WG Development Research: Rural Change & Development (Pohle)
Our working group addresses questions of rural change and development in a globalized world, while social/cultural and ecological dimensions, either for their own or intertwined (socio-ecological), are at the core of scientific interest.
Group members
Former group members
- Dr. Martina Kreß (née. Park)
- Dr. Maria Fernanda López Sandoval
- Dr. Adriana Tutillo Vallejo
Research foci
Main subjects to be considered encompass (im)mobilities, i.e., tourism, temporary and permanent in- and out-migration as well as rural staying in various regional contexts, e.g. Europe and Latin America, and “use of space”. Regarding the latter, investigations include both, land use, its evaluation, spatial patterns and dynamics, and the appropriation of space by various stakeholders and groups, e.g. transnational firms, subsistence farmers or migrants. Within these subjects, our research focuses on the topics “power and conflicts”, e.g., access to resources, “territory and place”, as well as “identity and belonging”, e.g., negotiation of migrant identities in light of specific structures in rural areas.
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.
Projects
- Biosphere Reserves and Biodiversity Conservation in Megadiverse Ecuador (2019-2022, German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD)
- BLIZ – Blick in die Zukunft: Wechselwirkungen zwischen Gesellschaft, Landnutzung, Ökosystemleistungen und Biodiversität in Bayern bis 2100 (BLIZ: interactions between society, land-use, ecosystem services and biodiversity in Bavaria until 2100, 2018-2022, StMBW)
– Sub-project 6 “Multifunktionale ländliche Räume in Bayern im Kontext des Klimawandels: Wahrnehmung und Bewertung sozial-ökologischer Transformationen und Akzeptanz von nachhaltigen Landnutzungsoptionen” (Multi-functional rural areas in Bavaria in the context of climate change: perception and evaluation of social-ecological transformations and acceptance of sustainable land use options) - Zukunft für Geflüchtete in ländlichen Regionen Deutschlands (Future for Refugees in rural regions of Germany, 2018-2020, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, BMEL, based on a decision of the German Bundestag)
– Sub-project 2 “Perspektiven der Geflüchteten“ (Perspectives of refugees) - Gekommen, um zu bleiben! Wohnstandortentscheidungen anerkannter Flüchtlinge im ländlichen Raum Niederbayerns – eine retrospektive Analyse (Came, to stay! Residential location choices of recognized refugees in rural Lower Bavaria – a retrospective analysis, 2016-2017, Staedtler Stiftung)
- Natur-Kultur-Trekking in den bolivianischen Anden: Regionale Wertschöpfung durch Ethno-Ökotourismus (Nature-Culture-Trekking in the Bolivian Andes: Regional added value with the aid of ethno-ecotourism, since 2015, internal finance)
- Touristische Inwertsetzung von Ländlichkeit in einem Kontinuum von Authentizität und Inszenierung – Das Beispiel Bayerischer Wald (Touristic valorisation of rurality in a continuum of authenticity and staging, since 2012, internal finance)
Former projects
- New migration processes and rural development in rural peripheral areas: status quo and strategies (2016-2017, German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD)
- Human ecologial parameters in the Biosphere Reserve Podocarpus – El Cóndor (2010-2012, prolonged until 2015, German Research Foundation, DFG/Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ)
Research project in the course of the DFG-Research group FOR 816 “Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of a Megadiverse Mountain Ecosystem in South Ecuador” - Mountain Poverty and Environmental Change in the Nepal-Himalayas (2009-2010)
- For a list of all former projects, see here.
Network
- Section Latin America (Sektion Iberoamerika) of the Zentralinstitut für Regionenforschung, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
- Institute of Rural Studies, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut. Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei, Braunschweig
- Professorship Political Science with focus on Migration Policy, University of Hildesheim
- Professorship Human Geography with focus on European Migration Studies, TU Chemnitz
- Institute of Forest Management (Fachgebiet für Waldinventur und nachhaltige Nutzung), TU München
- WG High Mountain Ranges (Hochgebirge, DGfG)
- WG Latin America (Lateinamerika, DGfG)
- WG Comparative High Mountain Research (Vergleichende Hochgebirgsforschung)
- WG Andean Countries (Arbeitsgruppe Andenländer) of the German Research on Latin America (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung, ADLAF)
- WG Rural Spaces (Ländliche Räume, DGfG)
- Department of Development, Environment and Territory, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Ecuador
- Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), Bolivien
- Institute for Negotiation (Institut für Verhandlungsprozesse) Zürich, Schweiz
- Department of Geography and Economic History, University of Umeå, Schweden
- Lifestyle Migration Hub
Research-oriented teaching