Resilience study on Upper Lusatia presented

All of Saxony benefits from a strengthening so-called “rural area” (which, incidentally, refers to the largely urban territory of the districts; it would be better to speak of a “district area”) that is home to two-thirds of Saxony’s population. Prof. Matthias Theodor Vogt, professor of cultural policy at the University, and his co-authors investigated the current qualitative problems of demographic change as part of the dialogue project“Strengthening Resilience in Medium-Sized Cities—Information Exchange Among Regional Stakeholders (SRMS).” They were supported by the Saxon State Chancellery.

Failure to pass on and convey culture—for example, due to the absence of local elites—can lead to downward spirals to a significant extent. This is exemplified by the sometimes problematic worldviews of young people in Upper Lusatia and the lack of—or problematic nature of—regional identity, which emerged in the interviews with stakeholders.

Culture is fundamental to resilience, as it fosters intellectual openness (variability), reduces dependence on traditional practices, and counteracts a mainstreaming that threatens innovation (diversity). It fosters social capital, grounds things in tradition, and acts as a safeguard against the idolization of innovation and hyperinnovation. It complements the dangerous dogma of efficiency with other criteria for a fulfilling life: leisure, slowing down, and useful redundancy. This, in turn, makes it possible to view processes of contraction as opportunities rather than—in line with modernity’s dominant narrative of perpetual growth—merely as decline. In doing so, culture also brings the question of the goals of politics to the forefront: this has been the fundamental political question since antiquity.

It is therefore not out of the question that rural areas—especially innovative regional centers—could become an important laboratory for “growth-indifferent” forms of coexistence for society as a whole. Culture is central here insofar as it could, in fact, provide the imaginative worlds and narratives needed to envision the good life through processes other than the usual ones of growth.

A strategy is therefore needed to develop culture as a factor in regional development and resilience. Particular attention must be paid here to the “activation” and recognition of civil society’s potential and achievements.
This also involves first making it visible (again) that culture, as a political field, can and should be systematically cultivated in local communities. This would be the prerequisite for desirable strategic concepts at the local level. Collecting examples of good practice seems particularly well-suited to this end. Practice can only be replaced by practice. Perhaps it will then also become clear what needs to be done to counter the commercialization of youth culture.
Specifically, the authors propose conducting a pilot project in the Free State of Saxony titled “Strengthening Resilience through the Integration of Spatial and Cultural Policy” for Saxony’s rural areas.

Matthias Theodor Vogt, Frank Feuerbach, Kai Kranich, Veronika Valvodová
in collaboration with Erik Fritzsche, Wolfgang Zettwitz, and others
Report on the dialogue project “Strengthening Resilience in Medium-Sized Cities – Information Exchange Among Regional Stakeholders (SRMS)”, supported by the Saxon State Chancellery under the Demographic Change Funding Guidelines and by the Sparkasse Oberlausitz-Niederschlesien Foundation through the mediation of the Görlitz District

Download the report at

www.kultur.org/srms