WG Developmet Research: Rural Change & Development

In the Development Research working group, we deal with questions of change and development of rural areas in a globalised world – Rural change and development in a globalised world.

The social/cultural and ecological dimensions of  this change are at the centre of the research interest, whereby the two dimensions are discussed both individually and as a social-ecological combination.

The research focuses on different forms of land use, such as land use and its evaluation, spatial patterns and dynamics as well as the appropriation of space by different actors and groups, e.g. transnational companies, subsistence farmers or migrants. A second focus is on various forms of mobility and immobility, such as tourism, temporary or permanent migration to or from rural areas and rural staying. Thematically, the working group deals with questions of power and conflicts, territory and place and identity and belonging against the background of specific rural contexts.

By means of place-based and/or participatory approaches, we center our investigations around at least one of the elements “individual & collective meanings”, “everyday practices”, “strategies”, “empowerment” and thus focus on analytical and applied questions.

Laufende Projekte

  • Forschungsbereich Migration, Flucht und Integration am Institut für Politische Wissenschaft der FAU (Prof. Dr. Petra Bendel)
  • Institut für Romanistik der FAU (Prof. Dr. Silke Jansen)
  • Institut für ländliche Räume, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut. Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei, Braunschweig
  • Professur für Politikwissenschaft mit dem Schwerpunkt Migrationspolitik (Prof. Dr. Hannes Schammann) sowie Programmbüro Land.Zuhause.Zukunft, Uni Hildesheim
  • Professur für Humangeographie mit dem Schwerpunkt Europäische Migrationsforschung (Prof. Dr. Birgit Glorius), TU Chemnitz
  • Fachgebiet für Waldinventur und nachhaltige Nutzung (Prof. Dr. Thomas Knoke), TU München
  • AK Hochgebirge (DGfG)
  • AK Lateinamerika (DGfG)
  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Vergleichende Hochgebirgsforschung
  • Arbeitsgruppe Andenländer der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung (ADLAF)
  • AK Ländliche Räume (DGfG)
  • Department of Development, Environment and Territory, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Ecuador
  • Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), Bolivien
  • Institut für Verhandlungsprozesse Zürich, Schweiz
  • Department of Geography and Economic History, University of Umeå, Schweden
  • Lifestyle Migration Hub