Large parts of the rural areas of Brandenburg are characterized by low economic activity, a high unemployment rate, low population density and an exodus of primarily young people. The thesis supposes that shared facilities of common use (Gemeinschaftsnutzungseinrichtungen) can improve the living quality in these regions by improving the regional infrastructure and by offering a resource-saving supply as well as new ways of gainful and self-employment. Shared facilities of common use were defined by the research group as institutions which provide products and services to several individuals. They must fulfil the principles of sustainable development, i.e. they need to be promising at environmental, economic, social and cultural level.
The aim of the project is to identify innovative approaches of communal using in the Land Brandenburg and to examine and support them as promising elements of local acting and creating.
The research object " shared facilities of common use " as well as the particular interest of the research team require an inter- and transdisciplinary approach. So, the research activity will be based on a cooperative approach which integrates various fieldworkers such as suppliers and users of Community resource centers into the research activity of the multidisciplinary group of researchers.
The research team consists of members of the following institutions: Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft - Institute for Technological and Social Studies (implementation research), and the Department of social environmental research/feminist environmental research’ (environmental research) at the Technical University of Berlin, Landesagentur für Struktur und Arbeit Brandenburg GmbH - Agency for Structure and Employment in the Land Brandenburg (employment research), Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin e.V. - Technology Network Berlin (education research) and nexus - Institut für Kooperationsmanagement und interdisziplinäre Forschung - Institute for Cooperation Management and Interdisciplinary Research (cooperation research).
The project is divided in three phases: Initially, there will be the phase of theory-based problem analysis and exploration in which the shared facilities of common use existing in the Land Brandenburg will be surveyed. 10 to 12 of them will be selected as referential projects to be examined in detail. In the second phase, an extended analysis of structures, potentials, needs and deficits of those referential projects will be carried out according to the objectives of the research, and particular pilot projects will be selected. During the third phase, the optimization concept, developed by the research group, will be tried and tested within the pilot projects.
As a result of the research project it is expected to draw conclusions as to whether shared facilities of common use constitute a stabilising factor for sustainable development in rural areas by, for instance, offering new employment perspectives or facilitating a resource-saving supply. Another result will be the identification of similarities between shared facilities of common use existing in the Land Brandenburg in terms of their needs, objectives and problems and the improvement of their networking with regard to material, thematic and organisational questions.
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