Prof Dr Thilo Lang
t_lang(at)leibniz-ifl.de
Tel.: +49 341 600 55-159
Throughout the last decades, the societal and economic integration taking place within Europe has aimed to improve and balance people’s living conditions. This process should be sustained by both shared political values as well as free trade, a common market, and the mobility of people and ideas. Nevertheless, territories often still develop unevenly and the focus on neoliberal policies often perpetuates polarisation instead of achieving social and territorial cohesion. To better grasp these dynamics, this research area pursues new perspectives on researching diverging socio-spatial developments that lead to “multiple geographies”. The focus is on the question of how actors from politics, the economy and civil society initiate new developments. What obstacles are overcome in doing so? To what extent can processes of regional and local change be understood as collaborative forms of state and civil society action? Contributing to the wider debate on spatially balanced and socially just development, the research area looks into alternative perspectives on structurally weak and peripheralised regions in Germany and Eastern Europe.
KulturLandBilder – Images of the rural in the cultural and creative industries
Building transformative capacities to activate regional innovation systems – ATRAKTIV
Exploring the impacts of collaborative workspaces in rural and peripheral areas in the EU – CORAL
Innovative technology enterprises at unusual locations in Central Asia and Africa
Agents of change in old-industrial regions in Europe (ACORE)
Local democracy in small and medium-sized cities under the conditions of peripheralization
Cities after decline: small city revival in the USA and Russia
Hidden Champions – Stabilisation and development factors of small towns in peripheral regions
Broadening horizons, changing perspectives
Industrial Heritage, Cultural Resources of Current Industries and Creative Pioneers – InduCult2.0
Peripheral but global: World market leaders outside of agglomerations