Project management: Prof. Dr. Heike Herrmann
Project staff: Andrea Hilger (M.A. Sozialraumentwicklung u. -organisation)
Duration: 11/2016 - 7/2018
funded by: Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Project description:

In 2015, cities and municipalities faced the great challenge of accommodating a high number of refugees. The strategies of the cities for short-term and longer-term accommodation of refugees differ greatly, not least because of the spatial conditions available in each case. What is certain, however, is that the people coming from the most diverse living conditions will change or have already changed everyday life, especially in the social spaces of the cities and municipalities in which they are accommodated and through which they (have to) move. The social constructions of (public) spaces are changing due to the newly arrived groups, according to a basic assumption of the project.

Using a mix of methods from spatial observations, expert surveys, qualitative interviews as well as group discussions with residents and other actors of two social spaces in Dortmund and Düsseldorf, the project will collect perceptions of the "places of encounter" (or "foci") and the perceptions of the and the reciprocal strangers linked to them. In this context, we also ask about the significance of the more or less fleeting encounters in public space for the social integration of the respective groups into (urban) societies.

In the context of the project, (public) space is understood as socially produced and constructed. The production of space is also strongly connected to processes of power/appropriation. With a view to the everyday perception of public space, the research focuses on balances of power or processes of appropriation and negotiation, new constellations of conflict, mutual perceptions and structures of effects in public space, which change due to the newly arriving groups and the diversity and mutual strangeness associated with them.

Following the approach represented by the project management and the research institute FGW, civil society and municipal actors are included in the research process. The results flow into the local discourse by means of various building blocks (dialogue forums, group discussions). The project is based at Fulda University of Applied Sciences.

Publications:

Herrmann, Heike (2017): Aneignungs- und Aushandlungsprozesse im öffentlichen Raum - Ergebnisse aus der Vorbereitung eines Projekts zu sich verändernden Raumwahrnehmungen im Zuge der Zuwanderung von Flüchtlingen. In: Lessenich, Stephan (ed.): Geschlossene Gesellschaften. Proceedings of the 38th Congress of the German Sociological Association in Bamberg 2016. ISSN 2367-4504 https://publikationen.soziologie.de/index.php/kongressband_2016/article/view/523