of rural DSI. In order to design governance processes, the results indicate that even though Smart Villagers are motivated, skilled and engaged, they want and need the support of professional actors from the outside.

In many (remote) rural areas of Europe and the world, rural communities are facing various challenges. One response is residents leaving their communities. However, there are also many empirical examples of residents staying, launching project initiatives, developing new solutions and experimenting with new practices. This is what we call social innovation. What experiences do actors have in these processes? Can we speak of empowerment? To what extent can such initiatives have an impact on community development? In this article, we explore these questions, for which there is little related empirical research. By applying a multi-sited individualising comparison to case studies in three European countries (Germany, Ireland and Portugal), we obtain empirical evidence of the following dimensions of empowerment that Avelino et al. outline conceptually: the achievement of autonomy, competence and relatedness and also impact, meaning and resilience. Often, however, it is not the individual actors for whom such effects can be reported. Rather, the social initiative as such or the local administration has acquired new skills and autonomy. Regarding community development, 'pathways to impact', such as infrastructure improvements and/or the creation of new employment opportunities and/or the influx of new residents, could be identified. However, this development often depended on both opportunity and the cooperation and goodwill of many stakeholders.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, residents in peripheral and structurally weak rural areas began to move into the digital age. Digital tools are being used and developed to address existing challenges in rural areas such as local communication, healthcare or mobility. Against the background of a conceptual framework of social and digital innovations from a process perspective, this paper asks how the processes and dynamics of digitally supported social innovations in rural areas can be understood and described. By analysing five villages in Germany, we show that the digital initiatives - despite their different contexts, contents and driving actors - develop over three phases: an inspiration phase, an emergence phase and a consolidation phase. This dynamic process can be interpreted as "linear-circular", because while overall a very targeted development of innovative problem solutions can be observed within the three-phase process, at the same time creative development loops and new inspirations exercise influence.

Das vorliegende Themenheft versammelt Beiträge vom Corona-Blog "Grenzen und Ordnungen in Bewegung in Zeiten der Corona-Krise. Analysen zu Region und Gesellschaft" des Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION. Die Beobachtungen und Überlegungen zu den Effekten der COVID-19-Pandemie auf Grenzregionen, soziale Dynamiken und Neuordnungen von Machtstrukturen entstanden im Zeitraum von Mai bis September 2020 und behandeln damit die "erste Welle" der Pandemie in Europa. Die Betrachtungen befassen sich mit Beispielen aus den Grenzregionen zwischen Deutschland, Polen, Tschechien, Frankreich, sowie Kroatien und Bosnien-Herzegowina. Die hier veröffentlichten Beiträge vereint, dass sie sich auf politische, wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Ordnungs- und Grenzziehungsprozesse mit regionalem Fokus beziehen oder aus einer Grenzziehungs- und Ordnungsperspektive allgemeine, auch für die Region relevante gesellschaftliche Phänomene analysieren. Das Schwerpunktheft bietet somit Anregungen zur weiterführenden Diskussion. ; This special issue brings together contributions from the Corona blog of the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION focusing on "borders and orders in motion in times of the COVID-19 crisis". The observations on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on border regions, social dynamics and rearrangements of power structures were captured in the period from May to September 2020, thus covering the "first wave" the pandemic in Europe. The reflections deal with examples from the border regions between Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The articles focus on political, economic and social b/ordering processes with a regional or societal focus. The special issue thus offers impulses for further discussion.