Transformation and Participation

We create a greater understanding of the lived and experienced relationships of different actors to questions of transformation, justice and participation in the region.

JTC Team A1 Strukturwandel &<br />
Partizipation: Gruppenbild – Dr. Jan Winkler, Hermine Bär, Cheyenne Wolf, Pia Kahlfuß, nicht abgebildet: Felix Schiedlowski

The A1 innovation team develops practice-theoretical perspectives on transformation as a lived experience. Using qualitative, creative and participatory research methods, we shed light on the everyday, situated and emotional dimensions of regional transformation processes. In this way, we create a greater understanding of the lived and experienced relationships of different actors to questions of transformation, justice and participation in the region.

We understand transformation not as a fixed ‘program’, but as a contested, dynamic process that emerges out of spatially embedded relationships. Thus, we analyze the various practices through which different actors enter into a relation with matters of transformation, justice and participation in the region. We conceptualize this “relating” as multimodal: an everyday, socio-spatially differentiated, emotional experience of, and influence on, transformational dynamics. A praxeological transformation research will focus on the informal ways of dealing with transformation that take place ‘under the radar’ of dominant programs and discourses. In this way, it can (1) enlarge established understandings of transformation and participation, opening up alternative potentials for participation, (2) uncover tensions between different aspects of social change and (3) provide impetus for the social mediation of transformation.

When Engagement Shapes Transformation: “Revierpionier” and Local Engagement in Structural Change – Opportunities, Limits, and Tensions

How can local, volunteer-based engagement drive societal transformation and strengthen social cohesion in a region undergoing structural change—and where does it encounter structural limits?

Loss – A Perspective on Socio-Ecological Transformation in the City

Drawing on empirical research conducted among others in Halle (Saale), the project explores the significance of experiences, practices, and sites of loss within processes of socio-ecological transformation in cities.

Stories of Transformation, Spaces of Possibility: Participatory Approaches to Exploring Experiences of Change and Future Imaginaries in Wolfen-Nord

This participatory knowledge-transfer project develops innovative formats at the interface of research and practice. It addresses a central question: How can diverse experiences of transformation be made visible and brought into dialogue—and how might these conversations generate ideas for socially just, ecological, and democratic urban and neighbourhood development?

Ambiguous Liminalities – Emotional Attachments and Socially Contested Potentials of Vacant Spaces in a Structural Change Region

What happens to buildings that are no longer in use—yet have not disappeared? In regions undergoing structural transformation, vacancy is more than mere dereliction or a promise of capital accumulation: it constitutes an emotional, social, and political in-between. This project explores the ambivalent potentials of such spaces, situated between memory, appropriation, and exclusion.

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We cordially invite you

Here you can find all the events where you can meet our research team. We look forward to your visit!

All Events

17 June 2026

JTC-Dialog “Industrial Culture and Mining Heritage”

Industriekultur und Bergbauerbe im Mitteldeutschen Revier stehen aktuell vor vielfältigen Herausforderungen und Entwicklungschancen. Eine stärkere Vernetzung zwischen Standorten und Akteur*innen sowie gemeinsame Strategien und mehr Sichtbarkeit bieten großes Potenzial für die Weiterentwicklung der Industriekulturregion. Der Dialog möchte Raum bieten, um diese Themen gemeinsam zu diskutieren, Perspektiven auszutauschen und Ansätze für stärkere Kooperationen im Strukturwandel zu entwickeln.

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Weinberg Campus Innovation Hub, Weinberg 23
Halle (Saale), Germany

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