Suchergebnisse

This article examines the role of social conflicts in the context of migration and discusses the relation between such conflicts and institutional change. We understand conflicts as tensions that evoke contradiction between different social groups or institutional actors. Varied urban contexts together with dynamic immigration of heterogeneous population groups can induce negotiation processes that affect institutional settings and actors. Conflicts have therefore been an integral part of urban coexistence, and cities have always been places where these conflicts play out. We assume that conflicts are social phenomena, which have multiple causes and effects. Public assumptions about conflicts in connection with migration often have a negative or destructive impetus, while conflict theory ascribes to conflicts potential positive effects on societal change. Conflicts can represent forms of socialization and the possibility of adapting or changing social conditions. This article discusses the extent to which migration-related conflicts induce institutional change. Using qualitative empirical results from the BMBF-funded research project MigraChance, we present a case study that reconstructs the emergence and course of a conflict surrounding the construction of a Syriac-Orthodox church in Bebra (Hesse) in the 1990s. Analyzing this conflict both in depth and in relation to its local context, we show that migration is only one part of what we refer to as migration-related conflicts, and we shed light on the complexity of factors that can result in institutional change. Change can also occur indirectly, in small steps, and with ambivalent normative implications.

Apart from capital cities Warsaw & Prague, demographic developments in Poland & the Czech Republic are leading to a situation where the big cities are losing people. In particular, the inner-cities are facing enormous changes. This shrinkage & the social change connected with it demand new perspectives in urban research & communal policy. Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Going beyond the assumption that East Central European cities are still 'in transition' this book draws on the postsocialism paradigm to ask new questions about the impact of demographic change on residential developments in this region. Focussing on four second-order cities in this region, it examines Gdansk and Lódz in Poland and Brno and Ostrava in the Czech Republic as examples and deals with the nexus between urban development and demographic change for the context of East Central European cities. It provides a framework for linking urban and demographic research. It discusses how residential areas and urban developments cope with changes in population development, household types and different forms of in- and out-migration and goes on to explore parallels and differences in comparison with broader European patterns. This book will be useful to academics of urban planning and development especially in transition areas, Central and Eastern European studies, demographics and population studies, and sociology/social exclusion

Since the second half of the 20th century, urban shrinkage has become a common pathway of transformation for many large cities across the globe. Although the appearance of shrinkage is fairly universal—typically manifested in dwindling population, emerging vacant spaces, and the underuse of existing urban infrastructure, ranging from schools and parks to water pipelines—its essence is hidden from view. Phenomena related to shrinkage have been discussed predominantly using terms such as decline, decay, blight, abandonment, disurbanization, urban crisis, and demographic change. Amongst others, these concepts were typically related to specific national contexts, installed in distinct explanatory frameworks, based around diverging normative accounts, ultimately leading to very different policy implications. Yet there is still a lack of conceptualization and integration of shrinkage into the wider theoretical debates in human geography, town and country planning, urban and regional studies, and social sciences at large. The problem here is not only to explain how shrinkage comes about, but also to study shrinkage as a process: simultaneously as a presupposition, a medium, and an outcome of continually changing social relationships. If we wish to understand shrinkage in a specific location, we need to integrate theoretical explanations with historical trajectories, as well as to combine these with a study of the specific impacts caused by shrinkage and to analyse the policy environment in which these processes take place. The authors apply an integrative model which maps the entire process across different contexts and independently of local or national specifics; it covers causes, impacts, responses, and feedback loops, and the interrelations between these aspects. The model does not 'explain' shrinkage in every case: instead, it builds a framework into which place-specific and time-specific explanations can be embedded. It is thus a heuristics that enables communication, if not comparison, across different contexts. With the help of this model, the authors hope to find a way in which shrinkage can be studied both in a conceptually rigorous and in an historically specific way. Instead of an invariant 'process of shrinkage', they portray a 'pluralist world of shrinkages'.

Purpose
Energy poverty can be seen as a relatively new, but typical sustainability problem in which various dimensions (ecology, society and economy) are interlinked and in part conflict with each other. Moreover, the variety of involved stakeholders (planners, tenants, housing companies, private landlords, energy consultants, etc.) represents conflicting aims for solving this problem. This paper aims to present a systematic linkage between higher education for sustainable development (HESD) and education about energy poverty yet.


Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative comparative case study approach with a similar didactic approach is used.


Findings
Based on the literature about HESD and an overall model in general didactics, ten criteria were identified and used for an overall reflection about similar courses dealing with the topic of energy poverty. The criteria covered the learning goals, the didactical approaches and the institutional support in the forms of organisation in the courses.


Research limitations/implications
There was no competency measurement of the students in the described courses.


Practical implications
There was no evaluation of the development of students' key competencies for sustainability. However, the reflections of students and teachers revealed a positive development regarding the students' learning process, especially because they worked on a real-world sustainability problem: energy poverty.


Originality/value
This contribution describes how university courses on energy poverty were designed and implemented at five German universities. Against the background of general criteria for HESD, it reflects on the experiences that the use of this concept evoked. Through a comparison of the five courses against these criteria, the paper outlines strengths and weaknesses of the approach and closes with recommendations and requirements for designing further courses.

Urban studies in Germany are traditionally oriented towards large cities. The structures, meanings and functions of small towns are not sufficiently perceived and differentiated in scientific or political debates. Adequate research on small towns requires systematic, comparative, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. Traditional attributions should be questioned critically and small towns should be examined empirically in their diversity and differentiation. This involves paying attention to external influences and heterogeneous internal structures as well as to regional functions and interdependencies. The availability and generation of statistical data, which also make small-scale analyses possible, are just as necessary as more comprehensive studies, which go beyond limited case studies. Finally, also research funding and academic teaching should address small towns more systematically than it has been the case in the past. This position paper presents recommendations for research, university teaching, official statistics and research funding in the field of small town research. The Ad-hoc Working Group focused on small town research in Germany and German-language literature, respectively.